[Ross Alameddine (Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2006 1:15PM]

Yeah, I really think Apple underprice their mp3 players, Jeff!

What with the picky filetypes, inability to use the iPods as portable storage out of the box*, song files infested with excessive and not to mention buggy DRM licensing, limited burnability, a device that bruises as easily as a peach and takes a king's ransom to repair (what a great warranty! only $100 to change the battery plus the cost of shipping!).

..But hey, I love devices with a lot of features, and boy does Apple provide us with some! You know, I'd create a video for you to watch it on your iPod, but if it was anything other than Quicktime, it probably won't work.

Though, I suppose its for the best. What the Apple fanboy doesn't know doesn't hurt em.

(Except their wallet).

On a serious note, I concede that there are many GOOD aspects to an iPod. For example, my Creative Zen NX (which was discontinued like, months after it came out), while I can use it like a portable hard-drive and it has an amazing battery life, I cannot simply plug it into somebody's computer and go.

I have to install drivers.

And by far, that is the best thing Apple ever did. My theory is that iPods will be the AOL of mp3 players.

They are sleek, easy to setup (not THAT easy to use, I'd argue, for people who haven't owned a similar player before), and come with a boatload of good looks.

But just like AOL, people will figure out "Oh, I don't need to use iPods to listen to mp3s, there are many other options that will provide me with more for the exact same price."

One should note that many people don't even know that mp3 players OTHER THAN IPOD exist. We live in a sad country :P

Anyway, from a technical and feature-rich standpoint, you're looking at the veritable Sahara when you think of iPods in comparison to other models (once again, conceding on the convenience of no-drivers)and it doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

I don't think iPods are bad. I simply think they are not worth defending.

Especially in terms of price, because as an Apple fan you have no leg to stand on.

:p

Ross

*: It is actually possible on newer models of iPods to use them as storage, but by and large, its a cheap afterthought, and doesn't work very well, fast, or -...well, basically its Storage Lite. It is made from portable storage parts, but does not actually contain the real thing. For that..

You'd have to get a different mp3 player :)