ipods are definitely random...some get beat up and never have a problem, but drive failues are not that uncommon.my first first gen 20gb died with no reason..was just playing and all of a sudden folder with question mark.not salvageable.apple sent a new one. i remember reading on old forums how people had this happen not too infrequently
I guess he's thinking about the other mp3 players out there... Have you been to Best Buy? There are all kinds of mp3 players that are very small in size... yes their storage capacity is small... but the overall size makes up for it (and cheap price). If Apple could make a solid state micro iPod with high capacity.... they'd be on to something.
Anyway.... I love my 15gig 3rd Gen iPod and don't think it's too large at all. It's quite perfect, actually.
Compact Flash cards use an ATA interface, so you should be able to swap the hard drive for a CF card ( with adaptor ). You'll get much higher battery life, a much lighter iPod, very slow transfer speed, and much less space.
It would be an interesting hack to put a 2 gig card in an iPod.
Smircle, I own a 2G, 10GB iPod, and I don't find it too bulky. The current models are even smaller, so I really don't know how one could complain.
I don't know about you, but our iPod's capacity is mostly wasted. We use about 3GB of the available 10. I refuse to believe we are the only ones, so I definitely think there is a market for a micro-iPod based on CF cards. The things are just now growing to sizes of 512MB - 2GB solid state and 1-2GB microdrive. Chances are that the DSP processors and CPU inside the iPod have come a long way since the time the RevA was introduced and could do with much less power in a shrunk version.
One *can* build a player around those with a much smaller footprint - and I believe Apple should do it. I'd rather spend 400 Euros on a babyPod with the option of upgrading the CF card to 4GB in a years time than on the traditional Pod.
My full music library is about 19GB. I obviously could use a large iPod. Also, it would be nice to have a backup drive for personal data (homework, etc, not for passwords). I think that there is a very good case for the large iPods, but that it will obviously vary from person to person. If you have no need for all that HD space, then just buy the smallest one.
CF prices are not competetive with HD prices. My favorites music collection weighs in at 3GB alone and would not fit onto a reasonably priced CF iPod. Ultimately, the market will speak, and the invisible hand is saying that CF is only what consumers want when the CF size is rather small (e.g. 256 MB or so). Other than those people who want to only hold two or three albums on a CF device, everyone else seems to be rather content with excesively large players with room to grow.
As an aside, one thing that you might consider doing if you have too much free time is to re-rip your CDs at a higher bit rate. I went from 192 kbps ogg to 256 VBR mp3 when iTunes came out for windows (yes, I was so happy that iTunes came out that I re-ripped my music). The higher music quality sounds better and is a way to take up some of that extra space.
I have heard several reports of iPod HDs crashing, so I am a bit concerned (esp. looking at the price).
Like all electronic devices, a few bad apples sneak through QA into the market. You can read people complaining about their broken ones on Apple's forums. However, the defect rate and/or hdd failure rate is no greater than that of any other high-tech electronic device, it just sounds like it is because all the owners of working iPods are happily listening to their music instead of bitching. And if you happen to purchase a lemon, just exchange it. No problem.
yeah, well so far i have had three lemons in a row, 1st one lasted 7 months, 1st gen 10GB. second lasted 3 months, 30 gb. 3rd lasted like from aug 14 till three days ago. I guess this means i get to try my hand at a 440 and see if it is better.
Comments
Anyway.... I love my 15gig 3rd Gen iPod and don't think it's too large at all. It's quite perfect, actually.
It would be an interesting hack to put a 2 gig card in an iPod.
Originally posted by Big Mac
Smircle, I own a 2G, 10GB iPod, and I don't find it too bulky. The current models are even smaller, so I really don't know how one could complain.
I don't know about you, but our iPod's capacity is mostly wasted. We use about 3GB of the available 10. I refuse to believe we are the only ones, so I definitely think there is a market for a micro-iPod based on CF cards. The things are just now growing to sizes of 512MB - 2GB solid state and 1-2GB microdrive. Chances are that the DSP processors and CPU inside the iPod have come a long way since the time the RevA was introduced and could do with much less power in a shrunk version.
One *can* build a player around those with a much smaller footprint - and I believe Apple should do it. I'd rather spend 400 Euros on a babyPod with the option of upgrading the CF card to 4GB in a years time than on the traditional Pod.
Originally posted by Smircle
I don't know about you, but our iPod's capacity is mostly wasted.
That is most certainly not the case here.
I can only fit a fraction of my music on my iPod at any given time (dead though it is now
I need a 200gig
Originally posted by Smircle
I don't know about you, but our iPod's capacity is mostly wasted. We use about 3GB of the available 10.
Want a really practical and sane reason for the extra space?
A backup drive.
Not a bootable drive, simply a backup drive that you incrementally save to once a week or so. It's saved my bacon on more than one occassion.
CF prices are not competetive with HD prices. My favorites music collection weighs in at 3GB alone and would not fit onto a reasonably priced CF iPod. Ultimately, the market will speak, and the invisible hand is saying that CF is only what consumers want when the CF size is rather small (e.g. 256 MB or so). Other than those people who want to only hold two or three albums on a CF device, everyone else seems to be rather content with excesively large players with room to grow.
As an aside, one thing that you might consider doing if you have too much free time is to re-rip your CDs at a higher bit rate. I went from 192 kbps ogg to 256 VBR mp3 when iTunes came out for windows (yes, I was so happy that iTunes came out that I re-ripped my music). The higher music quality sounds better and is a way to take up some of that extra space.
Originally posted by Smircle
I have heard several reports of iPod HDs crashing, so I am a bit concerned (esp. looking at the price).
Like all electronic devices, a few bad apples sneak through QA into the market. You can read people complaining about their broken ones on Apple's forums. However, the defect rate and/or hdd failure rate is no greater than that of any other high-tech electronic device, it just sounds like it is because all the owners of working iPods are happily listening to their music instead of bitching. And if you happen to purchase a lemon, just exchange it. No problem.