To be fair it's not just their marketing people, it's the design and styling too. Left to other companies MP3 players would look like something that would appeal to teenage boys -- black, more black, a bit of silver, blue flashing lights and big fuck-off sub-woofers. And it would be called XZXPPfft XTreme, or something. Apple know how to make stuff which appeals to lasses and wannabe lasses. If you want something to become "it" and "cool", make it appeal to women!
Gadgets! Microsoft iPod clone pic, a HUGE TV and a Flash-based PC...
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To be fair it's not just their marketing people, it's the design and styling too. Left to other companies MP3 players would look like something that would appeal to teenage boys -- black, more black, a bit of silver, blue flashing lights and big fuck-off sub-woofers. And it would be called XZXPPfft XTreme, or something. Apple know how to make stuff which appeals to lasses and wannabe lasses. If you want something to become "it" and "cool", make it appeal to women!
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
And of course there was the whole 99 cent/Itunes phenomenon to make the Ipod work in the first place. Sure, other people made players, but only Apple tied it together with a slick, hip marketing scheme, a cheap download service, etc.
IMO they deserved the success they got in the mainstream, because they went out on a limb that no one else would, and made it a success.
IMO they deserved the success they got in the mainstream, because they went out on a limb that no one else would, and made it a success.
iTunes is actually one of the most expensive services out there. eMusic, Urge, and others are far cheaper. They also work with a ton more DAPs than iTunes. Urge even works flawlessy inside of WMP11 now. iTunes is a terrible reason now that we have much better services.
Apple does not deserve any of the DAP player market. They're ruining it in fact. They are making increasingly closed in iPods, they are locking you out of switching, and they continue to under deliever of their players.
If you buy iTunes songs and later switch to say a Creative DAP then you're screwed. There are no legal ways of allowing those songs to play on your Creative DAP. You can not legally reencode them to MP3 or OGG or whatever, and if you lets say burn them to a disc for stroage then the transfer for them to disc is illegal also.
In fact, Microsoft gets sued on a dialy basis for what they do in the OS market for what Apple is now doing in the DAP market. Way to go Apple!
Apple does not deserve any of the DAP player market. They're ruining it in fact. They are making increasingly closed in iPods, they are locking you out of switching, and they continue to under deliever of their players.
If you buy iTunes songs and later switch to say a Creative DAP then you're screwed. There are no legal ways of allowing those songs to play on your Creative DAP. You can not legally reencode them to MP3 or OGG or whatever, and if you lets say burn them to a disc for stroage then the transfer for them to disc is illegal also.
In fact, Microsoft gets sued on a dialy basis for what they do in the OS market for what Apple is now doing in the DAP market. Way to go Apple!
Im a f.a.n.b.o.y because I asked for a player that supports wireless usb? You do realise what wireless usb is about right? Its way ahead of wifi and I wanted to be able to sync to my library of tunes not at 802.1b speeds but instead at USB 2.0 speeds.
Notice also, that I didnt say apples player or ipod. I said A player. Doesnt matter who it is from.
Im dismissing all players that come out after the ipod, as they arent really next-gen. They are focusing on delievering features to grab at Apples Market share. Its marketshare that you need to guarentee your next product. You can have all the features underneath the sun in your product, but if they arent targetted correctly your product will just fall through.
Creative effort isnt next gen. What is next-gen about it. Oh they added a radio. Big deal, I can buy an addon for my ipod. Infact, I know around about 30 people who have either the video ipod or the nano. No-one has bought the radio addon, nor has the need for radio. They bought it in mind for the mp3 functionality primarily.
Explaining myself more, on the battery life issue. There is only so much time you can listen to music, where battery life becomes uninportant. Unless of course, its aimed at the frequency of charging the battery.
Yes, battery life is important to video. I would be foolish to say its not. However, there is a finite time where you can view video. Unless you commute on a train, on a plane, at the beach, near the pool. IOW somewhere where the T.V isnt readily available and you have some time to kill.
When it comes to Microsoft. Again, what is next-gen about it. Bigger screen, so what. Its not exactly full length is it? Wifi, I bet you are still going to need to use a cable to transfer songs and video. Otherwise it will be a lengthy wait.
About the other features of the Zune.
- Higher quality screen.
- Voice recorder.
Higher quality of screen, just how much higher is it? Not that much I am willing to bet.
Voice recorder, unless you are taking alot of notes. I doubt this will be used that much.
Maybe, just maybe if Creative had the insight to include something like much bigger screen or maybe a camera. They could have positioned it as an ipod beater. But its simply an ipod clone.
M$ is just another ipod clone.
If someone wants to take apples share and yes I want someone too, as then it forces Apple to be more competitve and lowers prices down across the board. Someone has to come out with better features and functionality and ease of use.
Not something that are in my opinion, useless features.
Remember, I already have an Ipod Video. For me to shell out £200 odd pounds on a next gen player. It really needs to be next-gen.
Maybe if Creative or Micrsoft actually came out with a player, made it stylish, better features than Apples offering and easy to use with seemless integration to the PC/Mac then they would make inroads.
Until then, they (zune and creative player) will be for people who know about PC's. Know about things like AVI, MPEG, WAV, OGG, and other codecs and have files in them and dont want to convert to MP4 or MP3 to view them.
Which sadly for everyone who has a different view point to me, the average joe (joe 6-pack)
doesnt have a clue about.p.s fill in any blanks, i've had less than 6 hours of sleep since sunday.. blame it on new job where i have to commute, of i am less than coherient.
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You're funny. You asked for proof of more features, everyone gave you them and you simply dismiss them.
The Creative player is not suppose to be neat-gen. Its very current with the iPod 5th generation, and when Apple releases their next iPod you can bet again that the others will have done it just a little before or a little after.
Of course, by what you say if a competiting product does not come out the same exact day then its a different generation and therefore its not comparable.
You've proved to me once again that if someone buys a product they nearly will always stand by it, even when knowing full well what they bought was inferior.
The Creative player is not suppose to be neat-gen. Its very current with the iPod 5th generation, and when Apple releases their next iPod you can bet again that the others will have done it just a little before or a little after.
Of course, by what you say if a competiting product does not come out the same exact day then its a different generation and therefore its not comparable.
You've proved to me once again that if someone buys a product they nearly will always stand by it, even when knowing full well what they bought was inferior.
Where? Why? Even with the most draconian copyright laws ripping an unprotected CD is not illegal if you have the right to listen to it in the first place. Why would a CD burned from iTunes be any different? It's neither copy-protected nor encrypted.
(The cumbersome nature of the process and the quality degradation inherit in re-encoding from one lossy format to another is a different matter.)
I'm not sure you understand what I said. I'm talking about the music you've downloaded from iTunes, DRM infested. You are not allowed to switch what encoding they are in. When you burn them to a disc you are doing that and breaking the DRM. Which is illega.
Why? That's what I'm asking. iTunes allow you to burn a CD (as in an audio CD, not just burning the files), and the law allow you to rip an unprotected CD. Nowhere are you circumventing the DRM or any copy protection as far as I can see. Using a third party tool to strip the DRM from the files from iTunes or similar is a different issue. I.e. you are allowed to bring music from iTunes to a different format, but it is cumbersome and reduces quality.
But the music IS protected that you buy from iTunes. Its copyright protected with the DRM. When you encode it to a different format or burn it to a disc you lose the DRM. You're circumventing it, which is illegal.
You keep mentioning unprotected, I'm not talking about unprotected. I'm talking about the DRM (protected) music that you buy from iTunes...
You keep mentioning unprotected, I'm not talking about unprotected. I'm talking about the DRM (protected) music that you buy from iTunes...
But that's iTunes doing it. Are you saying iTunes isn't allowed to decrypt their own DRM? You know you can burn a bog standard DRM-free unprotected music CD using iTunes, yes? No circumventing going on there.
scooby_dooby
Legend
What?? My coworker uses his IPOD and just fills it up with MP3's from his PC, I'm sure many others do this as well.
The main reason I would buy an IPOD is build quality and reliability. I'm on my 3rd cheapo mp3 player right now and am seriously considering an IPOD.
I'm really not understanding what is so hard to understand what I'm saying here but I'll try to explain it one more time.
The music you BUY on ITUNES is DRM protected. YOU CAN NOT circumvent this DRM protection legally.
Now, you can indeed use standard day MP3 files on the iPod that you ripped from your own CD or got through whatever way. I was in no way saying you could not do this, or that you could not burn a CD using iTunes.
I simply stated: You can not get around the DRM protected music you buy from iTunes.
Scooby_dooby, I did not say you couldnt use an iPod without iTunes. I simply stated that I've never seen a person, who actually did research, buy an iPod and not use iTunes. If your coworker does then so be it, I'll just say that they got ripped off, oh well.
The music you BUY on ITUNES is DRM protected. YOU CAN NOT circumvent this DRM protection legally.
Now, you can indeed use standard day MP3 files on the iPod that you ripped from your own CD or got through whatever way. I was in no way saying you could not do this, or that you could not burn a CD using iTunes.
I simply stated: You can not get around the DRM protected music you buy from iTunes.
Scooby_dooby, I did not say you couldnt use an iPod without iTunes. I simply stated that I've never seen a person, who actually did research, buy an iPod and not use iTunes. If your coworker does then so be it, I'll just say that they got ripped off, oh well.
You don't understand.
Again: Why are you so certain of this? I fully agree that you are not allowed to use any third party tool to strip the DRM from the AAC files, but iTtunes aloow you to burn the music you buy to a CD. Such a CD is completely unprotected. No DRM. Are you saying Apple offering this functionality is an illegal DRM circumvention device? Are you saying it is illegal to rip an unprotected CD that was legally created from protected files?
What I know of iTunes has been from a friend that does IT specifically with Apple equipment, that's his job and I generally trust him fro all things Apple.
Looking at that page I see no mention of ACC or DRM, so I'm still unclear. I'm perfectly willing to accept if I'm wrong, just to my understanding I am not.
Looking at that page I see no mention of ACC or DRM, so I'm still unclear. I'm perfectly willing to accept if I'm wrong, just to my understanding I am not.
Well, I don't know how the US EULA is for iTunes, or if contract law trump copyright law. That may very well be a limitation (i.e. if you agree to not rip an unprotected CD if it's made in iTunes). In several European jurisdictions, however, an EULA can't limit consumer/fair use rights given under the law, so any such agreement will be moot.
As they arent really features worth having. You may say they are, but we'll have to disagree.
Fine, I agree with that. So its not next-gen, its this gen. Doesnt really matter. We can say that Zune is also this gen. As it doesnt really add that much either.
No. If a product doesnt come out as being next-gen or at least offering better functionality and features at same price or lower. Its going to be just considered a clone compared to the market leader.
I would hardly call the Ipod inferior compared to the Zune or the Creative.
Its just that it lacks features that most users would hardly use or if the features were included in the Apple, i.e little bit bigger screen, able to use different codecs, etc. Wouldnt make that much difference.
Im also definately NOT defending the apple product. I have said a few times and I will say it again. If Creative, Microsoft or another player introduces a new mp3 player which has NEXT-Gen features. I will happily put my ipod on ebay and get that.
I have already spend over £200 in my ipod. I would be foolish to purchase a creative or zune for so little.
You also have to realise, there are so many other (not neccessarily non technical) people out there that either own an IPOD or want one. That will compare the Zune, Creative and Ipod together and get the IPOD as in their eyes, and since the "Ipod" is cooler (blame apple) and the others wont offer much extra. Wont switch over to another type of placer or in the case of buying something. Purchase an Ipod.
If you cant understand, why I am taking this stance. Then I am sorry.
Why not try and become a mult-billionaire and then pour millions into advertising on why Creative and Microsoft produce much better mp3 players than Apple and maybe they will start to do better!
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I've had my apple since October last year. It has been running everyday. For minimum of at least 4 hours a day. It has never once had a problem. Battery life is still great, although it goes on charge every nite.
I also dont have any scratches on my screen, as I had the sense not to peel away the plastic sheet that was on the screen. Instead taped around the edges with clear scotch tape to hold it in place!
Will probably have it for another year or so or if the next-gen is awesome and give it to my bro!
I need to get me one of those.
BTW, they do have a 1080p version in the works. It's already been shown at several shows.
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For home? What's the point? You'd need to sit 20m** away so as not to see individual pixels!
**yes it's an exaggeration.
