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Hell ya I'm excited. I just got a refurbished Creative "Zen" player for half off the MSRP -- about $100. I used to have an iPOD mini and a FM transmitter, but some punk kid in my neighourhood stole it from my car. Anyway, I've been mp3 less for a few weeks and with a 40 minute commute to work everyday, I couldn't take it anymore =).
Anyway, iPODs suck. No seriously, if some other company came out with a mp3 player with the feature set the iPOD has it wouldn't get very far. (doesn't include the new "Touch", of course, that shit is sexyyy) What the iPod has going for it is very reliable software, it's fashionable, and a sleek interface. In my mind though, these reasons don't redeem the ipod.
Software: I prefer winamp over itunes anyday. It's more extensible, has more features, and the new version is completely compatible with not just the iPod, but any kind of portable music player. I don't think it's out for Mac, but who cares about Mac users?
Fashionability: The ipod looks very nice, ya, but so do a lot of other players. But really, looks and popularity isn't something you should be judging a $200 purchase on :\.
Interface: The click wheel is overrated. It's super sensitive and not very accurate. When I'm trying to choose between four or five songs, I'd much rather be able to press a button to go up and down. What the wheel is great for is being able to scroll down long lists very rapidly, but that's something the folks at creative have overcome by letting you scroll by first letter of the alphabet using a directional pad. That gives you speed and accuracy.
What really hurts the iPod though is its lack of features. It's 2008, and the nano/classic models still doesn't have radio or voice recording, which is standard with all its competitors. It also only accepts proprietary formats for video... increasing the chances you'll have to spend half an hour trying to convert the video to the correct format.
I'm not saying the iPod isn't a great product. I'm saying there are better options out there, that are about three quarters the price. For those of you looking for a fully featured flash based 4-32 GB model, I recommend the Creative Zen. It's got everything the iPod has (like literally. there isn't a single feature the ipod has that the zen doesn't, except maybe solitaire), and a user interface that's just as easy to use, if not as sexy looking. PLUS, it's got radio, voice recording, and a (poorly implemented) SD card extension. All that, and it costs $20 less at the 8 gig level.
ya, that was long, but i spent 4 hours today comparing different players, and damned if I wasn't going to share with someone.
Poll: What kidn of MP3 player do you have?
(Vote): iPod, because I'm a drone
(Vote): Creative Zen
(Vote): Other (tell us about it)
 
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iRiver iHP-120 from 4 or so years back, it gets pretty good use. Nothing amazing about it I suppose, though back then having support for ogg was big for me as the online p2p community were experimenting with different kinds of audio formats. Radio is nice too, though I don't tend to catch much of anything being in NY and riding subway for most of my commute.
Oh, and as for the iPod, not sure why anyone would put up with it, especially the Touch with the new iPhone.
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51476 Posts
who seriously uses their radio or recording function EVER?
maybe once or twice, but not more than that.
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Recording was nice until I realize the classes I want to have audio recordings for either have them available directly from the course instructor or is too big for it to be practical 
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On July 13 2008 15:23 GTR-2-Go wrote:
who seriously uses their radio or recording function EVER?
maybe once or twice, but not more than that.
most people don't, but i personally use it a lot for speech and debate. voice recording was the main reason I didn't go with the iPod. Even if you don't use those features, there's still plenty of reasons not to go with the ipod.
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I use voice recording all the time, (but its on my cellphone). Its good for quick notes or phrases (i'm learning chinese)
alternatively as a musician when a melody or lyric pops into my head i'd like to record it asap so i don't forget it
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Do you have thousands of useful 3rd party applications available like dictionaries, programming languages? MSN? IRC? Youtube/Video downloading? FTP Server? Do you have lots of cool games on it? CAN YOU EVEN PLAY MONKEY ISLAND 3 ON YOUR ZEN? EH? CAN YOU?
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i specifically said "not including the ipod touch"
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Samsung p2 8gb. fucking awesome player, highly recomend it.
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I use a Cowon Q5W. As a matter of fact, my PC just crapped out on me and while waiting I am surfing TL with it. Its pretty cool. I even took a pic of it (plugged into my HDTV). Best thing about it though is that it plays lossless music. Supports so many video files too. Love it.
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Creative Zen V Plus 8GB
I would kill the motherfucker who even thought about stealing it, I love it as much as I love sAviOr.
Hell, at times it gives musical relief more soothing than any symphony the Maestro of Zerg could provide.
Creative fighting~
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United States5345 Posts
i use a zune... it's awesome 
i especially love the zune pass, you can download as much music as you want from their site for $15 a month... it's awesome.
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I have a Samsung Sansa which covers my needs for the moment. Sort of a iPod Shuffle competitor, but half the price.. And includes a screen/radio/recorder/more memory. Very happy with it.
I basically use it as a 'new music sampler' by dumping new music on it sunday and listening to it all week, by saturday I have decided which stays and which goes. It works alright.
But sometimes I do wish I had a high-capacity MP3 player.. I have this awkward situation where if I get a 'real' mp3 player (a non-tiny one) I want it to be big enough so that I don't have to do any swapping though. I want my entire collection to be on the player, but currently that at 324GB of mp3s so.. there is nothing that even comes close to big enough right now :\
I think at this point I am only going to be interested in a strong mp3 player/phone hybrid which must have at least SD card for expandable storage and it must be able to navigate the internet (read: TL.net) without being a painful ordeal. Most importantly though it must support Flash player with full youtube support so that I can watch Small Vod Thread postings on the go. I also really really want to be able to write custom apps for it without jumping through hoops and to use any custom apps I can find to download, not just what the carrier will sell me.
I messed with a friend's iPhone, and it is not there yet. No expandable storage, the inability to replace the battery yourself, and no flash player support at all. :\ A shame too since the web browser on it was absolutely fantastic. It does have that standalone youtube app, but the interface for that is abysmal... Following proleague through it is not possible. And then there is the whole lockdown on the API just recently being opened, with devs having to go through apple and apple holding the right to lockdown programs at any time. No thanks.
Right now I am sitting tight waiting for the first generation Android phones. For anyone not familiar with them, Android is a phone operating system Google is developing that looks very promising. It can be used on multiple hardware profiles, so there will be high end and low end phones. Most importantly you can use any android software on it interchangably and they hook together like legos (IE: make an application that needs an address entered and it can load up the google maps app to pick one out, etc). But... yea not materializing this year I don't think. -_-
May end up just getting a Zune or something with a nice vid screen and use youtube downloaders to save progames as *.mp4s to it.
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Creative Zen Touch 20GB
pretty outdated though
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iriver n12- Its a flash player 2gb- really cool looking
If I feel like carrying 10gb of music around, I'll just put in on my video player.
I had a 40gb ipod and ya I know ipod's suck. My family still likes them for some reason.
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New zens are a good buy. im cheep so i just use my phone which i got for free
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my zen 8gig had this white screen problem so its out on a journey to get repaired /get a new one at the moment
SUX !
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i've had two zens (one micro 4gb, the genration before color, and one zen vision:m 30gb) and two ipods(3rd gen, gen with 4 buttons up top 15gb, and classic 6th gen 80gb, current), and ipods have been overall more reliable for me. also, current generations of ipods have better battery life. zens do have better video quality, 4x the amount of color if i recall, and more compatibility, but tahts just more converting for me. it still all gets to high quality usable shit. you don thave to use itunes, i do because it works? i actually use a napster subscription, rip off the drm, and change the wma to lame mp3 for minimal losses and then put it on my ipod
dont you fucking call me a drone
fuck you, buddy
edit: i realize that the only flash mp3 player i've had is the micro, but it broke really fucking fast and i need more space for my massive amounts of music
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United States22883 Posts
On July 13 2008 15:38 Shauni wrote:
Do you have thousands of useful 3rd party applications available like dictionaries, programming languages? MSN? IRC? Youtube/Video downloading? FTP Server? Do you have lots of cool games on it? CAN YOU EVEN PLAY MONKEY ISLAND 3 ON YOUR ZEN? EH? CAN YOU?
Yeah, but you could've gotten an iPhone to do the exact same thing, or one of the better smart phones out there.
I've got an older iRiver which is amazing, and a Zune 80 which is also amazing. The iRiver is incredibly reliable and sturdy and it's easy to use, since it's essentially a plug and play harddrive.
Zune software makes me cringe, but the player itself is pretty great. Capacity + nice movie screen, and I actually do use the radio on it. It's especially great in other countries, since it gives you the stations/song titles.
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Belgium9947 Posts
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=007si9.jpg)
