Ok, so I got a 40GB iPod yokey a week ago. Here are some of my thoughts:-

The Good:-
* The sound is pretty incredible - no gripes there.
* The earphones rock as well - they sound as good as any 'earbud' type earphones
I've heard. They are loud too - important as the iPod is somewhat volume restricted.
* I've no 6-pin firewire connector on my laptop so I'm using USB2 - it's still damn fast.
* the iTunes software is a great way of keeping your MP3s organised - many useful
functions - even converts midi to mp3. I think it's free too so you might want to get
this even if you don't have an iPod to keep your MP3s sane.

The Bad:-
* The unit goes to sleep for a *long* time when you connect to your PC. Sometimes
it does this at random times too. Once it actually starts transferring files it is quick though.
* the unit is overly-designed in my opinion. In the quest for style they only put 6/7 buttons
on it in total resulting in buttons having multiple functions which is confusing. You have to
learn things like holding down the play button, for example, to shut the unit down. FFing
through songs is convoluted compared to some players too.
* In a similar vein, the unit seems to be designed for idiots to use - almost every function
you can think of that would have required extra buttons has been removed from the unit and
put into the iTunes software instead. Setting up playlists is a ridiculous exercise in bad design.

The Ugly:-
* The iPod stores mp3s solely according to the data in their ID3 tags. It will not use the filenames
of the mp3s under *any* circumstances. This fucked me right off.

I have 3000+ mp3s which were ripped/downloaded from every possible place imaginable.
I have been collecting these for about 5 years, and since I had a creative mp3 player before,
I have always filed them according to filename. The ID3 tags were in total disarray. This has
given me about 7 days of *hard* work and required using 3rd party software off the net to
crunch the tags into something useable. I recommend ID3-TagIT if you ever have to go through
this - it can bulk-generate tag data from filenames and vice versa. My creative player allowed
mp3s to be ordered by tag or filename. That was much, much handier.

If you don't already have a large collection of mp3s or if you have your ID3 tags in order this
won't be a problem. As it happens, if I had known about this before, I certainly would not have
bought an iPod. I have the tags sorted out now so I guess I can live with it.

Uthur

From:	Sam
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	29 Dec 2004 15:03:21 -0800

what about this:
http://www.iPod911.com

with cheaper price of ipod battery

From:	John
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:47:24 +0000

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:43:30 -0000, "Uthur" wrote:

>Ok, so I got a 40GB iPod yokey a week ago. Here are some of my thoughts:-
>
>The Good:-
>* The earphones rock as well - they sound as good as any 'earbud' type earphones
> I've heard. They are loud too - important as the iPod is somewhat volume restricted.

Whatever about the rest, this one seems strange. Most people I know
with iPods say the included earphones are terrible and almost everyone
use different ones. They have come in for a lot of criticism, not just
from people I know.

From:	Howard9
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Mon, 27 Dec 2004 17:43:39 -0000

In article , nospam@nospam.com says...
> Ok, so I got a 40GB iPod yokey a week ago. Here are some of my thoughts:-
>

Must be why they have so much trouble selling it all over the world....
duh..

:-)

--
Howard

From:	Uthur
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:45:15 -0000

* one more for bad - iTunes keeps setting itself up as the default player for mp3s etc.
I've searched the options but I can't find any way to turn this off. Bastards!

"Uthur" wrote in message news:cqnmep$1ef$1@kermit.esat.net...
> Ok, so I got a 40GB iPod yokey a week ago. Here are some of my thoughts:-
>
> The Good:-
> * The sound is pretty incredible - no gripes there.
> * The earphones rock as well - they sound as good as any 'earbud' type earphones
> I've heard. They are loud too - important as the iPod is somewhat volume restricted.
> * I've no 6-pin firewire connector on my laptop so I'm using USB2 - it's still damn fast.
> * the iTunes software is a great way of keeping your MP3s organised - many useful
> functions - even converts midi to mp3. I think it's free too so you might want to get
> this even if you don't have an iPod to keep your MP3s sane.
>
> The Bad:-
> * The unit goes to sleep for a *long* time when you connect to your PC. Sometimes
> it does this at random times too. Once it actually starts transferring files it is quick though.
> * the unit is overly-designed in my opinion. In the quest for style they only put 6/7 buttons
> on it in total resulting in buttons having multiple functions which is confusing. You have to
> learn things like holding down the play button, for example, to shut the unit down. FFing
> through songs is convoluted compared to some players too.
> * In a similar vein, the unit seems to be designed for idiots to use - almost every function
> you can think of that would have required extra buttons has been removed from the unit and
> put into the iTunes software instead. Setting up playlists is a ridiculous exercise in bad design.
>
> The Ugly:-
> * The iPod stores mp3s solely according to the data in their ID3 tags. It will not use the filenames
> of the mp3s under *any* circumstances. This fucked me right off.
>
> I have 3000+ mp3s which were ripped/downloaded from every possible place imaginable.
> I have been collecting these for about 5 years, and since I had a creative mp3 player before,
> I have always filed them according to filename. The ID3 tags were in total disarray. This has
> given me about 7 days of *hard* work and required using 3rd party software off the net to
> crunch the tags into something useable. I recommend ID3-TagIT if you ever have to go through
> this - it can bulk-generate tag data from filenames and vice versa. My creative player allowed
> mp3s to be ordered by tag or filename. That was much, much handier.
>
> If you don't already have a large collection of mp3s or if you have your ID3 tags in order this
> won't be a problem. As it happens, if I had known about this before, I certainly would not have
> bought an iPod. I have the tags sorted out now so I guess I can live with it.
>
> Uthur
>
>
>
>
>
>

From:	Des O'Donoghue
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Mon, 27 Dec 2004 20:11:28 +0000

Uthur wrote:
> * one more for bad - iTunes keeps setting itself up as the default player for mp3s etc.
> I've searched the options but I can't find any way to turn this off. Bastards!
>

Gee...

click on Edit > Preferences and at the bottom of the General Tab (which
is the one that opens first) untick the "use iTunes as default player.."
.. Took absolutely ages to find that so it did... ;-)

Is it the latest iPod you have - I find it very easy to scroll through
my albums and songs but then again my 1200 or so have generally their
full complement of tag info.

In general I find the click wheel the business - I have only had solid
state mp3 players before but they now seem like a pain to operate
compared to the iPod..

I don't have any sleep problems (with the iPod anyway) but I use
firewire - it plugs in and iTunes sees it more or less immediately.

Playlists don't seem to me to be a problem - just drag and drop..

I agree about the earphone s- they seem grand to me - reports on theweb
would suggest that they are close to useless...

From:	Uthur
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Mon, 27 Dec 2004 21:29:04 -0000

"Des O'Donoghue" wrote in message news:33b8jdF3u3mchU1@individual.net...
> Gee...
>
> click on Edit > Preferences and at the bottom of the General Tab (which is the one that opens first) untick the "use iTunes as
> default player.." . Took absolutely ages to find that so it did... ;-)

Thanks that was bugging me.

> Is it the latest iPod you have - I find it very easy to scroll through my albums and songs but then again my 1200 or so have
> generally their full complement of tag info.

I think it is the latest one that came out. It is 40GB with buttons as part
of the touch-sensitive scroll wheel. My tags are ok also...now.

> Playlists don't seem to me to be a problem - just drag and drop..

Yeah but you just have to use iTunes to do it. Making them on the unit
and renaming them in iTunes is painful. You can't even delete songs
without using iTunes :(

> I agree about the earphone s- they seem grand to me - reports on theweb would suggest that they are close to useless...

Maybe they have fixed them on the latest ones? I like them anyways.

Uthur

From:	Hugh Chaloner
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:48:23 +0000

Uthur wrote:

> Yeah but you just have to use iTunes to do it. Making them on the unit
> and renaming them in iTunes is painful. You can't even delete songs
> without using iTunes :(

iTunes is yer only man for the playlists. I (still) have a 1G iPod which
is very primitive by comparison, so yours is incredibly fancy. I can't
imagine making playlists on it could be much fun, far too fiddly.

From:	Civilian_Target
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Mon, 27 Dec 2004 16:48:40 +0000

In the times of Yore, approximately 3 moons after Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:43:30 -0000, there was a signal
from the heavens from where the angel "Uthur" emblazoned these words across the
heavens:

>Ok, so I got a 40GB iPod yokey a week ago. Here are some of my thoughts:-

I've had a Rio Karma for almost a year now, so going to do a bit of comparing here....

>The Good:-
>* The sound is pretty incredible - no gripes there.
>* The earphones rock as well - they sound as good as any 'earbud' type earphones

I disagree - the sound off the iPod is pants....

> I've heard. They are loud too - important as the iPod is somewhat volume restricted.
>* I've no 6-pin firewire connector on my laptop so I'm using USB2 - it's still damn fast
>* the iTunes software is a great way of keeping your MP3s organised - many useful
> functions - even converts midi to mp3. I think it's free too so you might want to get
> this even if you don't have an iPod to keep your MP3s sane.

Plegh - Try Winamp, or use the Godfather to actually sort your MP3s properly

>The Bad:-
>* The unit goes to sleep for a *long* time when you connect to your PC. Sometimes
> it does this at random times too. Once it actually starts transferring files it is quick though.
>* the unit is overly-designed in my opinion. In the quest for style they only put 6/7 buttons
> on it in total resulting in buttons having multiple functions which is confusing. You have to
> learn things like holding down the play button, for example, to shut the unit down. FFing
> through songs is convoluted compared to some players too.
>* In a similar vein, the unit seems to be designed for idiots to use - almost every function
> you can think of that would have required extra buttons has been removed from the unit and
> put into the iTunes software instead. Setting up playlists is a ridiculous exercise in bad design.

The Karma actually makes life really easy for actual use - the wheel scroll makes playlists and things
very easy to do. The down side is that it's also incredibly ugly.

>The Ugly:-
>* The iPod stores mp3s solely according to the data in their ID3 tags. It will not use the filenames
> of the mp3s under *any* circumstances. This fucked me right off.

This is standard on HD MP3 players - they all store the music in a database - because it provides easier
file management, and better battery life because its more power efficient than a filesystem.

> I have 3000+ mp3s which were ripped/downloaded from every possible place imaginable.
> I have been collecting these for about 5 years, and since I had a creative mp3 player before,
> I have always filed them according to filename. The ID3 tags were in total disarray. This has
> given me about 7 days of *hard* work and required using 3rd party software off the net to
> crunch the tags into something useable. I recommend ID3-TagIT if you ever have to go through
> this - it can bulk-generate tag data from filenames and vice versa. My creative player allowed
> mp3s to be ordered by tag or filename. That was much, much handier.

Again - I recommend the Godfather for this - its confusing at first - but very powerful and once you get
used to it it's fantastic - http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/

Civilian_Target
---
"The great thing about pessimism is that you are either 'right as usual' or 'pleasently surprised'

From:	Uthur
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Mon, 27 Dec 2004 17:02:23 -0000

"Civilian_Target" wrote in message news:cse0t0heuljio4sobs5hnjmv28cmkl7ml8@4ax.com...
> I've had a Rio Karma for almost a year now, so going to do a bit of comparing here....
>
>>The Good:-
>>* The sound is pretty incredible - no gripes there.
>>* The earphones rock as well - they sound as good as any 'earbud' type earphones
>
> I disagree - the sound off the iPod is pants....
>

What the fuck? You can knock the iPod for a lot of reasons (and I did). But you can
hardly complain about the sound. You have been putting the earphones in your
ears right? ;)

Uthur

From:	Civilian_Target
Subject:	Re: iPod opinions/gripes
Date:	Tue, 28 Dec 2004 17:17:15 +0000

In the times of Yore, approximately 3 moons after Mon, 27 Dec 2004 17:02:23 -0000, there was a signal
from the heavens from where the angel "Uthur" emblazoned these words across the
heavens:

>What the fuck? You can knock the iPod for a lot of reasons (and I did). But you can
>hardly complain about the sound. You have been putting the earphones in your
>ears right? ;)

Dunno - have you ever heard the sound off the Karma? I have a Technics hi-fi that can't touch it!
---
"The great thing about pessimism is that you are either 'right as usual' or 'pleasently surprised'