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[Reccomend On] shnazzy MP3 players
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The awesomeness of the iPod Touch and iPhone is very Internet dependent, and with the iPhone that is never a problem.
My point in this thread wasn't really "Get an iPhone" as much as it was "don't get an iPod Touch" if you want a snazzy MP3 player. I've had both. My iPod Touch was a somewhat snazzy and supremely expensive MP3 Player. My iPhone changed my life.
Someone let me algorhythm (steve_0990) into the PA Steam group
Having the internet at all time with the iPhone is awesome. However, the app store has a TON of great apps that don't require the internet to function. When you are getting an iPod Touch, in addition to your MP3 player, you are also getting a pretty good game player as well. Having the internet at hotspots is just a really nice bonus.
Unfortunately, that doctor better hope the restaurant has wifi available, because (as far as I know) the Osirix client won't pull the dicom files over a cell connection. Still, it's fun to play with.
Wouldn't that be a privacy issue if say they lose the iphone with the MRI stuff on it?
kind of like if they lose the MRI stuff in any other fashion
not to mention there are security measures in place to protect your iphone
I'm probably old fashion, but I'm guessing it's not going to replace actual medical hardware (or, for that matter, an ambulance trip to an actual hospital) any time soon. It does sound like it'd be very helpful to medical students. And if I had a choice between my usual GP and someone similar with just an iPhone, I know which I'd choose....*shudder*
To return to the main point, I don't think an iPhone can be lumped in the same category as actual MP3 players. It's a phone. People are saying, "Don't be a cheap bastard, just get an iPhone, you'll thank me later..." What if I already have a phone plan? Or, for that matter, a phone I like. If I didn't own a cell phone, that'd be a different matter, but I'm quite happy with my cheapo Razr over something that, while very cool, seems like a giant fingerprint magnet.
yeah maybe it doesn't hold as many songs total as other players, make some playlists or something damn
The ipod/iphone had great and neat apps and cool features, but if you are just using them for the sole purpose of music, then they offer very little actual innovation when compared the Zune.
Yeah I am being a total fanboy here, but when something works so damn well for you, its hard not to speak up.
Or he can use the Zune pass, and pick his own music, and keep 10 (per month) of the subscription songs forever for $15 a month.
Seriously, I thought the iTouch was a hell of a lot cooler back when I was under the mistaken impression that it had a model that went to 160 gigs. Now? Honestly, you might as well either get a regular iPod or an iPhone if you just have to use Apple products.
i also meant that he can use it to find new music (and listen to it to see if he likes it) instead of his amazing zune thing, not something used solely to listen to music
ok yes it has more storage, but that's about it, and who really needs 120 gigs of space for just music? not only that, how much more fun is carrying 120gb of music than 8gb? i sincerely hope you are never in a situation where you will listen to 8gb+ of music on the go.
the zune pass thing is retarded, you can get 15 songs for that price at the itunes store. "but brt you get to listen to as many as you want!!!" yeah well you can do that anyway on your computer or your ipod touch.
160 gigs is ridiculous and you should feel ridiculous for feeling it is necessary
Seriously?
I filled up my 4 gig Zune with like, 10% of what I've downloaded since getting the Zune pass. Unless everything you listen to is 128kbps, the space goes really quick. More space is never a bad thing... which is just about the most obvious thing I've ever had to explain to someone, but moving on.
The Zune also plays videos, so it's not a "just music" thing (it also has games, but I assume they suck, so we won't count that). And the Zune Pass is bad ass. It's $15 a month for as much music as you want, and it's not some kind of internet radio bullshit. It's music you choose, albums you choose, etc. You don't sit there and hope the application correctly guesses your taste in music. It also has a bunch of different ways for you to find new music if you feel like it, though, relating to whatever you're listening to/looking at when you feel like looking.
And obviously, it not being some sort of radio-type thing, you can actually download the music and take it places where there aren't wifi hotspots. Despite your belief that anywhere without a hotspot is "bumfuck nowhere," this is a very nice feature. Also, it's a decent bitrate, not shitty streaming quality.
Again, this is all $15 a month. And if you subtract the cost of the 10 songs you can permanently keep every month, it's $5.
Unless that "you can do that anyway on your computer" thing was a reference to pirating, then you really have no ground to stand on here.
Seriously, just go to the site and sign up for the free trial. Try it out for two weeks, not a dime.
How much would it cost to fill the thing up with songs? $20,000... However if I wanted to carry 20,000 songs, I could just pay $15 a month and even in the long run it is still cheaper thanks to the keep 10 thing they have going on. Also in regards to the zune pass, is it not interesting to open up the marketplace-- on the computer or on the device itself, and decide, "Oh, grammy awards? Yeah, I want all those songs. Yes all of them." *click click click click*
Its such a liberating feeling.
And you may have a point to 'who listens to 120 gigs of music' but take it into account that the zune pass has been around for years and this keep 10 thing is going to make it last even longer. My library has nearly quadrupled in size since december. And while I download willy nilly, I will actually listen to the songs and decide if they are worth keeping around or not. I weed out a lot of songs but from most albums, I keep a few songs here and there. Which is why the keep 10 thing is so great. I can download a new album, listen to all of it, and delete the songs I don't want and keep the 2 or 3 that I really have grown attached to. I don't just download 100,000 songs for the sake of having 100,000 songs although with the zune pass, I could just download an external harddrive and fill it the fuck up if I wanted to. Can you do that on your iPod?
As for music discovery, forget about it. iTunes basically has the intro the marketplace which is all "Cold play's new album!" and "If you like X then you may like Y!" suggestions sprinkled about. Sorry but that is just not a good way to find new music. The zune has so many different means of doing this simple task of finding quality music that you like. A: It has the social aspect. I can go on facebook or even these forums or whatever and see other people's zune cards, check out their most listened to album, and preview what they are listening to. If I like it, I can click the little shopping cart icon on their zune card and it opens zune right up and thanks to my zune pass, begins downloading it immediately.
But lets say that you don't have friends. Zune has some awesome channels which are playlists automatically updated every week. And there are at least a hundred or so channels. From fucking Bluegrass to downtempo. Not all of the songs are winners, but I found quite a number of gems. And besides this, there is the mix view which is kind of a visual way of hopping from one band to a similar one.
Just face it, BRT. The zune is the winner in the audio arena. The zune software does everything itunes does and more. The zune marketplace offers what the itunes store does, and more. The zune marketplace does more crazy awesome shit like whole brand new albums for $1. Never heard of itunes offering that nor any kind of download whatever the fuck you want pass. The zune also has social aspects that believe it or not, are not a marketing gimmick. To say that ipods + itunes are still better is just flat being dumb.
Okay, I'm an iPod Touch owner, and even I have to call bullshit on your argument.
The Zune pass is fucking awesome, and I wish I could take advantage of that. for $15 you get 10 free song downloads to keep, and an unlimited subscription. Think of it as paying $1 for 10 songs, and an unlimited subscription for $5. That is an amazing deal, one that the iTunes store cannot touch.
I bought a 32GB iPod touch because nothing smaller would do. Guess what, there are a lot of people who like having large music collections with them at all times. I went from the 80GB classic to the 32GB touch and there are times that I really miss the capacity. I like the fact that I have 3000 songs I can choose from at any given time, so I can listen to whatever I want. I do a little bit of traveling and this is a life saver. it also allows me to put 5-6 movies on the iPod when I do travel, again, saves my life.
The Zune is also a very capable video player, has a screen that's nearly as good as the iPod Touch's, just a bit smaller. Space for lots of video is awesome.
The Zune is a fantastic device if you are looking for just an MP3 and video player. The Zune pass is an amazing value for the price you pay. The software is still meh, but so is iTunes. If you want a player that plays MP3's and video, and you're not married to iTunes video downloads, the Zune is a much better choice than the iPod.
However, if you want a device that is so much more than just an MP3/Video player, by all means, get an iPod Touch. Now that I have one, I wont' go back. the iPod touch is an absolutely amazing device. Do I wish I had a permanent connection on it, sometimes. But honestly, the only thing that would make me happier is a 64GB version.
It's pretty simple really.
The Zune is the best MP3/Video player on the market
the iPod Touch is the best overall device that can do more than MP3/video.
For example, I have a podcast that I like to listen to in the car on the way to school. The podcasts update daily and is about 40minutes long. So I have the software only keep the 3 most recent episodes and only sync the very newest one to my zune. I don't even have to think about it anymore. I just grab my zune and go.
And not just that... but there are also channels which update music on the fly. I keep the songs from the previous listing that I want and *wooosh* new songs come in overnight ready to go in the morning.
Hate to nitpick, but iTunes+iPod have done the bolded part for almost 4 years.
I've played with the current software, and I wasn't a fan. I think it's too much on the pretty, and not enough on the functional. iTunes is a bit better, but not fantastic.
Layout is going to be a subjective matter--personally, I can't stand iTunes because when I used it, it refused to acknowledge my earlier settings whenever I added songs to the listing. You also can't change some of the column headings (you can change all of them in the Zune).
There were also quite a few technical issues--granted, this was years ago, so they may have been ironed out. One serious problem was the fact that it was a severe memory hug, even after you had "closed" the program, because apparently Apple thought it should be allowed to remain open at all times and suck up all your RAM. The only really reliable method was using the Task Manager to nail the thing shut. But technology has changed since then, so I'd be surprised if this was still a problem. Transcoding also seriously sucked back then, but I've heard it's changed. iTunes has had a LONG time to work on this (compared to the Zune software, about three times as much), so they'd better have fixed it.
While it has advanced to become less of a bloat than it used to be, Apple has become more of a bloat and now wants the iTunes launcher, Bonjour, and something else always running. I know I can kill it through task manager and uninstall Bonjour and whatever else is unnecessary, but it's still ridiculous.
Zune does have a launcher as well, since I figured I'd look.
iTunes launcher is 1.9MB while Zune launcher is 1.2MB if anyone really cares about that small of memory.
Backloggery XBox Live 3DS: 1805-2274-4550 (Jonathan)
I mean, software is really only bloated because the hardware to run it well doesn't exist yet.
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
No, I'm sorry, but nothing can top real player.
and iTunes is better for audio than WMP. But WMP kicks it's ass in video.
Regardless, anyone putting real player anywhere other than the bottom in a ranking of media players needs to stop using a computer right now and just start writing crap into stone.
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
I'm not sure real player counts as a media player though. Horrible trick? Swift kick to the crotch? Declaration of war? Something along those lines.
I'd probably go with 'declaration of war'. It seems most apt since you still deal with the damned files hovering around the internet like forgotten anti-personnel mines, just waiting for some poor bastard to try converting them to something more stable so they can explode in his face with audio sync issues.
*shakes fist*
160gb would make sense for videos, if there was a reason to put videos on there more space in exchange for functionality is a bad thing
especially since most people won't ever need that much space you can use last.fm or any other number of things to find new music
you can then download this music from the itunes store
the zune pass is kind of pointless compared to the cheaper combination of last.fm + itunes did you know: you can download music off the itunes store and listen to it in places that aren't wifi hotspots 5$ for what is basically last.fm with one extraneous feature it was a reference to going on the internet to listen to songs before you buy them, without needing a zune pass do i get to keep 10 songs
however there's no reason to compare just itunes with the zune pass when there are other things that can accomplish what the zune pass does for cheaper with you at all times? no it is not interesting to open up the marketplace and buy songs that you like
finding songs you like without paying 5$ for it is just as interesting as the zune pass yes i can do this on my ipod, and more (in reference to listening, deleting, saving etc.)
no i can't download thousands of songs just because i feel like it. who cares? i never said itunes was good for finding new music
por ejemplo: last.fm yes but the ipod touch or your goddamn computer can do what the zune software does already see now this is the first thing i have heard that interests me if you take itunes by itself vesus the zune software, by itself, yes the zune pass looks pretty good
fortunately we don't live in the kind of world where proprietary software is all the access to music we have
that is silly that you need 160gb of music with you wherever you go (or however much music you are talking about)
Download the software, get your trial, download the top 100 and listen from #1 to 100 while watching the visualizations, toying with organization and settings and everything the fuck else you could possibly want to do. Because if you don't experience it, you don't know why it is so much better.
Also, what the fuck does "yes but the ipod touch or your goddamn computer can do what the zune software does already" mean? My zune software does more than your itunes software. That's not an opinion, that's a fact. The zune software is more capable than itunes. Period. That was the point I was trying to make. That the software on the goddamn CD is a better all in one store/library manager/and media player than itunes is.
The bottom line is that the Zune software, device, and web components (zune.net's facebook like social, zune cards, etc) fit the bill when it comes to Shnazzy MP3 players. It has fantastic potential if you reach out to contribute and take part in it. If all you do is have 2 linkin park cds and rip them and put them on your zune. You are doing it wrong. Period. The coolest things about the zune are completely free too. The web profile, the 360 connectivity, the social and all kinds of cool alerts and things to keep you bound to your zune. If you find that you enjoy listening to the same songs on loop forever and never want to do anything about it, then get a $10 1gig mp3 player. It would save you a shit ton of money.
DO YOU SPEND MONEY ON MUSIC? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEND LESS MONEY TO GET MORE MUSIC? OKAY MISTER, THEN ZUNE PASS > ITUNES.
Are the numbers shrouded in mystery? To me they seem clear.
Zune Pass: 15$ = 10 songs per month to own + unlimited songs to download and listen to for free.
iTunes: 2$ = 1 song to own, 0 songs to download and listen to for free.
If you're one seriously picky motherfucker who doesn't want to listen to music you don't already own and you only want to buy seven or less songs per month, you can make an argument that iTunes is superior to Zune Pass (because at that point it's cheaper and, being a seriously picky motherfucker, you don't care about downloading and listening to whatever you want for free anyways).
edit: I for one like all the stupid shit I can do on my iphone, and I wouldn't trade it away for some extra storage. At the same time, I can totally understand how there are people who just want portable media players and who don't care about setting their hockey pool lineup or playing tower defense or anything like that. Some people just want good portable media players. Particularly if you like to keep videos on your phone, the iphone/ipod touch lack for storage and you end up swapping files in and out a lot. I adopted portable mp3 players when 32 mb was the standard amount of storage, so I just put up with it (because I've put up with it forever) but if I genuinely wanted the best media player I could get, I sure wouldn't be going with an iphone or ipod touch.
use itunes to buy music, and something else (for example, last.fm) to find music
the unlimited download thing is the only interesting part, but it's unnecessary if you spend time finding and downloading music you like instead of mass downloading thousands of songs just to sift through them (on the go too)
And why would you use itunes to BUY MUSIC when it's more expensive? 15$ for 10 is a lot less than 2$ for 1.
If you spend money on music, Zune pass gets you more for less. There is nothing to argue about. End communication.
edited for a modicum of civility.
you can very easily listen to it on last.fm, and then buy it on itunes
for one dollar, not two, by the way
listen to it through any number of other different ways
for example, myspace has entire album playlists for free on artist's pages
Except myspace audio quality stinks (and if we didn't care about audio quality we'd all just listen to music for free off of youtube) and it's by no means a rule that all artists do this. The value of free unlimited downloads per month with Zune is that you effectively get to listen to every piece of music you want, that you find anywhere (be it on last.fm or myspace or the radio) and do it as many times as you want without ever paying more than your 15$ subscription... all at high quality. Keeping 10 songs per month is kind of just like a parting gift for when you end the service.
Zune pass is 15$ a month for all the music you've ever wanted to listen to. How can you like music but not like this? No advertisements, no shitty quality, no pause between tracks (hello last.fm app.) Just pick the songs you want to have, grab them, and listen.
also i understand why people would like the zune pass, i just don't think what it gives you is quite worth the price, and is something i wouldn't use
but i don't use itunes either so
If you don't like subscriptions then it's not a service that'll appeal to you, but for 15$ you can't really get more music anywhere else (legally.)
also i guess yeah you get the most amount of music, but temporarily
it can go lower or it can go higher, dunno how frequently it fluctuates though
I can have it all immediately for $15, plus keep my ten favorites forever, or I can spend like $80 for the whole shebang.
It's just a matter of how much I feel like spending (or can spend) while still having like, two thousand songs and some videos with me at all times. Songs I don't already own, I mean.
To each his own I guess.
Regarding the whole "Zune is the best player period" thing, though, that's debatable. I'm not saying it's not a fuckawesome device, but there are a lot of preferences and little things that go into making something the best, and every person has his or her own preferences. Like the OP of this thread, for instance... he seems to be the type that doesn't enjoy PMPs that won't support drag n' drop storage.
In this case, that's a serious detriment for both the Zune and the iPod (I think), and a boon for one of the high-capacity "open-source friendly" PMPs. Not to mention that some folks don't want to be "tied down" to a subscription service at all, which is a position I can fully understand. I'm a cheap motherfucker, and I don't like programs telling me I can't listen to music that's on my hdd.
Also, in the name of fairness, I feel I need to point out that the Zune Software can't burn DVDs properly. Like, as something I can put in a DVD player and watch. Instead it just burns them as data DVDs, which does me a fuckload of good.