It has nothing to do with free. It has everything to do with Apple pushing AAC and iTunes. They're pulling a Microsoft in that regard -- less so, as MP4 and AAC are more industry-defined -- but I'd have been happier to see them push Ogg. However, that alone wasn't enough for me to abandon the idea of having all my music.
I was answering his question, not trying to say why / why not Apple supports / does not support X audio compression standard.
I just thought I'd chime in here. First of all, WMA doesn't always equal DRM. Personally, I have around 1100 of my 1300 files in WMA, and not a single one has any DRM on it. Second, you can't compare hard drive mp3 players (be them ipods, nomads, etc) to a ppc. They allow you to carry most if not all of your music collection with you, and just like janak said, once you carry all your music with you, a HDD is something you'll never want to be without. That being said, I honestly don't think that the iPod is worth the money. Don't get me wrong, I would love to own one, but for the four hundred dollars that a 20 gig iPod costs, I could get a 60 gig mp3 player from another company. Personally, I like my Zen 2.0. It's not a stunning work of art like the iPod, but it can go through a beating without a scratch and it costs $100 or more less than an iPod. There's my outlook on WMA and the pod. iPod guys, feel free to bring on the flames.
No, no, Adamz said complimentary. In this sense I agree with him. I doubt that an iPod will be giving compliments to my PPC any time in the near future. :wink:
Seriously, I can't imagine being without both, now. My favorite thing about the iPod is being able to hold many entire audible books at one time. I used to use the PPC for this and the experience absolutely stunk. iPod rocks in this regard.
I have one of the 'old' iPod cases from Vaja - it's probably still on the site - one of the reasons I like it is that it really doesn't bulk it out too much, and also, as it is 'flapless', it is still really user friendly.
Per earlier post, yes, it irks the hell out of me to posess something so obscenely fantastic and yet to have to hide it away on account of protection; it's a good [whats the word?Allegory???] of conflicted desires - mind you, a beautiful thing clad in leather is still a beautiful thing; some might argue it even smells better :lol:
I recently got one of the 'Habitat' desktop stands via ebay - good value and nice idea - however I have the same issue with having to remove it from the case for it to fit - and there is no way on earth any adjustment could be made to either to facilitate such... I did manage to get a vaja clad E125 into the stand once (Dremel to the rescue), but most other things, forget it - new 55 iPaq, with a vaja, no chance. And with a Silver Slider, I can't find a case to fit it, so I'm screwed both ways!! LOL (Any offers for the vaja 55? Hasn't been used twice...)
Summary of the 'why' question - because it's what the well dressed iPod wears, that's why :!: :lol: :wink:
I just thought I'd chime in here. First of all, WMA doesn't always equal DRM.
True, although it does amount to some level of lock-in, because you must use a WMA player.
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Personally, I like my Zen 2.0. It's not a stunning work of art like the iPod, but it can go through a beating without a scratch and it costs $100 or more less than an iPod.
I think the Zen is a great player, too. I've heard its sound quality is excellent. The main reason I got my iPod was that I could get a dual firewire-USB unit (which I can't get with the new Zens) and because I want it to fit in one pocket along with a wallet, which I can't do with the Zen. Otherwise, I would have seriously considered it instead.
Hate to say this, Marlof, but in a not too distant future you won't have a choice. DRM is a fact of life, and it will rule the digital content world, like it or not.
I know, in future it will all be different. And by then, hopefully a DRM format that is widely accepted will be around. Until then, I keep using MP3 files. Having a Mac has a benefit: copy controlled discs can be ripped on my Mac, with the exception of the first song. We'll see where we'll go. Now the iTunes for Windows is around, may be I should change to AAC. All I need is an AAC compatible Pocket PC player, since I have an emergency collection of MP3s on a SD card.
@Janak: I'm not a big fan of the iVolution cases. I like the classic cases. Don't ask me why. May be using an iVolution for a longer time would change my point of view.
@AdamZ: I guess an MP3 player is not for you. No problem with that. Just accept that others like those devices, and might have good reasons to. For me, having over 350 CDs always with me, and a portable hard disk to go with that, all in one small package, is priceless. Adding the soon-to-be-released memory card reader will give this a benefit in my digital camera hobby as well. No need to keep buying memory cards this way.
@all: I never knew that writing a quick look on a good case would turn in a discussion on the advantages of dedicated MP3 players.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to own one, but for the four hundred dollars that a 20 gig iPod costs, I could get a 60 gig mp3 player from another company.
60 gigs?! I just bought a 20gig iPod myself and am absolutely in love with it. It is absolutely essential with a programming job where I spend 6-8 hours at my computer each day (and have lots of background noise I need to drown out).
I'm just amazed that 20gigs isn't enough for some people. I currently have ... let me check ... 2.6gigs filled. Yeah, I don't have all of my old CDs converted yet, nor will I ever - I never had a huge collection and there's just some stuff I'm not interested in listening to anymore. But 60??? I can't imagine ever liking that much music. Maybe I'll accumulate that much in 20 years. Of course, in that time, I'm sure there are albums that I'll get tired of and want to remove from my iPod just to clean up the clutter.
Oh, and one thing to note if you're considering getting an iPod, the new 10gig & 20gig models are slimmer than the 30gig and 40gig.
One last comment - this discussion reminds me of a religious debate I've been involved with in recent months. You won't be able to convince either side ... you just have to come to your own conclusions :wink:
I'm just amazed that 20gigs isn't enough for some people. I currently have ... let me check ... 2.6gigs filled. Yeah, I don't have all of my old CDs converted yet, nor will I ever - I never had a huge collection and there's just some stuff I'm not interested in listening to anymore. But 60??? I can't imagine ever liking that much music.
It's not that hard. I have a couple of hundred CDs, and I expect to fill 20GB or so when I finally finish reripping.
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Oh, and one thing to note if you're considering getting an iPod, the new 10gig & 20gig models are slimmer than the 30gig and 40gig.
Yes, but not that much so.
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One last comment - this discussion reminds me of a religious debate I've been involved with in recent months. You won't be able to convince either side ... you just have to come to your own conclusions :wink:
Actually, I'd like to think we're much more civil here than the zealot discussions that pervade a lot of other webboards.
It's not that hard. I have a couple of hundred CDs, and I expect to fill 20GB or so when I finally finish reripping.
I'm done rerippping, and I've filled 17 GB so far. I need some space on my iPod to function as a portable hard disk (when shooting pictures on the road), so 20 just wouldn't cut it for me. I guess I just have bought a lot of CDs. But then again, I'm not the youngest, so I've been working on that collection for quite a while.
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I'm just amazed that 20gigs isn't enough for some people. I currently have ... let me check ... 2.6gigs filled. Yeah, I don't have all of my old CDs converted yet, nor will I ever - I never had a huge collection and there's just some stuff I'm not interested in listening to anymore. But 60??? I can't imagine ever liking that much music. Maybe I'll accumulate that much in 20 years. Of course, in that time, I'm sure there are albums that I'll get tired of and want to remove from my iPod just to clean up the clutter.
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I've considered an iPod but I don't even think 40 gigs would be enough for me. Right now, I'm less than half way through ripping my CD collection (492 out of somewhere between 1200 and 1300 CDs), and I'm already over 40 gigs. Of course, I am ripping to very high quality VBR MP3 (LAME Extreme- works out to an average of about 224k for my collection). Even if I ripped to 128k AAC (which for me would be a significant drop in quality), a 40gig still wouldn't be big enough to hold all my music (and that's not even scratching the surface of all the DJ mixes, live shows, eMusic MP3s, etc. that I've downloaded). Wow- that's an average of about 10 CDs a month for the past 10 years or so that I've really been collecting. Not all of those CDs are full albums (I buy a lot of electronic music, and a lot are singles), but to put things into perspective, I could listen to my collection 24/7 for over 40 days and never hear the same song twice. I have a few things from a long time ago that I most likely won't ever listen to again, but that's a very small portion of my collection (if I had to make a guess, it would be somewhere around 25 CDs).
Anyway, this is all way off the topic of iPod cases, but there are people who could make use of a lot more storage than is currently available (ideally, I would like to have all of my music, both CD and downloaded with me at all times in a losslessly compressed format, but I'd probably need half a terabyte for that...).
Linear Mode
