The advantage of an ipod is that even a complete moron who can’t figure out how to use a message board can use one in about 3 seconds. You know that idiot in your office who crashes his computer three times a day trying to print? He can use an ipod without messing it up.
That said, the controls on my ipod Shuffle are so easy to use I can manipulate them while the damn thing is in my pocket and my hand is on the outside of my jacket. Easy.
This is one of those areas where you really need to try before you buy. Some people swear by the clickwheel, a (very few) swear at it. Have a fiddle with any recent iPod and with some of the various alternative players out there and see how you get on with the navigation.
But bear in mind that some astronomical proportion of the market is filled by iPod - meaning it’s no 1 in terms of people who know it (and the magic button combos) well, in addition to the huge peripherals market.
I’m not sure whether price is that big an issue nowadays - despite their higher margins, Apple have such vast volume discounts on components that there doesn’t seem to be much difference.
As far as DRM goes, I don’t think any of the schemes are portable. Once you buy, you’re pretty well locked in, whether it’s MM, Fairplay or whatever, although I think you can always burn tracks to CD and re-rip them if you are desperate to port across.
I **love **mine!
I’ve got movies, TV shows, Audiobooks, Podcasts, old time radio programs, and oh yeah, MP3s (all mine, all legal thankyouverymuch).
I like that I’m never bored. If I have to take my car in for an oil change or wait for a haircut or something I just watch a TV show or a movie instead of flipping through 3 year-old People magazines.
I’ve also got some contacts on there, and a schedule on my calendar. Oh and in the notes section I have a tip table, some common US/Canadian measurment conversions and driving directions to places I don’t go often enough to remember (like the airport… all those crazy exits and ramps!).
I can use it as a portable drive too, but I have a 1GB thumb drive I use for that.
It’s the single best entertainment purchase I have ever made.
People mention the “battery issue” but that was solved a long time ago. The current iPod batteries are excellent considering what they do (if you’re watching a lot of movies for example). With the plethora of AC power options though I don’t even use my battery. I have a dock on my desk, and I have an in-car hook up, so I rarely use battery anyway.
You are asking if the data entered in MusicMatch will be seamlessly entered in iTunes, including your music ratings. Don’t know, and the answer may be hard to find. I would guess that it will not be seamlessly entered. When I did a search for “MusicMatch Jukebox” at apple.com, I found a couple of articles that mentioned MusicMatch support with the iPod on Windows machines, but those articles are old and, I fear, obsolete.
e.g.
http://www.apple.com/lae/ipod/autosync.html
What you can do, before buying an iPod, is download the iTunes software (for free) from apple.com and see if you can import your MusicMatch data. Another good board to ask this question on might be arstechnica.com in the Audio/Visual club - I’ve gotten good answers at that board on a question related to DVD software.
A lot of the tag data will come over because it’s tied to the file itself and not the program thru which you’re playing it.
This would be the stuff in the “ID3 tag standard”. Stuff like “artist”, “title”, “genre” and even the cover art I think.
Ratings however I think are a software-specific. Check here for information.
Just spoke to an Apple expert (freak) and he says iTunes won’t recognize your ratings from Music Match (sorry).
iTunes keeps a preferences file of it’s own with your ratings in it once you set them up there.
If I remember correctly, the Ipod does NOT play MP3 files. It plays it’s own version of Mp4 files. So any Mp3 files you have already converted or downloaded would have to be re-downloaded or converted.
Am I correct in this?
That is not correct. I have MP3 files that I imported from CDs into iTunes and they play just fine on my iPod. BUT, the MP4 files from iTunes won’t play on anything but an iPod.
I love my iPod. Importing your own music from c.d.'s is a snap. And quick! And now you can download TV shows and movies onto your video iPods. I’m downloading S. 1 of Buffy and Hill Street Blues to keep me entertained during some long flights I have planned.
Laugh at him? 
The stuff you bought from MM are windows media files. They won’t play on an iPod. You need something from here. I like the Zen myself.
Just a nitpick:
The iTunes purchased music comes in a format called AAC, not “MP4”. iTunes purchased AAC files are protected, but the terms are really good. You can burn them, transfer then to iPod, and play them on 5 or so computers (revokable). The file extension for these files is “yourfilename*.m4a*” (or “.m4b” for audiobooks).
If you import your music in AAC format, those files are not under any sort of DRM, but I do believe that only Apple products will play them at the moment (iPod, iTunes, Quicktime, and it’s probably supported in the iLife suite but I’m only 95% sure on that).
MP4 is iPod’s video container.
[curmudgeon]So these iPod thingummies are what I hear on every freaking train trip I take? IS there something about their technology that precludes the use of headphones lie we used with our Walkmen in the 80s, or are the kids just rude little shits? I’m a commuter. I’m going to work and I’m grumpy. I don’t need this shit. Thank yew. [/curmudgeon]
I was sure that TLD’s post was going to be about the Australian Consumer Association today awarding the iPod one of the Shonky Awards for the worst 10 consumer products of the year.
You’re right. It should have been. Roh and HG in fine form!
I have 2 questions, really:
if I have a large library in mp3 format, will the iPod brand player play them all?
what video formats do the newer video iPods support? I have a lot of clips in mpg, avi, and wmv format. would any of these work?
extra credit: assuming the answer to either of these is no, are there any off-brand players that do what I need them to?
Thanks to the Op for starting this thread, and to all of you for the answers.
To 1) Yes.
I love mine. It’s a 30G 5th generation. It’s easy to use, stores huge amounts of music, it can be a hard drive back up - I keep about 1100 pictures on it.
What Barbarian said: I keep mine clipped to the back of my gym shorts when i work out, or am on my bike, and I can do basic controls right there. Just reach back, skip a song, play the last song over, turn it up, turn it down…whatever.
There’s even an interface that you can plug the thing into your TV and show your pictures in a slide show, with music on your TV.
Yep, no problem.
Those videos will probably need to be reencoded, but there’s a ton of converters out there that can change those AVIs into the proper iPod format.
You are ever so correct.
Never mind me. I just click the little wheel and the music comes out…