I wonder how many of you reading Shiny Shiny have an iPod. Every so often I get an urge to buy one. I like the design, the colour range and the idea of putting my whole CD collection in one place. They may be a little pricey, but not so much that it's an offputting cost. But then I am plagued by warnings of poor battery life, break downs after a couple of years and tempermental click wheels which makes me think again. So, iPods - yay or nay?
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I loved my iPod - yeah past tense.
I begged my dad to buy me one for christmas last year and he gave in and bought be a black 2gb nano. All was fine for about 20 seconds before it seemed to just scratch itself relentlessly. So i bought a case and thought nothing more.
Then the battery started dying after about an hour, so last week it was boxed up, taken back to argos and shipped of to Apple. I might be getting a new one, I might be getting a fixed one. Either way, if you love the design and the general iPodness, you have to put up with the crap battery!
Aaahhh. Hmmm. Hummm. Etc Etc. I don't know. Some people are obviously snobby when it comes to ipods - simply because they ARE ipods - and that frustrates me terribly. I have an old skool ipod mini and it does my well, but then again I haven't really compared it to other models. The battery life is a bit poor but I have a killah ipod dock that it is always when when I'm not out and about so it's pretty much always charged. Might upgrade to a fancy new sexy colour ipod doofer though. Swish! Oh, one more thing: the headphones are absolute pish, but you probably knew that already!
I have an old white nano, I love it! I keep it in one of those rubber cases, currently pink, and I also keep a little bit of the film over the screen. With the old nanos they came with sticky back plastic (not quite so Blue Peter styley) on the front and I'd suggest doing what I did nd either leaving it on whole or cropping it down to screen size. As that doesn't happen with the new nanos (bought the (product)red one for mum!) you can buy that screen protector plastic and cut it down to fit your screen. It's also a good investment as you can use it on your camera screen too so that in with keys, lipgloss etc inside your handbag it doesn't get so scratched! I haven't really had a battery life problem, but it depends on how much use you give it, I've had mine a year and don't charge it that often as it spends half it's working life plugged into my PC for updating with my new purchases so gets charged then. I like the ipod, it works well for me, but if you're going to be a constant user, technically it may not be the best choice...but I say yay!
I have an old white nano, I love it! I keep it in one of those rubber cases, currently pink, and I also keep a little bit of the film over the screen. With the old nanos they came with sticky back plastic (not quite so Blue Peter styley) on the front and I'd suggest doing what I did nd either leaving it on whole or cropping it down to screen size. As that doesn't happen with the new nanos (bought the (product)red one for mum!) you can buy that screen protector plastic and cut it down to fit your screen. It's also a good investment as you can use it on your camera screen too so that in with keys, lipgloss etc inside your handbag it doesn't get so scratched! I haven't really had a battery life problem, but it depends on how much use you give it, I've had mine a year and don't charge it that often as it spends half it's working life plugged into my PC for updating with my new purchases so gets charged then. I like the ipod, it works well for me, but if you're going to be a constant user, technically it may not be the best choice...but I say yay!
I hate them with a passion. I think they're over-priced and technologically inferior to a number of their competitors. The reason they're so popular is more to do with a successful advertising campaign that meant iPod became a byword for MP3 player than any sort of technical superiority.
I want my MP3 player to be durable, easy-to-use, reliable, with a good battery life, and not force me to use proprietary software. The iPod is none of these.
I love my iPod. I got one about two years ago (40gb) and after about 10 months it broke so I sent it back and got sent a new one. Then last month the battery started to get a bit rubbish so I sent it back (even though it was out of warranty) and they sent me a new one. You cannot fault the customer service! Also it is very easy to use and even though the DRM on iTunes purchases is very annoying, I just rip from CDs and find that the iTunes software itself is really easy to use and has awesome features. I have just ordered the new 80gb video for only £220 pounds from amazon and can't wait. Only problem is the fact that they get easily scratched. The creative zen is now not much cheaper and having owned one, they are irritating, the scrolling thing is rubbish and would never have another one. In conclusion, iPod and iTunes = fantastic. iTunes music store = rip off. Also, buy a case!
xxx
Yay. I love my ipod. Battery life could be better, but as long as it's charged, it'll last you through a long flight or a day of adventures.
get one. they're cool. although the creative ones look cool too. hmm.
HAI. I have an iPod Shuffle 2nd gen and it's handy. I use it with some intra-ear monitor earbuds to block out noise when I need to concentrate at work. When it is quiet, you can hear some static, but otherwise, quite nice. I do not charge it that often and do not have a click-wheel ^_^.
I love my ipod video. Although, my boyfriend who is a big nerd fixes it for me more than I can say. Here's a tip, unlike cell phones, you are never supposed to let the battery run completely out. It's a bit of a scam by Apple. Or so I hear, my boyfriend could just be a complete whack case thinking Apple is out to take over the world.
Either way, mine just had a bug last week that took forever to fix myself and I thought I was going to have to open it. To keep yourself from using tweezers and bobby pins to open your ipod the next time it breaks (I know some of us are that ambitious) GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE. It was my best friend. Apparently ipods have a sort of safe mode like windows where you can fix uh-oh's inside of it. Very interesting me thinks.
After that long winded blahblahblah, I say YAY. They screw up upon occasion, but being able to keep all my music in one spot = love. I used to hate to have to move around my music when I got bored of it only to find an hour into listening to it, that I hated all of the music I had just put on it. With my 60gb, I have no worries :) I just click and go. And I've never had a problem with my click wheel.
I don't like them. Some of the commenters above have said why they're a poor choice. The only reason I have an (old) iPod shuffle is because I won one at a raffle at my workplace. I absolutely abhor iTunes, and am quite irritated that I have to use this to put music on my iPod. iTunes is horrible beyond belief.
I love my ipod. I've had it for two years now (the one with the grey scale screen) and i adore it. My battery life has held rather strong but i only charge it after it's died (which is what you must do to prolong battery life in any ipod or laptop). My boyfriend expects me to have to get the battery changed (or just a new one) within the next two years.
But as far as something i use EVERYDAY. It honestly cannot be beat!
I like mine. I've got an oldskool 4GB pink mini one that I picked up for £40 (gotta love the dollar/sterling exchange rate!) and it suits me fine. I generally charge mine everyday and it's only ever died on me once when I had to go through an extreme bout of filing but spent more time flicking through my favourite tunes. I like that iTunes is easy to use too and seeing as I have a mac it kinda makes sense. I do know people who have one and use it with a PC have had problems but none for me so at the end of that rambling, yay!
I second what melissa has to say. I also have a 3rd generation iPod and it's been very good to me these past 2½ years. I've never used it 24-hours straight, but I use up the battery 'til it shuts off and I think it lasts a considerable amount of time. However, the complaints of battery life, I've noticed, started when... the first nano (I think) came out. I think the only complaints I've heard were mainly for the nanos or iPod minis... maybe one for the shuffle.
Also, iTunes worked good when I first installed it back when on my PC. I've got an iBook since last year and it works like a breeze -- much faster! However when I tried installing the latest iTunes recently on a very fast PC it was disappointingly slow.
So... it really depends on what you're looking for and expecting. I love my gray-screen, 4-buttoned iPod and don't expect to get any of the latest ones unless it's on the verge of dying although the pink one sure is pretty. I enjoy listening to mp3s and putting the iPod in my pocket -- can't imagine staring at a screen the whole time for videos. However I never expected it to have all the flash and features the latest versions had/have, like a color screen for example (I haven't even played with the game mine contains, yet).
Initially, what made me decide to buy one was after borrowing and playing around with my sister's iPod. If you're still unsure and really want a test drive, grab a friend and ask to borrow his/her iPod for an hour or so (hopefully they'll have the same content as what you're into).
But as for my answer: Yay - I ♥ my iPod
I'd say Yay. Some people hate them just because they're made by Apple, I see that as a personal problem. And if one breaks down prematurely, Apple takes care of it, except some cases where it is obvious that excessive violence have been used against the poor gadget.
Personally I own three of them, a 4th generation 40GB, a 30GB video, and a 2G Shuffle. All have been problem free, apart from that I had to change out the battery in my 40GB one after using a bad charger for it in my car. Other than that I have found the battery life to be even better than Apple claims, except for the video model, since the light comes on whenever I push a button the battery life is not exactly impressive.
I gave my nephews (9 and 11 years old) Shuffles for Christmas last year, and they still haven't managed to break them. I have heard bad things about the combination of Nanos and kids though.
I have tried other digital music players but found none that are as easy to use as the iPod, and many will only play one or two types music files, while my iPods plays any type file I have given it.
Sound quality is very good, most players I have tried are not as good. There may be better ones out there, but I think the biggest difference is in the quality of music files. A poor quality music file won't sound good on any player.
My only complaint now is that my full size iPods are a bit too big to carry around. Odd, because I didn't think so before I got my Shuffle...
I LOVE my ipod
I bought a 15gb back in high school (4 years ago) as a graduation present but then something was wonky with the screen and the store didnt have any more 15s so I got a 3 for the same price. I put every CD in the house on it and backed up my entire hard drive as well and there was a lot of room to spare. I used it every single day throughout college. It only started getting wonky on me at the end, but I think it was the cable that was messed up. The battery life definitely did go bad towards the end, but I just charged it every night and it was fine. Considering I would take three hour hikes I didn't think that was so bad.
For my college graduation I upgraded to the latest 30g video. Still love it. Still use it every day. Still have backups from my highschool and college laptops on it.
I drop it all the time but I got this case for it that's like a hard plastic and now nothing happens to it. Wish I could say the same for my cellphone.
My one complaint is that I havent been able to listen to the music I bought on itunes on my new Ipod. Some kind of security feature - you can only listen to that music on one ipod, so now I'm not sure how to fix that. But I can just stick to ripping CDs anyway.
I'm sort of on the fence. I love my iPod. It's dead useful. I like having music, photos, movies et cetera in one thing. But, they are tempermental. I ended up getting my first iPod replaced four times under warinty. Eventually I gave up and bought a video. And that I've gotten replaced twice. =x
YAY!!! The iPod is such a great thing. It is really gorgeous... Buy one!!! ; D
Yay. i have a shuffle, nano and video ipod.
my most used is video ipod (also my newest)
My challenge right now is filling it up..
I like them...easy to use and cute.
Christina, All you have to do is register your new iPod at the Apple site (sometimes you have to do this a couple of times if you have more than one iPod that you switch back and forth between).
I love my iPod. Don't mind iTunes. Hate the protection Apple puts on the songs. I've bought Lord knows how many songs (spent w-a-y more money really than I ever should on music) so I own it but what if I tire of iPod and want Zune? I can't transfer the music I've bought. Need to find a good converter to un-encode the protection!