10GB iPod for $169 from Apple

[motion]

As an iPod lover, just thought I'd pass on what seems like a great deal to some of the unwashed out there.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?family=SpecialDeals&siteID=NKa3hZyYoHA-5gyEe9vY6198oEMWWor83Q

At this price, you could keep one in your car and one hooked to your home stereo.

[RickM]

But this doesn't support MP3s, right?

This strikes me as following the inkjet printer marketing model. Buy the printer real cheap and have fun spending all your money on the consumables.

[RickM]

Here's a 30 GB with ability to play multiple formats plus FM and voice recording. Same price $169. http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecce/shop/detail.asp?dpno=294784

[motion]

iPods do support MP3s. That's all I have on both of my iPods. Never bought a song from iTunes. The main advantage of the iPods is the incredible iTunes software, which runs on Macs and PCs. There are other players out there. But none match the iPods elegance and ease of use. Believe me, I've had almost all of them.

[blogic]

good find motion!

[JavaBrewer]

Not to be disrespectfull to Mac folks, but why the hype about iTunes? What makes it so special? I ask because I use it to purchase music online. Other than that I prefer WinAmp for actually listening to music. My CD burner software (Nero) makes audio CDs a piece of cake. So tell me, what is it about iTunes that makes me want to buy the iPod over a less expensive mp3 player?

[techweenie]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
Not to be disrespectfull to Mac folks...

iPod is not "Mac" it's not a compter at all.

Read the reviews. For the most expensive player on the market to have more of the market than all other MP3 players put together, it has to have advantages for lots of different people. Most folks appreciate the playlists, navigation simplicity and design esthetics.

It's the same argument that a Hyundai Tiburon will probably give you most of the performance of a pristine '73 911S, and cost you less. If the differences don't matter to you, there's no reason to pay for them.

[blogic]

style points!

[joehahn]

Rick: that site rocks! So of course I am looking at the 20" flat screen tv that I need like I need a root canal.

Richard: Do you have 10 gig? ipod? I currently have a rioS10 w/128 and it is a PITA because of so little storage. Do you put whole cd's on there? Just random MP3s? Very tempted to buy one of these for $169.

[nostatic]

actually the iPod is a computer. It has a chip, and runs an OS. And it crashes now and then (but I have yet to lose any data).

iTunes has the most elegant UI, and all the useful features that most people would ever need. Plus the integration with the iPod is flawless. And the integration with the iTunes music store is flawless.

You can rip as many cds as you want (at a variety of bitrates), then arrange them any way you want. You can create different playlists containing whatever songs you want. You can also chose to only have some playlists sync'd with the iPod, and change those whenever you want.

Plus after a long day, spending some time with the visualizer makes me feel *special*.

[joehahn]

oh yeah, that was another one of my questions....napster does NOT let me create a cd w/my 99 cent tunes. WTF? I didn't buy the tune just to sit at desk and listen. itunes let's you do what you want with the mp3?

[concentric]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
Not to be disrespectfull to Mac folks, but why the hype about iTunes? What makes it so special? I ask because I use it to purchase music online. Other than that I prefer WinAmp for actually listening to music. My CD burner software (Nero) makes audio CDs a piece of cake. So tell me, what is it about iTunes that makes me want to buy the iPod over a less expensive mp3 player?

Itunes is a combination of burner/ripping software and a VERY powerful library/archive system for digital music. It's pretty advanced. Between the 3 execs at the studio, we probably have 100,000 songs ripped from our CD collections, and Itunes makes it a snap to navigate, archive, and transfer music between computers, from/to Ipod, and a great player to boot.

JCM

[RickM]

Originally posted by joehahn
Rick: that site rocks! So of course I am looking at the 20" flat screen tv that I need like I need a root canal.

Here's another that ocassionally has IPOD stuff at good prices. Today it looks like a liller deal on a Dell PC w/ 17 LCD for $549 or 200 gig hard drive for $90. http://www.slickdeals.net

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by joehahn
oh yeah, that was another one of my questions....napster does NOT let me create a cd w/my 99 cent tunes. WTF? I didn't buy the tune just to sit at desk and listen. itunes let's you do what you want with the mp3?

Unless there's an updated iTunes (highly likely) the version I have downloads songs in AAC, not mp3. When I try to convert to mp3 I can't so the process is burn the AAC to a music cd and the rip it back in mp3 format. Not all that convenient. I agree the iTunes interface is slick but remember I'm a windoz person and slick UIs don't mean squat to me

[concentric]

Itunes imports in both AAC, mp3 , and regular CD audio (AIFF) formats, depending on which you choose in the setup. I believe it can convert between the 3 as well.

[nostatic]

what David means is that if you *buy* a song at ITMS, it is AAC with DRM. You can burn that to CD, but you cannot directly convert it to mp3, as that would strip the DRM out. You can burn it, then rerip it into iTunes as mp3, then do whatever you want.

When you import from CD, you can choose your format for storage (mp3, AAC, etc).

[concentric]

Originally posted by nostatic
what David means is that if you *buy* a song at ITMS, it is AAC with DRM. You can burn that to CD, but you cannot directly convert it to mp3, as that would strip the DRM out. You can burn it, then rerip it into iTunes as mp3, then do whatever you want.

When you import from CD, you can choose your format for storage (mp3, AAC, etc).

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, that's a pain.

[Jack Olsen]

I don't know how I lived without airtunes. I haven't had to change a CD (or even open the closet with the stereo in it) for weeks.

[Vipergrün]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
Not to be disrespectfull to Mac folks, but why the hype about iTunes? What makes it so special? I ask because I use it to purchase music online. Other than that I prefer WinAmp for actually listening to music. My CD burner software (Nero) makes audio CDs a piece of cake. So tell me, what is it about iTunes that makes me want to buy the iPod over a less expensive mp3 player?

Are you kidding me? I think we are talking about mobile music choices here. A 10GB hard drive of music vs. 256MB of flash memory for an MP3 player? If I could use a Mac at work, I would. OSX is something that NO version of Windoze will ever come close to.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by bb80sc
Are you kidding me? I think we are talking about mobile music choices here. A 10GB hard drive of music vs. 256MB of flash memory for an MP3 player? If I could use a Mac at work, I would. OSX is something that NO version of Windoze will ever come close to.

Oh, thanks. What was I thinking... Don't know how the whole tired Mac > PC thread got invoked. Obviously 10GB storage is desireable to 256MB but I don't want to be tied to iTunes. At $170 I'll investigate iPod further to see if I can lose that interface.