“It hasn’t all been good news [for Apple’s iPod]. The original iPod, of course, had battery-life issues and it still seems amazing that there’s no way for the user to replace the battery easily themselves in this environmentally conscious age. In fact iPods don’t seem to last long at all – a lot of those we know of have given up after about a year of use, which isn’t really good enough,” The Gadget Show on Five writes. “And iPod Nano customers were upset because it’s perfect looks were easily ruined by its susceptibility to scratches – sometimes within hours of taking it out of the box. All thse problems got us wondering whether, nearly five years after its launch, the iPod is still king of the MP3 market or whether, at last, some serious alternatives have arrived.”
“We looked for rivals to the big iPod; the one with the hard drive large enough to hold your entire music collection, in this case a 60Gb model that costs about £285. After scouring the available offerings two devices stood out as offering serious threats to iPod dominance,” The Gadget Show on Five writes.
The reports looks at the The Toshiba Gigabeat and the Creative Zen Vision M vs. the 5G Apple iPod in terms of ease of use (iPod won), sound quality (iPod and Gigabeat tied), versatility (they strangely mark down iPod because it “has to use iTunes” to load content and give the win to Creative for the built-in FM tuner among other questionable things), and styling (iPod won) and concludes, “iPod is still King.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dave” for the heads up.]
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One word…Regurg!
That TV show on 5 in the UK is the worst I’ve ever seen for sucking up to microsoft. They get so much wrong its incredible. They are very anti macs.
poppy-cock, i had original ipod for 2-3 years and had no ‘issues’ at all, i bought the nano on day of release and did the sensible thing of putting a screen protector on it (like my original) and it is fine so far, what a load of clap-trap.
The only thing one need look at to answer that moronic question is market share. Is anyone buying the competition? No. Question answered.
The rewiewer said that his iPod could only sync with “some minority Apple program.” I assume he means iCal. However, iPods can sync with any app that uses vcard files
andy: Heh. Got you beat. My original iPod would’ve made it to its fourth birthday, if I hadn’t gotten the itch to pick up a new one. I bought it in May 2002 and just replaced it a couple of weeks ago.
Battery life is very dependent on how much you use the device. I’m a fairly casual user — I listen at work M-F, a couple of hours each day at the most. I wonder how many of the people whose iPods wear out “early” are extremely heavy listeners, who listen for 8 hours a day or more?
I got a scratch on my new black 60GB viPod, it really sucks.
I tried my best, even have it in a case with a see through plastic sheild.
Got scratched, you notice it too when your trying to watch video.
Whatever you do, don’t wipe the iPod unless it’s really really really soft.
I made a mistake of using a napkin, my shirt and a tablecloth, each time it scratched the screen.
From the article:
And then there’s the Creative Zen Vision M…..Bill Gates was seen using one recently
ROTFL
Oh by the way I still have several iPods from different generations and they all still work just fine.
Do get a large capacity one, you need at least 2000 songs to have enough variety.
From the article:
“The Creative is much better and wins this category by a country mile. It’ll convert home video files and stills camera video files using its own software”
And this is different from the iPods own software how????
He calls Apple Computer Inc. Apple corp in his article this is typical of this guy.
The intro to the article does sound badly researched.
BUT…I will have to admit that my 4G 20Gb iPod (bought last January) does seem to be less “bulletproof” than my 2G one. It was locking up once a day for a bit during play, and I’ve had to return it once for repair and had to restore it to “factory settings” at least twice.
Never had that sort of problme with my old iPod…
Despite one of his colleagues trying to drum up hits for the shows website by crowing about how thorough Bentley is when testing products, the review shows him up to be a typical MS shill – something thats been obvious in any piece he does that includes an Apple product.
Inaccuracies/lies/distortions in this piece include such gems as…
a) 14 million was the figure for iPods sold in the last reporting quarter, not the last year which was 32 million.
b) AAC is not an Apple thing – but a format approved by the ISO’s MPEG group and adopted by the mobile phone industry, as well as the digital audio and video broadcast industry. You’d think someone who is also a TV producer might know that, but then he does work for Channel 5…
c) For Windows users, contacts and appointments can be synced from Outlook which is as far from “some minority Apple program” as can be imagined.
This guy is such a tool that I want to beat him with a cricket bat until he stops twitching…
And the other problem that is limiting the growth of all these MP3 type players (including iPod) is you need a computer to put any music on it, plus if you want to buy music via the internet one needs a fast internet connection and a credit card.
That shuts out about 99.9% of the world from ever buying one of these devices.
We have 3 iPods won´t be buying anymore in the foreseeable future.
Macdude:
You have, with either predetermined purpose or unimaginable ignorance, not followed simple instructions how to clean or maintain your iPod. Were you intending to illicit some sympathy from your bitch session? I suppose that you also blame the little blue flame for burning your morning eggs. What a maroon! What on earth would you do without your mommy?
You can easily replace the batteries in the regular iPods. I bought a NuPower battery from OWC and popped open my 2 year old 15 gb iPod and replaced the battery in about 20 minutes. Now it gets 10 hours of playtime.
As for scratches…everyone knows you put your new Pod in an iSkin. My Photo’s been in one from day one, no scratches.
And if you get a scratch, take care of it with Novus Plastic Polish. It works.
Lord Robin: “I wonder how many of the people whose iPods wear out “early” are extremely heavy listeners, who listen for 8 hours a day or more?”
Does your refrigerator wear out if you run it more? Your computer monitor? Your computer? Your TV? Your Walkman? Your camera?
Using your logic Apple should make up a new ad campaign: “Make your iPod last longer, don´t use it!”
ndelc says: The only thing one need look at to answer that moronic question is market share. Is anyone buying the competition? No. Question answered.
I guess we needn’t bother with OS X. Stick with Windows.
My 3G lasted for 2.5 years on the original battery. I just got a newertech one, and its back to its old self. I blame the battery failure on age and my own charging habits, I rarely let it charge down fully. Trying to be more careful with this one, but Im sure itll last quite a while. But just got a new 60GB for my bday so the 3G will be living in my car.
i wish my G2 20GB iPod would die, so I could buy a new vPod. The battery life is shorter, but still respectable.
Still using a 1G 5 gigger! Original battery lasts about 6 hours. Can’t talk the wife into a new battery.
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I have had my iPod for over 2 years now and I haven’t had a problem – at ALL!!
iPods are great, however, just keep them away from your sweat.
Water is fine, you can leave it to dry but sweat is death.
John Bentley was the reviewer on this article and the the guy is a complete fartknocker. Last year, in one of his articles where he tested Macs against PCs, he was so desperate for a PC win that he threw both machines out of a first floor window (which happens to every computer during its lifespan doesn’t it?) and lauded the PC for being cheaper to repair because of its easier to obtain parts. On one of this season’s shows, his search for the best laptop around was between three PCs and no mention at all of the new Macbook which surely must have rated as at least a genuine contender.
As my dear old granny used to say: “The guy knows f*ck all about f*ck all”