Apple drops the Ball.

[1kyle]

Nice to feel a bit of "Schadenfreude" about Apple products. After the problems with the Ipod Mini the new Ipod Nano has also run into unsolvable problems -- apart from screens cracking etc the units are just TOO small for convenient use and have attracted a lot of criticism.

This Xmas day a lot of people have found out as well that Ipods are just too limiting -- in the UK over 85% of music is still "Ripped" from CD's and this figure won't change appreciably in the future --- most people don't want to be bound to a computer for using / organising music collections. DRM has also effectively put off a lot of people about using downloaded music and until this changes both the quality and convenience of downloaded tracks will ensure both CD and Live music remain the main delivery mechanism for music for a considerable time to come.

MD for professional use has undegone a real revival --especially with the MZ-M100 --affordable hi quality PRO field recording gear -- cost and archivability of solid state media is still prohibitive.

In spite of Sony making the consumer version almost impossible to use via DRM etc , the MD format future in 2006 looks better than it has for some time now and any talk of its demise are wildly premature.

And I really DO just love the MZ-M100 -- (Thanks Santa) --this does just what I want for a portable RECORDING device. Looks really nice as well.

Happy Xmas every one.

Cheers

-K

Edited December 25, 2005 by 1kyle

[MDGB2]

Seem to be hard to find the M100/10. Not seen any in the UK.

I just hope Sony have got some new units in the works (and a deck!)

[akijikan]

Why buy the m100/10 when the PC version rh10/910 is so much cheaper.

[sebastianbf]

maybe he will use it with a mac "?"

[1kyle]

maybe he will use it with a mac "?"

Absolutely -- also I was given this as a prezzie so I didn't have to buy it.

Mac use is really great.

Cheers

-K

[tekdroid]

Absolutely -- also I was given this as a prezzie so I didn't have to buy it.

Heh. You've got me wondering how you'd react to a free iPod now

[Sparky191]

Nice to feel a bit of "Schadenfreude" about Apple products...

I'm confused. Are you basing this on any facts? If so could you post the links? or is it just your own opinion?

[e1ghtyf1ve]

I'm confused. Are you basing this on any facts? If so could you post the links? or is it just your own opinion?

Most of the iPod's shortcomings are widely discussed on various user sites, and Apple has acknowledged most of them. They are now considered common knowledge. What I'm more curious about is where 1kyle got the CD ripping statistics and the DRM disillusionment effects for the UK. That's very interesting...

Cheers

[Sparky191]

These flame bait threads are so funny. I love it... "units are just TOO small" I can see the backlash now.

http://www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/golden12.html

Poor Apple

http://www.google.ie/search?client=firefox...G=Google+Search

Edited December 27, 2005 by Sparky191

[e1ghtyf1ve]

These flame bait threads are so funny. I love it... "units are just TOO small" I can see the backlash now.

http://www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/golden12.html

Poor Apple

http://www.google.ie/search?client=firefox...G=Google+Search

Thanks for the links, lol. How about this:

Poor McDonald's

Cheers

[1kyle]

These flame bait threads are so funny. I love it... "units are just TOO small" I can see the backlash now.

http://www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/golden12.html

Poor Apple

http://www.google.ie/search?client=firefox...G=Google+Search

Actually wasn't intended as flame bait -- the small size is a REALLY serious problem for a lot of people who have hands anything even slightly bigger than a "Normal" 7 year olds -- I'm sure for example I'm not the only one who even has trouble typing on a laptop keyboard --never mind texting on some of the newer mobile phones --and my hands are not overtly large either.

A "Keyboard" for me still consists of Black and White keys which produce sounds of great quality when pressed at the correct speed in clearly defined combinations ("Music" I think it's called -- great fun to do as well as listen).

I like the post on the Boomboxes (or in the less PC times of those days they were known as "Ghetto Blasters") -- I have several myself from that period -- and these are now fast becoming quite rare and valuable collectors items --- whoever would have thought it.

Anyway hope you all had a great Xmas and have a great new year.

Cheers

-K

Edited December 27, 2005 by 1kyle

[tekdroid]

Seen this yet?

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3

My only complaints with their "testing" was that damage was being made to the iPod without flexing/stressing the unit as you would if you had it in the back pocket of some tight jeans or something and then sat down (flexing/bending the unit with the curvature of your butt). Their "sitting down" tests claim to have put it on a wooden chair and sitting on it - on a (presumably) flat surface. Pretty uneventful, as you can imagine.

Still, it's all good clean family fun to see things destroyed and dissected.

That's page 3 of the review, but read the rest for some good info you'd probably want a future Hi-MD model to have (then again, maybe not if it jacks up the price - bring date/time-stamp back on lower-end models

Have we had any "MD gets destroyed" threads yet? Detailed autopsies? Or visited their places of birth - the factories? That's some stuff I'd love to see. Only seen a few pics of opened MDs here and no factory tours.

Hard to imagine MD coping with a car rolling over it

[Sparky191]

Actually wasn't intended as flame bait -- the small size is a REALLY serious problem for a lot of people who have hands anything even slightly bigger than a "Normal" 7 year olds -- I'm sure for example I'm not the only one who even has trouble typing on a laptop keyboard --never mind texting on some of the newer mobile phones --and my hands are not overtly large either....

Why don't you just buy BIGGER stuff then? Griping/posting as if stating facts, and not backing it up with some actual FACTS is flame bait IMO.

Edited December 27, 2005 by Sparky191

[e1ghtyf1ve]

Why don't you just buy BIGGER stuff then? Griping/posting as if stating facts, and not backing it up with some actual FACTS is flame bait IMO.

Awwww. We should start passing the collection plate for Sparky's new M100.

1kyle where did you get those UK statistics?

Cheers

[Sparky191]

Please do I'd love one

Speaking of controls...... to be honest I prefer the scroll wheel on the 1st gen units. The controls on all my MD units, Sharp/Sony are all pretty funky. Certainly there was no (or no decent) ergonomist involved in their design. I'm not that big a fan of the iPod controls as you can't use it without looking at. When you've come from old walkman, Cassette, MD and CD units (even the MP3 units) that you can operate by not looking at them. The current batch of portable players seem a dis-improvement.

The non LCD remote that came with my NH700 is a joke. The one on the G750 I have is terrible aswell.

[1kyle]

Here's some more info on the DRM issue etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4549036.stm

Cheers

-K

[Sparky191]

Here's some more info on the DRM issue etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4549036.stm

Cheers

-K

Unless you've a very slow machine and are encoding in very high bitrates whoch most people don't then I don't see how it takes so long to encode from CD's. I don't have that many CD's maybe 150 or so and I can do most of them in single morning using 256kps or equivalent. The problem I have is managing the tags etc. Pain in the butt especially when they get tagged incorrectly so often. For example, in my experience, iTunes has a habit of tagging different CD's from the same CD disk set with different genres. Seems very odd.

[e1ghtyf1ve]

Unless you've a very slow machine and are encoding in very high bitrates whoch most people don't then I don't see how it takes so long to encode from CD's. I don't have that many CD's maybe 150 or so and I can do most of them in single morning using 256kps or equivalent. The problem I have is managing the tags etc. Pain in the butt especially when they get tagged incorrectly so often. For example, in my experience, iTunes has a habit of tagging different CD's from the same CD disk set with different genres. Seems very odd.

Doesn't seem that odd, really. For example, it's well known that even on the fastest PCs available iRiver's bundled CD to Ogg encoding software (Music Manager) is practically real time. You may not realize that most flash-based players sold here in the US are from Creative, iRiver, and Samsung, not Apple. Also, I find Sony's SB to be much more efficient than iTunes.

You need to remember that most people out there stick with the software bundled with the player and rarely venture to downloading alternatives. And then there are the famous iPod QC problems that are dogging Apple, at least here in the US. There are a lot of factors behind "Apple drops the ball." Will Sony rise up to the occasion? Not likely, since BMG has so much to say now.

Speaking solely for myself, the simply awful quality of downloadable music, legal and...not so legal, will always keep me away from investing in new DRM-crippled players. I love using my HD, DAT, and HiMD recorders for ripping streaming high-quality audio from my cable provider. Now that I figured out how to squeeze the maximum performance from HiMD, it's becoming my favorite format. The convenience alone is hard to beat: I can send my favorite tracks to CD. This is just one of the neat things I can never do with an iPod. Ever.

Cheers

[Sparky191]

I doubt that the masses are using OGG. Any stats?

Sonys SB whats that? SS 3.x is pretty slow. Transfers to HiMD take an age.

No idea, no ones posted any stats on those US sales...

I agree about home recording though. My main use for HiMD too. Aswell as recording my old cassettes.

[e1ghtyf1ve]

I doubt that the masses are using OGG. Any stats?

With iRiver's MM software, Ogg is your only choice. How's that for stats? There's no beating actually owning the devices one talks about. At least it runs on my Macs, unlike SS/SB.

Sonys SB whats that? SS 3.x is pretty slow. Transfers to HiMD take an age.

If Simple Burner takes an age, you should try the competition: A few minutes per CD vs over an hour! That's one of the reasons the competition stays in my drawer.

No idea, no ones posted any stats on those US sales...

No need to, the trends here are obvious. The iPod Shuffle almost doesn't register.

I agree about home recording though. My main use for HiMD too. Aswell as recording my old cassettes.

Yes, and even Dolby Digital sounds much better to my ears than downloadable mp3s.

[atrain]

for me on my laptop & desktop rigs ss outperforms itunes at similar bitrates in import times & is more stable. see a lot more ipods than vaio pockets, hdxs or Aseries though

[e1ghtyf1ve]

for me on my laptop & desktop rigs ss outperforms itunes at similar bitrates in import times & is more stable. see a lot more ipods than vaio pockets, hdxs or Aseries though

Same experience here.

BTW, I agree about seeing more standard HD iPods. I was referring to flash players only...

Cheers

[Sparky191]

Still no stats ah well...

Over here the iPod Shuffle (1GB) is sold out as many sites report, the fact it never dropped in price is an indication that its selling ok. Most expect a new model soon. Most people use WMP, and have existing MP3 collections before they buy a player they don't use the software. Unless they have to... Assuming that iRiver ownership = OGG usage is quite a leap. Here the big sellers are iPods and Cowons. Lack of updates and the bulk of the iRiver units put a lot of people off. Though Rockbox has caused an upsurge or interest. Mainly in the H1xx series though. The creative flash units and the nano are the big sellers. No particular pattern to the size of people hands and the players they buy. High proportion of lefties buy iPods though.

... A few minutes per CD vs over an hour! That's one of the reasons the competition stays in my drawer....

Dunno what you are doing. I can encode a DivX in that time or rebuild an exchange server

[e1ghtyf1ve]

Still no stats ah well...

Over here the iPod Shuffle (1GB) is sold out as many sites report, the fact it never dropped in price is an indication that its selling ok. Most expect a new model soon. Most people use WMP, and have existing MP3 collections before they buy a player they don't use the software. Unless they have to... Assuming that iRiver ownership = OGG usage is quite a leap. Here the big sellers are iPods and Cowons. Lack of updates and the bulk of the iRiver units put a lot of people off. Though Rockbox has caused an upsurge or interest. Mainly in the H1xx series though. The creative flash units and the nano are the big sellers. No particular pattern to the size of people hands and the players they buy. High proportion of lefties buy iPods though.

Dunno what you are doing. I can encode a DivX in that time or rebuild an exchange server

It's called bundled software: Music Manager CD Rip = Ogg, no choice sorry. Yes, you can download other encoders. How many buyers are going to do that, though?!

I encode XviD from my DVDs to watch on my hx4700 VGA PocketPC using SD cards. Pretty quick, and with awesome results. But that's getting off topic.

BTW, I am a lefty!