Ever heard of the iPod Nano?
It holds 1,000 songs (4GB ) and it's £179

well i'm seriously considering getting an ipod nano if i can sell my ipod mini (which is 4gb btw if you're looking for a bargain...includes dock and remote and i'm taking sensible offers..?)
Otherwise i'd have the zen micro, my friend has one which he seems happy enough with. I prefer the ipod over it but the zen plays wma's which the ipod does not and therefore if i were to go back and use napster again i'd have no choice but to take the zen micro.

I forgot where I read it but if you do a casual google search for "disecting ipod nano" you'll probably stumble across some interesting complaints of the ipod nano lacking certain conectivity features of it's bigger brothers. Along with other interesting flaws. Its cute, but seems heavily flawed in terms of usability.

im gonna get me an iRiver H10 soon enough



you can get them here on OverClockers UK

i will post a review as soon as i've made my choice. it probably won't be until next month anyway. i think i-pods are great (apart from the flaws you guys mentioned) but the main reason i don't want one is everyone has one... i want to be different. you probably think i'm some kid that likes to stand out or something, well i don't, its just i quite often don't like trends. i believe there are better mp3 players out there for better prices.

and cheers for links nag. i have already been tempted by the price on the oc website.

i can't tell if nag is being sarcastic or not...

anyway, go to bestbuy. most of these devices are price fixed in some way, so you're not going to do much better elsewhere. why bestbuy? because you can "try" every one they sell. buy one, try it for a few days, return it for a different one.

that's what i did. i tried creative's offerings (only the zen micro of their line comes close to the kind of build quality that'll survive normal use, but its interface annoyed me), phillips' offerings (pretty, but functionally retarded software written in bad java), rio (well they're dead now...), iriver (rubbing its plastic vagina made me feel funny), and finally the ipod. i kept the ipod. i originally felt the same way as many others; it's a fad, it's fashion. but then i realised it has the most tremendous third party support. accessories, yes, but also software. hacking that little bastard is fun.

ipods do scratch sans a $9 evo3 jelly cover (which is invisible in white). but i thought you weren't buying for fashion? :)

battery life sucks. under "normal use" (playing like 4hrs/day) the battery lasts only 2 days for me. even worse, it discharges rapidly when not in use. a full charge goes to zero in only 3 days of just sitting on a table.

the ipod doesn't really turn off unless you explicitly turn it off, it enters sleep mode which drains battery but allows it to boot faster when you come back to it. it's right in the manual. afaik, every other mp3 player does this as well. though 8 hours + sleep time between isn't really "sucks" imho, but opinions differ :)

i'm a linux user and it was a major pain to find software to deal with the ipod properly.

i'm a *bsd user who occassionally has to work in linux. i found no software issue. gtkpod, yamipod, syncpod, there's several. on windows, i just use winamp. only time i use itunes is on my mac, but it seems to annoy me less there for some reason :)

i think they are talking about the chrome panel on the back of them and yes, i have noticed that happening on my mates ipod

Ahaha, i always get a kick out of ipod threads. I love to hear what new ways people will try to flame them in.

I have an ipod mini, have had it for a few months, and i did do some research on mp3 players before i bought it. And trust me, I hate apple, but the ipod is a good piece of hardware. Battery life lasts about 12 hours. Of course if you have it on shuffle 24/7 and use the backlight constantly you will get less batt time, but uh...duh, you are using a light and making the hdd spin more often. Thats to be expected. Having a light on all the time and getting 18 hours of play is absurd. Not going to happen on any player.

I dont have any scratches on mine, but the minis dont have the metal plate either. which i hear gets finger prints. As for the wheel, its freaking awesome. I love the search wheel, and I use it in the dark, in my pocket, whatever. If youve had it for over a year and still cant navigate it without staring at the screen, thats a personal issue.

The sound quality is great, the extras are cool, and its small/light enough to toss in my pocket and forget its there. The only thing I can say that sucks about the ipods....are the colors. white just doesnt work. It gets dirty too quick. But again, thats not an apple only thing.

I bought mine versus the creative, rca, and iriver, dell and rio because well, rca and dell suck. Crappy quality. Didnt care for the layout/functions of the iriver. It really was between apple and creative. Went apple cause it was smaller (if i remember it was cheaper too) and more available in my area.

Another thing people complain about (of course non ipod owners) is about itunes. Cant do this, cant do that. Well, it does all those things you think it doesnt. I dont buy my music via itunes, and you dont have to. A simple drag n drop and I have my collection on my mini. And it does double as a removable hdd.

If I had to choose again, id still go ipod. Purely because of the wheel. Man I love that wheel. But other than that, the Zen is nice too. Most people just like to bash ipods because they are still on the "i hate apple" bandwagon. Nothing more than a fad. Grow up, get a life, and find a real reason to dislike the ipod, or piss off. (not saying thats any of you)