to shuffle, or not to shuffle

[targa]

I've had mine since Christmas and the battery lasts for it's entire 12 hour life.

What you need to do is not be stupid with the charging, little bits here and there.

heres the problem as i see it, the battery has a memory.

so, what youre saying is to run out the entire bettery everytime? so it will remember that it needs all that life for next time?

[IBrake4Rainbows]

so, what youre saying is to run out the entire bettery everytime? so it will remember that it needs all that life for next time?

Precisely, It's not a Lithium Battery, So it still has memory.

[targa]

Precisely, It's not a Lithium Battery, So it still has memory.

thats what i thought....thanks for telling me that, im used to having to do that with my uncles radio controlled cars, so it wont be new, different than that, but the concept is the same

[my porsche]

"texas is worse than jeresy" what the frick dude?!?!

[targa]

umm...no comment

[CSL]

my gf and i have shuffles and both are great

[Matra et Alpine]

my gf and i have shuffles and both are great

Pennicilin will clear that up right away

[Lagonda]

Precisely, It's not a Lithium Battery, So it still has memory.

Not true. iPods use Sony Lithium Ion batteries. And deep decharging is very bad for lithium batteries.

[targa]

^ he's right

Charging iPod's internal battery
iPod has an internal, nonremovable, lithium-based rechargeable battery. A fully charged battery provides up to 8 hours of battery life (see note below). After about 14 to 28 days of not being used, the battery needs to be charged.
The simplest way to charge your iPod is to connect it to the Apple iPod Power Adapter using the FireWire cable that came with your iPod. Extra adapters are available from the Apple Store.

iPod's battery is 80 percent charged in about an hour, and fully charged in about 4 hours. You can disconnect and use iPod before it is fully charged, and you don't have to wait until it's completely empty before charging it again. A battery icon in the top-right corner of iPod's display shows how much charge is left. If you connect iPod and the battery icon does not animate, its battery is fully charged. Lithium-ion batteries, such as those used in iPod, have none of the memory effects seen in nickel-based rechargeable batteries.

The battery stops charging when it's full. You can leave it plugged in overnight, for example. Leaving your iPod connected all the time doesn't continuously charge it. Once the battery is full, disconnect iPod.

[my porsche]

i let my get all the way to none about three times and thats why it lasts this short...

[VtecMini]

My GF has a 4GB Mini that I bought her, she loves it, but moans that the battery only lasts about 3 or 4 hours between charges, though I believe this to be a result of her addiction to playing solitaire. I personally use my mobile. It takes SD and MMC cards, I use a 512mb SD which gives me a good few hours of music, plenty for my needs. I have 11GB of music so I just pick and choose when the mood suits me.

Am I right in thinking that these iPod shuffles don't take memory cards at all? Just some unremoveable solid state stick? If so, that's lame! Everyones been doing those for years, Apple are just whoring out the Ipod name some more!

On another note, I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to use an Ipod photo as an imagedock for my camera. The aforementioned card reader sounds an option, as long as it takes compactflash. I think I could justify buying one if that was the case, cos Nikon coolwalkers and the like cost craploads.

[Lagonda]

Am I right in thinking that these iPod shuffles don't take memory cards at all? Just some unremoveable solid state stick? If so, that's lame! Everyones been doing those for years, Apple are just whoring out the Ipod name some more

Yes, they do not take memory cards. They have either a 512MB or a 1GB chip built in. They are not whoring out the iPod name, they do things like market research you know. Market research show us that most people do not want to bother with interchangeable cards and complicated things like directory structures. The iPod really has the biggest market share for a reason and it's not "whoring out the name". The only people who whine about the "lack" of features on iPods, like changeable batteries, card based memory, video features etc. are gadget people who like tech toys. Most people do not care a bit about this stuff. Video will come to the iPod when the time is ready. But not yet.

On another note, I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to use an Ipod photo as an imagedock for my camera. The aforementioned card reader sounds an option, as long as it takes compactflash. I think I could justify buying one if that was the case, cos Nikon coolwalkers and the like cost craploads.

What you want is possible.

[VtecMini]

What you want is possible.

Care to elaborate?

[Lagonda]

You missed the point.
Apple sold the iPod initially because it was new and "different.
There are MANY variants around, many doing it cheaper and some doing it better.
The "technology" in all of these is 30 years old

Cheaper, sure. But better ? No. Show me ONE hard drive based player that is as easy to use as an iPod, just one. I used/had most of them and I've never seen one that even comes close. The interface on Creatives is even horrible. And the "technology" is the same so I don't really get what you mean by "old technology".

Check out the playesr with better and bigger screesn and you'll get the point

Why do you need a big and good screen in a device that's marketed as a music player ? That's right, you don't. Not without video features. I don't watch the screen constantly when listening to music.

Playlists ? All but the cheapest have them now.
All modern ones use the directory structure you create on the cards to relfect this.

Do you really want to waste your time creating directory structures when the iPod offers you everything nicely categorized in genre, album, artist and song title. What more do you want ?

All software technology that HP patented 20 years ago and present in all of them.

I don't get why this is relevant.

The screen on the iPod is the worst going for the cash.

Answered that.

Even the new "photo" iPod isn't even as good as my daughers mobile phone that plays MP3s

You mean the screen isn't as good ? That's possible but the point of the iPod photo has always been that you could connect it to your TV and watch with friends. Are you really going to watch with your friends on a small screen ? And yes even a +5 inch screen is small.

And how many carry the cable to share the music between players ?

Your point being ?

Fine you've got it in your 20Gb iPod, how do you play it on the horse riding across a field - or in the rally car between stages.

You push the play button

You REALLY want to carry $300 for that ?

Why not ?

Technology isn't always the best solution, sometimes more of the simpler is

I don't see how it's simpler ?

Clearly you've not even looked at the level of "integration" available without shelling $$$ to Apple.

Depends on what kind of integration ? Apple sells nothing that adds extra "integration".

[Lagonda]

Daughter number one's PC is setup to AUTOMATICALLY rip a CD to her memory card she plugs into the front of the PC

You really think this isn't possible with iTunes ? Maybe not on windows, I'll give you that but it sure is on a Mac.

And not a single cable in site

No but you took the memory card out of the mp3 player and put it in the card reader. Why is that different to plugging in a cable ?

Sharing MP3s is easy with all of them.

As easy as synching an iPod.

so already the need to "move music" between the main storage you have for it and the iPod is required.

So where does the music on your memory cards come from ?

That's just taken away the original unique selling point for the iPod

How is that ?

As soon as you have a main music stores area ( we use our server for it ) and your player you have the concern of moving music regularly and the hassle of cables etc JUST the same as all those pesky cards you thought so bad

Err; yes ? You're contradicting yourself.

My point in responding initially was to point out there are alternatives, many of which are MUCH cheaper and some of which are 'better'.

Sure there are alternatives, there are alternatives for everything. I won't debate the fact that iPods are expesive but you get quality materials, a good quality feel when you touch the things. These are things I don't get with, say, a Creative music player. They feel cheap. You don't get the ease of use and iTunes. Using the windows Explorer to manage your music is pure hell and time consuming.

"Better" depends on your POV. I suspect that you are a bit of gadget freak, like me, and you like having things that are cutting edge. If so then the iPod that lacks the FM radio, the video capabilities* and other things is not for you. But most people aren't interested a bit in these things and are "tech-illiterate" and want a simple and elegant solution. The iPod is for them. Add to that that the iPod has huge third party support for extras which is something that all the others lack. That is a *very* big selling point of the iPod.

*you probably know my stance on video capabilities: it's quite pointless to be viewing video on a small screen. Connecting the thing to a TV: wonderfull and cool. But watching it on a small screen is not something you do when you walk down the street. And those portable video players are hardly portable, most of them are pretty darn heavy. And I even find the iPod to be heavy ! (one of the reasons I have a mini)

Of course just as telling a Skyline-fanboy that there are better cars than R34s makes no difference, I leave you to your opinion.

This disappoints me. I thought you argued better than that. Let's not start calling names. I'm not a fanboy, never was and never will be.

That's a whole lot of quotes