OK......

I'm REALLY confused at why people buy Ipods now. Before I thought people just wanted to be cool and stuff, hiding behind saying how 'easy it is to use'. Well, in an effort to understand - I purchased one. Yuck! I know everyone is different - but I honestly cannot understand why someone would buy an Ipod or an Ipod Mini - maybe the Ipod Photo, but even then - there are so many alternatives....I wouldn't.

While the player IS extremely easy to use and is an erganomic dream - it sounds really ugly....to most it's acceptible, to me - it's not. And I despise Itunes...to say the least....maybe it's the formats I used to play on it, but I can tell you that I REALLY don't think - actually, right now I pretty much know that's not it.
I surfed through player options to find - well, not much...Some silly useless games that take up hard drive space and not much more.

I had it for about 2 weeks and then said - ok, enough of that....didn't want it anymore so I did some research and found Rio, Creative and iRiver solutions so I went back to compusa and played with a few....the rio was nice and the iriver had a nice color screen, but both had some issues; the Rio wasn't as intuitive, a mediocre player at best, the Iriver while really pretty just isn't a performer, it's really sluggish and after about 2 minutes the touchpad and interface started bothering me.....Creative on the other hand - oh man....Tiny, light, nice interface and screen and whoa....sounds like a dream. I thought all mp3 players sounded the same, very wrong. The eq settings and smart volume setting rocks and the music sounds so much sharper, higher highs, lower lows and perfect voices. The touchpad slider started annoying me a little, but then I lowered the sensitivity and now, I love the thing.

Also it has an FM player which works very well here in VA....picks up most stations once I'm on the road. You can set some space for use as an external hard drive, so you can use the device like a little usb drive, as long as you carry around the usb cable that came with it. Also has a contacts and calendar synch with Outlook which, though I wouldn't use it to replace my cell - I am pretty sure will help for when I travel. I don't use my cell phone in some places I travel to - this I'm sure I will.

I don't miss the ipod at all...I had the mini, which was a gig less and the same price as this zen micro. Overall though, I'd recommend the Zen Micro over the Ipod Mini anyday.

i bought my ipod 2 years ago when having one wasnt cool. i got it cause i wanted one.

id get a PDA

I have a 15GB, 3rd Generation iPod and I love it. Many people complain that the iPod doesn't have auto volume or eq settings, but those are the people who don't realize you can set all that in iTunes and it carries over when you transfer your files to your iPod. I'm happy with mine and wouldn't trade it even for a new Creative or iRiver player.

I can also sync my iPod with my Powerbook and in turn with my cell via bluetooth. This keeps my calendar, contacts, etc. up to date on all 3 devices.

NeoPrimal, Which Creative Model did you get?

iPods are good MP3 players. They have some slick bits that are very handy, like the scroll wheel. However, in the end, the iPod is lacking many interesting and useful features that some people desire. For instance, I wanted video and integrated FM recording. The iPod offers neither.

In the end, it depends on what the user wants. Since so many people just want to listen to their small CD collection (i.e.my GF, who has only 10) on the go and they don't care/need anything beyond that, the iPod is very useful (and elegant).

From personal experience I can say that for some people no one makes the right media player for them. Although I got all of the important stuff I wanted out of my player and I'm very happy with it, it's still lacking in a few areas. Perhaps in a few years there will be enough options out there that people will buy the player that fits them, and not just buy the next iPod.

I have an iPod Photo 60GB, and I love it, its friggin awesome. As far as EQ settings, well, maybe it wasnt available in the older iPod models but the iPod photo has a built in EQ. And why does iTunes suck? Reasons? Give reasons. I like iTunes, its an excellent tool for ripping, burning and organizing my growing song colleciton. The only thing I stay away from is Apple's proprietary format, I rip everything in MP3 format at 192kbps. Not to mention accessories up the wazoo! There is an accessory for everything, I even think there is one that will wipe my ass while i'm listening to Black Sabbath on the toilet. The only thing missing is a subscription for the iTunes Store, just like Napster has. A subscription that allows you to download as much music to your MP3 player as you want for one price. If Apple began doing that I would sign up for an iTunes Store account, but until then, I rip my own stuff. I dont know how anyone can not like an iPod. FM radio? You kidding me? Get a walkman dude. You shouldnt be buying an MP3 player to listen to the radio. I dont know, you guys are talking about all kinds of options and features, its an MP3 player...... it plays music.....

the current Wired Magazine has an excellent sub-$200 mp3 player roundup -- which the Shuffle doesn't win

it looks like it will be availabe online later today (at the link I put above)

Woah, KelpFries, chill.

All I'm saying is that to me I desire a media player, not just an mp3 player. So for me to want FM, etc is reasonable. I'm glad you like your iPod. There's nothing wrong with it.

Chill? Chill? CHILL!!!!!

You know what I would honestly like? An MP3 player with iPod's capacity that will also receive Satellite Radio transmissions, either XM or Sirius, that would be awesome. I would pick one of those up in a second. I dont care for terrestrial radio, there are hardly any good radio stations left anymore, they all play crap music and tend to not play music unless its "mainstream". I like the basement stuff, music that would generally not be played on terrestrial radio.

wow satellite radio is popular over there. In the Uk we are still using terrestrial radio.

Anyways to the point, I like iPod I have had manyt other mp3 players and like the iPod the best.

Paul

I have a Zen 5gb Player. Ipods aren't evil or suck, don't get me wrong. But their value for price is...well, nill. If you got one before the others came out then you got your value in that there were no options or alternatives....but I mean, say...now? Why would I go buy a 400 dollar 60gb Ipod model when just about any other 60gb model from another company is 300 or less? See my drift?
Don't mean to seem to 'bonk' ipod users. I just genuinely want to know...."Why?"
I have a couple friends who've sold or gotten rid of theirs...but I have a few who have no reason, they just want an Ipod.
And also yes....I'd LOVE to see an Mp3 player come with XM radio...considering regular FM doesnt work spledidly on em' anyway - unless you're in an area with little or no bad interferance. But in an era with 2.4 and 5.8ghz and Cell phones, Microwaves....things like an Mp3 player with built in Radios don't kick it that well. Mine works nice outdoors until I go downtown....then it sounds like ghosts are trying to get through to me...lol
XM would make tiny Mp3 players a solid value.

That would be awesome. I have an XM subscription and I listen to XM Radio quite a bit. There are portable XM radio players, but they are expensive to just listen to the radio. But combine the two abilities, MP3 playback with plenty of storage and an XM radio receiver and man, you have got one awesome little package. Any other type of media such as movies is ridiculous to have on a portable player in my opinion. I wouldn't want to watch a movie on a little 2-3 inch screen. Not interested in that feature. Nor am I interested in the "Photo" feature in the current iPod I own, pretty useless to me. But I love the 60GB capacity and the color screen with more available options makes the iPod Photo a nice buy for me even though it was expensive. As far as an MP3 player having 60GB capacity costing $300 less than the iPod Photo, where? Damn, I'll buy three of em right now for $100 each!!! Dont think that is available right now. My consideration in purchasing the iPod was the capacity. I currently have approx 25 GB of music and my collection grows by the minute. It wont take me long to get up to 40GB and over and I dont want the hassle of having to continually hooking up the player, removing and replacing songs, I want every song I have in one convenient place, accessable to me at any time. That is the major draw for an iPod.

I would recommend to anyone that has 5 or 10 GB or less of music and does not have the intention of collecting and maintaining a huge music collection to go for a cheaper alternative such as the Rio or the Zen.

iPod = capacity, plain and simple.

another good article:

Portable Music Players: More Room to Rock

forget the mp3 players and go portable XM.
Get the Delphi XM MiFi. It's got all you need in portable audio for $300. 5 hours of recordable audio but it's XM!

I carry all my CDs on my laptop. I use a laptop for work so it is perfect for "me"

woot