EPTmy new "zen" mp3 player =) & thoughts - Page 2
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Mooga
United States575 Posts
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decafchicken
United States20022 Posts
<3 and i use the radio all the time. recording sometimes just for fun. | ||
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Shauni
4077 Posts
On July 13 2008 23:42 Jibba wrote: Yeah, but you could've gotten an iPhone to do the exact same thing, or one of the better smart phones out there. No, you can't, because Apple is a slow ass discriminating company which can't release products worldwide. But I don't really get your point, cause if you want mobile features, you buy an iPhone, but if you don't like cancer you buy an iTouch. I dislike Apple because they are hypocrites (Adding 'public' limited 3rd party support now?) and also because they made the world's most shitty software ever - iTunes. BUT, their mp3 players have always held high class in competition with other players, many people whine at iPod users cause they're 'bandwagoners' yet the iRiver and Zen players have at least as many flaws as the iPods... | ||
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ahrara_
Afghanistan1715 Posts
Look for yourself: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/compare/creative-zen-vs-ipod-nano-3g main things to note: * Lot cheaper * Higher color definition * Supports more video formats * Recording and radio * Equalizer and volume limiter | ||
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Chef
10810 Posts
I would never use iTunes anyway with its DRM What are you talking about? iTunes sucks because it's a resource hog, but I've never had problems putting songs on it... You don't even need iTunes for an iPod anyway, there's plenty of alternative freeware programs out there for iPod. I don't get why people call iPod users sheep either... It's just one of the best mp3 players out there, of course it's going to be popular. It has great price/GB, it's easy to find any song you want even if you have 1000s, there's a shit tonne of 3rd party programs made for it because it's so popular (Rockbox for one), and its battery life is second to none. If you think I use one because I think it's a status symbol you're wrong. I actually keep it in this ugly grey protector thing, and use my own headphones because I don't want it getting stolen. Of course, if you're cheap and you get a nano or something, you're probably not getting the best bang for your buck... but at least you're assured a quality product (ie: tried and true). The only thing missing from iPods is radio, and there's attachments you can get for that if you really wanted it. Then again.. Zens didn't exist when I bought my iPod, so I never had the dilemma of deciding between quality products... it was like "20 GB iPod or... 256 mb mp3 player for about the same price... yeah, no." When I got my new 80 GB, I don't remember if there was competition, or if I just didn't care because I'd been so happy with my old iPod... Actually, I believe it was the only portable video player/mp3 player on the market at the time. * Lot cheaper Lol, what do you mean, "a lot cheaper?" It's the same price for the 8GB, and only 20 dollars cheaper for the 4 GB. Plus the other one is completely tactile... Have fun looking through your songs with that. * Supports more video formats That's not a problem if you know how to convert files... You're gonna have to convert everything anyway, because I'm guess you don't normally keep your videos in 320/240 format. Also... iPod had equalizer and volume limiter too.. | ||
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SpiritoftheTunA
United States20903 Posts
On July 14 2008 04:51 ahrara_ wrote: Zens aren't perfect. But it does everything an iPod Nano can and it costs about half, so I don't know what you're complaining about. Like, you can complain about the SD card implementation sucking, and it does (it's practically useless, tbh), but the iPod doesn't even have an SD card slot. Look for yourself: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/compare/creative-zen-vs-ipod-nano-3g main things to note: * Lot cheaper * Higher color definition * Supports more video formats * Recording and radio * Equalizer and volume limiter read my post, admit that not all ipod users are sheep/drones, and i wont fuck you with a rake | ||
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Chef
10810 Posts
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ahrara_
Afghanistan1715 Posts
On July 14 2008 06:24 PsycHOTemplar wrote: The only thing missing from iPods is radio, and there's attachments you can get for that if you really wanted it. Attachments that cost 30-50 bucks. Lol, what do you mean, "a lot cheaper?" It's the same price for the 8GB, and only 20 dollars cheaper for the 4 GB. Plus the other one is completely tactile... Have fun looking through your songs with that. 1. Those are the launch prices. The difference between brand new versions of both products is now $60, and about $30 if you go with used. 2. You can browse your song list by first letter of the alphabet, letting you scroll by your song list much faster than most tactile controls. It's still not quite as fast as the wheel, but it makes up for it by being much more accurate, so you never have to "scroll back" when you went just a little too far. Moreover, the Zen has 4 functional buttons. whereas the iPod only really has 1, because 3/4 buttons are occupied by the fast forward/back and pause buttons. What this means is you only have to press once to jump to the main menu/album list/artist list, etc. It also means there's a button for "options", giving you access to features the iPod just doesn't have room because of its interface. That's not a problem if you know how to convert files... You're gonna have to convert everything anyway, because I'm guess you don't normally keep your videos in 320/240 format. Also... iPod had equalizer and volume limiter too.. Ok, that's fair enough. As for the 3rd party firmware options, rockbox still doesn't support the newest nanos. | ||
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Mooga
United States575 Posts
On July 14 2008 06:24 PsycHOTemplar wrote: What are you talking about? iTunes sucks because it's a resource hog, but I've never had problems putting songs on it... You don't even need iTunes for an iPod anyway, there's plenty of alternative freeware programs out there for iPod. Yeah, you only get DRMed if you decide to buy music from iTunes. Don't do it folks, don't support Apple's DRM. But you're right, I buy my music from Amazon.com so it wouldn't have affected me anyway. I'd like to point out that most people like Apple products because of their efficient, easy-to-use software and reliable hardware. If Apple stuck with this formula for the software for the iPod, I may have gotten one. But the fact is, iTunes isn't efficient and although it is probably easy to use, I'm not the type that cares so much about that since I fairly tech savvy. As far as reliable hardware, it seems like the battery for the iPods are bad, and I care a lot about battery life. I'm not saying that iPods are terrible or anything, but I just think that the sansa is a better value overall. | ||
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snowbird
Germany2044 Posts
On July 13 2008 15:22 Ecael wrote: 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. I also still use my iRiver iHP-120, best player ever made. They still release custom firmware updates for it if you're interested, www.rockbox.org. | ||
Jibba
United States22883 Posts
On July 14 2008 04:43 Shauni wrote: No, you can't, because Apple is a slow ass discriminating company which can't release products worldwide. But I don't really get your point, cause if you want mobile features, you buy an iPhone, but if you don't like cancer you buy an iTouch. I dislike Apple because they are hypocrites (Adding 'public' limited 3rd party support now?) and also because they made the world's most shitty software ever - iTunes. BUT, their mp3 players have always held high class in competition with other players, many people whine at iPod users cause they're 'bandwagoners' yet the iRiver and Zen players have at least as many flaws as the iPods... Well, if you lived in the US you could get an iPhone + contract for less than a Touch + cell phone. And no, the other players do not have as many flaws as iPods. People complain about iPods because head to head, in features and quality, they have never been a top performer. Creative made better players than the first 2 generations of iPod, iRiver has always had fantastic players and right now the Zune 80 costs the same as the Classic 80, yet has a bigger screen, built in radio, better sound quality and comes with high quality ear buds. But the iPod will always sell much, much more because of marketing. I don't see how you can possible look at them head to head and conclude an iPod Classic is the better player. Lets not forget the first 3 generations of iPods (when they were actually making money off of them) had serious battery issues and needed to be replaced. Don't give me that "tried and true" crap, no one brand has had a major defect like those iPods had. | ||
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Shauni
4077 Posts
And all mp3 players have 'serious' battery issues. After a number of charges they become weak and die out, it's the same no matter what player you use. Most companies uses almost identical lithium ion batteries, and it was the same back then too. Zen had practically same batteries, just slightly thicker for longer lifespan. The era where HDD players dominated sucked no matter what brand you use. They broke when you dropped them and the batteries had to compromise a lot to fit them into such small mp3 players. And if we talk about the present, I think it's quite easy to justify to buy an iTouch or iPhone, not because Apple makes better players - rather because the fan service is enormous. | ||
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Nazarene
Denmark996 Posts
I absolutely love it. It's so small I can't even feel it while I'm running. Also, it costed less than 50$, which was also nice. I don't get why people go crazy when someone say they have an iPod, I think they're fine, plus the design is good. I also don't really see what's so horrible about iTunes. | ||
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Shauni
4077 Posts
Also, it didn't support older systems like win98, even while it was still popular, which is a quite obvious flaw since people either had to buy XP or trash their iPod. Sometimes it refuses to transfer properly coded videos for no apparent reason. The iTunes is made to use with your whole library, but if you would really be so stupid as to add a big library of music into iTunes you'd experience just how slow and resourcekilling the program is. Man, it can't even handle the random function with my library, cause it lags like hell every time it changes songs - and my computer isn't THAT bad (2gb ram and 4000+). Starting the program takes forever in comparison with other media players... I could go on forever. | ||
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Jibba
United States22883 Posts
On July 14 2008 15:03 Shauni wrote: US is not the same as worldwide you know... And all mp3 players have 'serious' battery issues. After a number of charges they become weak and die out, it's the same no matter what player you use. Most companies uses almost identical lithium ion batteries, and it was the same back then too. Zen had practically same batteries, just slightly thicker for longer lifespan. The era where HDD players dominated sucked no matter what brand you use. They broke when you dropped them and the batteries had to compromise a lot to fit them into such small mp3 players. And if we talk about the present, I think it's quite easy to justify to buy an iTouch or iPhone, not because Apple makes better players - rather because the fan service is enormous. No? The earlier Zen batteries had good staying power and the middle generation of iRiver players could easily take a fall and don't have any battery issues similar to what iPods had. 1-3G were lasting for under 8 hours new and dropped to about half of expected battery life in less than a year, forcing Apple to settle a class action lawsuit to pay back many owners and supply them replacement batteries. That's also when they began their battery replacement program. A large number of people can tell you Apple's early lithium ion batteries fared far worse than any competitor. | ||
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