well, ive had 3 ipods. in fairness, my first one was awesome for the 6 months i had it. it wasnt apples fault that i wore it while playing baseball. (side note. youd think id learn, but no. same exact thing happened later with my first blackberry. dont play baseball with a phone or ipod on you.)

after that, i simply hated itunes and everything. maybe its me, but i dont think so.

i love the iphone, apple wins, albeit slightly with that. we all know i have no clue how to use an apple computer, and to me an ipad is just a huge ipod touch. i dont hate apple, but im not a huge fan. if people want to swear up and down to em, great. but as phil said, many apple fanbois are overbearing people, like i compared them to earlier, new york yankee fans.

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Just because YOU had a bad experience with an iPod doesn't mean they're all shit and something else is better.

My brother bought a Zune last month. (Being that he already has an iPhone, two iPods, and some other weird player I've never herd of, I don't understand why. But I digress.)

It took 3 hours to sync his music library. Then it rebooted. Then none of his music was there. After the second load, he made it through 2 songs before it again reset, and everything was gone. Factory defaulted, same problems.

It doesn't mean all Zunes blow, it means he got a bad one.

I've owned two iPods. 3rd generation click wheel that I still use when running or working out (rarely!!!), and a 1st gen touch that my GF users. Never had a problem with either of them. Doesn't mean all iPods are the best thing ever, just means mine do what they're supposed to.

The iPod has sold more than 260 MILLION units since it was launched in 2001. Most of that was from 2005 on. The Zune has sold just over 5 million since it's launch in 2006.

Those are telling numbers. Saying either one is 'better' is subjective, but those sales numbers don't lie.

i hate Ipods too. they suuuuuuck

Well, the iPad IS just an oversized iPod Touch. But that's what's awesome about it - it uses the fantastic iOS but on a tablet-sized platform.

I dunno. In the end, I'm excited to take a test drive of the first Libretto model and see how it rolls when they ship em to stores.

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mechaphil

Don't worry. EVERYONE hates iTunes. It's a terrible piece of bloatware. Even maniacal folks that worship the ground Steve Jobs walks on complain about it.

I'm curious about this. What don't you like about iPods? Excluding problems, what is it that turns you off?

(I'm not trying to sell you on them or anything, I'm just wondering.)

fixed memory sucks, mine tended to freeze a lot, i feel the price was way over the top, battery life sucked and wasn't replaceable, only worked with iTunes on their goofy m4a format or whatever. i didn't find it too rewarding for my 300 bucks. i think that any mp3 player would have made me happy (or happier) for significantly less money. no wow for me at all.

i should be able to extract songs from my ipod but can't. it wasn't awesome at all.

Winamp syncs up with any iPod and loads up the device with mp3 format instead of m4a.

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mechaphil

Fair criticisms.

The m4a extension thing was used for their DRM BS. It's functionally identical to .mp4, just had FairPlay wrapped over it. They don't do that anymore; music in the iTunes store is DRM free now. (Videos/movies are different animals.) You can now buy something from iTunes and load it up on anything else if you like.

EDIT: I got that backwards. .m4p was the DRM'd versions, .m4a was the non-DRM versions. You can rename .m4a to .mp4 and it will work fine.

By numbers, I'm talking about shipment volume... the success of the device as it hits the marketplace.

When I said the device will fail, I wasn't saying that it sucked. I was trying to say that I don't think it'll last on the market.

It's expected to cost 1000-1400 bucks... the cost of a new full sized laptop... with half the power and two small screens, running bloated full sized computer software.

The iPad isn't supposed to be the greatest thing ever invented. There's plenty that it can't do. But people who seem to hate on Apple all the time fail to realize that Apple's not out to win a spec war. They make devices that are practical based on what they're used for.

It won't appeal to those who HAVE to have flash, or HAVE to have a camera. But at $499, you get a pretty sick piece of hardware that can replace most of your home computer functions, like IM, surfing the web, checking email, and playing games.

It looks like it'd be fun to play with... but at that price? With that software?

Please excuse me for being skeptical.

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Wheelhouse

Care to link me where you're pulling these projected retail cost estimates from?

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mechaphil

Here it is:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... ?tk=hp_blg

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Wheelhouse

Thanks for that.

I'm definitely going to look at a Libretto and take it for a test drive, but I'm still most likely going to go with a netbook running Ubuntu when I get a new computer.

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mechaphil

i'm not sure what 65% of what you said was, but that also makes me remember i couldn't put a goddamn video on my ipod. and i tried forever.

sooooo much more objective than your first response. like, this is almost 100% pure objectivity.

Fact: Apple makes great hardware
Fact: Apple is skilled at making slick interfaces, even for technical and esoteric things.
Fact: Most other parts of the company and their main customer base are soaked in douchieness, deep fried and put between two slices of smug.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Agreed. That's about the model of objectivity right there.

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mechaphil

Pretty much.

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mechaphil

Hey Philamus, does Joshua have a MP3 player?

No, he doesn't. He doesn't really listen to music unless it's on one of his kiddie shows or we're playing air guitar to classic rock and some swears-less metal

What's up?

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mechaphil