Apple can suck my ass

[WayAbvPar]

My fucking iPod shuffle went tits up. It last a lot longer (about 18 months) than my wife's did, which lived for about 3 weeks. Their forums are ablaze with people with the same problem, and the tech support folks suggest that people buy new ones, since they are even cheaper now. FUCK THAT. If tech support told me that, I would scream and curse at them until hung up. And then I would call them back and repeat.

I am gonna make an appointment and take both of them to the Apple store for some face time tech support. Will report back how they handle it, but I can't say I am optimistic.

Anyone have suggestions for a portable/wearable player that can play ITunes? Have 4GB+ of crap loaded on there that would just as soon not have to reproduce (not to mention the hundreds of dollars worth of songs I have purchased from the bastards).

[Surlyboi]

Shuffle? or Mini?

[Tebonas]

Buy a MP3-Player with an actual hard disk, I saw three non-Apple USB-stick players die on friends of mine as well.

[Engels]

Anyone have suggestions for a portable/wearable player that can play ITunes?

I thought the whole point of iTunes was to make sure you couldn't buy anything but apple technology to work it?

[WayAbvPar]

Shuffle? or Mini?

Shuffle.

Buy a MP3-Player with an actual hard disk, I saw three non-Apple USB-stick players die on friends of mine as well.

That makes sense, However, I am understandably reticent to spend any more money with Apple judging by their customer service.

Anyone have suggestions for a portable/wearable player that can play ITunes?

I thought the whole point of iTunes was to make sure you couldn't buy anything but apple technology to work it?

Yeah, that is kind of what I was afraid of. Someone has to have cracked it though, right?

[Signe]

Nevermind.  I'm a total idiot and I can't read.   

[Sky]

You can moves iTunes Music Store stuff to other players, but I think you need to burn it to cd and rerip it first.  I'm hoping to get an 80GB iPod for xmas, even if I have to buy it for myself :)

[WayAbvPar]

You can moves iTunes Music Store stuff to other players, but I think you need to burn it to cd and rerip it first.  I'm hoping to get an 80GB iPod for xmas, even if I have to buy it for myself :)

Ugh. Can I burn it to DVD?  :-D I have over 4 gigs. That is a shitload of CDs.

[Sky]

You bought 4 GB of music from the music store? I don't know any other players, everyone I know has an iPod. But iTunes rips are compatible with anything, so long as it's in the correct format. I rip to 192kb AAC VBR mostly, which is great for a big ipod. If you're in a format unfriendly to other players, go to options and set import options to another format (mp3 or whatever), then select all your tracks and Convert Selection to whatever format you chose (and get a sandwich or twenty for 4GB :)).

I've got almost 24 GB on my work machine split between mp3s and aacs, and that's about half to 2/3rds my collection and I have yet to rip wholesale into my girl's collection which is almost as big as mine. I lika da music.

Anyway, point is you only have to burn and rerip if you bought it with apple drm. Otherwise it shouldn't even that much of a hassle.

[WayAbvPar]

Ah ok. That will be considerably easier, but still a pain in the ass. If I get no joy from the Apple store I will probably buy a non-Apple player. Unfortunately I also have 2 shuffle car adaptors that will be essentially useless. Yay technology.

[Hokers]

Ugh. Can I burn it to DVD?  :-D I have over 4 gigs. That is a shitload of CDs.

Actually its about 6 CD's. 

[Fabricated]

Get a Sansa. The new ones are fucking awesome.

[Tebonas]

You have to make the songs into an Audio CD via Itunes and then you can rip them back in. It costs you a CD per 20 or so songs, but you get rid of the copy protection. I do this with all the songs I buy on principle (as soon as I get enough to fill an Audio CD), despite only using iTunes and an Ipod. Its my music, I do with it as I please just like I do with the CDs i bought in the store. Fuck that "Authorize this music" anew after each reinstall of my Windows machine.

According Apple Customer service, I had quite some bad experiences there as well. But then I found an Apple store in my city where the people were friendly and helpful (actually the first I met, all other Apple store salesmen were haughty elitist bastards that deserve a punch in the face) and they dealt with Apple for me instead of me having to do it myself. I even bought an Ipod 80GB from them instead of the store and wait a few days more than needed till it arrives, but you can be sure if there is a problem they will sort it out with Apple, and I don't have to be aggravated by telephone supporters.

Edit: 4gigs should be about 20 Audio CDs I fear.

[Trippy]

Edit: 4gigs should be about 20 Audio CDs I fear.

Depends on the bitrate. 128 Kbps is about 1 megabyte per minute. A 700 MB CD holds about 80 minutes of Red Book audio (i.e. a music CD) so 4 GB of 128 Kbps AAC files would be about 4,000 minutes or 50 Red Book audio CDs. At 192 Kbps you are looking about 33 CDs. There is of course an easier solution to the iTunes migration problem which doesn't entail burning music CDs or reencoding from one lossy format to another (losing even more fidelity) if you Google around.

[Tebonas]

Might have to do that next time I'm bored at work. Thanks for the tip.

[Viin]

I really like the new Zen Vision W from Creative.

Widescreen. 30 to 60gb. 13 hours of battery life for music (try that, iPod!).

Their Vision M is pretty nice looking too.

When my video iPod dies, I'll probably get one of these. Screw iTunes.

[schild]

Gotta be honest. Replacing my 2nd gen ipod with a Zune.

[Engels]

I really like the new Zen Vision W from Creative.

Widescreen. 30 to 60gb. 13 hours of battery life for music (try that, iPod!).

Their Vision M is pretty nice looking too.

When my video iPod dies, I'll probably get one of these. Screw iTunes.

We've had bad luck with the Zen Micro. Lock ups for no reason. Course, this is just one account, but aparently its a common problem on the Creative boards.

[Viin]

The Zune looks pretty cool. Not sure what this has to do with an MP3 player, but this is amuzing:

https://www.comingzune.com/

[Trippy]

None of the Zens support AAC.

[Viin]

None of the Zens support AAC.

Yah, I hate AAC though. OGG is my preferred format.

[Merusk]

Back to the "Apple can suck my ass" topic...

My iPod Nano's headphones crapped out.  No idea why, and having no desire to play 'fiddling wtih the electronic device' and an OHMs meter, I went to purchase a new set of the nifty white earbuds.

$50 or $40, depending on the model.  For headphones.  Did I miss something here?  Are these earbuds REALLY that much better than your typical $10-15 pair of headphones?  I sure as hell didn't notice a difference, but that may just be the 17 years of metal doing hearing damage.

Fuck Apple.

[Big Gulp]

Are these earbuds REALLY that much better than your typical $10-15 pair of headphones?  I sure as hell didn't notice a difference, but that may just be the 17 years of metal doing hearing damage.

Fuck Apple.

Nope, in fact they're worse than a lot of cheapo off the shelf models.  I try to buy only third party accessories for my iPod because of Apple's price gouging.  Their remote (the cord extension that provides an additional pause/play/fast forward/rewind set of buttons and also adds radio reception) is shitty and died a month after buying it.  I bought Griffin's version of it for a replacement and it's cheaper, more logically laid out, and has lasted me 5 months so far.

[Surlyboi]

Back to the "Apple can suck my ass" topic...

My iPod Nano's headphones crapped out.  No idea why, and having no desire to play 'fiddling wtih the electronic device' and an OHMs meter, I went to purchase a new set of the nifty white earbuds.

$50 or $40, depending on the model.  For headphones.  Did I miss something here?  Are these earbuds REALLY that much better than your typical $10-15 pair of headphones?  I sure as hell didn't notice a difference, but that may just be the 17 years of metal doing hearing damage.

Fuck Apple.

Go to your local Apple store and ask for a pair of replacement earbuds at the genius bar.

They're free.

[Sky]

The Zune looks cool, but it's only 30GB to start and I have to imagine that screen is going to suck up a lot of juice. In fact, that's a driving reason behind me getting an iPod soon, I'm guessing they'll be putting out a bigger screen version soon because of all their Disney/network tv nonsense. Really, I just want a music player.

[Viin]

The Zune looks cool, but it's only 30GB to start and I have to imagine that screen is going to suck up a lot of juice. In fact, that's a driving reason behind me getting an iPod soon, I'm guessing they'll be putting out a bigger screen version soon because of all their Disney/network tv nonsense. Really, I just want a music player.

Me too, for the most part. But it *is* nice to be able to rip an anime DVD and put it on my video iPod to watch on a flight.

I bet the Zune has a longer battery life with that screen than the regular iPod does.

[Furiously]

If Microsoft will buy out your iTunes collection to get you to switch, that would be really tempting.

I can't believe they would do that though.

[Azazel]

I got an iRiver H340 last year just before I started my year of 2hr each-way commute. Used it a lot and have had no problems. With the firmware upgrades you can watch video on it as well.

[schild]

Wait, I thought the Zune could play video. Hell, it comes with videos on it!

[Big Gulp]

Wait, I thought the Zune could play video. Hell, it comes with videos on it!

Does anyone even use these things to view videos?  I have a 60GB video iPod, and I haven't viewed a single video on the damned thing since I bought it.  The only reason I purchased this model was for it's HD capacity.  As video appliances these things pretty much suck...  The backlight eats up battery time like no one's business, and the picture really isn't anything that great.  I certainly don't get any great joy from viewing videos in a 300X300 (or whatever pathetic resolution it is) format.

[Azazel]

I don't. I can see why people making long commutes on public transport might though.

[vex]

Does anyone even use these things to view videos?  I have a 60GB video iPod, and I haven't viewed a single video on the damned thing since I bought it.  The only reason I purchased this model was for it's HD capacity.  As video appliances these things pretty much suck...  The backlight eats up battery time like no one's business, and the picture really isn't anything that great.  I certainly don't get any great joy from viewing videos in a 300X300 (or whatever pathetic resolution it is) format.

I thought the same thing. 

I got a Creative Zen Vision M a month or so ago just for music but I spend a lot of time on airplanes and have found watching videos to be a godsend.  This is especially true on those coast-to-coast flights.  Watching videos eats the battery but I have found there is plenty of juice for two movies and music.  I’ve been pretty happy with the thing so far and Rhapsody has worked well with it.  I just wish there was a decent video service similar to Rhapsody that I could use.

vex

[Viin]

It's nice to be able to download episodes of Lost that I missed and watch them while on the bus.

[Signe]

I just watched the new episode of Lost.  I'm convinced they drop acid and write them the night before they air.

[Soln]

funny story

I washed my iPod Nano the other night.  It still works.  Battery is shot, so I need another, but damn thing keeps on ticketing.  Just need to keep it plugged in.  Yes, I'm stupid.  Film @ 11.