Community weekly poll: What type of device do you use as a portable MP3 player?
- 7/11/05 10:28 AM
ME TOO!!!
by aceruser - 11/26/05 4:48 PM In reply to: Creative ZEN TOUCH by Evan Da MofoI've have my Zen Touch for 6 months - I now walk twice as far for exercise, and I've bought a JVC car stereo with MP3 player input to drive along to it.
The problem is that I recently got a Creative sound card for my laptop, and this gives incredibly superior sound. So now I face the hassle of wiping my Zen Touch and re-recording some of my albums again, in even better sound quality than before (sigh).
My new car (Peugeot 406, drool) even has a dash compartment exactly the right size for my Zen Touch - just a pity to change the existing Alpine stereo, which is excellent. Life can be so good...
Ipod does record.
by burnhamd - 7/13/05 5:30 PM In reply to: Creative ZEN, you get so much more. by ecamachoHas anyone looked at the IpodLinux Project they have been able to record through one of the earbuds that come with the Ipod. It can even record at higher rates than a creative zen.
It's abnormal.
by sh1mpulse - 7/13/05 11:51 PM In reply to: Ipod does record. by burnhamdthe Linux project is a bunch of computer wiz having good time, yes there work is impressive but it's impractical. It can be done on any HDD mp3 player ipod was choosen obviously because of it's market influence. Also it's only available to 3rd generation or older ipods. ipod's real market boom has come within the last two years so most models people have would be 4th gen.
Also it would alot of evidence to convince me that you can record through a "speaker" the earbud is a speaker, you can record through the line in with the earbud plugs to but i find it hard to believe that a speaker has majically transformed itself into a microphone. reversing input and output. Don't think so pal.
Flash based MP3 player: no proprietary formats for me!
by baldwinl - 7/12/05 3:15 PM In reply to: What type of device do you use as a portable MP3 player? by Marc Bennett
My latest is a Lexar player (~$35) that takes a USB2.0 thumb drive, 512MB (~$30). So, for $65 I can carry 100+ songs with me. One AAA battery lasts for dozens of hours, (even more if I turn off the backlight!). And I can copy my music back and forth at will. If I want, I can blow away my music and use my 1/2GB thumb to store a few thousand digital pictures, say to transfer to my PC from somebody elses. Then, in just a few seconds I can restore the music to my thumb drive. Everybody has a USB port these days. And there are dozens of free programs to rip my CDs to MP3's. Plus, I can download my favorite radio programs to MP3 and listen to them ''off line''. Plus, there are plenty of places to download ''public domain'' music for free.
The iPOD is cool, but I just can't stand non-standard restricted formats that don't let me play my music on (all of) my devices whenever I want.
I have given many MP3 players as gifts, Lexar and MPIO especially. From 128MB to 512MB. All have been very well recieved.
I agree!
by sploar - 7/12/05 4:53 PM In reply to: Flash based MP3 player: no proprietary formats for me! by baldwinl"The iPOD is cool, but I just can't stand non-standard restricted formats that don't let me play my music on (all of) my devices whenever I want."
EXACTLY!!! Jobs and Apple want to own you. I guess people want to be manipulated and "owned". Sure seems stupid to me.
iPod uses restrictive formats? Jobs and Apple want to own u?
by audiopainter - 7/12/05 6:07 PM In reply to: I agree! by sploarFirst of all, the iPod doesn't require you to use one specific format and neither does iTunes. Now music purchased from the iTunes Music Store is in AAC (Advanced Audio Codec - much better compression than MP3) format with copy-protection (not unlike any other WMA file purchased online). While the iPod is the only player that currently supports music purchased from the iTunes Music Store (because of its copy protection not the AAC format), you do not have to buy music from there to use your iPod (or other player). Many people use their iPod (or other digital music player) and iTunes everyday and have never purchased a single song from the Music Store.
Now onto Jobs and Apple... They just want to create the best ALL-AROUND EXPERIENCE. Don't you think if Jobs and Apple wanted to "own you" they would make their products more Microsoft-like? Since Microsoft "owns" more people than Apple does. By the way, Jobs only accepts $1 annual salary...something a money-hungry person wouldn't do!
So exactly
by sh1mpulse - 7/12/05 6:55 PM In reply to: iPod uses restrictive formats? Jobs and Apple want to own u? by audiopainterNot so much restrictive formats. However the creation of exclusive codec is a hallmark of the "own you" behaviour, e.g microsoft and sony. Although theres nothing wrong with exclusive codec such as AAC atra et. It's just uncomfortable to thing that here is another topdog who thinks they're better then everyone else and have to create a codec which is exclusive to their players
regardless of what you buy, no computer maker "owns" you
by Dinasis - 8/10/05 8:18 PM In reply to: iPod uses restrictive formats? Jobs and Apple want to own u? by audiopainter1) you're not restricted to buy only from Apple or from Microsoft
2) people like Jobs, Creative, and Gates/Balmer, and others are just highlighting better points of their products while hiding negatives as best they can to make sales
3) i agree, Creative products offer a lot more in one package, while the iPods need costly accessories to get FM capabalities, voice recording, etc.
personally, i have a Creative Zen Xtra (60 GB) and a Zen Nano Plus (1GB) each has different uses, the Nano Plus for mowing the lawn and other chores while i'm already wearing something over my ears to restrict motor noises, and the Zen Xtra for the rechargable battery which is great for a lengthy car ride
Jobs makes $1 a year?
by afruff23 - 3/7/06 2:16 PM In reply to: iPod uses restrictive formats? Jobs and Apple want to own u? by audiopainterHe has tons in stock options and investments. Also, I beleive he makes a real salary now. He onyl made $1 a year once.
MP3? Restrictive?
by dabuck - 7/12/05 5:24 PM In reply to: Flash based MP3 player: no proprietary formats for me! by baldwinlI'm curious on something -- you mention MP3 players throughout your post, but then you mention the iPod and talk specifically to it's "non-standard restrictive formats". I'm not quite seeing where MP3 is at all restrictive if all of the players being discussed here support it.
The iPod certainly supports MP3, as well as MP4, AIFF and others. I'm not sure how it's proprietary in doing that, since it's not really supporting only 1 standard that only Apple could support. I'd say MP3 is a fairly open standard, especially if all the devices here are also using it, including the ones where you seem to want to play your files.
And with respect to public domain music...I've downloaded it too. I listen to it on my device, which happens to be an iPod. I've also listened to the same files that I downloaded to a Creative Zen or my old Archos from way back. Same files, same sources, different devices. Nothing that I can see as being proprietary in any of that.
Thus, the confusion? I can see not preferring the iPod, and tthat's cool too. But I wouldn't go so far as to call it proprietary in any respect, any more than any of these other devices would be, since all of them are supporting the same standard.
iPod doesn't mean proprietary
by ArcherNW - 8/19/05 3:34 PM In reply to: Flash based MP3 player: no proprietary formats for me! by baldwinlI am a PC user who happily uses both an iPod and iTunes. I do not, however, use their music store. Rather, I have an ever-growing collection of unprotected mp3 files. (For the record, most are burned from CDs I own).
My iPod plays and manages these files just fine, and I'm free to switch to other hardware and software at any time. At present, I think the iTunes/iPod combination is one of the best out there. I know there are advantages to other hardware over the iPod, but there are always drawbacks to these, as well. I am not a loyal fanatic of apple products. In the future, I will not hesitate to switch to a better product.
iPod doesn't mean Proprietary
by Shedevil129 - 8/28/05 11:26 AM In reply to: iPod doesn't mean proprietary by ArcherNWI, in the last 2 months, bought the iPod mini 4g and I use iTunes and I have already purchased from iTunes and loaded the songs on my iPod. And took it back. Not that it didn't work. It worked just the way it says it does. But I bought the Zen Micro 5G and it has the extra's. It also does have a speaker system for it, it's called the TravelDock. That you can place the Micro in it. It isn't a Bose` but it doesn't sound bad either and it's not that expensive as iPods Bose`. You pay what you get.
I listened to the same songs I had on iTunes and downloaded them from RealPlayer and also other places I got song from on the web and I heard no difference from either players I thought if I couldn't tell the difference why is iTunes not allowing me to use song I bought. Anywhere else then through iTunes? I don't care if anyone of you can tell the difference it's not you listening to it, it's me. The AAC block is bull! Yes I can take and burn the songs on a cd and then put them through my Zen I just think it's a waste of money.
Battery life is the same and you can buy jackets for the Zen I don't think I could look at any one of those colors from the iPod longer then a month. Thats how long it took me to take it back.
Ok also I heard from someone about a Ipod Photo. Well take a look at the new Creative Zen Vision and see what kind of picture you can get in the Zen Vision. The Zen Vision is the same price as the iPod Photo and 30g of hard drive plus movies and music and radio and recorder all in one.
iAudio M3
by dshelman - 7/12/05 3:17 PM In reply to: What type of device do you use as a portable MP3 player? by Marc Bennett
Doubles as a 20gig USB 2.0 hard drive. Doesn't have a screen on its case, but has an inline remote control. Get's and records FM. Voice recorder and line-in recording as well as seperate line-out. Gorgeous case, so-so battery life and outstanding sound. The hard drive is unbelieveably fast for ripping.
Bought it after reading cnet review on it. Not disappointed that I did, either.
solid piece of tech
by sh1mpulse - 7/12/05 11:40 PM In reply to: iAudio M3 by dshelmanI'm also an M3 owner and i'm very happy with my unit as well. To many people the LCD unit and remote is a major negative. I do not believe this is the case.
Being a Sony user for some years now I find that the remote is a big plus and find it hard to use a player without one. People complain about the difficult navigation on the jog dial but Sony user will all know that in most cases remotes are the way to go. Personally i find navigation on the remote simple and got the hang of it without reading the manual in regards to the remote.
Firmware upgrades make the m3 a better player then the advertised specs. As the upgrades add features to the player which were not there when first purchased and constantly packs on the features to better the other players in the market.
It's only rivalled in size by the sony hd-5 which is also a solid player without the multicodec support and extra built in features of the m3. However the h5 does have a screen on the unit making it the smallest HDD 20gb player with built in screen.
Finally the most important feature and need which the m3 has is sound quailty and "jet affects". The whole of the iAUDIO range from 256mb flash players to the 40gb m3 and 30gb x5 all have great sound quailty again only rivalled but the sony hd5.
All round i believe that the m3 packs some punch and would have to be one of the most underrated player in term of market reaction.
Hard drive-based player (which one?)
by Tombo55 - 7/12/05 3:20 PM In reply to: What type of device do you use as a portable MP3 player? by Marc Bennett
I used a Sony MD Walkman MZ-NH600D. It is a Hi-MD recorder that can compress many differnet music formats (Mp-3 included) into OpenMG Audio format tracks. The Codec is ATRAC3plus with a Bit rade of 64 kbps. With this setup I can get 30 plus hours of music on a 1 GB removeable minidisc. The nice part about this is having many hours of music by different genres set up into easy to transport and change 1 GB minidiscs. I love it.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
