Apple announces new iPod lineup

[S. Thompson]

At 16GB, it's hardly worth it for music enthusiasts.

- Fuzmeister

got me a movie
i want you to know
slicing up eyeballs
i want you to know
girlie so groovy
i want you to know
don't know about you
but i am un chien andalusia

- Fuzmeister

[SinisterTengu]

I just ordered a silver 160GB iPod Classic from Apple. Hopefully it will arrive next week. I don't know why 160GB seems like so much to people, when you start adding videos you go through that quite fast. I see myself filling it half with music and half with TV shows, and maybe a few movies. I have more than enough music to fill all 160gb, but a lot of it is stuff I'll never listen to. I'm a file hoarder

[|darc|]

I just ordered a silver 160GB iPod Classic from Apple. Hopefully it will arrive next week. I don't know why 160GB seems like so much to people, when you start adding videos you go through that quite fast. I see myself filling it half with music and half with TV shows, and maybe a few movies. I have more than enough music to fill all 160gb, but a lot of it is stuff I'll never listen to. I'm a file hoarder

160gb is way more than enough for my music for the next few years, but I agree that 160gb is not a whole lot in general. For most people, yeah, but if you want to start doing movie archiving on the iPod, it's nowhere near enough. Imagine the tiny ass iPod being able to hold ALL of your media, from every album to every movie you own (or maybe don't own ). You could go by a friend's house and if you feel like watching a movie, just put it on the TV's dock and watch it. No hassles involved. For me, it's impossible to put movies on the 80gb iPod without having to decide if I want this album or this movie on my iPod.

[I.M. Weasel]

Madfiddler, I didnt read much of your first post on this topic, but a bell did go off in my head. Are you already/seriously considering owning an IPhone? Afaik, the only network available to use would be At&t's. So i ask a serious question. After all the shit you post about at&t, you seriously considering buying a product that is almost forced to use their communication system?

Side note, I enjoy your at&t posts, I find them very informative and interesting.

[MulletMan13]

Madfiddler, I didnt read much of your first post on this topic, but a bell did go off in my head. Are you already/seriously considering owning an IPhone? Afaik, the only network available to use would be At&t's. So i ask a serious question. After all the shit you post about at&t, you seriously considering buying a product that is almost forced to use their communication system?

Side note, I enjoy your at&t posts, I find them very informative and interesting.

Unlocking is allready a reality... AT&T is just fine where I live, but I know coverage across most of the country sucks nuts.

[DaMadFiddler]

Madfiddler, I didnt read much of your first post on this topic, but a bell did go off in my head. Are you already/seriously considering owning an IPhone? Afaik, the only network available to use would be At&t's. So i ask a serious question. After all the shit you post about at&t, you seriously considering buying a product that is almost forced to use their communication system?

Side note, I enjoy your at&t posts, I find them very informative and interesting.

Unlocking is allready a reality... AT&T is just fine where I live, but I know coverage across most of the country sucks nuts.

Wait, what?

I never said anything about owning or wanting an iPhone. I don't like cell phones as a whole, and you're damn right I won't do business with AT&T, even if/when I do end up getting a cell.

I was talking about the iPod Touch, which is essentially the iPhone without the phone. It really helps if you actually read the topic

[pavelbure]

i'm with darc on this one too. more space would have been nice. a $450 version that is 100 gigs or so would have been nice. as such, i will probably wait.

[DaMadFiddler]

...Well, look at that. |darc|, Pavelbure, BoneyCork, Covar, and I all agree with each other on something

[I.M. Weasel]

Wait, what?

I never said anything about owning or wanting an iPhone. I don't like cell phones as a whole, and you're damn right I won't do business with AT&T, even if/when I do end up getting a cell.

I was talking about the iPod Touch, which is essentially the iPhone without the phone. It really helps if you actually read the topic

ok, I apologize for misconstruing what you said, my bad. Carry on, nevermind me.

[melancholy]

Nearly everything about the Touch with hard drive would be feasible except for battery life. Without adding SIGNIFICANT bulk to it, you would maybe get 4 hours of usage... tops. You'd be recharging every day.

I missed this part before. What's so bad about 4 hours of battery life? My old 3G iPod only had about a half hour of battery life, and my new 5.5G iPod gets about 3-4 hours. So 4 hours would actually be an improvement.

[|darc|]

Nearly everything about the Touch with hard drive would be feasible except for battery life. Without adding SIGNIFICANT bulk to it, you would maybe get 4 hours of usage... tops. You'd be recharging every day.

I missed this part before. What's so bad about 4 hours of battery life? My old 3G iPod only had about a half hour of battery life, and my new 5.5G iPod gets about 3-4 hours. So 4 hours would actually be an improvement.

What the fuck are you doing to your iPods? The 5.5G iPod has over 20 hours of battery life.

[MulletMan13]

Nearly everything about the Touch with hard drive would be feasible except for battery life. Without adding SIGNIFICANT bulk to it, you would maybe get 4 hours of usage... tops. You'd be recharging every day.

I missed this part before. What's so bad about 4 hours of battery life? My old 3G iPod only had about a half hour of battery life, and my new 5.5G iPod gets about 3-4 hours. So 4 hours would actually be an improvement.

What the fuck are you doing to your iPods? The 5.5G iPod has over 20 hours of battery life.

He first mentioned had a 3G iPod, and over time the battery life decreases... so take a 3G, add 4 years onto it and you have a battery that lasts for 1.5 hours.

As for his 5.5 video... that's completely ridiculous, unless you're playing at 320kbps or lossless files. If you're getting that little battery life, send it back to Apple, the 30gb is rated at 14 hours and the 60gb was at 20 hours... all based on 128kbps aac. Anything under 10 is inexcusable...


As an aside, I went into work today and initially I was skeptical of the Nanos from pictures and such, but in person they are absolutely ridiculous. So much nicer than the old ones, and the black one looks amazing (as does the classic black).

I'm tempted to get a 4gb Nano, as I can get it for about $15.... but I really wouldn't use it at all... Mmmm

[stagg]

Nearly everything about the Touch with hard drive would be feasible except for battery life. Without adding SIGNIFICANT bulk to it, you would maybe get 4 hours of usage... tops. You'd be recharging every day.

I missed this part before. What's so bad about 4 hours of battery life? My old 3G iPod only had about a half hour of battery life, and my new 5.5G iPod gets about 3-4 hours. So 4 hours would actually be an improvement.

What the fuck are you doing to your iPods? The 5.5G iPod has over 20 hours of battery life.

He first mentioned had a 3G iPod, and over time the battery life decreases... so take a 3G, add 4 years onto it and you have a battery that lasts for 1.5 hours.

As for his 5.5 video... that's completely ridiculous, unless you're playing at 320kbps or lossless files. If you're getting that little battery life, send it back to Apple, the 30gb is rated at 14 hours and the 60gb was at 20 hours... all based on 128kbps aac. Anything under 10 is inexcusable...


As an aside, I went into work today and initially I was skeptical of the Nanos from pictures and such, but in person they are absolutely ridiculous. So much nicer than the old ones, and the black one looks amazing (as does the classic black).

I'm tempted to get a 4gb Nano, as I can get it for about $15.... but I really wouldn't use it at all... Mmmm

Yeah, $15 bucks man? Get it just to take pictures and show em to us.
I think I may get the iPod Touch, I really want the WiFi , even more if I can get my schools WEP key.

[melancholy]

Nearly everything about the Touch with hard drive would be feasible except for battery life. Without adding SIGNIFICANT bulk to it, you would maybe get 4 hours of usage... tops. You'd be recharging every day.

I missed this part before. What's so bad about 4 hours of battery life? My old 3G iPod only had about a half hour of battery life, and my new 5.5G iPod gets about 3-4 hours. So 4 hours would actually be an improvement.

What the fuck are you doing to your iPods? The 5.5G iPod has over 20 hours of battery life.

Well, admittedly my 3G just wore out over time time. It probably had 5 hours in it's prime, but I bought it used really cheap. But my 5.5G has always held out for about 4 hours before the gage goes into the red. Actually, on second though, it lasts longer than that (like probably 6), but there is no way in hell my iPod would last for 10 hours, let alone 20. I guess I just bought one with a dud battery.

At any rate, I just listen to music on it (128kbps MP3's) and have the backlight set to constantly on at the absolute lowest light setting (which is still too damn bright for my purposes). If I cared enough about the battery, I would definitely cash in on my service plan. But 90% of it's use is in the car where it's constant charged anyway.

[stagg]

At any rate, I just listen to music on it (128kbps MP3's) and have the backlight set to constantly on at the absolute lowest light setting (which is still too damn bright for my purposes). If I cared enough about the battery, I would definitely cash in on my service plan. But 90% of it's use is in the car where it's constant charged anyway.

[SinisterTengu]

The car use could be what killed your battery. If you didn't properly break the battery in in the first place (fully charge it for a long while, and then fully discharge it before charging again) and then the constant quick charges it gets from the car adapter could have stunted its life. For just music, the battery should definately last over 10 hours, but I'm sure the constant backlight could be part of it. I can see wanting the backlight on in the car, but you keep it on even when its in your pocket and stuff?

[melancholy]

The car use could be what killed your battery. If you didn't properly break the battery in in the first place (fully charge it for a long while, and then fully discharge it before charging again) and then the constant quick charges it gets from the car adapter could have stunted its life. For just music, the battery should definately last over 10 hours, but I'm sure the constant backlight could be part of it. I can see wanting the backlight on in the car, but you keep it on even when its in your pocket and stuff?

That's probably it, then. I just always have it charging in the car since I leave the backlight on. If I am going to use it for a long period outside of the car, then yeah, I'll kill the backlight because of the obvious battery drain. But probably 95% of my iPod use is in the car, on the charger. The only reason I ever found out how long my battery life lasts is because I sometimes use it on Sunday mornings for ad set at work, and I work a 5 hour shift, which usually drains it pretty good by the time I'm done. But in those cases I definitely shut the light off, since that would just be a waste. But other than that, it stays docked in my car. That's just where I use it most.

[DaMadFiddler]

...For anyone considering a Nano (not me for aforementioned storage reasons, but I know this meets some people's needs), Sandisk has kicked out a new Sansa model.

I really like the Sansas as dedicated PMPs; they do just about everything right. (The company even officially supports 3rd-party efforts like Rockbox).

Product Page



It's got 16GB flash memory, an FM radio and a voice recorder function, your typical array of supported codecs, and a microSDHC slot (supports microSD/SDHC up to 24GB). Supposedly 24 hours of audio playback or 7 hours of video playback to a charge.

Not bad for $200, I suppose.

So, if you're considering the Nano, there's an alternative.

If you're torn between the Classic and the Touch, the Archos 605 (which I mentioned earlier) has all the best from both of those devices, though the Archos UI feels a little PocketPC-ish.

There are a couple of things to mull over.

[DaMadFiddler]

And another revelation: Apple is apparently crippling the PIM apps on the iPod Touch, in an attempt to distinguish between it and the iPhone. For example: you can view your calendar, but you can't add events.

This means it's useless as a PDA; between this and the limited storage capacity, I have entirely lost interest and will go back to waiting for my dream device. For the time being, I'm still better off with my Zodiac...at this point in time, it does a lot more than the iPod Touch, it integrates with my computer *almost* as well, and even once the two 4GB SD cards and WiFi add-on were factored in (yes, it has two SD slots), it still only cost me about half as much as the Touch.