I just won an iPod shuffle - 512mb shuffle for me for free. I filled out a survey that had a drawing for a free iPod - and I won. Got it today. I think I decided that I'm not going to open it - I'm going to exchange it at the apple store for a credit for a 60gb iPod - but it's still cool. (I have to fight myself to not open it......)
Not that we need another one of these threads, but why would I want an Iriver when I can have an iPod? In other words, why would I want a cheap imitation that doesn't function as well when I can have the real thing?
Damn, *looks at calander* wonder if they have done the drawing for the ipod shuffle at our library yet....is that where you got yours?
Ipod shuffle although pointless does it's job well so stop dissing it d00ds Anyway congrats on the winning I wish I could actually win something in these draws..
There are ways of answering Fanboy posts like mine, and yours wasnt a good response. Well that sentance alone left me in a fit of giggles. For a start they arn't that cheap and secondly they have more "function" than the Ipods. Should i start on Video playback, OGG suppport, Inline recording, Radio, upgradable firmware, no itunes/software needed. Trust me function wasn't the arguement you were looking for. If you'd said you wanted to look cool and be part of the crowd i'd of understood. I'd of even understood if you said they looked nice and pretty although i guess that wasn't too much of an issue for me After all its not something that sits anywhere but in my coat pocket. Still i guess apple have U2 backing them. Hope the battery on yours is good as well and the unit doesnt crash 8 months in. Other than that congrats on winning.
In polite response - (Note to mods:neither Monkeyville or I are flaming each other or trolling for flip-out reactions and flames from other people - it's just a discussion......) 1. Not a feature that I am interested in, so not an argument in favor of the iRiver (for me) 2. I am interested in this, but no product is perfect. And, I don't really need it, it's just nice that it's there. Besides, your iRiver doesn't play aac - all it plays (according to the url is WMA and MP3) 3. Again, I have no reason to record audio on my portable music player. I understand that other people do, but this is not a feature that I need. If I did need this feature on my iPod, I would spend the $35 on the Belkin iPod Voice Recorder 4. I want an MP3 player so that I don't have to listen to the radio. Not a feature I care about. 5. Of course it has upgradeable firmware. In fact, many people are expecting them to add ogg support, but I'm not holding my breath. 6. ... and here it is. This is where an iPod has better functionality of any audio player available. Ready? Here it is - iPods work with iTunes. There you go - best feature. itunes manages my music well itunes is an easy way to purchase legal digital music itunes is an easy to use audio player itunes supports aac itunes works on macs and windows machines itunes automatically syncs with an ipod - and it's easy to manage the behavior of how itunes syncs with an ipod ... So, of your 6 - We can absolutely agree that an iRiver plays radio and video and an iPod doesn't - but those features don't mean anything to me. the iRiver plays ogg, but not aac and the ipod is the reverse of that. you can use the iriver as a portable tape recorder, but if you want to do that with the ipod you have to spend an extra $35 the iriver and the ipod both allow you to upgrade your firmware. and then there's itunes - I'll give you 1 and 4 - but I win on iTunes support.
Well em, what if you have an Ipod, and go to your friends house to ahem "Borrow" some music from his pc, and he has neither an internet connection, nor Itunes, what exactly do you do then? (forgive me if im an idiot and Ipods work without Itunes)
Hehe...personally, I like the shuffle. A lot. It does its job well, which is having your own personal radio station, without a screen or hard drive to worry about. My (soon to be) wife has one, got it for her for her birthday. She plugs it into the usb port (no cables, no dongles, nothing...just a USB key..this alone is a great feature that should be taken seriously) at night, it automatically picks a new set of music for her to listen to, uploads it, and charges her battery. She pulls it out in the morning, and off to work she goes with it happily in her purse, no cover needed because there's no screen to break. Plays a full assortment of her music during the day, that she can choose to control or not at her leisure. She doesn't HAVE to sit there and upload songs to it just to get some random music, it does it automatically. No requirement for playlists, different playlists, remembering what she put on there last week, etc. If there's low battery ever (which hasn't been the case), another USB port isn't far away, and it'll recharge automatically (no docking station, remember, nor stupid AAA battery). Then she takes it to the gym, and the thing has no screen and no real complex outer touch-scroll, so there's little fear of it being broken. Overall, great product if you have nightly (or within every 2-3 days) access to your computer. If that market is different than the one you're in, it's going to suck no matter what. Oh, yeah, and then there's iTunes...which is only a weakness if you really have a thing against legal distribution of music (or DRM, which i can understand, but there are many ways around that). Congrats, Dream! Nice little prize. /EDIT: P2D, if he has no internet connection, what music are you "borrowing"?
*smacks this thread back on topic* Congratulations on your new Ipod Shuffle; I hope you enjoy the mobile music
Ipods function as a usb hard drive - if you wanted to copy some non-copywrited word documents or txt files from a friend who didn't have itunes (and you had your ipod cable with you,) you could just plug it in and copy the files over. If they were audio files, you couldn't play them on the ipod until you got back home, copied them over to your computer, and then synced your ipod again. And, thanks everyone for the congrats. It's just sitting here NOT open because I want to exchange it, but I love tech toys and want to open it to play with it...... must not open must not open must not open must not open must not open will wait will wait will wait will wait will wait will wait will wait
That is a not a good best feature, massively overpriced music with evil DRM and quality that'll make you want to cut your own ears off. www.allofmp3.com is the ONLY place to buy music pseudo legally 320kbps OGGs with no DRM for a fraction of the price? Oh yes The biggest problem I have with the iPod is that everyone owns one, the rich, the middle class, the poor, the chavs, the trendies, the goths, heck even my mum owns one. I wouldn't be seen dead or alive with an iPod Still that aside congrats on winning! Always cool to win something
You make some good points however their are a few minor things i would like to add. First of all you linked to the wrong player. I meant you to be thinking about the H340 which is the direct competitor for the ipod. That one is the true ipod killer. Also i think we have to agree to disagree about the Itunes functionality. Personally i hate it. My mate came over to mine the other day to let me listen to some of his tunes and without erasing the ipod with its auto sync it was impossible. Still its always going to be a case of either you like itunes or you dont. Each to his own.
The majority of people don't want video playback or radio functionality from an MP3 player, in the same way that they wouldn't want a coffee machine in their PC. Nor do they want OGG support (after all, it's only a few geeks that use OGC). Most people want a simple MP3 player that holds all their songs in an organised fashion and allows them to play them easily. The ipod does this better than any other device and it does it in style, which is why ipods are "cool" and why the "crowd" buy them. The ipod is the reference MP3 player, what other MP3 players aspire to, whether you like it or not.
