An iPod story

[Gizmo]

Yesterday I went to the gym to work out. I opened my locker only to discover that my iPod Shuffle and ear buds were missing. I thought to myself "Not again!" (6 months ago someone broke into my locker and stole my Shuffle.) But this time the lock itself was not broken. Non-the-less I was very angry and vowed never to leave anything of value in my locker again. :mad:

Last night my wife asked me if I would go down stairs and change loads of laundry in the washer and dryer.

YOU GUESSED IT! When I took the load out of the dryer, there sitting on top of the clothes was my iPod and ear buds in a tangled mess. :eek: Apparently I had left them in my gym shorts from over the weekend and my wife had decided to wash them but did not check the pockets. (Who does?)

I tried turning it on and playing some music but of course nothing happened. So I brought it into work with me this morning and plugged into my computer. The little green light came on but at first the computer did not recognize it. So, I left it plugged in for a couple hours. I just started iTunes and guess what? It works! :D All the songs were still there! I unplugged it from the computer and put in the ear buds and it plays beautifully! Just like nothing ever happened.

As much criticism as the Shuffle may have received for not having a display, I know there is NO WAY any other music player around could have survived a full-out washing and drying.

Now I'm not suggesting that the next time you get your Shuffle dirty that you throw it in the washing machine, but it's nice to know you could. :D

[dragonsgames]

LOL, great story, but I think I still like A Christmas Story better :p

[Gizmo]

LOL, great story, but I think I still like A Christmas Story better :p
Alas...this story may have a sad ending after all. :(

The Shuffle suddenly stopped playing during my workout today and it hasn't played since. iTunes still recognizes it and I can transfer songs to it, but it won't play.

It still lets me transfer other files to it also, so I still might be able to use it as a flash drive. I'm going to see if the files are still there tomorrow morning. I assume the battery function has nothing to do with it acting as a flash drive, right? :confused:

So maybe it's not a total loss after all. :) (I hope)

[dragonsgames]

Hmm, a $100 flash drive... ;)

[Gizmo]

Hmm, a $100 flash drive... ;)
Yeah, sure, but its an iPod 1 gig flash drive! :p

[dragonsgames]

An Apple branded flash drive... :rolleyes:

[Joel]

How about if you reformat the shuffle with the iPod updater software?

[Gizmo]

Joel, thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of that. I just gave it a try and still no luck. The little light to check the battery no longer lights when I press it.

I've got a feeling that there was still some moisture in it when I played it earlier today and it fried something. It still works as a flash drive so I will continue to use it until I buy a new Nano. :D

[JackAxe]

An Apple branded flash drive... :rolleyes:

That integrates into iTunes. Mac user. :p

<]=)

[JackAxe]

Joel, thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of that. I just gave it a try and still no luck. The little light to check the battery no longer lights when I press it.

I've got a feeling that there was still some moisture in it when I played it earlier today and it fried something. It still works as a flash drive so I will continue to use it until I buy a new Nano. :D


Shuffle killer. :( Well, I hope it works again tomorrow. :)

<]=)

[dragonsgames]

That integrates into iTunes. Mac user. :p

<]=)

I am a Mac user :D

[Gizmo]

Shuffle killer. :( Well, I hope it works again tomorrow. :)

<]=)
No luck. :mad: :( Deader than Jack Axe's wooden leg.

I'll be going out to get a Nano tonight after work. :)

[SamuraiCatJB]

Shuffle killer. :(
<]=)

When he washes the new Nano we'll call him Macrist the Apple Cleaver! :eek:

[SamuraiCatJB]

No luck. :mad: :( Deader than Jack Axe's wooden leg.

I'll be going out to get a Nano tonight after work. :)

yeah... yeah... I heard you bragging at the bar last night how you planned to kill the shuffle to get the excuse for upgrading to the Nano. I'm tellin' on you!

[Gizmo]

yeah... yeah... I heard you bragging at the bar last night how you planned to kill the shuffle to get the excuse for upgrading to the Nano. I'm tellin' on you!
Was my story that transparent? :o My wife isn't buying it either and she's the one who killed it. I did buy a nano after work tonight and it is charging as I type this message. :) (I thought that was you at the bar. You were the big guy drinking Pink Squirrels and playing the flute, right? :D )

[Gizmo]

When he washes the new Nano we'll call him Macrist the Apple Cleaver! :eek:
If I knew what the heck you just called me, I'd be mad. :o :mad: :D (What's a Macrist?)

When I wash my new nano I won't worry because I'm getting one of these! (http://www.otterbox.com/products/ipod_cases/ipod_nano_case/) :)

[dragonsgames]

That would be a good idea... but isn't it kind of big? ;)

[SamuraiCatJB]

If I knew what the heck you just called me, I'd be mad. :o :mad: :D (What's a Macrist?)

When I wash my new nano I won't worry because I'm getting one of these! (http://www.otterbox.com/products/ipod_cases/ipod_nano_case/) :)

it was a very poor attempt at imitating Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, the sword of Thorin from the Hobbit. :)

I have always wondered... how do you plug in your waterproof headphones and still stay waterproof.... and if you accidentally tug them out does the water then flood in through the headphone jack?

[Gizmo]

it was a very poor attempt at imitating Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, the sword of Thorin from the Hobbit. :)
I KNEW that! :D

I have always wondered... how do you plug in your waterproof headphones and still stay waterproof.... and if you accidentally tug them out does the water then flood in through the headphone jack?
Good question. But I'm not really getting that case anyway. Why buy a nano for its small form factor and then stick it in a big ugly case? :)

[JackAxe]

I am a Mac user :D

I know. :p :D

<]=)

[JackAxe]

I KNEW that! :D


Good question. But I'm not really getting that case anyway. Why buy a nano for its small form factor and then stick it in a big ugly case? :)


Because then it would be ugly. :p

<]=)

[Volchitsa]

Hmm. Quite an interesting story indeed. I disagree though that no other player could be able to do that. I'm sure cowon's players can withstand that.

And speaking of which, my NX80 was once in a puddle for a couple of hours. It's a long story but it ended up with opening it up, cleaning it with some compressed gas stuff after which it works perfectly. Maybe you should try that.

What makes me sad is that you bought a nano though. :(

[Volchitsa]

I KNEW that! :D


Good question. But I'm not really getting that case anyway. Why buy a nano for its small form factor and then stick it in a big ugly case? :)

I think you'd need a case anyway. Unless you don't care about scratches...

[dragonsgames]

I need to fix my UX MS slot, so I can have a smaller MP3 player. The VZ90 is pretty big.... ;)

[JAmerican]

Glad everything worked out for you.

No offense but Apple's MP3 players look and feel cheap (especially once you place it in your pocket and they get scratches all over it due to lint). Apple should make durability (in appearence) also something of importance but I think they keep it in a list with battery life during videos.

I like the idea of gigs in your pocket but if your battery dies, whats the point. I feel Apple's ripping people of with these spec by spec updates. Next its gonna be the iPod with better battery life. Then iPod with bigger screen. Then iPod that doesn't scratch (on the front). Then iPod that doesn't scratch on the back. It gets tiring doesn't it. Had my UX for a year and I bet it looks newer than my friend's scratched up iPod video.

JAmerican

[Volchitsa]

Oh yes, that's marketing. Not including accessories or many options is there as well. You have to throw away ~$50 more just to have radio which comes with other players anyway.

And its scratchability just defies the purpose of a pretty shiny surface and a small size. Either you cover the iPod with some ugly case (for more $$ of course) or it looks terrible after a few weeks of normal use.

JAmerican, I do not think Apple's going to release any non scratchable players. At least not anytime soon. It's not like it would be much more expensive for them to manufacture better surface, It's just marketing as well. The scratchability makes people upgrade their iPods more frequently. And that's majorprofit to Apple. I don't think they'll be willing to give that up...

[JackAxe]

Shiny surfaces tend to scratch more. *Cough* Sony's PSP. *Cough* :p

An iPod does exactly what it needs to do and it does that task better then the rest. I'm still using a 3G and it works great. It does need a new battery, but so does the 2 $600 Cliés here, that were purchased around the same time I made the trade for my iPod.

The 4g iPod gets ove 12 hours one charge and the Nano gets up to 14 hours. That's good enough for me, since the iPod does as promised and it does it so well.

Minor scratching, blah! Arstech took a Nano and ran it over twice and it still worked.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3

That attests to how well Apple builds their products. :)

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

Arstech took a Nano and ran it over twice and it still worked.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3

That attests to how well Apple builds their products.

In otherwords, unlike Gizmo, this guy's plan did NOT work.... :p

[Volchitsa]

yes, but some shiny surfaces less than others. You could relatively easily produce 2 surfaces of same shininess but different scratchability. It's not that hard to produce a bit more durable surfaces.

Of course the iPod does what it's supposed to. But look at what it doesn't do. It's stripped of so many features and costs the same or in many cases more than the other players.

It's not a bad player itself, it's just a bad player for the value.

[JackAxe]

This is how one can fix minor scratches on their PSP or iPod;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LCD-screen-scratch-remover-for-ipod-O2-mini-PSP_W0QQitemZ5854631270QQcategoryZ41343QQcmdZViewItem

More durable, the Nano was ran over twice and it still worked. You must be kidding. ;) I suppose they could put the same type of coating that's found on PDA screens. Even my DS's touch screen has held up well and doesn't show scratches when buffed.

Here's something the iPod doesn't do that all of the other players do so well; "Mediocrity." :)

The iPod is complely worth its price, more so than any other player available. Who cares about "cheap" extras, if the player doesn't do any one thing well.

As stands, the iPod is still the best digital-audio player on the market. Enough quibbling about the scratches. :D

<]=)

[Volchitsa]

you must be kidding me. The best player? Hah.

Every single iPod model has its killer model by other brands. And often they are the same or better quality. For the music (primary purpose), as well as all the other features.

iPod has an advantage of size and popularity. Comparatively, that's about it.

P.S. No offence intended ;)

[dragonsgames]

What do you think of when you think MP3? iPod. Apple is a smart company, with iTunes and iPod... ;)

[JackAxe]

you must be kidding me. The best player? Hah.

Every single iPod model has its killer model by other brands. And often they are the same or better quality. For the music (primary purpose), as well as all the other features.

iPod has an advantage of size and popularity. Comparatively, that's about it.

P.S. No offence intended ;)


No offense taken. :)

Hee hee, you don't own an iPod. :p Trust me, there is nothing better at the moment.

iTunes+iPod. :p Apple understands something that others simply do not. Sony definitely doesn't get it. Lots of features do not make a player, especially when it prohibits you from getting your music onto it easilly/intuitively. The iPod's controls and interface are second to none. Apple has always used higher grade compents and you can hear the difference in the iPod's favor, when compared to "jack of all trade" device as an example.

Let's go back a few years and look at what was standard in earier generations of iPods, that no other company could match, nor would match, because this stuff costs more;

Absolutely the best Software/Hardware intgration with iTunes
Electro Static buttons, coupled with the control wheel
FireWire (Sad to see this go, since it's the fastest transfer method. Intel lies about USB 2.0.)
MassStorage Device
Smallest HD Player. (For the longest time.)

All of the other players were huge and used cheaper 2.5" drives. When coupled with their inferior software interface, controls and shoddy quality, there's no question why Apple's iPod "earned" the top notch.

I always bring this up, since peeps think that Apple charges too much for their iPods. When the Mini was first released and retailed for $249, its internal micro drive was selling for over $400 when purchased separately.

The iPod is still a high-quality player, still has the best controls, still has best hardware to software integration and what's really important to lots of peeps, it has the most content available to it.

Blah, it's easy to make anything look better on paper, but delivering it is another. Apple delivers its promises in the real world. Companies like Sony as an example, which could, do not.

<]=)

[Volchitsa]

What do you think of when you think MP3? iPod. Apple is a smart company, with iTunes and iPod... ;)

Oh yes, definitely. iPod is popular. And apple is pretty smart. After all they were able to get it that popular.

No offense taken.

Hee hee, you don't own an iPod. Trust me, there is nothing better at the moment.

iTunes+iPod. Apple understands something that others simply do not. Sony definitely doesn't get it. Lots of features do not make a player, especially when it prohibits you from getting your music onto it easilly/intuitively. The iPod's controls and interface are second to none. Apple has always used higher grade compents and you can hear the difference in the iPod's favor, when compared to "jack of all trade" device as an example.

Let's go back a few years and look at what was standard in earier generations of iPods, that no other company could match, nor would match, because this stuff costs more;

Absolutely the best Software/Hardware intgration with iTunes
Electro Static buttons, coupled with the control wheel
FireWire (Sad to see this go, since it's the fastest transfer method. Intel lies about USB 2.0.)
MassStorage Device
Smallest HD Player. (For the longest time.)

All of the other players were huge and used cheaper 2.5" drives. When coupled with their inferior software interface, controls and shoddy quality, there's no question why Apple's iPod "earned" the top notch.

I always bring this up, since peeps think that Apple charges too much for their iPods. When the Mini was first released and retailed for $249, its internal micro drive was selling for over $400 when purchased separately.

The iPod is still a high-quality player, still has the best controls, still has best hardware to software integration and what's really important to lots of peeps, it has the most content available to it.

Blah, it's easy to make anything look better on paper, but delivering it is another. Apple delivers its promises in the real world. Companies like Sony as an example, which could, do not.

<]=)

No, I don't own one. Simply because I did some research and ended up with an awesome cowon A2. (The two are hardly comparable, but that's beyond the point). I did get several chances to play around with one, it didn't get me too excited. Again, only comparatively speaking.

Yeah. So iPod was one of the first. Got a head start, basicly. That (coupled with advertising and such) is pretty much why it is so popular.
At the time, sure it was a rather good player comparatively. Now, however, the other companies have caught up and even exceeded the iPod.
And the early iPods were pretty bad too.
They were pretty cheap then though, as you said. Now, though iPod's not worth it. It doesn't even come with a charger and still costs around the same as the alternatives.

Yeah, I agree with you that Sony's not anywhere near the top right now. Their players have a few advantages but usually the disadvantages and the price make the players just not worth it. (They're all very very good-looking though, I love the "pebble" ;)) It's actually pretty surprising. Sony is usually good with sound tech (walkman, earphones, clies :p). Not enough effort...

"Lots of features do not make a player, especially when it prohibits you from getting your music onto it easilly/intuitively. "

What the heck? I wouldn't say using iTunes is too hard (although I hear more and more of/from people with problems with it), but it definitely does not beat simple drag-and-drop. Most find just copy-pasting musinc into a folder named "MUSIC" much simpler and more say... intuitive. :)
Since when do extra features hinder easy use? It's not much different than iPod's controls. The players I looked at were very easy to use without a manual or anything. Simply because most players have a good UI.

Lots of features do not necessarily make a player, sure. But when you get them basicly for free, they make a difference in the choice. No one yet has agreed to buy an iPod after I showed them the alternatives (there were quite a few who were looking for a player and were going to buy the iPod).

I agree, iPod's controls are pretty nice, but lots of players matched that by now. I don't know of many models with bad controls (based on other people's reviews). That does not seem to be a main point in a player these days, since controls are not very different in ease of use from player to player.

iPod is indeed a high quality player (minus the shell), but in today's market it's pretty bad.

No better players? check this (http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/zenvisionm/) one out! iPod video killer. :D

[Tam Hanna]

What about using an AquaPac when you go out for workout next time? They even have models available theat support headphone cables(IMHO), and a nice carrying band lets you keep the box dangling round your neck!

I used one of them a few months ago, but it wasnt the one that had cable support:
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2005/10/28/the-aquapac-small-reviewed/

[Gizmo]

What about using an AquaPac when you go out for workout next time? They even have models available theat support headphone cables(IMHO), and a nice carrying band lets you keep the box dangling round your neck!

I used one of them a few months ago, but it wasnt the one that had cable support:
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2005/10/28/the-aquapac-small-reviewed/
Tam, thanks for bringing this thread back on topic. :)

For right now I just have my Nano in a silicone jacket. Althought the AquaPac looks pretty cool, I don't plan on washing my ipod again anytime soon. ;)

[JackAxe]

And I'm sure you hadn't planed on washing it in the first place. :p

Hey Gizmo, does your Nano allow you to make custom audio presets? I would love it if I could adjust the EQ in iTunes, then drop them on my iPod.

Volchitsa, sorry I missed your post. The other thread had all of my attention. :)

<]=)

[Gizmo]

Hey Gizmo, does your Nano allow you to make custom audio presets? I would love it if I could adjust the EQ in iTunes, then drop them on my iPod.
<]=)
Good question! :confused: I hadn't even thought of that. I will have to give it a try later (I'm at work now.)

Does it work with other models? I would think they all are the same, no?

[JackAxe]

I would think so, but I'm still using the old grayscale GUI and Apple doesn't set idle. I can't do photos and all of that stuff.

I'm looking for excuses to upgrade to a new iPod. The lack of FW on these newer versoins sucks, but if the newer ones have the ability to make custom presets, that would be another good reason to sacrifice my FW connectivity which I need for my Powerbook. The news of vastly improved sound quality alone has me considering and my old 3G is nothing to sneeze on.

I had been pleased about my sound quality until I read this from SlashDot (http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/09/2337252);
"I did have a mini for awhile and was perfectly happy with it until I bought my wife a nano and realized how crappy the sound quality was but if it wasn't for that I'd still have said mini."

My 3G is a step behind the Mini. :eek:

<]=)

[JackAxe]

I noticed in the demo that the 5G has an EQ. So hopefully it allows cutoms EQ settings to each song? :)

<]=)

[Gizmo]

I have not notice any difference in sound quality between my old Shuffle and my new nano. But then again, the shuffle sounded REALLY good. (Except now when you hold it up to your ear, you can hear the ocean :D )

So anyway, I'm at a convention for work and I brought my laptop and nano but FORGOT the cable to connect the two :mad: .

Oh well. I'll just have to listen to what's already loaded. And I won't be able to check to see if you can do presets on the songs until I get back. Unless somebody else knows?

[JackAxe]

I figure the Shuffle is probably usinng the same basic chip as the Nano. My sound chip is ooooooold now.

I left my FireWire cable at home one, and thought the USB cable would work and the got really irratated when I found out it couldn't transfer data on a 3G. I ended up driving home to get the FW cable. :o

Anyways, whenevenr you get a chance. I asked my friend, but he can't check until he gets back into work on Monday. They have one there, which they format and test porn on. :D

<]=)

[Gizmo]

Anyways, whenevenr you get a chance. I asked my friend, but he can't check until he gets back into work on Monday. They have one there, which they format and test porn on. :D<]=)
:eek:

Hey, I got to thinking. Isn't what you're asking really a function of itunes? I mean, I cant even figure out how to change the eq settings for ANY song. :confused:

Did you find anything else out, or were you too busy testing the porn? :D

[JackAxe]

It is a feature in iTunes, but I would like to have it for the very few times I listen to my iPod without a computer. :)

If one could dump the eq settings from iTunes into the iPod, that would be great.

I talked to my porn friend tonight and it didn't even come up. Even though I'm sure at work, other things are always coming up. :p

<]=)