iPaq as mp3 player

[leeraff]

I do use my iPaq as an mp3 player but wonder how sensitive these things are to shaking, jostling (treadmill), temperature, slight humidity and moisture (sweat and running outdoors).

At the rates of iPods and others, can't really swing another $300-400 investment. Almost rather get a 1955 and a huge SD card. Then, I can have a decent amount of music, no hard drive and a backup iPaq

Just curious about the pitfalls, etc.

[Janak Parekh]

I do use my iPaq as an mp3 player but wonder how sensitive these things are to shaking, jostling (treadmill), temperature, slight humidity and moisture (sweat and running outdoors).
Should be fine -- after all, an iPAQ has been used during an expedition to the North Pole (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27355). 8O The only really delicate component is the touchscreen -- so carry it in a good case and you should be set. iPods & co. have moving parts -- while most people jog with them fine, you're not going to be able to handle them much more roughly than a Pocket PC.

--janak

[kosmos]

I use my 2210 iPAQ for listening to music whilst mountain biking, gym, travelling for about 9 months now, very happy so far.

Just keep it solid state. I have two 1GB CF cartridges to store tunes on that I copy from master store on the PC. I use Pocket Player. Also battery life is good, haven't run out of juice yet.

In short, no point is wasting your $ on a dumb iPOD!

[Kowalski]

as long as you use a good protective and dont use microdrive, you should have no problems.
but if you want a larger capacity storage you have to spend some money

[Jon Westfall]

Never had a problem of any sort using my PPC as an mp3 or audio player, no skips, no jumps, no problem (even in a car on a bumpy road)

[tanalasta]

Seeing that there are no moving parts in your IPAQ (unlike a microdrive or CD-player) you should have absolutely no problem with shaking/jostling. As long as you don't drop your IPAQ you'll be fine.

It'll tolerate humidity and temperature within normal use just fine.

I don't know about moisture though - the things ain't designed to be waterproof!

[tramontano]

I'm a so called runner and have had stand alone mp3 players, don't need it now. Normally I carry my Ipaq in a big leather pda case... while running I just carry it by the grips(easier). Reprogram the hardware buttons to your liking and go.

[milkman dan]

pdas aren't good mp3 players for mobility. they are bigger, have sh**tyer battery life, and if you want afordable storage you are stuck with a microdrive that east batterys, and is NOT good for mobility since they aren't solid state. I personally use mine to play mp3's while I play nintendo roms, but aside from that, as an mp3 player it is kind of an annoyance, since I have to use a 1/4"-1/8" adapter for my monitors(headphones), which is really bad for the 1/8" jack on your pda. Sofar I have destroyed the 1/8" jacks on 3 portable cd players, 2 PDA's, 1 laptop I paid over $3000 for, and even the headphone jack on my 400W RMS computer speakers (logitech 560's). What that has to do with PDA's is beyond me, I just finished watching 9 consecutive movies, so my brain is a little racked right now :bangin:

** Post modified by moderator SJC for language

[tramontano]

Lol, well I hope they were not early 80's movies- will do it to you everytime. I'm curious as to what you actually do with your "stuff" to break so many connectors - try to use headphones that need no adapter, I guess that adds a possible hazzard. Personally I can't think of too many occasions where I need a 20 gig harddrive for my music(Ipod), 128 mb flash is fine for a 5 mile run. Size well - True they are some really small mp3 players out there which is a plus but some people carry portable cd players and my Ipaq is way smaller...................not challenging just contributing, Steve :wink:

[milkman dan]

Well, the problem is that I am a budding audiophile and have a really nice pair of studio monitors as headphones (audio technica ATH-M40fs) and they have the BIG connector. So, when I plug it into a converter, it makes a REALLY HEAVY plug, that is almost the lenght of my pda itself. being so big and cumbersome, it acts as a prybar inside the puny 1/8 jack, and snaps the internal organs. Sometimes I am lucky and it just breaks the solder connection and I can fix that no problem, but more often then not it snaps the actual jack, and those are REALLLY propietary so replacing them has proved impossible in every case I have had to endure sofar. I sure don't need 20 gigs, 1-4 is fine for me, but 128 just isn't enough space for me (all my mp3's are encoded at 256k) All in all, my PDA serves me pretty well as an mp3 player, but for someone who wants an MP3 player as opposed to an mp3 playing pda, a pda just doesn't hold a match to an actual mp3 player

[Derek]

I listen to MP3's on my 2215 as well, I just use the standard WMP9 because of the advantage I can control the hardware and software volume induvidual, which comes in handy when your music starts to make 'crackling' noise.

[Perk]

I've been using my old H3835 as an MP3 at the gym, on my bike, hiking and more and have never run into a problem with it in over 2 years. I keep it in the clear case that shipped with it when on cardio and generally use the Vaja case for everything else since it's got a vise of a clip on it. Both give great protection. I dropped the Vaja pretty hard a few times and no problem.

Err technically, I use it as a WMA player as I burned all my old CDs onto my spare hard drive using windows media player. After trying several mp3 programs, I went back to WMA for the sound quality. Shh, don't tell uncle Bill. 8O

[Kerensky97]

Two weekends ago I used my 2215 during a 10k run. Worked great, the only problem was comming up with a way to keep from accidentally dropping the iPAQ and case. I ended up using elastic velco bands to strap the iPAQ to my hand so even if I let go it wouldn't be dropped.

It's awesome at the gym since I can just stick it in a waterbottle holder on the treadmill, plus with Nevo I can change to TVs to what I want rather than watching Ryan Secrest or MTV. :wink:
I also use a cassette adapter to listen to the 2215 in my Xterra, I haven't used the CD player in months.

The 256 CF card holds plenty of music to get me through the week, I just load a new playlist every weekend. I have over 10 gigs of music in 128k MP3 format so carring it all with me is more a burden than anything else. 4 hours of music is alot more than you think.

[Kacey Green]

on my 256mb CF card I have over 200 songs, at the lowest quality slider in WMP9, but it doesn't bother me because in the environments that I actually listen to Rex in, I can't tell the difference between 32k and 312k. Now at home, EVERTHING is lossless or 128k+