Personal Rant Time: Why I hate the iPod (prepare to flame me)
In response to Jacqueline's post (and countless others, most notably Jane, Sally, amongst others) - I'll say this bluntly:
I HATE THE IPOD.
It's not anger or jealousy over the company, the player itself, the bundled music software - it's the design (from a technical standpoint) of the player that makes me angry. Don't get me wrong: Apple is a reliable (well, all mp3 players have the same core design, and many companies - Apple, Creative, Sony, etc - use the same hard disc supplier - so reliability is really moot) company, iTunes is ridiculously easy to use, and the external design really set a precedent for other companies to follow. Since when did computer gadgets become so cool, so sleek ... and become must-haves overnight? I laud Apple and the iPod for doing that much.
But Apple needs to change one fundamental design flaw of the iPod - one it's really hesitant to change.
IT NEEDS A REMOVABLE BATTERY.
The iPod's batteries last for roughly 500 complete charge/recharge cycles before the battery stops holding charge. Roughly speaking - if you're an avid user of the iPod - the battery will last only for about one and a half years, or two at most.
To change the battery, you need to find some way (usually a philips screwdriver works) to remove the casing, remove the battery, and find a replacement from the Internet. The battery price is reasonable and comparable (roughly $50), but there's a chance you're undertaking in opening a case that was designed, from the onset, to be sealed shut for the lifetime of the product - there's some chance that you can damage the internals (i.e., screen, hard drive, internal PCB boards, etc) while removing the case. Obviously, the damage (if there's any) won't be covered by Apple's warranty, and damage caused by the new battery probably won't be fixed/handled by the company that made and/or sold it to you.
The other option is to mail your iPod back to Apple and pay the company some nominal fee ($50? correct me if I'm wrong). It's not that good of an option. Apple chunks your original iPod and gives you a refurbished one (i.e. one that was returned earlier -- includes models that were returned because of technical errors or hardware failures) of dubious quality. Second, you'll lose all of the music you had on the iPod, meaning that you have to have your music on the iPod backed up on your computer's hard drive, or on CDs or something else. And, lastly, the whole process can take a while (a week or longer), and depending on how much you're addicted to your iPod, that might not be a good thing.
When the iPod was first released back in 2001, the original designers had to integrate the battery to keep the device small enough to fit into pockets. Technology has evolved far enough -- enough to allow "micro" mp3 players (Creative's Zen Micro, which is about as big as the old iPod Mini) to have removable, rechargeable batteries that provide about 14 hours of playback time on one charge. So, unless you're talking about the iPod nano (which is an engineering marvel in its own right, but has recently been the subject of failed screens and displays), I can't really see why Apple would stick to its original design.
That is all. I think it's a bad move from an engineering standpoint, but an excellent one from the perspective of a businessman.
That said, I really like some of Creative's players (Zen Micro, Zen Xtra) and Sony's newest mp3 player (Network Walkman NW-HD5) hard-disc players. All three have removable, rechargeable batteries, and Creative's players also have FM tuners/recording capability built-in. Creative has got decent software (as well as supereasy plug-and-play compatibility with Windows XP computers thanks to Microsoft's PlaysForSure technology), but Sony's SonicStage (or whatever it's called) software is a piece of shit.
Let the flame war begin!!!!!!
I HATE THE IPOD.
It's not anger or jealousy over the company, the player itself, the bundled music software - it's the design (from a technical standpoint) of the player that makes me angry. Don't get me wrong: Apple is a reliable (well, all mp3 players have the same core design, and many companies - Apple, Creative, Sony, etc - use the same hard disc supplier - so reliability is really moot) company, iTunes is ridiculously easy to use, and the external design really set a precedent for other companies to follow. Since when did computer gadgets become so cool, so sleek ... and become must-haves overnight? I laud Apple and the iPod for doing that much.
But Apple needs to change one fundamental design flaw of the iPod - one it's really hesitant to change.
IT NEEDS A REMOVABLE BATTERY.
The iPod's batteries last for roughly 500 complete charge/recharge cycles before the battery stops holding charge. Roughly speaking - if you're an avid user of the iPod - the battery will last only for about one and a half years, or two at most.
To change the battery, you need to find some way (usually a philips screwdriver works) to remove the casing, remove the battery, and find a replacement from the Internet. The battery price is reasonable and comparable (roughly $50), but there's a chance you're undertaking in opening a case that was designed, from the onset, to be sealed shut for the lifetime of the product - there's some chance that you can damage the internals (i.e., screen, hard drive, internal PCB boards, etc) while removing the case. Obviously, the damage (if there's any) won't be covered by Apple's warranty, and damage caused by the new battery probably won't be fixed/handled by the company that made and/or sold it to you.
The other option is to mail your iPod back to Apple and pay the company some nominal fee ($50? correct me if I'm wrong). It's not that good of an option. Apple chunks your original iPod and gives you a refurbished one (i.e. one that was returned earlier -- includes models that were returned because of technical errors or hardware failures) of dubious quality. Second, you'll lose all of the music you had on the iPod, meaning that you have to have your music on the iPod backed up on your computer's hard drive, or on CDs or something else. And, lastly, the whole process can take a while (a week or longer), and depending on how much you're addicted to your iPod, that might not be a good thing.
When the iPod was first released back in 2001, the original designers had to integrate the battery to keep the device small enough to fit into pockets. Technology has evolved far enough -- enough to allow "micro" mp3 players (Creative's Zen Micro, which is about as big as the old iPod Mini) to have removable, rechargeable batteries that provide about 14 hours of playback time on one charge. So, unless you're talking about the iPod nano (which is an engineering marvel in its own right, but has recently been the subject of failed screens and displays), I can't really see why Apple would stick to its original design.
That is all. I think it's a bad move from an engineering standpoint, but an excellent one from the perspective of a businessman.
That said, I really like some of Creative's players (Zen Micro, Zen Xtra) and Sony's newest mp3 player (Network Walkman NW-HD5) hard-disc players. All three have removable, rechargeable batteries, and Creative's players also have FM tuners/recording capability built-in. Creative has got decent software (as well as supereasy plug-and-play compatibility with Windows XP computers thanks to Microsoft's PlaysForSure technology), but Sony's SonicStage (or whatever it's called) software is a piece of shit.
Let the flame war begin!!!!!!