“The Apple iPod still has the easiest interface to use and is still the most stylish player. The price is friendlier, and the player is a millimeter thinner than previous iPods – all welcome improvements that (again) make it the player to beat. Cons: Still no onboard FM or recording,” Bill Machrone writes for PC Magazine, giving Apple’s new iPod 4G lineup 4.5 out of a possible 5 and awarding the line PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice.
“The new iPod comes in 20GB and 40GB versions, and you’ll still have to buy third-party add-ons to get FM reception or recording. But the iPod has become a platform, and Apple counts over 200 accessories with more arriving weekly, giving the iPod expandability other players can’t match,” Machrone writes. “This latest iPod is incremental progress. If your current iPod works for you, there’s no need to dump it on eBay and buy a new one. But if you haven’t yet joined the cult of iPod, the improvements and lower prices mean your patience will be handsomely rewarded.”
Full article here.
The enlightenment of PC Mag continues progressing…. slowly…
We are people so gung-ho on FM and voice recording? If you want it, add it. The fact there are so many accessories tells you Apple doesn’t need to have a do-all mp3 player. I personaly like the fact you can add whatever you want, whenever you want. I like mine just as it is…a clean rockin’ mp3 player!
By the way, it must burn the PC world to have so much written about an APPLE product(s) in their magazines!
You can get a portable FM player with ear buds for $10 that runs on an AAA battery for days and is smaller than a Bic lighter. You can get a decent voice recorder for about $35. Why pay iPod $$$ for either of them? Why say missing either on an MP3 player is a strike against it?
If you want to make low quality MP3’s from broadcast FM there are better and cheaper ways of doing it than using a MP3 player. They just have to find some con to please Dell and other advertisers.
???
The need for FM/Voice recorder is not necessary-
The need for something to compalin about is-
pual-
95% of the places where I listen to my iPod I already have the capabilities of listening to FM radio.
My car. Work. Bedroom. Living room. Kitchen. My Gates Lear Jet. My sailboat. My one-man submarine. My glider. My Vincent Black Shadow. My dog sled.
No. Wait. I sold the glider.
Anyway, someone had the NERVE to buy me a Dell DJ for my birthday, and I said “why would I want this THING?”. And they said “It plays digital music AND has a radio.”
So I whacked it with my polo mallet, and kicked it into my swimming pool.
My obvious point is that I have plenty of access to radio if I want to listen to it (and I don’t), and the few places I CAN’T listen to radio are where I would be listening to music on my iPod anyway.
The iPod. No radio, no video. Doesn’t need ’em. It’s PERFECT the way it is.
DV
Who wants to listen to FM radio with the endless babble, the witty discussions (sarcasm) of radio djs with their sidekicks, and the lousy quality of the music played? Give me a break.
hagar shut the hell up. who are you to tell someone what they should listen to? why don’t you list off some of the crap you’re listening to on your ipod and i will judge your taste in music which is probably garbage anyway. so yeah don’t bother, because your music sucks
and for all of you self righteous schmucks who say it’s perfect as it is, yeah the ipod is pretty damn good. but it would be even better if it did have a radio as long as the shape and form isn’t changed.
the more features the better. you know it, so shut the hell up
The other thing about radio is you have no control over what songs are played when you want them which is why Radio sucks against the ipod.
Having an ipod means YOU can choose what songs you want when YOU want to – which is why APPLE haven’t put radio into the IPod – and that radio broadcast sound quality is crap anyway because its 4th generation sound wheras the track on the ipod are max 2nd generation sound quality!
blah blah blah no kidding solarflare thanks for pointing out the obvious.
but what if next week a software update pops up which enables radio on the ipod. it’s a FEATURE for goodness sakes, who cares if you don’t personally like it. there are people who would welcome it.
if you don’t use it then FINE nobody is pointing a gun to your head forcing you. does every ipod owner play solitare? probably not, but some do and they enjoy it.
it’s CHOICE stupid
>>hagar shut the hell up. who are you to tell someone what they should listen to?<<
I am touching a nerve here? Are you one of those moronic babblers who contaminate the airwaves with their oh-so-witty conversations with equally dimwitted sidekicks? Or are you the dimwitted sidekick?
Anyway, adding a feature adds cost to a product. And for this feature, I don’t want to pay. Period. That’s my opinion. You are entitled to your own opinion, of course. But not to tell people to “shut up”.
>> why don’t you list off some of the crap you’re listening to on your ipod and i will judge your taste in music<<
So you’re the grandmaster of music taste? Who in their right mind would ever give a flying crap about what you and I are listening to?
sounds like someone from the [fading] radio industry here.
“it’s CHOICE stupid”
Ummm…. I think you have a choice. A dull DJ with the worthless features you want or an iPod. Feel free to choose.
hahaha.. i want to chime in on the Radio stuff too..
What are you listening to on the radio.. music, ads and chatter…
the music on your ipod is your own personalized radio (albeit minus the ‘brand new single’ leaks from pop radio)
the ads.. thankfully are gone
and the chatter.. well some people like it (ever heard of talk radio?) but.. most pop station chatter is utter BS about the weather and the local sports team..
In conclusion.. your ipod is your own personal radio stations.. loading up a 20 gig drive with all your favorite songs, and rating them, and playlisting them… AND THEN FLICKING ON THE RADIO.. is downright brain damaged.
Radio and PC Magazine are right, you guys. You should all immediately shut up and turn on your radios and listen to Britney’s new “song” six times per hour on any of the Clear Channel-owned stations that you care to choose. That’s where the real CHOICE is.
(I think this is the first argumentative, simplistic, one-sided, troll-baiting post I’ve ever done on any forum. I guess I’ve realized that that’s what the internet is all about. To quote Frank Zappa: “it’s not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to terms with stupidity, and make it work for you.”
BOO HOO hagar, d, podmyday, and follower.
maybe all of you should get together and have a circle jerk.
hagar you do listen to crap i know it. and you’re such a sensitive girl. jeez i think something is wrong with you.
d, why would i want a dell dj if i alread own an ipod. go home and wack off to pictures of your grandmother.
podmyday, have you ever heard of talk radio? probably not because you’re too stupid.
follower we know you wack off to pictures of britney on your computer so please, enough with the self righteous babble you joke.
AGAIN. what if there is a software update in two weeks which enables radio on ipod? what are you morons going to do? boycott apple and toss your ipod in the trash? you guys really are morons
RADIOqueen:
How do you add FM to an iPod by a software update?? You need an antenna and a tuner, you dimwit!
<<jeez i think >>
Now you’re bragging!
Radioqueen obviously hasn’t gotten laid this decade. Fact.
I want a software update in two weeks that makes my iPod’s screen into a color one!
Now, time to get to those Britney Spears photos…
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podmyday, I believe it’s the “beleaguered” radio industry
oh no help me i have no radio!
oh wait my car and every room in my life already has 1.
ya a radio is nice but not that nice. its nothing compared to ipod.
I got an iPod so I don’t have to listen to that crap called radio.
Whoever spends $299.00 on an iPod to listen to talk radio is a fool. That’s all radio is…talking, commercials, talking, more commercials, laugh tracks, more talking, a song, more talking, station ID, more commercials, news, talking… radio sucks.
Radio is for people who can’t afford an iPod.
“AGAIN. what if there is a software update in two weeks which enables radio on ipod? what are you morons going to do? boycott apple and toss your ipod in the trash?”
hagar57 already pointed out the obvious.
But, if an iPod did come with a radio and:
a. it didn’t increase the cost
b. it didn’t decrease the ease of use
c. it didn’t increase the size
Then fine, go for it. Otherwise, I could care less if I could listen to a radio on my iPod.
Some people like to low-quality cable re-runs of sitcoms where you don’t choose the programming as well on their DVD-equipped high-definition home systems.
I mean, you own DVDs, why would you ever watch something on TV other than that?
“The other thing about radio is you have no control over what songs are played when you want them which is why Radio sucks against the ipod.”
Which is what’s so great about it, really. If you only ever listened to things you know about, then you’d never hear anything else. You’d be narrowminded.
Radio:
Talk Shows
Ethnic Radio
Exposure to new music
Weather
News
As for radio/voice recording. Why carry more than one device?
A friend of mine mentioned he would get an iPod, if it had one thing… a line in input.