I've been seduced by the Dark Side

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I am now a proud owner of a genuine crApple-brand iPod Classic (120gig).

I came into some cash from a week's worth of extremely hard work, and I decided to blow a significant part of it on toys.

So, I decided I wanted a backup for all my hand-ripped MP3 collection.  It literally represents months of work, if you figure in the time I took to rip each CD, find the proper track names, organize the MP3 tags (several times through to get it just right), decide and organize the track-titles, and so forth.  Months at least.

I have the collection on multiple hard disks as result.  But I decided I wanted it on a reliable, portable device external to my PC.  True, I have a flash-based Sansa that has a reduced-quality set of the same music, but I wanted the original 128bps (mostly) rip I created initially.   For that, I needed just over 20 gigs of space.  My Sansa only has 16gigs, and has comfortable room for some expansion.

I had pretty much decided to get a Microsquish Zune player at $250US, with 120gigs of storage.  Then I went to BestBuy to look.

And that was where I was seduced by the Dark Side (crApple's iPod).  For the exact same $250, I could get a $120gig Classic.  Furthermore, I discovered I did not have to install the loathsome iTunes spyware either:  WinAmp natively supports iPods, especially the older models (like my new gen 6 "classic").  Too cool!  In the past, I was a major fan of WinAmp-- no worries there.

And there is a slew of stand-alone executables*, that mean I can attach my iPod to *any* computer, and access it like a simple external drive via Windoze Explorer.  Just like I'm used to on the Sansa (never installed the Sansa software either... don't do video on tiny devices that give me headaches trying to see...).    _{* no need to install, just run'em and they Just Work}

So, I finally followed my own advice, and purchased a brand-name external drive case, and installed the drive from my main box (which is still not working-- Real Soon Now I'll fix it... but not Today) into that, and as I write this, WinAmp is pushing my collection of more than 350 albums with more than 4,000 tracks onto my iPod's drive.

What sold me was the slew of accessories available for iPods:  you can't sling a dead (or otherwise) animal in a store without hitting some sort of iPod accessory display.

That, and I cannot imagine it would be complete rubbish and be so popular:  people don't put up with *complete* rubbish for long _{(mostly rubbish?  Sure:  look at the Yugo car company...  Partial rubbish?  I give you windoze and mac's as fine examples.  But complete rubbish?  ..... I don't think so.  Even Bush was tossed after 8 years.... what's that?  He *had* to leave?  Oh.  Nevermind...)}

So I played around with the display in the store a bit, and found it's workings acceptable.  Not wonderful (I like my Sansa's ring better than the touch-thingy, but that's just me... I like the tactile feedback of the ring's workings.  It's a subjective thing) .  The iPod Just Works.  Good Enough.

As I was exchanging banter with the (surprise!) fairly knowledgeable sales guy at BestBuy (very helpful-- if he didn't know, he didn't spout BS, he asked somebody instead).  He casually mentioned (I was wavering between the iPod and the Zune at that point) that they had a few 30gig Zunes on sale for $100.  Which is significantly off what they used to go for (they used to be $250, when newly offered).   $100 is nearly throw-away for such things.  My Sansa, with 8gig (internal, the other 8 is a microSDHC card) cost $180, and this was 30gig.

So.  I bought the iPod and the 30gig Zune.  The iPod (in case anyone's interested) is a nice charcoal grey, with white letters.  I had a choice of silver with black letters or this one.  For my vision, the white-on-black was easier to read, so charcoal it was.  The Zune only came in bright red (not metallic), but I didn't care-- it wouldn't be taken out of it's included case.  I bought a black silicone soft case for the iPod, in case of drops.   Nice of Microsquish to include the case like that-- it's a pretty good one, too, has an optional armband, a belt clip and other geeky things.

But enough of that.

Both came with bare essentials:  sync/power cables, el-cheapo headsets (earbuds that refuse to stay in my ears) etc, etc. 

Microsquish came with a CD, Apple informed me I would *have* to download their crappy iTunes software (yeah, right).

With a bit of detective work, I discovered I can use both devices without the crappy software who's only purpose (as far as I can tell) is to bring you ads for music based on what you play on your player.  Talk about *invasive*.  (No! I do *not* want to report back to microsquish/crApple my music usage.... go away!).

With the iPod, it was a simple case of downloading and installing WinAmp (free version-- I'll likely shell out for the $20 pro, just to kick'em some funds to keep'em in business) plugging in the iPod and there it was, in the WinAmp's "devices" list.

I did *not* have to install iTunes and enable "drive mode" as it appears to have been enabled right out of the box.  Kudos to crApple.

I'm quite happy with the iPod's sound (I sent a coupla test songs & listened).  The screen is huge, for such a small device (albeit the Zune's is larger, same device-footprint.  But the iPod's considerably thinner-- about 1/2 as thick as the Zune).

Recommended.  And skip the iTunes spyware install, get WinAmp instead (or one of a slew of other programs designed to bypass iTunes spyware).

Now for the Zune.  Not nearly so rosy: I was forced to install Zune spyware from Microsquish to unlock the player.  It *insisted* on updating both the Zune spyware and the player's firmware before proceeding. Zero option to skip that.  Bad, but I did it anyway-- so far no issues.   I located a handy little program, though, that unlocks the Zune from Zune spyware.  It's called zAlternator, and it's a little stand-alone (no install) executable that "rebrands" the Zune player into a generic media player.

I've played about with it some, but have not done as much with it, yet.   The updating went smoothly enough, including the firmware upgrade.  Apparently, I may now do Zune-to-Zune syncs via radio.  Right, like I want to do *that*.  I turned this feature off-- and that was apparently the *only* new thing in the firmware update.  zAlternator still seems to work.   Now, I must figure out how to get WinAmp to see it (supposedly zAlternator enables this, but I haven't tried it yet).

I'm waiting until I get the iPod complete, before introducing any more complications.  I'll report on the Zune experience next.

In the time it took me to write this, it's 78% complete.  Will report if the iPod works with WinAmp as advertised by the various "not iTunes, please" forums.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Okay, 100% complete on the iPod.

I'm currently listening to Feist, "My Moon Man" on my iPod through some Sony noise-canceling headphones (earbuds).  Sound is surpurb, superior to my Sansa (which is only 64bps).  This album is an Amazon purchase, and is therefore 256pbs, the default for Amazon's mp3 downloaded albums.

*sigh*  Nice.

Now, I'm playing with the Zune's crappy software.  I was warned to flag all my music files as "read only" before letting Zune crapware get it's grubby paws on it, or else it'd re-write the tags.... _{(hours of work, those tags-- they are *exactly* as I want them-- keep hands OFF, microsquish!  What? You think it was an apple product or somethin'  )}

Anyway, it's playing around with them.   We'll see.   

No luck getting WinAmp to see the Zune player, though, so I'm playing about with Zuneware instead, for now.

*sigh*

The Zune crapware is slooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwww.  16% sync'd at this point.  Apparently, I cannot depend on the Zune device as a backup for my software, unlike the iPod device.  I think it's doing some sort of conversion on some of my music for the Zune.... will over-write that if I ever get it to act like a simple external drive...

I'm beginning to see why the iPod has outsold the Zune.... in *spite* of the crapware iTunes...

[Griffin NoName]

I've so nearly bought an iPod so many times.

I just got a new (free) cell phone upgrade which incidentally has a pretty smart music ability/downlaod/etc  (and SD card, only 2 Gig. but it's a start) so I guess I shall be trying that out before I next hover over an iPod. Sort of like not joining the gymn until I am sure I'll actually use it.

I hope you and your iPod will be very happy together !!

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I did the phone-as-player thing for quite a bit, myself.  8gig microSDHC cards are available for $20US or so, but be *sure* your phone can handle the SDHC cards..... HC is "high capacity" and it's a bit different from plain ole' SD.

I also recommend a blue-tooth headset that *also* acts as a headphone.  Best of both:  you can listen to your tunes in one ear (it's only mono, but so what?) and when a call comes in, take the call, then back to your tunes without missing a beat...literally.   My Razor would do that.  (I'm on an HTC windows mobile these days....)

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Mine is an older Creative that came with a 30Gb hard disk, but the nice thing is that is a regular laptop ATA hd so I upgraded to 80Gb a while ago. I had to install a driver to upload stuff but that was pretty much it (and Winamp can see it).

I refuse to buy any fruit themed hardware, and the Zune... well, you just confirmed my suspicions.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Latest update.

I had not clearly studied the "hack the Zune" bits, and alas, I've concluded I'll have to keep the Zune-ware on my pc for now.

But-- I have disabled it's access to the internets-- mean of me, I know.   

I studied the settings a bit, concluded I needed to erase it and start again-- which I did.  This time the sync only took about 15 minutes, much better.

And apparently it did not reduce the bitrate this time (that was one of the settings I located, after the fact...stupid software).

The "make it compatible with Winamp" required you to keep the zune-ware resident, so what's the advantage?  I don't see one, actually.... so with the interweb hook disabled, I'll continue to use it.  However, I've disabled it's evil resident junkware, too.

Other than that?  It just works.  The Zuneware is about the same look and feel as Media Player, so I'm totally familiar with it.  It wants to be a media player, too-- but I've told it WinAmp has that role, now.  It did not put up much of an argument.

So.

How does the player work?  It works fine-- sound quality is identical to that of the iPod-- which is kinda the point.

Menu systems on either are similar enough, that it's not a chore to switch between either one.  The iPod's a bit smoother, but the Zune lets you customize the main menu list.

Both play albums more or less the same way, and both display the album-art during playback on their large(ish) screens.  And since I almost never play single songs, but play albums in sequence, this is fine.

The Zune has a bit easier time of it, if I want to que up several albums in a row, than the iPod does-- but either one supports playlists-- I may engineer some software to create "play all albums" playlists and dump under the appropriate directories.  The syncing software would then copy those into each player.

I've actually got a program that does this for RockBox (which is what I run on my Sansa) so it'd be a no-brainer to modify that for WinAmp's format (which are simple text files).

I'm not as certain about the Zune, but Microsquish leans towards text files, so I doubt it'd be an issue-- besides, the Zune's menu is easier to que-up albums anyway, so I may not even bother.

We'll see.

I'm planning on leaving the iPod at home for reading- music.  The Zune goes into the truck for always having my library on-tap. I may or may not purchase a car-dock for it-- we'll see.   The Sansa will likely be given away... again, we'll see.

I'll say more after a week or so of use.

[Griffin NoName]

Was just mulling over everything you say bob, and suddenly remembered the total amazement with which the Dansette capable of stacking 5 records for playing ready to thud down onto the turntable was greeted by the populace.

I am way behind on musical techno upkeep as I have not found it hard to keep pressing the repeat button for my favourite tune on my first folio CD player. I don't need shuffle or random or playlists as what I do is just get hooked on one song and replay a million times until I can't stand it any more. I tend to do that with food as well

[beagle]

I've got a 30Gb Creative. fairly bulky, but it's survived being knocked about for several years. At the time it was the only one did that did audio/video/FM radio.

Don't use any special software; Media Player seems to know how to talk to it.

[Roland Deschain]

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I had to post.

Sounds like a few good buys there. I don't own any Apple products, although I used an iMac on a project for several weeks in my old job. Funny little thing, and a little weird at first, but you get used to it. Ok, back on topic, lol.

I bought myself a Sony NWZ X-1060 34GB MP4 Walkman for £220 almost 3 years ago (it's half that now), and i've used it a lot since then, taking it abroad a few times too. It has a bright 3" (7.5cm) OLED touchscreen that's quite responsive, and a decent, intuitive menu system. It will also play video, but it's not exactly ideal with a screen that small. Sound quality is great, with a noise reduction function that works, and the headphones that come with it are good too.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

It was fun reading my opinion of those products from 2009-- and it was enlightening to realize I've been using those players for that long.

I have abandoned both players since then, by the way-- the Zune's dock connector was starting to go flakey (I now have 2 Zunes-- I bought a 2nd one at a "fire sale" when Microsquish abandoned the product) so I quit using it in portable mode-- it stays home in the bedroom, connected to an el-cheapo dock and a pair of really good "computer" speakers as a bedroom music player.

The iPod just sits there-- I will likely give it to my business partner, as he's been seduced by iPads, and this would be complimentary to that-- I'll need to wipe it, though.   Have to figure out how to do that.

My reasons for abandoning the iPod is that you cannot que up multiple albums on the fly-- or even multiple songs for that matter-- in fact?  There is little or no on-the-fly control of what you want to listen to-- crApple thinks it knows better than you, here.

I was in BestBuy looking at MP3 players, and saw a slew of Android based ones-- basically an Android Smart Phone--only without the Phone-- sort of a miniature Android Tablet?  Yeah, like that I guess.  And like a bolt of lightning, I realized I had a Dell Streak 7 tablet just lying around... (I had been trying to sell it without success).  Perfect.

That ubiquitous Streak is now Velcro'ed behind my window visor, above the windshield in my Sprinter van-- that van has a pretty high roofline, and when folded up, the window visor is nearly vertical.   So a few washers to bring it out about 3/8" of an inch?  And it acts like a beautiful cover for my Streak in landscape mode.   I even wired in a little 12v socket next to it, so I may plug in my car charger, to keep it powered.

It's too cool-- I have my entire music collection available at a touch (literally) and I can do podcasts too-- I don't even need to bring it in-- enable WiFi and go get the 'casts.   If I really want, I can use my cell phone as a hotspot, when I'm out and about.

The sound is phenomenal, even pushed through a cassette adapter to the stereo-- something I will be fixing next, by replacing the factory radio with a Blue Tooth enabled radio, wherein I can stream my music directly to the radio, and even control the stop/play/pause from the radio's controls too.

I like that there's no spinning metal in the Streak, though-- bumps won't hurt it at all.  And up in the headliner?  It's out of the direct sunlight/heat.   You cannot tell it's there, from the outside either.   It's super-handy, but also not in the way in the least.

[Roland Deschain]

Sweet set-up you have in your van, or will have eventually. There's nothing like recycling tech you never thought you'd use, only to find it indispensable. I used to drive to work in my old job, but after writing off my car just after my last promotion, which added a good 30 minutes to my travel each way due to work time changes, I thought i'd forgo a car, and spend the money on public transport instead. This meant far more reading, and the need to listen to music so I didn't have to listen to people, lol. My old CD walkman was a little old, and there was the added issue of its physical size, not to mention the lack of album choice. Getting an MP3 player was a foregone conclusion after that, and i've never looked back. I don't know how I managed to get away without one all those years.

I'm a big lover of technology, and I aim to post more in this section soon.

[Aggie]

I still have my old Diamond Rio kicking about somewhere, and half a mind to repair it (slight issue with the power supply/battery case) and hack it to accept more memory. I definitely don't have the skills to do the hack - the thing accepts SmartMedia cards, so hypothetically I could boost it up to 160 MB total if it'll take a 128 MB card without any firmware updates.  Currently, it's got 32 MB of internal memory and a 32 MB card in it, which means the thing is about the size of a cassette tape, and holds approximately the same amount of music (or less).

I loved the functionality of the device for sports - it never skipped, ran on a AA single battery and had no moving parts. OTOH, I ultimately felt so burned by the experience of being an early-adopter that I didn't buy another MP3 player for years and years (I've had my current whatever for a few years now; it's some no-name thumb-drive-with-a-media-player that I bought for $15) and am skeptical of new technology until well beyond the point when it's no longer new.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Nowadays my phone does the job and being connected to the net I can stream music from Google or Amazon to it which helps with storage issues (I have a 32GB microSD card on it, almost full...). Now I only need to install the aux socket I just got for my car...