OFF: Re: was HW: Vinyl, t-shirts, etc. now "iPods"

[Paul Mather]

On 20 Mar 2007, at 12:09 AM, Guido Vacano wrote:

> Hi Keith--
>
>    Get an iPod. There are reasons why they're selling better than  
> Creative players. And the way Creative is going these days . . .  
> ever hear of Rio? :-) I was thinking of buying a Rio Karma a few  
> years ago. I'm very glad I didn't.

Just a disclaimer: I don't own an iPod or any kind of portable music  
player (unless you count my laptop as a portable music player:).  I  
mentioned Creative because their devices like the Creative Nomad hard  
drive recorder were active in the taping scene and gained respect  
before laptop recording became de rigeur.  Also, on another list I'm  
on, which has an active taper contingent, Creative devices like the  
Zen are well-respected.  I've also heard those devices are more  
likely to support more different file formats; I believe some  
Creative models even support FLAC natively.  With the iPod, unless  
you replace its firmware, you're stuck with Apple's limited audio  
format support.

I believe iPods sell better than Creative players because they have  
great styling and are very easy to use.  But, style and ergonomics  
aside, it's fair to say you'll get more bang for your buck by buying  
a non-Apple "iPod."

>    BTW, you don't need to buy music from Apple. You can use iTunes  
> to rip all your CDs, and very effectively (and pleasantly) manage  
> your music library. I suspect you'd like iTunes far better than  
> whatever software package comes with Creative players.

Note, though that you're pretty much stuck with iTunes if you use an  
iPod.  I have an iBook and use iTunes as my music player and it works  
(unsurprisingly) superbly well.  My sister has an old Windows  
computer and uses iTunes and it works terribly.  (In fact, right now,  
it doesn't work at all when it comes to importing CDs as anything  
other than WAV.)  So, given Keith, by his own admission, doesn't have  
"the most modern computer," he may have issues running iTunes.   
Because it's the way you interface with your iPod, he may have issues  
there, too.

My brother can load music onto his Creative MuVo without the need for  
any additional software: just a drag and drop of files from his hard  
drive to the MuVo USB drive and then he can listen to it on the  
MuVo.  You can't do that with an iPod.  (You can drag and drop the  
files, but I don't think you can listen to it.)  So the iPod is less  
convenient for grabbing music on the run.

(His MuVo came with software; it's just that you don't NEED to use  
it, unlike the iPod.)

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
  deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
         --- Frank Vincent Zappa