One of the things that i don't get is why get such a large hdd, if not use it to transfer non-music data once in a while? and if you want to do that, the ipod is useless, because it doesn't support MSC. And if you're even a bit of an audiophile, the lack of any lossless formats, even ogg vorbis, which is much supperior to mp3, not to mention all the other crap formats, is a major drawback. Combine that with poor battery life and you end up with nothing but a mediocre product. But hey, at least other people will think you're stylish.
Sorry Ice, I'm gonna have to disagree with you as well (much as I hate this having become another iPod vs. the World thread).
I have had my iPod for 18 months now. When I bought it I still had (and still have) an old 20Gig Creative Zen. I loved (and still do) the Zen - Even I'll admit the 2003 ( ? ) Zen has better sound quality to my 2006 5th Gen Video iPod.
However After daily use since I got it (I only bought it as I got it almost free with my MacBookPro on student discount, else I'd have got another Zen), the battery life is still very good. Much much better than the zen had after 6 months use. And whenever I go travelling for a long period of time (i.e. on a coach for 20 hours) I have a ?12 Belkin battery thing that takes 4AA batteries and gives 20 more hours of use! So:
1) because of the popularity of the iPod you have sooo many different accessories available for it, now with many different manufacturers offering competing products. Bonus.
2) Linked to (1) - I can now plug my iPod directly into my car headunit and control the iPod from the headunit plus see what I'm playing on the headunit. Freaking awesome.
3) Granted a Mac thing, but ideal for me as I no longer use Windose... When I 'sync' it up (even though it's formatted as a PC disk - so I
can use it for storing data if I want to on it using either Windows or Linux machines as well as Mac!) with my Mac, it stores all my calendar events plus all my contacts and much more with the Mac. Again, freaking awesome - especially when travelling without laptop and my mobile phone stops working abroad (as happened a couple of months ago).
4) Your arguement "why get such a large hdd, if not use it to transfer non-music data once in a while?" is a bit weak - I have well over 100 Gigs of music (note: all off my own purchased CDs before you shout illegal downloads, and all high quality VBR rips making the most I can out of the MP3 format) and so even my 60 Gig iPod has no where near enough space and often I'm deleting stuff to fit more on. One of the new larger ones would be superb for me.
5) I'll agree lack of a proper lossless format is a serious drawback but it can handle large sized (i.e. high bitrate) MP3s without problems. In fact, I'm gonna give you this one - it's a pain it doesn't support Ogg. Yes it has AAC, but I don't want to rip all my CDs again to AAC only to be able to play them on Macs. Unfortunately this is the same for Ogg TBH. And this kinda is my argument - I know it doesn't support lossless at the moment, and this is bad, but so far there's been no real uptake (as usual) of any one format that I've seen. Until this happens for one good format, I'm not ripping all my CDs again.
Sorry, I generally agree with what you say and really have no issue with you Ice. I also normally don't bother ranting, and I love my Apple stuff but I normally stay well out of these arguements. I just don't like that you're spouting this stuff out about how we've not researched MP3 players when clearly you're not seeing that maybe there
was a reason we've actually got them other than going with the tide?! Notice, this is the tech section - chances are the guys that post in here know a little about tech so have done their research before opening their wallet.
Yes, I got mine almost free. But if I didn't decide I wanted it beforehand, I'd have sold it before I opened the cellophane.
/done.