iLounge

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

Love the pics. I was in Bahrain during the war. Don’t worry, no political comments. There is an Apple dealer in town but they don’t stock much and what they had was at least 6 - 12 months old. My wife sent me an iPod for my birthday while I was there so it tolerated the flight. Wanted to get a pic of my Pod at the “Pearl of the Gulf” monument but it was covered with scaffolding my last 3 months there.

Posted by navsurg on July 31, 2003 at 5:35 AM (PST)

Audio Formats Explained And Rated

the wmas are designed so they cant be converted or even played on programs like winamp and also its not really *buy* music because your actually paying to listen to it, and unlike iChoons someone knows when and where you listen to the tracks and make sure u cant convert them

Posted by ti on July 31, 2003 at 5:28 AM (PST)

Will any MP3 player ever catch Apple's iPod?

Look, I love the look and feel of my new 15gb iPod. I love iTunes, and I love my new Mac. But, I am pretty frustrated that the iPod freezes and skips while jogging (yes, I have already returned it and received a new unit - same problems).  The active lifestyle marketing stuff is junk.  I wish I would have hit these forums in advance to appreciate that people don’t use these things when jogging.  If anyone has any advice for me/can recommend freeze & skip prevention when jogging, please reply. 

Posted by Matt Dermer on July 30, 2003 at 6:36 PM (PST)

Audio Formats Explained And Rated

I’m a Windows iPod.  I bought some tracks from BuyMusic.com just to try it out since it’s new and iTunes for Windows isn’t out yet. Of course, they are WMA files which iPod won’t accept.  Is there any way to export WMA files to iPod?  By conversion or something?  I’m not well versed in technology so be gentle. 

Posted by Rick on July 30, 2003 at 5:01 AM (PST)

New iPod Reactions: Accessory Makers and an Author

The backlighting stuff—the glowing buttons—is kind of gimmicky, but it looks very cool.

from the last guy.

lol im not buying his book, his grammar sucks too much for a decent read

Posted by foo_foo on July 28, 2003 at 7:27 PM (PST)

Will any MP3 player ever catch Apple's iPod?

I disagree.

The 1.8” hard drive is what allows the iPod its greatest feature: form.  It’s smaller, lighter and sleaker than its competitors.

And that’s what Apple does.  Their stuff is generally more expensive in a price/performance/features comparison,  but it’s always sexy.  Apple will stay with the smaller drive, keeping the larger price, but have a sleak and sexy design that those using larger, cheaper hard drives just won’t be able to compete against.  Features will continue to be added and reliability will be improved, but the price won’t drop over time.  Competitors will roll out with 2.5” hard drive based products.  They’ll be larger and less expensive.  Feature sets will be similar.  Reliability will be stabilized.

In the end, Apple will have the same section of the MP3 player market that they enjoy in most other markets.  Not necessarily the largest marketshare, cheaper alternatives will win out there, but the best overall models in terms of form and features: small and sexy, high resolution screen, best backlighting…

In the present, the iPod on windows suffers from Apple’s reliance on third party software (aka MusicMatch).  Once they roll out a Windows version of iTunes (if they do), the iPod will be that much better.

I, personally, have used MusicMatch for years and find version 8.0 to have everything I’ve ever wanted in a music cataloging program.  It has worked flawlessly with my 10GB iPod after a few minor studders out of the gate.

Posted by Ybarra on July 26, 2003 at 9:36 PM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

Someone asked about iPods in the tropics. I’m living in Fiji now and have no tanks or fighter jets around to pose w/ my iPod so I’ll stick w/ palms and blue water views.

Some pics at http://homepage.mac.com/jsegal/PhotoAlbum9.html

To be fair, my first 30gig died a week after getting it. This replacement has been great and goes w/ me everywhere from dive boats to hiking trips to my work commute.

Posted by Jonathan Segal on July 26, 2003 at 7:51 PM (PST)

New iPod Reactions: Accessory Makers and an Author

Super!!

Posted by Michael on July 25, 2003 at 11:28 PM (PST)

iPods for Windows: It's a good thing?

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111168,00.asp

nice.

Posted by Adam in Detroit on July 25, 2003 at 4:28 PM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

If Pat or t-slice are intersted, I’m in Beirut right now… drop me a line on .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).. well meet up in the centreville or in monnot

Posted by ipod wannabe on July 24, 2003 at 10:05 PM (PST)

MWNY03: A look at iPod accessories

i went back to booq on friday to get a 15” powerbook case, and they were sold out! :( oh well, ill hav eto order one online i guess

Posted by ian on July 24, 2003 at 5:27 PM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

Thank you Ari,

Well,  It looks like my next report is going to be from Iraq. 

  To everyone that wrote in, thank you, I am going on the road making my way to Iraq.  Once I get communications set up I will drop a line.

Later

Posted by t-slice on July 23, 2003 at 6:47 PM (PST)

MWNY03: A look at iPod accessories

good report and i was there as well so i gave the place a once over looking for ipod product.  A few booths only had prototypes but it seems every man and his dog will be producing a ipod cover/wallet.  I purchased a nice nappa leather ipod holder from booq, which is a great fit with an iskin covered ipod.  Without the iskin it’s not such a great fit but it’s a heck of a case, as for theuir laptop cases, well they were the best on display at macworld. 

Posted by mac_gladdy on July 23, 2003 at 3:55 PM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

heh, sorry to bring this back up again….  The posts by noname and that other guy who said those pictures are a political statement….  Man, that’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard!  tslice took a picture of him and his iPod.  The tanks and stuff were there.  End story.  sheesh!

tslice, good job on the story, keep it going

-Ari

Posted by Ari on July 23, 2003 at 10:52 AM (PST)

Will any MP3 player ever catch Apple's iPod?

I think relying on the 1.8” hard drive for the iPod is an Achilles Heel. It drives up the cost, reduces the options to add standard media jukebox features such as microphones, recording and video circuitry, but most importantly it limits the iPod’s capacity!

http://eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20030718S0038

Hard disk manufacturers are now phasing out the 3.5” hard drive format and moving to the 2.5” format. Apparently the latest SATA drives use 2.5” platters anyway—the casing is just supersized to 3.5” to fit today’s machines.
 
Anyway, if the market converges on 2.5” as the new form factor, then the iPod is SOL, but all the Zen/Archos/Nuovo and so on that use 2.5” form factor drives will suddenly be able to offer 100-200 GB of on-device storage. Will there be a similar trickle-down effect for the iPods?

Posted by harder faster longer on July 23, 2003 at 10:29 AM (PST)

MWNY03: A look at iPod accessories

long for….desire…must have…glo iSkin…must…have….:: shudder::

Posted by ben graves on July 23, 2003 at 7:27 AM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

lucky you Stasyna. Whenever i take out my iPod i’m always worried about the heat.

Posted by Patrick M. in Kuwait on July 22, 2003 at 3:16 PM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

Really dave?

darn.

good thing where i live my ‘pod isnt exposed to much heat

Posted by Stasyna on July 22, 2003 at 3:11 PM (PST)

Audio Formats Explained And Rated

With the new iPod AAC format, what happens to all of the MP3 car stereos, home stereos and DVD players that all play CD-R/CD-RW disks tha contain MP3 files?

—Tom

Posted by Tom on July 22, 2003 at 9:36 AM (PST)

Will any MP3 player ever catch Apple's iPod?

yeah there is no doubt apple inovate. I dont like macs all that much but use them everday at work.. but if i was considering getting a notebook i wouldnt even look twice at pcs.. i love my 933 ibook and my powerbook that i have at work. no pc compaires power to price (and sexy looks) to the ibook.
The HDD100 will cost about £350 so i’m told so same as 15 gig ipod.

and its weird but the thing i like the most about it is that its black (i have become very sick of silver gadgets) and white is allready taken

Posted by Hal9000 on July 21, 2003 at 12:57 AM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

I left my iPod in a P.A (public address) for about 5 hours, and it got extremely hot… when i took it out, there was a horizontal line that didnt dissappear even when contrast was changed… it went away after a day…

Posted by Dave Luebbert on July 19, 2003 at 4:35 PM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

Too bad Nas sucks now.
Murda Inc killed his rhymes.

Posted by haha on July 18, 2003 at 3:07 PM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

thanks*

Posted by JL on July 18, 2003 at 2:33 PM (PST)

iPod Adventures in the Middle East: Part I

ok thats jstahl, i appreciate it.

Posted by JL on July 18, 2003 at 2:33 PM (PST)

Switching from MP3 to AAC Without Losing Your Mind

if i rip a track using MMM4 instead of itunes, will i still be able to listen to the result on my ipod?  if so, will i be able to benefit from the increased quality that QTpro will be able to offer?  thanks for the help!

Posted by hamfist on July 18, 2003 at 10:44 AM (PST)