What am i "missing" about ipods?

I think a lot of the reasons here are very valid regards iTunes and drag-and-drop but I do think as effective 'prosumers' we know far more about how devices work (and indeed moreso how they work together) and so understand that something so simple as drag-and-drop is far more superior and flexible than relying on a piece of software (thoughts of Sonicstage still make me shudder). Thats where iTunes for the majority of their target market works - its handholds people and is an all-in-one stop for organising your music for you, making suggestions on your behalf and then easily allowing you to buy music and get it on your iPod with a few clicks.

The iPod would be nothing without iTunes (just like the App store and the iPhone) - but no one else has created such a strongly identified partnership between hardware and software that Apple have. Microsoft tried it but were just too late to the party. Sony apparently just dont care for the software side of things and when they did it was far more to ensure customers used their devices in the formats they wanted...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Adsta said:
One word: convenience ;)

All my music is stored and organised in itunes. Why change what I am used to. The UI is simple and I am used to it. :)
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But iTunes is not convenient, it's a pig, unintuitive and pretty naff.

You summed it up well though, you are used to it. Plenty out there you could have also gotten used to :p

Apple products are fashion accessories and in my opinion most sales are fuelled by "My friend has one I gotta get one" and marketing campaigns than actual product greatness.
 
I don't understand how people can moan about the audio quality of the iPods?

With music players, it's always been largely dependent on what bitrate you have your music at, coupled with a good set of headphones. If people are really than much of an analphile (audiophile) about it, then surely they should be listening on a portable CD player instead.

My Mum has an ipod and an iphone, that's why it works, because its so easy to use an manage and buy music for.

Although I have an iPhone, I still have an iPod Nano because nothing is better for sport, especially if you use Nike+ when running too.
 
Moredhel said:
The audio quality on my Sony Walkman is very poor by comparison to both, although my Creative Zen and my friend's Zune are very similar in terms of output quality.

(I'm a bit of a gadget geek as you can tell, although I won the walkman. I also consider myself a bit of an audiophile, sound quality is very important)
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You're the first person I've ever heard of to say that Sony Walkman sound quality is very poor, especially when compared to an ipod, I'd love to know which Sony it is.
 
My iPod is absolutely fantastic. I bought a refurbished iPod nano 8GB for £99 just over two years ago, making a switch to using iTunes over windows media player at the same time. It does absolutely everything I want, with minimum fuss. It's small, looks funky and is easy to use. I really don't want anything else from it.

The only downside is that the bass is never as crisp as it sounds if I plug my headphones (cans) into my laptop. I'm not sure if this is a problem with iPods in general, or simply that my nano struggles to fully power my cans.

Regardless, it really is a fantastic product and I have been completely won over to the brand as a result of it. The next gadget I buy, I imagine, will be an iPhone, in a few years time - I have almost no interest in other products available, although I'm sure I will investigate to an extent closer to that time.
 
H2F Scott said:
All the good mp3 players don't need software. :p
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Whilst its a pain you can't drag and drop files onto an iPod that i agree with, however this minor irritation is circumvented by the fact that iTunes is a very effective way to arrange and sort your music catalogue into and easy to find and search medium.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Whilst its a pain you can't drag and drop files onto an iPod, however this minor irritation is circumvented by the fact that iTunes is a very effective way to arrange and sort your music catalogue into and easy to find and search medium.
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My brother's iTunes is just one massive list of songs. That isn't a good way to catalogue your music to me. Is there other ways to organise it? Every time I've used iTunes it's just been a big list.
 
As usual, somebody mentions an Apple product and a horde of people jump in to say how shocking Apple's products are and that they are all about looks with everything else coming second.

Also, I don't know what features people are asking for that aren't included on an iPod seeing as there's apparently a lack of them...

Looking at the menu on my Nano for example I have:

Alarms
Calenders
Clocks
Contacts
Games
Notes
Stop Watch
EQ settings
Shake to shuffle
Energy options
Audiobooks
Volume limiter
Crossfade ptions
Sound check
Brightness options
Clicker settings
Font settings
Menu settings (choose what's displayed in each menu)
Backlight options
Radio options...

There are a few more options too. The sound quality is fine, I'm not listening to it and thinking 'well this is ****', sure, the first party earphones aren't the greatest but Apple are hardly going to put earphones that are worth £70 or £80 in something that only costs £115 in the first place. If you think the sound is that terrible (which it isn't) then just buy your own choice of headphones. For me though, I'm not an audio snob and the included earphones do their job fine for me. I've a pair of Philips headphones that offer a bit more bass but it's nothing I can't live without.

I don't see what the deal is with people here jumping on the crApple bandwagon. Apple products work fine for the majority and if you're some kind of audio freak then you are obviously going to make an informed decision based on your needs. An iPod isn't designed to be the absolute best of the best when it comes to sound quality, but what it does offer is a well rounded and fairly cheap package with great build quality, very good software and good integration with iTunes, especially on a Mac.

Firestar_3x said:
Whilst its a pain you can't drag and drop files onto an iPod that i agree with, however this minor irritation is circumvented by the fact that iTunes is a very effective way to arrange and sort your music catalogue into and easy to find and search medium.
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Also, on Windows if you enable hidden files and folders you'll find you can drag and drop.
 
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H2F Scott said:
My brother's iTunes is just one massive list of songs. That isn't a good way to catalogue your music to me. Is there other ways to organise it? Every time I've used iTunes it's just been a big list.
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You can sub define into Playlists / Genres / Favorite Items / Play Counts / Search the libary / Groupings etc etc, quite a few options to narrow down the long list effect, then you have the Genius which picks similar tracks to the one you have on iirc.
 
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