Portable music thingoes!

ukime · Post by **ukime** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:48 am

So, Apple has well and truly penetrated (oooer!) the portable music device market ... before that, it was mainly a few noname brands, or Sony or Creative. Everyone is ready to jump on the Apple bandwagon, but is it the way to go?

I've had heaps of people ask me about this ... so I was hoping to maybe get some other opinions from people who would be listening to music non-stop all day.

I myself bought a Creative Zen Extra about a year ago, 30gb, 12 hours battery, USB 2.0 ... bit bigger than an iPod, but not an issue as I keep it in my John Thursday pouch on my Crumpler ... all in all, it's about $100 cheaper than the iPod. There's some good lookin new ones out too - something to try and rival the iPod sleek/sexy appearance.

Anyway ... the poll ... what portable music device do you have? want? prefer? Any info on what you like about it, or if you wanna pimp your choice, post away!

Post by **lynt** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:55 am

I added iRiver to the poll because I have one and they fucking rock.

40Gb, FM radio, line in/mic recording, JPG viewer, downloads pics from my digital camera straight to the HD.... i luvs it.

ukime · Post by **ukime** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:03 am

unreal - checking it out now. What's the quality of the line in/mic like? Any idea who stocks them?

eek, they around 600 - 700 RRP yeh?

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 · Post by **Ag3nT[]0raNg3** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:06 am

i got a 20gig 3rd gen iPod. i only got it cos i got it for $100 about a year ago..

wicked thing.

personally i would go for an iRiver.

DBoy · Post by **DBoy** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:09 am

line in on iriver? nice. how much do they set you back?

ukime · Post by **ukime** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:19 am

the iRiver website (American) says:

MSRP: $429.99 US

Combined with teh Universal Currency Convertor! (http://www.xe.com):

$569.552 AUD

That's for the H340 model (40gb, Lynt's). Hahah, it just occured to me Lynt, you can sit at work and rip all the new vinyl to it

I gotta look into this ...

Fents · Post by **Fents** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:27 am

Poll whores

Used an iRiver on the weekend and they are the bees knees of mp3 players imo.

Sisters got a ZEN and its junk...And no i havnt used an ipod yet, cause i have a CAR STEREO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 · Post by **Ag3nT[]0raNg3** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:54 am

get one of these things!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 49820&rd=1

eskay · Post by **eskay** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:59 am

I have a really old school Creative Nomad Jukebox...

it's so old school it has a coal-powered hard disk

Post by **lynt** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:33 pm

My iRiver was expensive, but I use it so much it's worth it. I plug it in to most of my gigs and record my sets. Quality is sensational... I dont know how high the bitrate can go off the top of my head, but I record most of my stuff at 192kbps.

It was dope recording Vietnamese and Thai radio last year... sample city.

TimmyG · Post by **TimmyG** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:35 pm

I so want an iRiver.

Line in recording @ 320 kBps & Colour screen. Who could ask for more?

Post by **lynt** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:35 pm

More...

I also use it as my portable 40gig HDD... I can take it to my studio sessions, work, mates places etc and copy files of any type, not just MP3. Very handy. USB2.0 too, super quick.

Plus my recordings are encoded direct to MP3.

TimmyG · Post by **TimmyG** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:35 pm

^^^

What he said

Post by **lynt** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:37 pm

More ...

It's plug n play on both PC and MAC platforms without the need of drivers, plus you can update the firmware direct from the website at no-cost so you're always up to date.

Man, what else can I remember about this thing ....

Line In / Line Out / Headphone Out / USB 1.0 & 2.0 Compatable / MAC & PC compatable ....

nic · Post by **nic** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:26 pm

I wsih I had of bothered shopping around 1 month ago when I got my 40 gig I-plod.....i river Line in would let me fuck off the 15 meters of RCA I ahve running around my place from my PC to decks....nighttime trip hazard...

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 · Post by **Ag3nT[]0raNg3** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:34 pm

San Francisco, CA -

At the annual MacWorld expo Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPod iMplant that he said "would be Apple's most successful product ever."

The new digital music player about the size of a grape and implanted in to the user's skull features a new Think Wheel (tm) interface and is the smallest music player on the market.

iPod iMplant"We have changed the way people will think of music. From now on they can think about what they want to hear and the iMplant will play it." Jobs said. The new music player comes in only one model and features no built in memory. Instead, it will use portions of the user's brain for storage space. Depending on education and prior drug use users can expect anywhere from 5,000-25,000 songs. Also, the iMplant can purge unused portions of the user's memory for added storage space.

The default setting will start with portions of the brain that deal with cost vs. performance decisions and Microsoft's Windows operating system.

In another first for a member of the iPod family, the iMplant will allow direct audio recording through the user's auditory input. Jobs commented on this feature "If you hear a song on the radio the iMplant will automatically add it to your library. You can then listen to it again whenever you like! These recordings will, of course, feature Apple broad usage rights just like songs you buy from the iTunes music store."

Apple has received criticism in the past for poor battery life and has addressed this flaw with the new model. The iMplant contains no battery and will instead use an onboard fuel cell to convert blood sugar into power for the device. Power consumption is expected to be around 100 calories a day. Such a fuel cell was announced by Panasonic in October and had lead to rumors in the months leading up to the MacWorld conference of just such a device.

The iMplant will be available for sale January 24 from Apple's online and retail stores. Pricing was announced at $799 for the device, installation costs will vary by region.

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/01/new_ ... plant.html

Fents · Post by **Fents** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:37 pm

nic wrote:I wsih I had of bothered shopping around 1 month ago when I got my 40 gig I-plod.....i river Line in would let me fuck off the 15 meters of RCA I ahve running around my place from my PC to decks....nighttime trip hazard...

Oh u too....I have 18 meter cables and the amount of times Fickuss has tripped on them he is going to kill me. Thought about running em up along the roof, but damn thats just hard work...

Mellogs · Post by **Mellogs** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:37 pm

TimmyG wrote:I so want an iRiver.

Line in recording @ 320 kBps & Colour screen. Who could ask for more?

what about ipod photos???

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 · Post by **Ag3nT[]0raNg3** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:39 pm

no line in.

nic · Post by **nic** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:45 pm

Iv wanted to strangle my housemate a few time because of him tripping up and unplugging my rcas then me not realsing to I went to check my pc a hour later...... but i think his close affinity for coldplay and hate of my records that cause these slips....who wants to buy an 1 month old i-pod 40 gig?....
ipods get too grubby as well, the jog wheel on mine has gone a horrible pooey colour...

Mellogs · Post by **Mellogs** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:49 pm

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 wrote:no line in.

please explain??

nic · Post by **nic** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:52 pm

for recording stuff from your mixer direct into the i river.

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 · Post by **Ag3nT[]0raNg3** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:53 pm

ipods dont have a line in. irivers do..

Mellogs · Post by **Mellogs** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:54 pm

but does a normal ipod?

i saw kamis loading songs straight onto it from a stereo. why cant an ipod photo do the same?

nic · Post by **nic** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:57 pm

But you cant record, you can use the dock thingo line out to play into the stereo but cant record.

Mellogs · Post by **Mellogs** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:01 pm

nic wrote:But you cant record, you can use the dock thingo line out to play into the stereo but cant record.

so the only way to record is from your poota?

Post by **lucas** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:10 pm

You can't actually 'record' onto an iPod.

You can copy a music file to it from your computer, but you can't record in real time.

Mellogs · Post by **Mellogs** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:19 pm

lucas_chan wrote:You can't actually 'record' onto an iPod.

You can copy a music file to it from your computer, but you can't record in real time.

i've been mislead

*kicks ipod photo*

Post by **lucas** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:26 pm

I believe you can use iPods to record "voice-notes".

i.e. There's some expensive accessory you can buy that will let you record audio through a mic at low quality. Obviously not suitable for music.

quick · Post by **quick** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:34 pm

There is no option for Mobile phone???

I have a 6230 with a 512mb mmc that plays mp3. Well good it is (or will be when it gets delivered from Hong Kong, as I just bought it from ebay on the w/e). It's small and its always on me.

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 · Post by **Ag3nT[]0raNg3** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:37 pm

i laugh at your puny mmc.

HAHAHAHA!

ukime · Post by **ukime** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:40 pm

You can get like ... dicataphone type things for iPods (what lucas was on about) and plugs on like the iTrip (which is the short range FM radio transmitter. But yeah, it's not for recording music or anything.

That's it, I'm saving for an iRiver ... line in all the way baby. I'll start sneaking into the DJ booths to record stuff once I get it

Anyone wanna buy a Nomad Zen Extra?

quick · Post by **quick** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:45 pm

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 wrote:i laugh at your puny mmc.

HAHAHAHA!

I laugh at your Ipod buddy... hahahaha

Post by **lucas** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:46 pm

quick wrote:I have a 6230 with a 512mb mmc that plays mp3. Well good it is (or will be when it gets delivered from Hong Kong, as I just bought it from ebay on the w/e). It's small and its always on me.

I have one of these as well. I found playing mp3's on it a rather frustrating experience. =\

DBoy · Post by **DBoy** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:53 pm

the E398 does alright for playing mp3's.
current ring tone Lyrics Born "calling out"

quick · Post by **quick** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:55 pm

lucas_chan wrote:
quick wrote:I have a 6230 with a 512mb mmc that plays mp3. Well good it is (or will be when it gets delivered from Hong Kong, as I just bought it from ebay on the w/e). It's small and its always on me.
I have one of these as well. I found playing mp3's on it a rather frustrating experience. =\

Took me a while to get the hang of it, but if you put them in the playlist then its all good.

Mellogs · Post by **Mellogs** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:00 pm

DBoy wrote:the E398 does alright for playing mp3's.
current ring tone Lyrics Born "calling out"

and its sooooooooooooooo anoying!

ukime · Post by **ukime** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:04 pm

can a moderator add "random phone mp3 player" to the list of poll options? =)

Post by **system** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:31 pm

lucas_chan wrote:You can't actually 'record' onto an iPod.

You can copy a music file to it from your computer, but you can't record in real time.

not quite true. yes you can record in "real time". the hardware supports it, but Apple's software doesn't currently allow access to that feature.

read this, then grab podzilla and you can record at will.

that said, the iRiver is a pretty good unit.

the iPod's features suited me (AFP/NFS mounting ability etc) and enabled me to get work to pay for it.

Post by **breaksRbest** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:38 pm

Mellogs wrote:
DBoy wrote:the E398 does alright for playing mp3's.
current ring tone Lyrics Born "calling out"

and its sooooooooooooooo anoying!

I quite like it

Post by **lucas** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:39 pm

Last time I checked the podzilla project has only managed to get linux working on the older generation ipods.

Nevertheless, you are correct. All the hardware is there, it's just disabled in software.

ukime · Post by **ukime** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:51 pm

system wrote:not quite true. yes you can record in "real time". the hardware supports it, but Apple's software doesn't currently allow access to that feature.

That's kinda cool - didn't know that. But still, it has overtones of 'why did you release it without the hardware?' ... I guess the answer is, once everyones bought one ... release the hardware to plonk on top of it and charge people more.

You can run linux on an iPod ... what about BSD? Seeing as Mac OSX is built on BSD, you'd think it'd be just as easy. Has it been done?

Post by **lucas** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:09 pm

ukime wrote:not quite true. yes you can record in "real time". the hardware supports it, but Apple's software doesn't currently allow access to that feature.

I'm lead to believe that Apple did not enable this feature as it was part of their agreemtent with the big music companies (for selling music at the iTunes store). i.e. "If Apple's iPod makes it easy to pirate music, then we're not going to let them profit by selling our music online."

ukime wrote:what about BSD? Seeing as Mac OSX is built on BSD, you'd think it'd be just as easy.

To my knowledge iPod's don't run MacOS or any variant of it, so you couldn't really say that putting BSD on it would be easy.

ukime · Post by **ukime** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:21 pm

lucas_chan wrote:I'm lead to believe that Apple did not enable this feature as it was part of their agreemtent with the big music companies (for selling music at the iTunes store). i.e. "If Apple's iPod makes it easy to pirate music, then we're not going to let them profit by selling our music online."

Ah yeah - I can see where they're coming from in that sense then.

MacOS is built on BSD ... not saying that the iPod runs MacOSX or BSD, but seeing as the main OS of Apple Macs (and thus platform for the majority of Mac software) these days is MacOSX (BSD) then I'd assume it'd be just as possible (sorry, not easy) to get it on there as Linux (which is possible, right? if not easy). That is all.

Post by **lucas** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:25 pm

ukime wrote:MacOS is built on BSD ... not saying that the iPod runs MacOSX or BSD, but seeing as the main OS of Apple Macs (and thus platform for the majority of Mac software) these days is MacOS (BSD) then I'd assume it'd be just as easy to get it on there as Linux (which is possible, right?). That is all.

OK, I see where you're heading.

The reason Linux is able to be ported to so many different devices is that the kernel supports a whole wad of chips/architectures (including those used in smaller devices like iPods).

The BSD kernel is fairly limited in comparison.

http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/index.html

Edit: Typo: FreeBSD/BSD

Post by **system** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:35 pm

lucas_chan wrote:Last time I checked the podzilla project has only managed to get linux working on the older generation ipods.

its working on 4th generation iPods - I installed it on mine this morning.

lucas_chan wrote:
system wrote:not quite true. yes you can record in "real time". the hardware supports it, but Apple's software doesn't currently allow access to that feature.
I'm lead to believe that Apple did not enable this feature as it was part of their agreemtent with the big music companies (for selling music at the iTunes store). i.e. "If Apple's iPod makes it easy to pirate music, then we're not going to let them profit by selling our music online."

absolutely correct.

lucas_chan wrote:
ukime wrote:what about BSD? Seeing as Mac OSX is built on BSD, you'd think it'd be just as easy.
To my knowledge iPod's don't run MacOS or any variant of it, so you couldn't really say that putting BSD on it would be easy.

correct again.

Linux is a better way to go, as many of the variants have been designed for small footprint installs. BSD needs a bit of tweaking to install on something that small, especially if you're talking about all the Apple layers on top of Darwin. (as an example, Mac OS X (10.3.x) can only just fit onto a 6GB HDD.)

on a tangent, here's an interesting substory about the iPod OS.

Post by **system** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:43 pm

lucas_chan wrote:
ukime wrote:MacOS is built on BSD ... not saying that the iPod runs MacOSX or BSD, but seeing as the main OS of Apple Macs (and thus platform for the majority of Mac software) these days is MacOS (BSD) then I'd assume it'd be just as easy to get it on there as Linux (which is possible, right?). That is all.
OK, I see where you're heading.

The reason Linux is able to be ported to so many different devices is that the kernel supports a whole wad of chips/architectures (including those used in smaller devices like iPods).

The BSD kernel is fairly limited in comparison.

http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/index.html

Edit: Typo: FreeBSD/BSD

most of the points here are spot on.

not wanting to be too pedantic, but the kernel that Mac OS X uses is Mach - a different offshoot of the BSD kernel. there are some significant differences between Mach and, to use the quoted example, FreeBSD.

anyway, enough off-topicizms from me.

ukime · Post by **ukime** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:47 pm

A'ight, gotcha. When I get my iRiver, I think I'll try linux on my Nomad

Maybe get some decent bloody software on it for once.

B0mBjAcK · Post by **B0mBjAcK** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 7:38 pm

iPod = pov half arsed iRiver H340 wanna be

eskay · Post by **eskay** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 7:41 pm

ukime wrote:When I get my iRiver, I think I'll try linux on my Nomad Maybe get some decent bloody software on it for once.

how much does it suck??

Melbourne Beats

Portable music thingoes!

Which portable music thingo you use/want/prefer?

Portable music thingoes!