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Message |
    
TomD
Citizen
Username: Tomd
Post Number: 28
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Monday, June 20, 2005 - 4:34 pm: |     |
Ok, I'm a bit of a contrarian when it comes to...well most things. When my very old 20GB (non-IPod) MP3 player went kaput recently I was at a loss. I knew I needed a replacement, but what to get? The easy answer was to buy an Ipod. I dislike the Shuffle because it doesn't hold nearly enough and it has no screen. The mini has a good size, but it only holds 5 or 6 gigs. The regular IPod seemed kind of expensive and there was that contrarian thing.
The Creative and the Rio looked promising at 20+ gigs, but neither really excited me.
The is saw this one: Archos GMini XS 200.
It holds 20GB, is about the size of an IPod mini and costs under $200.
The thing I like most about it (aside from the size and weight) is its pure simplicity. I don't need any software. No Musicmatch, no ITunes, no Windows Media Player, no nothin. Just Windows Explorer (or the file management tool of your choice). Basically, I plug in the Gmini XS 200 (USB 2) and it appears as a drive. I just copy music over to it and the Gmini reads the folder structure just as I created it. It lets me navigate either by ID3 tages or the folder structure I made.
No calendar, no address book, no games. Nothing but storage and music.
That's not my hand, btw.
I'll grant you, I'm sure it lacks some of the elegance of the Ipod and it certainly lacks the cachet, but I'll take added simplicity over having the "in" toy any day. I wouldn't, for example, recommend buying one for a high school student, since I suspect having anything but an Ipod in high school is probably like wearing Toughskins when everyone else has Levis (or whatever high school student wear now). |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 7692
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 20, 2005 - 4:41 pm: | |
Another idea, though not entirely comparable is a Palm Lifedrive: http://www.palmone.com/us/products/mobilemanagers/lifedrive/
It's a full blown PDA with a 4 GB disk. So not tons of space for MP3's but it's all in one. It also has wifi and bluetooth. You can tell a bluetooth phone to dial a number you pull out of its address book.
An iPod may not seem simple, but maybe the user interface really is why people like it so much.
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Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 6688
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, June 20, 2005 - 5:20 pm: | |
Archos was the first to develop a small MP3 player, but they got trounced by Apple because Archos products are clumsy gadgets and lack all the fun stuff you can do with an iPod. |
Klg
Citizen
Username: Klg
Post Number: 19
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Monday, June 20, 2005 - 6:05 pm: | |
I've owned Archos and Rio MP3 products and found both to be clunky and fragile - the Archos in particular broke about 3 times (just love the Best Buy warranty). Plus Archos didnt pay their rebate for a year.
I really like the iRiver players as a left field choice, not as pretty as Apples but work just as well. No personal experience of their disk-based players. |
cmontyburns
Citizen
Username: Cmontyburns
Post Number: 943
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 9:07 am: | |
The problem with the iPod is that it is so easy to use, and iTunes is about as close to flawless software as you can get. That's a problem because it makes Apple cocky, and keeps them from focusing on things like adding advanced features and improving audio quality. Other devices are superior to the iPod when it comes to features and audio fidelity, but they tend to be train wrecks when it comes to actually trying to use the things.
I have nothing really to contribute here, just a rant. I do think that Apple is eventually going to have to support other music formats, and offer a wider variety of devices, to be competitive. But it's probably going to be awhile, since they have so much of the market now and have been very aggressive in making sure the iTunes Music Store won't work with anything else.
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monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 886
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 10:41 am: | |
Just what format are you looking for the Apple iPod to support?
iPods play,
MPEG4-AAC
Apple Lossless
MP3
WAV
AA
AIFF
and you can easily convert non-protected WMA files to AAC or MP3's.
If you burn protected WMA's to a CD (as an audio CD, not a data CD), then import those songs into iTunes from the CD.
As far as the sound quality goes, unless you are one of the few that have a golden ear, you most likely won't be bothered by listening to an iPod.
What's more important is the quality of the sound file.
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TomD
Citizen
Username: Tomd
Post Number: 30
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 12:44 pm: | |
As I said at the outset, the Ipod is cooler (that's no contest) and the Ipod has a cooler, better interface, but the Gmini's interface has come a long way from the old Archos products. As for reliability, this one has already take a few unfortunate hard tumbles and it hasn't even skipped. As for Itunes-eh, I can take it or leave it. The thing I really like best about the Archos is that I don't have to use a music manager if I don't want to. The only other one I really considered was the Dell DJ, (at 30GB, I would have gotten it if it only had a USB port on it). For some reason, however, Dell forces you to either use an adapter or the dock in order to hook to a computer. The Dell has some kind of 24(ish)pin connector. I don't get it. I just want a simple, standard USB port (like the archos has). The other thing I dislike about the docking stations is that if you put you player in any kind of case, it usually won't fit in the dock anymore! So you are forever pulling your player out of the case. (The same thing happened with my PDA, I'd rather not have a dock, I find them to be unnecessary, in general.
5GB vs 20GB
The archos plays WMAs, which I don't use, but not protected ones (fortunately, I don't play protected WMA's either). It plays what I have, MP3. I'm not about to switch my collection to Ogg no matter what the people on /. say any more than I would switch it to WMA, no matter what MS says. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 6691
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 1:26 pm: | |
Ugh. What a butt-ugly device. |
TomD
Citizen
Username: Tomd
Post Number: 31
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 2:06 pm: | |
Yep. For only 50% more (or about $100) you get the pretty one. |
Stevef
Citizen
Username: Stevef
Post Number: 46
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 4:24 pm: | |
I owned an Archos. Damn thing was impossible to use and had to be repaired 3 times. Finally bought an iPod and the difference is night and day. ITunes makes a big difference, IMO.
Goes to show: buy cheap, buy twice |
Oliver
Citizen
Username: Oly
Post Number: 10
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - 12:08 pm: | |
Windows users with iPods may also want to check out Anapod as an alternative for managing your iPod. It has all kinds of nice features including pulling files back off the iPod and streaming mp3s from your iPod over the web.
http://www.redchairsoftware.com/
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