Microsoft's iPod users

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[WildTurkey]

Do you have the photo number? I can't find it.

[IncPen]

Strange, I thought the link included it... Here's a direct link

[Richard Kimball]

iTunes playes the MP3 and MP4 format, as do iPods. Your statement makes no sense.

[WildTurkey]

I got it now. It was 1985, not 1983 and the Mac is way back in the background with a IBM PC more prominent and he is leaning on a monitor with "MICROSOFT" on the screen.

[SaveTheChief]

Maybe but do you want to have your entire music library locked into a proprietary system when MS and the other vendors relegate iPods to 3% of the market?

The .AAC format of the iTunes files can easily be saved in either MP3, or regular CD Audio formats, with the use of the iTunes software itself. It takes less than two minutes for me to burn a CD that I can play in the car or any other CD player. I cannot fathom another product being any easier to use, or any more friendly for file conversion.

Perhaps you didn't know this. Now you do.

[hobbes1]

The iPod earbuds are more a fashion statement than an audio accessory.

Amen. They blow...big time. If you are laying out the $$$$ for the IPOD, get a set of BOSE TriPorts.

[Richard Kimball]

Uh, you lost me at the bakery. Apple paid back the loan early, thanks to the success of the original iMac, and the agreement expired quite a while ago. Gates had a vested interest in Apple staying in business when he offered the loan, as he was in the middle of a shakedown on Monopoly charges from the Clinton administration. I don't see any relevence to the post on iPods. However, in rebuttal to whatever point you were making, here's Jim Varney with a turtle on his head.

[IncPen]

Yes, you're right on the year of the photo; I happened to see a prototype of the Mac in 1983 and had that in my mind as the year for the photo. I also got to hold an 'original' Pixar motherboard in my hands the same day I saw the Mac prototype- as at that time Pixar was aiming at medical imaging applications and showing off their hardware tricks (ie animation) to pseudogeeks like me

As for the software point, you are probably right about external vendors, but Apple undoubtedly provides more software for the platform (iLife, iWorld, Logic, Motion, Final Cut Pro, iMovie, iTunes, etc. - software outside the OS, in other words) than MS...

[Mannaggia l'America]

Are iPods really that much better than the competitors? It depends how much you want to spend and how many songs you want to store.

I wanted a player, but the iPods were $250+ and I didn't want to spend that much and didn't really need the amount of storage they offered.

I got an iRiver 795 instead. It's a 512MB MP3 player with an FM radio built-in. It can also be used as a recorder, to record off the radio or through its mic. They also have a 1GB version.

512MB is not a huge amount of space, but I don't have (or like) every song on earth, nor do I want to download every CD I have into it (and I don't have that many).

I will say that the little iRiver sounds great. The earbuds it comes with are very good (some players come with cheap buds that you toss right away and buy good ones).

I get most of my music from walmart.com at 0.88/song.

One difference between the iPods and the players like the iRiver are that the iPods have mini-hard drives installed (giving them much more storage), where the iRiver uses flash memory, which provides less storage, but is less fragile because there are no moving parts.

[Miss Behave]

I'm good to go with the buds, but my husband has the Bose and my son did the standard upgrade, and both of them won't go back.

[hobbes1]

I put the buds in exactly ONE TIME.


I got back in the car, went back to the store, and came home a happy man.....lol

(Part of it I think is my Ears just dont work well with them....but the sound difference alone is magnificent)

[WildTurkey]

iTunes has MP3/MP4 available for download? I didn't know that.

I am not an expert on the iPod but I believe it does not play .wma files.

[Miss Behave]

I think I'm headin' back to Apple. :-)

I'm fortunate here in Chicago that we have THREE area Apple stores. :-)

[July 4th]

If you are laying out the $$$$ for the IPOD, get a set of BOSE TriPorts.

Check out the cans they have at Audiocubes. Awesome stuff. The Audio-Technica A900's are great, and can be powered by a standard headphone out w/o an amp.

[WildTurkey]

The .AAC format of the iTunes files can easily be saved in either MP3, or regular CD Audio formats, with the use of the iTunes software itself. It takes less than two minutes for me to burn a CD that I can play in the car or any other CD player. I cannot fathom another product being any easier to use, or any more friendly for file conversion.

It is a little easier if you don't have to convert the format, which I am sure leads to some loss of fidelity.

[Last Visible Dog]

Yes, you're right on the year of the photo; I happened to see a prototype of the Mac in 1983 and had that in my mind as the year for the photo. I also got to hold an 'original' Pixar motherboard in my hands the same day I saw the Mac prototype- as at that time Pixar was aiming at medical imaging applications and showing off their hardware tricks (ie animation) to pseudogeeks like me

In 1983 Apple was pushing the Lisa - at the time I worked for the first distributer in the Washington DC area to get the Lisa product (a very odd machine). I was factory trained on the Apple II/IIe, Apple III, and Lisa. Never understood what kind of bad acid Apple got into in that period - they went form creating the prototype of the open-system computer (Apple IIe) that IBM copied and went on to drive the computer revolution - Apple decided to embrace the closed system one computer - one vendor - one Fuhrer model and from that point on they started their decent into a "also ran" computer platform. Apple could have driven the computer revolution and instead they became a 3% share foot note in computer history. I was a BIG Apple fan up until 1984 but with the Macintosh they lost me.

[hobbes1]

The A900's sound sweeeeet.....I'd like to hear them....

[SaveTheChief]

Let's face it -- if you want to talk about fidelity, these portable digital files shouldn't even be a part of the discussion.

[IncPen]

I'm not a kool-aid drinker by any means, but you really should forget what you know about Apple and check out the Mac.

It's really a remarkable machine.

[ocr1]

"I don't see any relevence to the post on iPods"

-the converstation is about microsoft employees using ipods. I simply was pointing out why company might use products from a company they share technology with. Last Visible Dog made a better point, "Macs on the campus".

"agreement expired quite a while ago"

-You'r right, It was a contract that expired in 02'. I didn't know that. Just found a reference for it.Contract expiration

"UH, you lost me at the bakery."

-Have fun in the bakery

"here's Jim Varney with a turtle on his head."

-okay