appalachian_fox August 23, 2004 Share appalachian_fox Member August 23, 2004 My wife wants an MP3 player for jogging and carrying music places. You know, the usual stuff you'd get an MP3 player for. I'm wondering what I should be looking at for her, though. I've talked with her and decided: 1) It needs to be capable of 256 MB or above, whether it is internal (flash or HDD) or removable memory. 2) It should, ideally, be able to hold computer files, but this is not a requirement. 3) It should, ideally, be able to record. Again, not a requirement, but a nice feature she would use. 3) It should not be unreasonably subject to failure in impact environments. She will be jogging with this (are head failures a problem with iPods and joggers, since it's a HDD?) and more than likely it will be dropped on occasion (most likely when I am holding it). $300 is the max I am willing to put forward because I know one of the iPods just dropped that low, but I would like to keep the price as low as possible provided the device is usable and the sound quality is decent. She is not an audiophile and doesn't listen to music with heavy bass, so there's no need to nitpick minor issues in top- and low-end frequency response (but if you have input about sound quality I'd be personally interested). Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gOOters August 23, 2004 Share gOOters Member August 23, 2004 My sweet wife bought me a mp3 player a few years ago for my borthday. I used to LOVE wearing it to the gym for a workout. Got me so pumped...until they had to call the police to throw me out because I was running around throwing weights through the celing and screaming. I dont remember what kind it was, but it is REALLY small and I can flash about 14 songs onto it...perfect for a workout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magruter August 23, 2004 Share Magruter Member August 23, 2004 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher August 23, 2004 Share Preacher Member August 23, 2004 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...=86153&NoMapp=1 this one looked pretty cool and can expand up to 768mb (built in 256mb) is encased in rubber for shock [rotection and can play wma and mp3 files. Also it has low voltage so it uses one AAA battery that lasts up to 8 hours. I think I'm going to get myself one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman August 24, 2004 Share Hitman Member August 24, 2004 I know someone who swears by the Neuros ( http://www.neurosaudio.com/ ). He was teasing me about how much I spent on an iPod because it can do the same thing, so it may be worth looking into. I don't think I'd take my iPod jogging, it's sorta fragile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 24, 2004 Author Share appalachian_fox Member August 24, 2004 (edited) That's what I was afraid of with a HD MP3 player. Hard drives aren't meant to be shaken a bunch, and I know they can't be dropped very successfully. I'd like something that can store gazillions of songs, but it's unecessary and flash memory is more resistant to percussive maintenance. Thanks for the recommendations and keep 'em coming! Oooh, the Rio has an integrated stopwatch with lap timer! Perfect! Oh, and a five-band adjustable equalizer. In a walkman? Edited August 24, 2004 by appalachian_fox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Shertown Pimp August 24, 2004 Share Sir Shertown Pimp Member August 24, 2004 I know someone who swears by the Neuros ( http://www.neurosaudio.com/ ). He was teasing me about how much I spent on an iPod because it can do the same thing, so it may be worth looking into. I don't think I'd take my iPod jogging, it's sorta fragile. msg shadowhendryx about neuros, he'll never shut up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman August 24, 2004 Share Hitman Member August 24, 2004 I know someone who swears by the Neuros ( http://www.neurosaudio.com/ ). He was teasing me about how much I spent on an iPod because it can do the same thing, so it may be worth looking into. I don't think I'd take my iPod jogging, it's sorta fragile. msg shadowhendryx about neuros, he'll never shut up Hehehe, you guessed him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman August 24, 2004 Share Hitman Member August 24, 2004 That's what I was afraid of with a HD MP3 player. Hard drives aren't meant to be shaken a bunch, and I know they can't be dropped very successfully. They shake them quite a bit in the commercial (picture silhouettes playing the "air drums" with an iPod in hand). I think I'd be more worried about dropping it and cracking the faceplate or something, or putting a huge scratch in the metal than messing up it's innards - it seems fairly sturdy in that respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeK August 25, 2004 Share TeK Member August 25, 2004 Webmaster over at AIX gaming directed me towards buying an IPOD when I wanted to purchase one about 8 months ago. The durability is surprisingly very good. Says hes dropped it numerous times, of course on accident, and the thing hasn't skipped a beat yet. They are one of the best mp3 players out there. My friend has one and goes jogging with it all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 25, 2004 Author Share appalachian_fox Member August 25, 2004 Yeah, and the McDonald's hamburgers look like an easy third-pound of beefy goodness in their commercials. I'm not saying they can't stand up to that abuse, but truth in advertising is kind of an oxymoron these days. I'm glad to hear Tek's friend had good luck with it, because if (*cough*when) I buy my wife something I may very well be using it, too, so I wouldn't mind dishing out $300 for an iPod. I like the look of the Rio that Preacher linked, though, and it's half the price. My wife and I don't have 756 MB of songs on our computers, but we have the flash memory (extras for our camera) to make it that big so it'd just be a matter of swapping out songs on occassion. I am a little bummed at the USB 1.1, however, I'd rather it be 2.0, but again I doubt we'd switch songs that often. Can the iPod store files like a portable hard drive, or is it limited to songs? Does the iPod play .wma? That's become a make-or-break point because I don't want to rip all of my wife's CDs to .mp3 and the easiest way for me to teach her to rip is through WMP. Thanks for all the advice and help, guys! This is exactly what I wanted! GJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeK August 25, 2004 Share TeK Member August 25, 2004 (edited) It can store files to my knowledge as it is a portable hard drive. Haven't really tested that feature yet nor intend to. I have about 400 songs on it or so and still have tons of space left on it. I bring it to school everyday and it keeps me going on trips etc. It plays mp3's so if you rip your cd's to mp3's, drag it to itunes(What you will be using to transfer songs to it) and let it transfer. Itunes also rips your cds as well to .acc format. Still very good quality. The ipod charges via firewire. I had to purchase a firewire card for my computer as I didn't have a firewire port on my mobo. You can transfer the songs to the ipod with USB 2.0 or firewire, but its easier to do it with the fire as it charges also. You also have to pay extra for the USB 2.0 transfer cable as it doesn't come with the package. The 4th generation ipods were just released which now have an extended battery time (from 8hr for the 3rd gen to now around 12 hr's for the 4th gen) and an updated interface(The outside no longer has the buttons above the wheel, the wheel now contains the play/foward/rewind/stop with the scroll wheel being on the side) The 2 small gripes I have with it tho are the buttons are very sensitive, one slight touch and the song pauses or changes. The other gripe is that if you go somewhere and your friend has an ipod and has itunes on the comp and you want to charge it, I believe you lose all the songs on ur ipod as it then links up with the other computer and their songs get transfered over and you lose yours. Not sure if this has been fixed or not, haven't tested it but read about it somewhere before purchase(I did a lot of research on hard drive mp3 players before I purchased also looking at the RIO zen and the dell jukebox). I used to have a RIO 128 meg player and while it performed very well...Battery life was terrible on it and sometimes mp3's would crash it(Cause it to freeze needing me to remove the battery and reset the whole thing). It was a nice investment at the time but I'm very satisfied with my ipod(Saved me from MANY boring college classes with terrible professors ;x) I'm sure you'll be happy on whatever purchase you make but I stand by my ipod =O Edited August 25, 2004 by TeK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman August 25, 2004 Share Hitman Member August 25, 2004 I found this site a while back with some really cool software for managing your music on an iPod (and it looks like they've expanded to some other players too). May be worth a look on your part (may influence your decision)... http://www.redchairsoftware.com/ Screens: http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/screens.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PDO August 25, 2004 Share Guest PDO Guests August 25, 2004 Not an MP3 player, but I have a MiniDisc player which I love, never skipped and per each disc it can hold roughly 280 minutes. Quality is good, only downside is it can't hold PC filse, it's also quite a bit cheaper than an iPod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 25, 2004 Author Share appalachian_fox Member August 25, 2004 Nice software. A definite plus for the iPod. PDO, I dearly love my minidisc player. Unfortunately I don't think that's something my wife will go for. The simpler the better. I'm the technogeek, she just wants it to work, and I'd rather have her solution be as click-and-drag as possible to save me a few headaches Though, I will consider getting her one now...I do love the thing, it never skips and it sounds great... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWarrior August 25, 2004 Share HWarrior Member August 25, 2004 Got my wife the Sandisk MP3 Companion for her last birthday. You have to buy the storage separately (Sandisk Micro) but worked out great for us because we already had 2 of the Sandisk Micros. They come in 128MB, 256MB, 512MB sizes -Battery life is great. -My wife has dropped hers twice already and it still works like a champ. -Really like the fact that it uses the Sandisk Micros because they work just like a disk drive when plugged into USB. So you can store MP3s and data files and still play your MP3s. -The buttons are minimal but it has a good menu system. Update... Newegg & Staples have these in stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 26, 2004 Author Share appalachian_fox Member August 26, 2004 $70 for an MP3 player? What's the catch? Sure, you have to buy the memory key, but I was planning on that anyway, so I'm just locked into a brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWarrior August 26, 2004 Share HWarrior Member August 26, 2004 Yeah. Only Sandisk Micro products will fit into it. Other Sandisk flash drives won't fit. Only problem my wife has is that it takes time getting used to the menu to switch folders and might be more difficult if jogging. But my wife always leaves hers on random play and just skips the songs she doesn't want to hear. By the way, if you get it and wonder why it doesn't play your songs in alphanumeric order. It plays them in the order they were copied over. Took us a while to figure that out but no big deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 27, 2004 Author Share appalachian_fox Member August 27, 2004 I think I found my answer: iPod mini $249 list, $229 with student discount (finally, there are good excuses to going to college for 7+ years!). It has a 4 GB drive, which is more than sufficient for my wife (or even my purposes), and it is a flash drive, which alleviates my concerns about head crashes. It's also an iPod...What else do I have to say? I'm really bothered that it doesn't do .wma, but with all the software out there I can definitely have the wife convert what she needs and delete it when she's done listening to it. It's more effort that way, but hey, we don't have unlimited HD space and buying an extra HD just to have duplicates of songs doesn't make much sense. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll find a (legitimately) free software suite that rips CDs to a native format that Apple will recognize (not .AAC, .WAVs to big...maybe .mp3?) Thanks all! Any other good ideas that differ, or things I didn't think about the mini, please let me have 'em! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeK August 27, 2004 Share TeK Member August 27, 2004 The price you are spending for the mini, you should spring for the extra money(You can use your student discount on the larger one also) and go for the 20 gig larger one. I don't know why Apple prices the minis so high, now if the mini was $150 then it would be a bargain, but $250 where 50 bucks can get you 16 more gigs, i'll take the 20 gig ipod over the mini. The only advantage the mini has is the size. IMO, I feel your getting royally ripped off if you go with the mini as you can spring the extra money for the larger one(Again, student discount still works so your paying about $270 + tax). Again, just my opinion. Your not even looking to spend 300 as you said but it seems u were leaning towards an ipod or a mp3 flash player. GL tho with whatever choice u make, I know my ipod is a life saver =] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 30, 2004 Author Share appalachian_fox Member August 30, 2004 (edited) The reason the mini is so expensive is the storage. The 4 GB drive is actually a flash drive, not a hard drive. For what you actually get, you're ripped off for buying the iPod, not the mini, from what I understand...IMO, I think up until recently Apple has ripped everyone who bought iPods of any variety a new one and they're still nothing special in the price arena, though they are reasonable finally. However, they are the top of the line and have proven themselves so, whatever that's worth. 20 GB of songs? I know some people have big libraries, but our biggest hard drive is 40 GB and we never have space issues with our music library, my games, productivity software and all my thesis data (and I'm in geoinformatics, some of my data files can be 2+ GB each). Bottom line is everything above 2, maybe 3 gigs would be wasted space on an MP3 player for us, though for only an extra $40 (I noticed you can use the discount on it, sweet) it's probably not worth not getting it because you can't upgrade later. I'm really glad iPods came down, I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with shaking a hard drive around. I remember a day when if you gave a HD a good shaking it was bad. Period. It's still amazing how far we've come in 20 years, I have dropped hard drives and they still work fine, and laptops, wow, the abuse they can take and still work. Anyway, I'm rambling, anybody else have luck running with an iPod? Or know for sure if it can hold files? Edited August 30, 2004 by appalachian_fox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeK August 30, 2004 Share TeK Member August 30, 2004 Said My friend ran with his multiple times. Never skipped a beat. So its a flash drive, that means you can store files on it? If you want me to throw on a bunch of files to the ipod and run with it for a day at school I'll do it for ya. I mean your still paying 250 bucks for a 4 gig flash drive. I don't see the logic in it where if you can store files on the regular ipod your paying 50 bucks more. Again my opinion. Comes with a year warrenty so if it decides to break, you'll get a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 31, 2004 Author Share appalachian_fox Member August 31, 2004 What I meant is a 4 Gig flash drive costs a lot more than a 20 Gig laptop hard drive, if you're factoring component costs into the value of the product. I imagine if you can store files on the mini you can do it on the regular iPod. If you wouldn't mind, Tek, just seeing you can copy files to it, that'd be great. Pointing out the one-year warranty I think we'll probably end up going with the iPod. You're absolutely right, for $40 you get so much more space, and if the technology is just as reliable you can't upgrade later so it makes no sense not to. Thanks for all the help and bouncing your opinions off me, two heads are better than one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeK August 31, 2004 Share TeK Member August 31, 2004 Picture of the IPOD tonight after I transfered files over, will take it with me to school tommorrow and bum around. Will come home and let you know if the files were still on there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox September 1, 2004 Author Share appalachian_fox Member September 1, 2004 Nice BG btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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