If you were considering picking up one of Apple's capacious new
iPod classics whilst casually snickering at those poor saps dealing with
faulty screens on the iPod touch, you could be in for problems of your own. According to a number of reports around the web, users are experience a myriad issues with the new player, including high processor utilization, excruciatingly long connect / disconnect times, and random crashes that seemed to occur when the device attempted to "display preview images taken from album cover art." Some users are also reporting that iTunes will actually "freeze up and stop responding" after the classic is plugged in, and attempts to install firmware updates have apparently not remedied the issues. So, dear readers, how's your iPod classic faring? Are these quibbles legit, or is the intarweb working itself into an unsubstantiated frenzy?
[Thanks, Rahul B.]
Read - One new iPod classic, two new iPod bugs
Read - Mysterious problems with new iPod classic
Read - Discussions about iPod classic troubles
posted Sep 25th 2007 2:18PM
crap!
Oh apple...
funny, I've always not like iPods for the lack of features and stuff, but now that's actually problems, I almost feel sorry for Apple
Funny...
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/gameplay/discreplacement-program.htm
I guess "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
Woah. Surely you did not just post an Xbox link in a desperate attempt to make yourself feel better for Apple's problems.
Fanboys amaze me.
Funny, I don't recall Microsoft saying anything about this...so, I guess no stone was cast...was it?
Eventually, people are going to realize that Apple is creating a pattern of inferior testing standards. That, coupled with a poor warranty, doesn't bode well for customers.
Unfortunately these sorts of BLATANT BUGS and other annoying software snafus are TYPICAL of Apple. This is just typical of them. Apple makes the most intelligent software in the world, but they DON'T FREAKING TEST IT!! Anybody who uses Mac OS 10.4 on a daily basis KNOWS what I'm talking about. And it's excruciatingly irritating that a BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY allows their software to remain so buggy. Maybe Jonathan Ives or Steve Jobs could get by with one less acre on their Aspen estates and use the cash to pull together a proper QA department instead.
Sorry, I've been using 10.4 for around a year now... What bugs are you talking about?
I have had more problems on my windows machines at work in the past 2 months, then I have in the past year on my Mac.
I call this justice for the hype train engadget and all the other sites have been shoveling out for Apple lately.
Its not like Apple has taken forever fixing any issue. Things happen but they are quick to react and fix it. The bigger the company gets the more issues might slip out with a product but Apple has and will be known by its quick reaction to customer issues regarding their products.
At least this is true in my experiences. I have the iPod Touch (Week 38) and it works great with no screen issues. It took Apple no more than 2 1/2 weeks to fix that issue. That says alot about the company.
Might get fixes out quickly but that's because the bigger a company gets, the more people they have to fix things. More importantly, the bigger a company gets, the more people they have to test/quality control things so they shouldn't have more slip ups, especially when the classic isn't that much different to the 5/5.5G which is how old now?
With tons of sales, there are going to be more units that could be defective. And people aeren't going to take the time to say EVERYTHING'S WORKING GREAT!, they are just going to say their problems (if they have any).
This is my 9th iPod since 2001 and it's by far the worst. I am glad I can finally carry all 160GB of music with me, but so far, that's the only benefit. I bought $20 worth of games that don't even work (even though their website shows certain games working on the Classic), iTunes freezes up and takes FOREVER to do anything, it takes 5-10 seconds just to go through the menus, there's only one way to display coverflow so it organizes by artists, not album which makes it impossible to scroll through 30,000+ songs.
This is by far the worst Apple experience I have ever had since OS 10.0. I really hope Apple fixes these issues soon. I've been waiting for the 120GB+ iPod for a year and I'm having a hard time wondering how Apple can turn such an awesome product into a piece of shit.
Fishes,
narco.
Yea the connection and disconnection time is very slow. Navigating through the menus is alot slower than the previous iPod Video but the iTunes crashes and iPod crashes have yet to occur for me. The only time iTunes has crashed with the Classic connected was the initial sync which took about 3 hours because of all the items being synced. I'm very very happy with my iPod Classic
I have the 160GB and it won't undock. I have to shut the PC down everytime I sync. It doesn't seem to corrupt the Ipod, but it doesn't undock correctly at all.... I also have noticed it takes a while to undock after i shut the PC down. I hope a fireware update will be coming soon....
My 80GB is absolutely fine.
Well, when I say fine, I mean "functions as it is expected to"...
I HAD a classic 160GB...returned it yesterday. Itunes would constantly freeze up when trying to sync or eject the classic. Coverflow was spotty and slow, with album art loading like I was downloading the images with a dial-up modem.
But the REAL thing that made me send it back was the fact that in order to use TV out I needed to buy Apple A/V cables and a new Apple Dock (I have one from my 4th gen ipod photo, but apparently that doesn't have the appropriate 'authentication chip').
Instead I've bought a 5.5 gen - which I'll use with my existing dock and cables. And I'll learn to deal with *only* 80GB.
7 years of ipods and hey can't get this right.lol
my zune has never crashed and i have it almost 10 month.
This is classic :)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Classic! HAHAHAHAHA! This reply is hilarious on so many levels...
:)
jeje...funny..so funny.
You may not have had problems with your Zune but how is that Zune software working?
I remember I tried to install the media player for Zune and I couldnt even get it to install. It would crash and when it was up and working it was very slow and would freeze up.
I don’t think any product is perfect I just think Apple is getting bashed because a few people have problems and sites like Engadget make it seem like the world is going and the entire line of products is defective.
Way to go Engadget! Reminds me of when Engadget posted the fake Apple internal newsletter and caused Apples stock to take a hit.
Maybe we should focus on real news and not what your sisters brothers sons wife told you because she has no idea what’s she is doing. I’m getting tired of all the hearsay Engadget has been posting lately.
Sorry for the rant.
I agree~so funny~~made my day!
@Daniel, no I think Apple is getting bashed because their products don't match their marketing (it just works), their products are less than what the consumers wanted (and yes, were achievable), and their attention to money over customer satisfaction is mirroring that of Microsoft.
In apples unending quest to provide a better product for the market, Apple changed some of the hardware inside of the ipod over the past 7 years. If they didnt do this then the ipod would be huge, it would be the size of....well...a zune. Apple has owned a lot of these issues and has promised an update within the week.
The initial reaction of zune/HP/Dell owners is that they are getting screwed, because many of those companies say TS you bought it. Apple takes the steps neccesary to correct the problem. As an apple product owner and fanboy (Mind you, i run the IT at work here) these kind of issues dont worry me in the slightest. I know they will make good.
Defective iPhone's - Check
Defective iPod Touch - Check
Defective iPod Nano's - Check
Defective iPod Classics's Check
Apple is on a roll..
The next Microsoft, you might say!
Maybe I didn't know about other models and their deficiencies, but this doesn't seem like the best product launch we've ever seen.
My iPhone and 160GB classic work perfectly fine ... there are bound to be problems with at least a few of any product. With high-hype items like iPhones and iPods, the problems are also hyped...
By the way, plural for "iPod" is "iPods" ... there is no apostrophe.
@Summary author - your usage of "myriad" is atrocious. Either say "myriad issues" or "a myriad of issues" but never say "a myriad issues" ...
you can't compare apple to Micro$oft, that is like comparing Apple$ to Oranges....wait, maybe we can now.
haha. like i've always said...apple sucks
Defective use of the apostrophe - Check.
defect blackberrys
defect alienware pc's
defect sony viao.
To name but a few gadgets of mine that have gone wrong from launch.... its not just Apple, losers!
Never said it was.
DefectiveByDesign iPhones - Check
DefectiveByDesign iPod Touch - Check
DefectiveByDesign iPod Nanos - Check
DefectiveByDesign iPod Classics - Check
Shiny Whiteness - Priceless
When something is pluralized you do NOT use an apostrophe. Just put an "s" on the end and be done with it. Think of all the time you can save over your lifetime by not adding an unnecessary and wrong item of punctuation to plural words! And another generous time saver...
lose = not win
loose = not tight
Well people act like these products are completely broken. Sure I'm not saying apple couldn't have done better, but I mean realistically, of course in a week or two there will be firmware updates for this. These problems aren't going to plague these new ipods throughout there entire duration as a product. Like with any new product, they'll make them work well eventually.
Thats why people like Apple products. They "just work"
I think you're putting emphasis on the wrong word.
It should be......They JUST (barely) work!
My 160GB classic works exactly as it should. No problems and it's a great device. Battery life is very impressive for a HDD based device.
Maybe if more than a few people had bought a Zune we would hear about their QA issues. I am sure M$ aren't perfect.
MS not perfect? What vile slander!
I suppose now you're telling me the sky is blue, too huh buddy?
Apple talks a lot of shit about how they are the magic bullet for computer users and how everything "just works." When you state your purpose that way, then get sloppy, expect people to call you on it.
i would agree with the comment about disconnect times, it sometimes takes close to a minute to disconnect, which seems a bit excessive
Boy, it looks like Apple is having issues all over the place, iPhone, iPod Touch, Classic iPod, new keyboard issues, new iMac LCD issues, Leopard delays...
Maybe they have little gremlins running around their facilities *virus* and they are not fessing up to anything (can't afford to tarnish that shinny image of theirs!)
Even I don’t have that many issues on windows no matter what version I’m running. OK Apple... what gives???
Definitely a problem... I connect and sync and iTunes will still say "syncing" while the ipod does not... have to kill iTunes a lot to remedy. Disconnect takes FOREVER. When syncing, my ipod classic has a "p" located at the top of the screen which I thought was wierd.
My 80GB iPod Classic works okay for me. I do think the "eject" time is a bit long (maybe 60 seconds), but not excessive. I find the CoverFlow interface fairly sluggish, but that wasn't a shock to me when I bought it nor does it bother me. It would be nice if these were polished in a future firmware update but they're nothing that prevents me from enjoying using it.
if you turn "time in the title" off the lone "p" should stop showing up. atleast it did for me.
but yeah. when i first plug my 80GB classic in to sync iTunes appears to freeze up. it'll eventually let me regain control over it just seems to take forever while it's syncing. lame!
coverflow and the menus are slow while it pulls in album art, but not that slow.
anyone figure out how to turn off the huge digital clock/battery meter that pops up when the iPod idles? it doesn't happen if the backlight is switched to remain on always...i don't want a dumb clock hijacking my Now Playing screen.
I have the 160 classic and I have all of these problems. I did install the 1.0.1 update, but the pain did not go away. It took me almost a complete week to get 130g loaded on this ipod. So far I'm just happy that I'm not using my 2nd gen 20g ipod.
The only other issue you didn't mention is how slow this is to play anything. I played one video on it and it crashed. Awesome!
I have an 80GB Classic and mine is working flawlessly.
I just wish I could turn off the floating artwork thing. It's quite pointless and annoying. Other than that, it works fine. When moving to a menu with said floating artwork, it lags slightly before going to the menu. The side menu is pretty annoying...
Hopefully they add a feature to turn the album art off. I can handle it in coverflow or the albums menu, but not elsewhere.
I don't know if this is just people jumping on the "Let's bash Apple" bandwagon, but if it's not...
...then that would mean that *EVERY ONE* of Apple's new iPod line has had some quality control issue! This is just disgusting. I'm not one to bash any specific company, and I love my iPhone and Mac mini, but there seems to be a severe quality assurance issue at Apple. I'm scared to buy anything else from them, because we can't go for a week without hearing about what else they screwed up!
I want to like Apple, I really do. I bought the Mac Mini just to try them out, but these issues have made me scared to buy any more of their hardware. When we can go a month without hearing about QA issues, then I might buy some more from them.
On the other hand, there's probably no single mass-produced product made by ANY company whereby there were no defects at all. I think that Apple just gets hyped and things are blown out of proportion for both good and bad aspects.
You're right, but this isn't just one product...it is a line of products. And all four of them have had different issues. Also, the iMac screen problems...
QA testing exists for a reason. Like I said, I love my iPhone, but Apple needs to get on the ball.
Remember when apple QA was putting viruses on ipods...That was funny
"You're right, but this isn't just one product...it is a line of products."
What I want to know - is anyone having trouble with the Shuffle ?
After scanning different forums etc. and finding that countless people are experiencing an array of problems with the new iPod Classic, many of which are the same as the problems that I am having to deal with, I am convinced that Apple has made a very big blunder.
They should have stuck with the engineering basics from the previous generation iPod because it actually works, the new iPods are nothing more than expensive paper weights in my opinion, the list of problems that these things suffer from is long, after little better than a months ownership I have opened a case with Apple and exchanged the unit multiple times yet still the problems remain with no resolution in sight.
I would like to have an iPhone but it has it's own gremlins, this is the kind of foolishness that puts a very large bull’s-eye on the company behind the products in question, I agree with insertAlias, I would be hard pressed to recommend Apple products in the future let alone buy another one without some major incentives coupled with the correction of the problems that these products currently suffer from.
What a nightmare.
This wouldn't be a problem if you had a MAC. Apple has had to open up their products to Windows users to drive share, but this just enforces their rational to create a closed end system. If they can control the upstream and downstream componenets then all of you whiny little children who are now dishing on Apple for "lack of quality" woudn't have a leg to stand on.
Apple was probably right from the start when they locked you into their ecosystem. Unfortunately now that they are being forced to open things up it is us consumer that pays the price. Have any of you tech heads out there acutally tallied the time spent configuring and tweaking gadgets just to get them to work? I bet it would add up to a much higher cost than even Apple would want to charge for their products.
Oh yes, the solution to everyone's problem is BUY A MAC! What a wanker!
Perhaps we can all invest in the soon to be released software package called iPeace which will of course solve the worlds problems and bring unity to all......but only if installed on a Mac!
I have a Mac, and it's no excuse to blame all of the problems in Apple's latest product on having to accommodate XP users. The defective screen of my iPod Touch has nothing to do with what operating system my pc is using. The problems Apple has been having have been largely quality control issues, probably because they're trying to produce a lot of units really quickly to meet demand. They need to get a better control over this but it really has nothing to do with the Apple's traditional end to end user experience while trying to incorporate windows users.
"Have any of you tech heads out there acutally tallied the time spent configuring and tweaking gadgets just to get them to work? I bet it would add up to a much higher cost than even Apple would want to charge for their products."
Have you ever tallied up the time you spent sleeping? I bet it would add up to much less time and cost than it would require you to get a PhD in Logic.
but..it just works, right ?
For those who responded to my post, it was meant to be sarcastic.
In the time the article was written, 5000 ipods were sold.. most with NO problems.
Yeah, just like all the copies of Vista that works just fine, despite the sky is falling articles from various sites.
Did you post the same observation about Windows as you're doing with the iPod?
Doubt it.
@ Jeff
That's funny.. turning in a completely unrelated topic as your defense.
woops.. there's another 5000 issueless ipods that were just sold.
...and the winner is: Jeff
That is funny how you are complaining about other people bringing up other products. Do a google search with the search term "bobo site:engadget.com" and you will find a lot of your posts where you do the same thing. Posts about Zune, you put in a picture of an iPod. Posts about a Samsung phone, you make a post about how it should have the same UI as an iPhone. Snide comments about Vista not working, or comments like this about Vista: "Hey, it takes time to copy Leopard." (http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/10/vista-successor-vienna-planned-for-late-2009/) when nobody said a thing about OS X. I got 351 hits on that search query, most of them are similar.
So before you want to criticize somebody, try shutting your own mouth first.
"So before you want to criticize somebody, try shutting your own mouth first."
Lose.
iThought this was eventually going to happen. Still I would take one any day of the week but I am too cheap(poor) to buy one.
iThough iSaw a puddy cat
iDid! iDid! iDid taw a puddy tat!
No idea how to use an apostrophe - check!
"Ron" is on a roll.
160GB ordered on day 1 of release, I haven't had any major problems. This isn't taking into account the interface is very sluggish, which I honestly expected when I got it.
Here's how I describe it to people: My previous iPod was a 20GB monochrome 4G iPod. When it comes to the iPod itself, the 4G is faster and is much more responsive, but the 6G crashes far less randomly.* With iTunes, every single issue I've had with the 6G I've also had with the 4G. Personally, I hear all the connecting issues and just think that many of those problems would be happening regardless of generation; I just think some people are speaking out more because they're following the mob rather than there actually being more problems than usual.
* I intentionally took all album artwork off of my music, so I can't speak on the album bug which I have heard about. My reasoning was simply because it was only available for about 10 albums, and it really isn't a good feature when you don't have much variety in album arts.
You can simply grab a cover art from amazon.com or the website of the recording company and upload it.
www.albumart.org
wikipedia for the win man
Maybe it would be proper to clarify: to me, it was more work to do what you guys are suggesting than to just get rid of the few albums with art. Cover Flow doesn't interest me, and neither does it matter to me whether the albums have cover art or not.
don't get me wrong, I still wouldn't trade my ipod or iphone for the world, but at the premium price we pay, a little more testing before release would be nice.
..for the world? That would include quite a few iPhones and iPods ;)
But yeah, I agree with you completely. A little more QC would be ideal.
i have the 80gb classic- i've experienced slowness in navigating menus and scrolling for specific artists/songs/etc (no i don't use the cover flow at all), especially compared to my previous 4th gen ipod.
it has also crashed a few times- nothing serious, but each time i rest it it lost all my configurations (such as the Main menu customization) quite annoying.
but when i'm just listening or watching it works great.
All products face MTBF (Mean time between faults) and no matter how low this value is, it will show itself when you push out as many iPod's as apple is..
MTBF has nothing to do with initial product reliability. Without proper outgoing QA a large percentage of electronic products with the complexity of an iPod are going to be DOA. Apple is building these things in China; home of lead-painted toys, tainted food and counterfeit products of all sorts. Rather than inspect them before they are shipped into the retail channels Apple allows the Chinese manufacturer to ship directly to the retailers. No check and balence - no quality.
I purchased an 80GB iPod Classic as soon as they were available at their retail stores. I use it with a WinXP machine, and have not noticed any of the problems pointed out in the article. I do notice slower menu navigation, and a very strange habit of skipping Track 1 when I choose to play an album. But other than that, I'm quite pleased with it.
Hmm...the Zune sure isn't looking so bad anymore, now is it?
except for the whole deal with being made by Microsoft, going to only 30 GB, and being a pocket brick, yes. it might be better
i wont bash the Zune too much, the UI is pleasant and fairly easy to navigate, and the larger screen is nice, but Zune to PC integration is poo and there is not mac support that i know of. i don't see Microsoft porting their Zune software to OSX in the future, either. and its still first-gen and the wifi is overblown. how many people do you meet with other Zunes and go, "dude, i want to listen to that song that you have three times, man!"
so i cant see how the Zune really competes anymore, overall.
Lagging Interface. Try it out in an apple store. Very slow interface.
Have you guys really got one before commenting on it? My iPod classic 80GB works just fine.
There are some problems with the iPod Classic...
I have had the same problems with my 5G 30G iPod on my Windows machine. This is seems like a Windows plug-n-play issue to me.
I've been having some problems with my iPod Classic 80gb.
1) There seems to be a lot of lag when I move between the menus, as well as when I start playing a song
2) The cover flow is really not that great to use due to its latency when pulling it up.
3) I've recently been discovering that the iPod will randomly stop playing a song and skip to the next one. I haven't heard of other people having this problem, but it's pretty strange to me. This happens pretty much every time with some songs, even though if I scan ahead in the song, it's all still there. Seems to be a firmware problem.
BTW, has anyone noticed that Apple has started encrypting the xml Library file. Well, there is still an unencrypted version there, I guess for 3rd party programs to use, but this means that you can no longer directly change where apple is looking for your songs. You have to change where its looking through iTunes. What a pain! :-P
Otherwise, I've really enjoyed my upgrade from my 3G 10gb iPod.
I too have the issue of the ipod skipping some songs although they all play fine in itunes, winamp, etc. I tried skipping the first few seconds of said tracks and they are all there on the ipod. Not sure what the issue is but so far that is my only problem with my 3 week old 80gb classic. That and having to re-purchase the games i paid for on my 5G.
Mine seems to be working just fine! I havn't used it a whole lot, but my only complaint is the relative unresponsiveness of the menu (probably because of the artwork stuff) compared to my old 3rd generation ipod. I'm happy!
I've had my 80gb classic since day 1 and it hasn't hit a single bump - I've never personally had a hardware problem with a mac product - and I've owned iPods and powerbook/macbooks for over 6 years. So, don't believe all the hype.
Another content 80GB Classic owner here.
The user interface is slower than what I'm used to, but considering what I'm used to is a monochrome Creative Zen Jukebox Xtra and a first generation iPod Nano, it's basically comparing apples and oranges.
Of course, I don't know as much about my own device as some smug idiot commenting on an internet blog entry who has never used one.
Aren't newer things supposed to be faster?
I casually strolled into my local Apple Store here in Vegas to try out the iPod Touch - but none were in stock. Instead I took a look at the new iPod Classics. I was very disappointed.
The Classic is SLOW. Very slow. Upon clicking a menu choice I had to wait a much longer time than with my 5G iPod to get to the next menu. I thought it might have something to do with it being a floor model so I rebooted the iPod - no difference.
Apple makes a great product, but this revision feels rushed.
i have had 4 80gb classic 1st one froze all the time and random reboots, 2nd one screens colors where off bigtime, 3rd one the clickwheel was not responding due to it being lifted and not even, 4th one my album art never was right. after that i said the hell with it mind you this was my 1st ipod ever so i just went and rtn them and got the 30gb video gen 5 no problems with that one
China makes bad dog food.
China makes bad toothpaste.
China makes bad toys.
China makes bad iEverythings.
Next up China kills US by selling off the dollar.
That's because most of the products selling in the US are made in China. If US made their own products, the same issues can come up. Your prejudice remarks have no place on engadget.
Prejudice remarks on Engadget. You make me laugh.
Now go back in your hole.
Sorry to offend you with the truth. It must really hurt you knowing that.
I have a ipod classic and i have not had any trouble with it so far, but now that i've said i have not had any problems they will probably start up again. Is apple doing anything to deal with these problems?