Who Designed This Crap? The Great Ipod Scam - Page 2

The option to use alkaline batteries is there. I don't use the alkaline batteries very much but instead use 2500 mAh AA rechargeable batteries for my "thing." My HT also drains over 1 amp at full power, way more than a player. The main point is convenience to use the option of simple and widely used batteries. If you are happy with your expensive Li-Ion batteries, be happy for it, but I will continue to use cheaper and better batteries.

Plus with enough AA rechargeable batteries, I can run an external 3.5 HDD for well over an hour (never needed it longer than that).

The biggest ripoff is that purported bargain of $0.99 for a "song" of perhaps four minutes: That's over $16.00 for a full CD of such noise.. That's the price of a lot of premium CDs, and sometimes it will buy you a twin CD pack. Telarc sells their singles for $10.00, and Naxos discs sell for $8.00 or sometimes $7.00. These are full discs of real music by real composers and performed by real ensembles of real musicians. Hello! As for Mr. Jobs, he is not so much of an oldtimer as to be able to remember the time when transistor radios were the cats' meows of the electronics world, but he still seems to have his attention fixed on them. Think about it, folks: what do you get when you add wireless capabilities to an ipod - a "transistor radio" and one that's even neater than the kind Steve had as a kid. There is a tragedy unfolding here (and I can say that because a tragic hero must once have been a noble man): This same man who in the vigor of his youth was responsible for placing computers in every home and on every office desk has now in his dotage turned that once-noble company's attention to the realm of "transistor radios".

That is one of the worst things to have to do. Oh the battery died, just send it back and we will replace it for you. I avoid anything that cannot be converted to or use standard rechargeable batteries like AA or AAA. I use Amateur radios and before purchasing make sure that they accept DC input and a shell for AA batteries. Why? Because the battery pack sells for 70+ bucks and I can make one that is better for 20. So if you like throwing away your money on batteries, go for it.

Concerning trips and such with the iPod, what about charging? Most people forget to charge and then cannot. I'm talking about school trips where there is no access to a charging port. With simple players that just use a AA or AAA you can purchase one at any convenient store. And don't talk about how these accessories are sold for it that allow for X because it just adds up to more money for a stupid battery. And you do sound like a salesman for Apple. The iPod seemed like a good player until I saw that. No way will I pay that to get a battery replaced.

Enough about my battery complaints because iPod isn't the only one I hate, there are others but at least they are user replaceable.

Oh, I see. You don't pay for a battery....What do u do when your cellphone battery goes out? Put 2xAA in it with a hammer? And call Nokia to pay for the 2AA?

But you're portraying 2500mah NMH batteries as cheap, and they're not. Most people will pay $13.00 for 4 batteries (shipped). They'll probably need more than 4 to get the same amount of use as a Lion battery. NMH Batteries are still subject to memory (though far less than cadmium) and break down faster when used under heavy loads (which almost certainly includes DAP use).

Regardless, if I can replace my Lion for 30 bucks or less in 3 years, my savings over NMH is at most 20 bucks and probably less.

I can see your point if you're on the road where there is no power to recharge batteries, but in that case, you're not going to use NMH batteries, because even when not used, they lose their charge relatively fast(50% faster than Cadmium, which is already has a high discharge rate) and that rate is even higher in warm climates.

Where i see an advantage for NMH is if you are a light user of your DAP. LION batteries break down based on age, not the number of charge cycles, though even there, LION has the advantage in that you know if you charged your battery 3 weeks ago, the battery retained most of that charge, while the NMH needs a charge before you go.

So you may save some money with NMH, but assuming you can change it yourself, the savings isn't huge (especially when amortized over the life of the battery) and for most it's less convenient.

Sure don't know were you got that you could only burn one copy. From Apple: http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/legal/terms.html last updated on Oct 7th, 2005.

So where do you get 1 burn? Want to do more than 7 copies of a playlist? Just make a change to it and you are good to go. Please get your facts straight before you rant.

Actually they are pretty cheap. 16 dollars (US) for 8 Energizer NiMH at Sam's Club. I consider that to be well worth it. For size and weight of the Li-Ion, yes it is worth it, but the NiMh is still a cheaper option, considering that most wouldn't replace the battery themselves and have to pay 65.95.

"What is the iPod Battery Replacement Program?
If your iPod requires service only because the battery’s ability to hold an electrical charge has diminished, Apple will replace your iPod for a service fee of $59, plus $6.95 shipping. Be sure to follow all of the battery troubleshooting steps before submitting your iPod for battery replacement. "

http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/service/battery/

Look at the mAh ratings though for replacements, well below that of 2500 mAh.

http://www.batteriesamerica.com/ipod_batteries.htm

Oh well, to each his own.

I really hate the new Video Ipod, thats right I said it. What I don't like about it is:

1) The ease with which its scratched (ok any player will scratch but some take longer )

2) The size. The damn video ipod feels so thin it will slip out of my hands, and the nano is just as bad.

3) No FM built in.

4) Itunes can kiss my ass, I hate it. I personly use WMP and love it. OH NO not microsoft, but WMP works damn well. I can't play an individual genre w/o making a play list in Itunes (as far as I know). That's how I listen to my music, just pick a genre and hit play.

5) The nano is so small I wouldn't be surprised if it snapped in 1/2 with little effort.

The player I do like is a Creative Zen MicroPhoto, and its a beauty. I don't think the author's intent was to say hey go buy a creative player, but instead to bring attention to the fact there are other players that can do everything an Ipod can, or in some cases more.

The Zen MicroPhoto is bigger than the Nano but smaller than the Mini and feel just play rock solid. You hold it and you know it will not break. It has a user replaceable battery by just removing the cover on the back, just like a normal cell phone. Its interface is intruitive, like all creative products. It does integrate seemlessly with WMP, and I mean seemlessly. I plugged it in w/o installing any software hit the sync button in my library and bam it was off to the races. It also doubles as a huge ass memory stick so you don't have to carry two devices (not saying with the Ipod you do). The ONE fault I have found, and this holds true with the Nano too, is that the USB port is the only way to charge it. This excludes car attachments and the like.

Whats bullshit now is that to get quicktime I have to download Itunes just because Jobs added video capability to the Ipod? Screw that. Prove me wrong and I'll be happy to recant on what I said, but I tried to find just a standalone quicktime to play the few internet movies that I come across in that format, but to no avail.

Is the Ipod a solid device? Yes, no real arguement there. I just think there are better products from other companies that, because they don't have the marketing department Apple does, can't reach Apple's sales. Like I said in my first post I've owned 5-7 Mp3 players, here are the ones I can remember:

Creative Zen Jukebox 6GB (that old POS that was the size of a portable CD player)

Ipod 3G

Ipod 4G

Ipod Shuffle

Ipod Nano

Creative Zen Tx

Creative Zen MicroPhoto

Iriver H20

Damn thats alot.... LOL.

independent sites ran tests to measure dynamic range, s/n ratio and so on. It had nothing to do with Headphones, though apparently the Karma's Sennheiser headphones are better. I can't say, because I didn't use them.

As for gapless, whether or not it's something the masses care about is irrelevant. Nobody would claim a CD player that inserted a pause between every track was the best CD player out there. iPods (as well as most other DAPs out there) do just that.

I can determine what frequencies I want to boost. Unless something's changed, you have a tone control. Again, that may be adequate for you and most, but it's not the best. It's merely the most popular.

Karma supports PC, Mac, Linux and virtually every other OS. That said, if gapless isn't important, Mac support certainly isn't. We're talking about a marketshare of 2 or 3%.

what's setup? I installed the music manager, and xfered the songs to the karma. No I didn't use it to encode my music (though i could have), but i wouldn't use iTunes either. I use the best tool for the job, and neither RMM nor iTunes is the best encoder.

Well if i was using mp3s, I'd get around 15-18 hours off one charge, which dwarfs iPods, especially the ones that came out at the time the karma was released in the fall of 2003.

Every review I've read says that Karmas is the same, slightly better or slightly worse. In short, they're both great interfaces.

And what accessories do I need, aside from the case that I have? Speakers? Well i can buy those if I want to, but let's face it, the Karma comes with a dock that has line level out via RCA jacks to connect to a stereo and if I'm certainly not going to haul speakers (not even small ones) with me on a trip.

I know some will say FM radio, but I quit doing radio when Clear Channel bought everything in Dallas 6 or 7 years ago (I didn't realize that's what happened till a few years ago....but they all went to crap around that time), so I'm sure not going to buy an accessory for that...besides tiny cheap portable fm radios don't require a DAP.

Not sure where you get that price...it's definitley not on their website, where 4 2300 mah batteries are 9 bucks, plus tax/shipping.

Batteries America is even more expensive at $3.00 each plus almost $8.00 shipping.

I agree that the price of Lion (if you can install it yourself) is worth whatever premium there is, but 2500 MaH cells are more than $2.00 each before shipping and generally much more after shipping (assuming you're not buying in bulk and most of us do not).

Not sure where you get that price...it's definitley not on their website, where 4 2300 mah batteries are 9 bucks, plus tax/shipping.

Batteries America is even more expensive at $3.00 each plus almost $8.00 shipping.

I agree that the price of Lion (if you can install it yourself) is worth whatever premium there is, but 2500 MaH cells are more than $2.00 each before shipping and generally much more after shipping (assuming you're not buying in bulk and most of us do not).


These are not in bulk, just a good deal. They are something like 15.84 for 8 AA and 19.84 with a charger. They now also have an 8 AA with 4 AAA for 19 something. Sam's Club is a great place. It's not listed on the website though, only shows a picture. The Li-Ions are great but just really expensive. I don't mind paying for a battery, but to show to the average consumer that they need to be returned to be replaced...I found the Zen to be better with the user replaceable battery.

But the rechargeable AAs or AAAs are. Now, going off some assumptions here (that you are using 1xAAA battery approx 600mAh for a 'decent' battery at a time and considering 40hrs per week of playback[4x20hours = 2 weeks worth of playback]) You can get a set of 4x1800mAh AAAs for $29.99 with charger that will last ~2.5x as long (technically its supposed to be even longer, but I generally get 2.5x and so do my customers). That gives you 50hrs of life per battery. Now, these same AAAs can be charged (according to MonsterBatteries) up to 2400 times. Now, since to the best of my knowledge that hasn't been tested to 2400 I cut that number by 77% to 800 times. Now, 50(hrs) x 4(batteries) x 800 (charges) = 16000 hours of playback / 40(hours per week of playback) = 400 weeks of playback/ 52 weeks in a year = 7.69 years. Now, both batteries will break down based on usage and ammount of current constantly flowing through them. IMO the disparity of years will more than make up for any difference in break down times
Plus you can use these batteries in other devices or, if you forget to charge them, use regular AAAs in a pinch.

[quote="glasssplinter"][quote="PMR"]

How did that show that I don't pay for a battery? Most AA NiMh would outlast your cellphone battery anyway. Plus I don't have or want a cellphone.

1)Most phones though would not require a hammer to insert that size of a battery, a simple 3 pack of AA batteries would do the trick.

2)The hammer would also not allow for the proper contact to be made between the batteries and the contacts.

3) 2 would not provide sufficient voltage to power your device, though it could depending on the model and operating voltage tolerances.

4)Rechargeables have a nominal voltage of 1.2V DC as oppose to the 1.5V DC of a standard alkaline. They do overcharge and cap at 1.4V DC, so you may be able to operate it for a while but this overcharge disappears quickly.

5) I don't expect the manufacturers to pay for a battery that is out of warranty, but cheaper options should be available to the average consumer through the manufacturers.

1 - 3AA? Sorry, I forgot you americans use brick sized cellphones.

2 - Sorry, I forgot again u use "thor" size hammer. In that case you're right.

3 - you said " Most AA NiMh would outlast your cellphone battery anyway" and than you say "2 would not provide sufficient voltage to power your device". Something's wrong here. Or I just don´t understand english or you scrambled your words

4- I don´t have a clue. Maybe you're right.

5- And why don´t manufacturers make those kinds of batteries? They should make "unbranded" bats. like they do to other electronic products.

Now it's your turn to bring me dow!

One more thing about this THG poster, and correct me if I'm wrong.
I never saw an article bashing an FX-60 or a PEE, neither the terribly high priced gfx cards, focusing all their faults.
This guy is biased big time. Plus, he looks like frankenstein.

AMEN!!!!

[quote="PMR"][quote="glasssplinter"]

How did that show that I don't pay for a battery? Most AA NiMh would outlast your cellphone battery anyway. Plus I don't have or want a cellphone.

1)Most phones though would not require a hammer to insert that size of a battery, a simple 3 pack of AA batteries would do the trick.

2)The hammer would also not allow for the proper contact to be made between the batteries and the contacts.

3) 2 would not provide sufficient voltage to power your device, though it could depending on the model and operating voltage tolerances.

4)Rechargeables have a nominal voltage of 1.2V DC as oppose to the 1.5V DC of a standard alkaline. They do overcharge and cap at 1.4V DC, so you may be able to operate it for a while but this overcharge disappears quickly.

5) I don't expect the manufacturers to pay for a battery that is out of warranty, but cheaper options should be available to the average consumer through the manufacturers.

1 - 3AA? Sorry, I forgot you americans use brick sized cellphones.

2 - Sorry, I forgot again u use "thor" size hammer. In that case you're right.

3 - you said " Most AA NiMh would outlast your cellphone battery anyway" and than you say "2 would not provide sufficient voltage to power your device". Something's wrong here. Or I just don´t understand english or you scrambled your words

4- I don´t have a clue. Maybe you're right.

5- And why don´t manufacturers make those kinds of batteries? They should make "unbranded" bats. like they do to other electronic products.

Now it's your turn to bring me dow!

Bringing down the hammer!

1) It's not the size of the phone, rather the voltage needed to obtain the 3.7V or 6V used in most cellphones.

2) To be able to use three batteries to obtain the 3.7 volts, they must be made into a series circuit ((-+-+-+)=3.6V) and then solder to the contact pins. Thor's hammer could maybe solder it too, but might fry the rest of it.

3) There is a difference between the voltage and amp rating. The voltage is the 3.7V. This is how much it needs to operate. The amp rating determines how long it will last. 1500mAh will not last as long as say 2500mAh, same voltage, just different amp ratings, this is what you get when a battery is longer lasting.

4) Point

5) They can make more money.

Check

It must have been a special. I looked on Sams website, and they were more than 2x that price and they were not 2500Mah.

Regardless, Sams requires a $40.00 annual fee, so unless you're going to buy a lot of goods at Sams (I never felt I saved enough to warrant the fee) and those goods are cheaper than elsehwhere (I generally found that CDs, DVDs and Software, for example, were more expensive than regular stores, including Walmart!!!).

I'll still stick with my original statement that most people won't save that much using NIMH batteries (where they must have enough to power the iPod/Karma/Zen for roughly 15 hours).

I could be wrong, but considering that a pair of NiMH batteries will only power my portable dat for about 2-3 hours (assumes it was charged just before use), I'd think it'd take at least 3 pairs for a DAP....that's $18.00 (on average) before shipping.

If they go to retail stores, the prices are generally more than $20.00 for 4 batteries and none that I saw were 2500 Mah.

Here's some links for batteries at
Radoshack 2000 mah

Duracell (assumed 2050mah)

Circuit City (2500 Mah)

YMMV, but clearly, prices for NiMH batteries are generally 4-5 bucks in stores and not much less online, unless you buy enough mitigate the high shipping prices.

It's simple? With Itunes, simplicity is distorted and you end up with crashes instead of results. The limitations are so great that it's hard to ignore. There are so much better alternatives, why not consider them. And you're buying a mac at such a price ratio. Looks to me that somebody is suffering from Reality Distortion Field, correct?

My parents have the membership, I reap the benefits!

It's not so much they would save instantly, but the play times would be extended by hours.

Comparing a NiMh to the iPod battery though is different, the replacements are 1500 mAh while a NiMH AA is 2500. Your dat could use a lot of power or you have low mAh batteries.

Not sure where you get those but even Target is only 10 for 4 AA. The pics are older but here is a good start at Target

All the problems with iPod and !!Digital Rights Management!! don't bother me at all. I just refuse to buy any of it.
If the same thing happens with the HDTV world, I will do the same.
Keeping brain damaging devices from kids is a different issue though.
Can someone bring back live bands?

Hmmm live bands.... now there is an excellent idea.

What happens when Apple isn't the best and you or someone else wants to change players? I'm glad you love your iPod, but they're not going to dominate indefinitely. Or what if there's a better format that comes out?

But it doens't matter much to me. I buy CDs....if I get an ipod, then an iRiver and then a Sony, I can convert my music to those directly from the original source (or a losslessly encoded file that I already ripped) into that format.

Sorry, but buying lossless sound files makes no sense. When some new format comes out, I just reencode to that format and have better lossy files. You OTOH, are stuck with the low quality files you bought online (and I'm not limiting that to stuff bought at iTunes).

[quote="glasssplinter"][quote="PMR"]

How did that show that I don't pay for a battery? Most AA NiMh would outlast your cellphone battery anyway. Plus I don't have or want a cellphone.

1)Most phones though would not require a hammer to insert that size of a battery, a simple 3 pack of AA batteries would do the trick.

2)The hammer would also not allow for the proper contact to be made between the batteries and the contacts.

3) 2 would not provide sufficient voltage to power your device, though it could depending on the model and operating voltage tolerances.

4)Rechargeables have a nominal voltage of 1.2V DC as oppose to the 1.5V DC of a standard alkaline. They do overcharge and cap at 1.4V DC, so you may be able to operate it for a while but this overcharge disappears quickly.

5) I don't expect the manufacturers to pay for a battery that is out of warranty, but cheaper options should be available to the average consumer through the manufacturers.

1 - 3AA? Sorry, I forgot you americans use brick sized cellphones.

2 - Sorry, I forgot again u use "thor" size hammer. In that case you're right.

3 - you said " Most AA NiMh would outlast your cellphone battery anyway" and than you say "2 would not provide sufficient voltage to power your device". Something's wrong here. Or I just don´t understand english or you scrambled your words

4- I don´t have a clue. Maybe you're right.

5- And why don´t manufacturers make those kinds of batteries? They should make "unbranded" bats. like they do to other electronic products.

Now it's your turn to bring me dow!

Bringing down the hammer!

1) It's not the size of the phone, rather the voltage needed to obtain the 3.7V or 6V used in most cellphones.

2) To be able to use three batteries to obtain the 3.7 volts, they must be made into a series circuit ((-+-+-+)=3.6V) and then solder to the contact pins. Thor's hammer could maybe solder it too, but might fry the rest of it.

3) There is a difference between the voltage and amp rating. The voltage is the 3.7V. This is how much it needs to operate. The amp rating determines how long it will last. 1500mAh will not last as long as say 2500mAh, same voltage, just different amp ratings, this is what you get when a battery is longer lasting.

4) Point

5) They can make more money.

Check

I quit 8)

The thing i hate most is why do windoze users have to put up with that piece of crap Itunes program? geez talk about crappy! Hmm i wonder if it is just a way of torturing non-mac users with the worst software available?

I am glad the Anapod Explorer program is available so i could piss off that Itunes from my PC as fast as possible. you can copy move delete and do everything on an Ipod that you can do with Itunes all in a 900kb application... plus when you connect your Ipod to the PC it doesn't try and update your unit and delete the contents! And no i don't have shares in this program

Also typical Apple when it comes to transferring your music to your Ipod... Why on earth change the file names etc?? how stupid is that!!

I shoulda just bought an MP3 player at a cheaper price rather than this over priced piece of Apple shit

Ad hominem attack if there ever was one!

I did a web background check on this clearly envious author. Guess what?

He's AKA the CEO of Creative!

Go figure!

What did I learn by reading this screed?

Nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

DRM?

So what, who cares, big deal! Been there, done that!

21th century industrial design?

Arguably, nothing beats Apple's industrial design, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Seemless ease of use?

Arguably, nothing beats Apple products ease of use, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Scratched nano?

Those who live by the bleeding edge, die by the bleeding edge! In case anyone really cares, go to appleinsider and look up my many posts on said subject matter. Bottom line? Sometimes, people can be INCREDIBLY STUPID! Hint, hint!

Who's that person behind the curtain? I guess nobody remembers the Reebok craze? Too young perhaps? Bottom line, 99+ percent of those who own iPods will never read this article, and guess what? They don't give a rat's ass!

So enough of my own screed and ad hominem attack, enough of my rude tude dude. Just call it PAYBACK!

It's NOT about thinking different, it IS about thinking critically!

Later,
Not 1337

Wanna sell it? I'll give you 50 cent!