Auntie Em owns a Sansa e260. I own a iRiver Clix G2[sup][/sup], and a 1st generation Nano. I don’t use the Nano much anymore, but it’s been a good player; I did, however, have to replace the firmware on it to get it to play WMAs. (So, it’s no longer using Apple’s software; instead, it’s using Rockbox.) I use my iRiver most of the time, and auntie em plays the heck out of her Sansa.
[sup][/sup]The Clix is a victim of having too little accessories. The 3rd-party market, as mentioned before, is one of the iPod’s greatest strengths, so the lack of holders and armbands for my Clix was disappointing after coming from a bountiful iPod market. I did order a nice holder through iRiver’s site, but to get an armband I had to improvise. Basically, I took apart a holder and armband made for a Nano, and fit the armband inside my Clix holder. Luckily, they were made of the same material, so it looks as if it were purchased that way.
Well, like I said, it’s adequate for most people. Most people don’t even replace the stock earbuds. But it’s not some subtle difference that you require utter silence and $1000 headphones to tell. The most obvious impacts of a lower quality amp tend to be in bass impact, bass clarity, and I think probably instrument seperation. The bass especially on a cheaper/lower quality analog output suffers. And one certainly does not have to have refined tastes to notice how much the EQ distorts.
I wish I’d have written down complaints the first day I used iTunes, because I had about 20 of them. Right now there’s a new one though - it tells me the 2.0 software update is available and to click update. So I click update. It then pops up with the 2.0 software being available for purchase at the ipod store (irritating, by the way, paying for firmware updates). The buttons are “learn more” and “cancel”. So I click “learn more” and it takes me to… the same screen I was just on, with the update button.
I can’t find an obvious place in the iTunes store to buy the update - can anyone help me out?
I’m another Sansa owner and am pleased as punch with it. My wife has an old iPod which works fine but I’m happy I went with the Sansa. Forget having to find 3rd party apps to get off of iTunes – I just plug my Sansa into the computer and drop songs onto it like any drive, no software needed. I could use the Rhapsody software to divide it all into special groups but I just turn the thing on and let it play randomly so there’s no need for me. The drag’n’drop thing means I’ve also used my .mp3 player as a portable drive in a pinch to transfer files between computers. No issues with the interface or set-up or physical machine itself. Completely happy with it.
There’s an offical FM transmitter and external speakers for it and that’s all the accessories I need for an .mp3 player. I don’t really want a dancing dog or musically pulsing vibrator.
I’m not an iPod hater. Apple sells a bajillion of them and each new one is eagerly awaited so they must be making lots of folks happy. I’m just happy with my Sansa.
This link: https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/touchLandingPage
Took iTunes right to the buy and download page.
99% of Apple firmware updates are free. This one costs because of licensing issues.
Thanks. They screwed up the launch yesterday so that no one was properly getting their touch firmware update. I finally got it last night - it failed with some ambiguous error, bricked my ipod, deleted all my data, some of my settings, calendar dates, etc. and took like 6-7 restore attempts before it unbricked. It seems to be working fine now.
It includes the January software update which is cool. The google maps app alone is probably worth the $10. I told it to locate me based on the wireless IP, and it came within about 100 feet… remarkable, a little eerie. I’m not even sure how accurate it is because I’m running on a neighbor’s unsecured wireless and I’m not sure exactly where they are.
It deleted all my jailbroken apps which I expected, except strangely for Zibri’s Blog, which is a link to the ziphone.com page. They’ll be a jailbreak solution soon enough probably but even if not the app store has some cool stuff.
Not so much on the PC, as on the iPod.
An .mp3 player is a drive that you can connect to your computer, right?
With any other .mp3 player, I copy my .mp3 files directly from my hard drive (or CD, or DVD, or network location) and there they are, organized however I want them. If I plug my .mp3 player into one of my other computers, I can find these files easily enough. Say, I want to copy a bunch of Nouvelle Vague onto my work computer to play through my speakers while I’m working on the week-end. Plug the thing in, navigate to the Nouvelle Vague folder, copy, and hey presto! I have my music playing through winamp through some nice amplified speakers. How convenient.
If I was still using my iPod nano, all the organization is done through the firmware. If I plug that into my work computer and browse the drive, I am going to find one huge directory of files with randomized filesnames, with the id3 tags stripped off of them. Where’s the Nouvelle Vague? No way to know. “k32642ylk24j24” might be the sort of lounge-y stuff I’m in the mood for, or it might be something off Nick Cave or P.J. Harvey.
There is no benefit to the consumer in this - it doesn’t let me fit more music on my player, or anything. The is intended to discourage people from sharing their music. Fine, but it also prevents me from being able to move my own music from one device to another- when I had my 8gig Nano I still found myself carrying CDs around. Stupid.
And that whole business of having to build a library on your PC, and sync it - that’s a pain, too. If I want to put 5 gigs of music that I have burned to CDs onto my .mp3 player, I shouldn’t need 5 gigs of free space on my hard drive. That’s ridiculous. Copy them onto my hard drive, add them to my iTunes library, Sync it to my iPod. That’s not “just works,” that’s just work. Three times as much work. I just want to stick the CD in the drive and copy the folders I want onto my device.
norinew
Obviously, having read through all these comments, your choice is clear. 
iPod Nano tortue test
Or just get an Otter box
Very close to bullet proof at that point.
No love for the Walkman? The S series includes an FM tuner, the A Series has a bigger screen size and the top end A unit has Bluetooth. In my experience, they have really good sound quality and support more formats. They also include noise canceling headphones (great for ambient noise). Walkmans used to be tied to SonicStage which was even more unpopular than iTunes, but not anymore.
As clear as mud is the popular idiom, I believe. 