Posted on 01/09/2006 1:33:15 PM PST by 2Jim_Brown
CHICAGO, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Though Apple Computer has reported remarkable success with its iPod -- sales rose by 250 percent during the last fiscal year -- there is some competition coming this week for the developer of the world's most famous, legitimate music downloading network, experts tell United Press International's Networking.
The rivalry, moreover, is not approaching from Asian consumer electronics pioneers Sony or Samsung. Rather, it is emerging from Apple's oldest American nemesis, Microsoft Corp., which has teamed with Verizon Wireless, a project of Verizon Communications and the U.K.'s telecom whiz Vodafone. By Gene Koprowski
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Ok, so it's an mp3 player. I hear you on the integration of the different parts--the website, the software, the hardware. But we're talking about an mp3 player? I'm just trying to clarify that it doesn't have any special functionality that I'm not aware of. It plays mp3s. That's it??
There's an adapter for every connector in the world. Going proprietary doesn't work in the long run. Never has, never will as long as there's a china in the world.
My wife listens to the music through the software as much as she uses the shuffle I gave her.
No, I asked what's so special about Ipods. I asked if it is merely an mp3 player, which it appears is all it is. I mentioned I can play mp3s on portable devices already, and that i can download music for those devices already. I don't get what the ipod has introduced that didn't exist already. Hell, I had a portable mp3 player in 1999. I don't get what all the hype is about. I thought maybe it could do something I wasn't aware of.
Duh, you can do that right now with video that you have on your computer, or video that you shot, it just has to be in the right format. It's not as if you have to pay for video through iTunes Music Store to be able to play it on your ipod, or on iTunes.
Here's what mine looks like...only mine is the 1 GB and is white.
I play 5700+ MP3s on my iPod, sortable & playable in just about any order I want. That's the appeal for me.
I totally share your sentiment, and yes, I believe that's all it is... an mp3 player. Just goes to show that modern marketing is more about selling the sizzle than the steak.
All a matter of where you live... where I am, on the bus and subway, maybe 10-20% of the folks wearing earbuds are Ipods.. the rest are generic CD players with MP3 or other brand MP3 players.
I will amit the Ipod nano is pretty neat in terms of its size, but I'm more than happy with one for well under $100 that plays more hours of music than I'm ever going to listen too before changing the tunes in it.
Of course, I'm not worried about having status symbols or looking cool either...
The iPod craze becomes more comprehensible if you have a wall of classical CDs which fit into one tiny device. The fact that I can take Beethoven's complete works in such a small device is still amazing to me.
Regards, Ivan
You can legally download music and TV shows and play them on the john or whatever, you can organize them and rate them and burn them and share them.
If that doesn't do it for you, then don't buy one.
Yes there are adapter, but the question is do the other mp3 players allow one to control the device from an outside source. I have seen a few mp3 players, and they did not (the ones I have looked at, I am sure there are some out there that don't fit this) a way to control the device from an external accessories. I will say for my iPod I have a device that when plugged in adds a IR port so I can use a remote control on it. I am talking about add one ability, that what made computers nice, you can get one and add things to it, would you buy a computer if you could not add or replace the hardware? I know you can not really replace the hardware on the iPod (well most people don't think you can, I know how to replace the harddrive, and I have replaced the battery in my 2 year old iPod, but you can do that for any mp3 player) but with the iPod it was put together in such a way that things can be added on. How many accessories exist for other mp3 players, I have for my iPod 6 accessories, and only one was made by Apple (I really love my iHome)
Let me just add that I'm an audiophile, been one for years. Thousands of dollars worth of retail music, a real turntable, the whole nine yards. But I'm also grounded enough to separate my entertainment time from life's other obligations. Wearing an iPod all day just says "hey, I'm stupid" and need my audio baby bottle to function.
What I was saying is that TiVo is going to build it into the device.
So do they have a competitive edge on storage space? Do they hold more than other mp3 players?
Could use it in the john too, terrestial or at 35K feet, it still worked.
So what's all the hub bub?
I believe there is a Sony that holds as much as my iPod - but at the same time, the iTunes software that comes with the iPod is also excellent.
For storage, ease of use, etc. - I highly recommend it.
Regards, Ivan
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