The Latest iPod Assassination Attempt 310
Insani-CTO writes "David Pogue at the New York Times reviews Samsung's new Z5, the latest attempt at an 'iPod killer' He gives it a pretty favorable review, though doesn't quite count the Nano as dead quite yet. From the piece: 'The Z5, then, will not cause any discernible dip in iPod market share. It does, however, deserve to be a hit for Samsung. For someone who wants a Nano that's not a Nano, it's a close enough match in looks, sleekness, capacity and crystal-clear software design. In fact, if iPod didn't loom over every conversation as the screamingly obvious point of comparison, the Z5 could be the next little thing.'"
Yeah, but does it support Ogg Vorbis? (Score:5, Informative)
Some quick googling [google.com] says it does [cnet.com]!!! Woo Hoo!!!! I know what I'm getting for my birthday.
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
Re:MMS-MMS (Score:3, Informative)
To the best of my knowledge, the only protected music store that's compatible with the iPod is iTunes. (There are stores that use unprotected files such as eMusic, but they tend to have limited selections.)
Re:Yeah, but does it support Ogg Vorbis? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What about the integration? (Score:2, Informative)
First I tried Napster, it was okay but their client sucked especially when syncing to my Treo as it would always hang up, then I tried Yahoo Music, the interface for their store was pathetic, unless you knew exactly what you were looking for then you were SOL and finally I tried Real Rhapsody. Real Rhapsody is the best of the bunch but their player software on the PC sucks pretty badly, like if you double click the first song in an album to play it then it will play just that song to play the album you have to press the play whole album button, likewise for a playlist.
It is also not intuitive at all to sync with my Treo as you have to go into some obscure control panel to set what playlists you want to sync and creating the playlists is a pain as well as there is no "Create new playlist from selection" feature. It sure would be nice if Palm and Apple got into bed together with one of the next Treo's or even just allowed PocketTunes to license FairPlay, that would rock!
Re:I love Samsung? (Score:2, Informative)
1) Samsung was recently fined [engadget.com] $300 million for price fixing. This is evil on Microsoft and Ma Bell levels.
2) They supply flash memory to Apple for use in the iPod.
Hey! (Score:3, Informative)
I have a U3 and love it. Smaller than a Nano and even plays movies even though the screen is a little small for long term movie viewing. And yes you OSS guys, it even plays
Works with WalMart! (Score:2, Informative)
As long as you use Internet Explorer. Try the above link with Firefox.
The next step with portable music players is to break the link with the home computer. Think something that uses the cell phone network but doesn't make calls.
Re:Itunes=Feature? (Score:5, Informative)
I have no idea what you're talking about.
During a long drive your friend/gf asks you: "What do you want to listen to?"
Do you say:
"I really like band ______?"
or
"Itunes says I like band _______?"
What in the world are you talking about? You say, "I really like band _____", then use the search area in iTunes to find it quickly. If you are using your iPod at the moment, thumb through the categories and find what you want to hear.
All I want is something that can play and shuffle music with easily accessible volume buttons.
iPod shuffle? iTunes randomly downloads you new music when you plug it in, then it plays through those tracks. The controls are: Volume Up, Volume Down, Play/Pause, Skip Forward, Skip Back. They're arranged in a circle, so they look like this:Where "P" is play, and '-' is filler so my chart looks good.
You can clearly see the controls here [amazon.com]. A regular iPod can be told to do the same thing, except that it can hold your entire music library at once.
Why is Apple pretending that your Ipod isnt just a hard drive/flash memory, a PCB and a battery? Why doesn't it work as a normal drive without Itunes?
They don't, and it does. When you plug in your iPod to a PC, you can see it as a new drive. (It used to show up on Macs too, but I haven't paid enough attention lately to note if this is still the case.) Many people use their iPods as portable hard drives in addition to music players. A practice, I might add, that Apple actively encourages. (I learned about it when I overheard one of the seminars they were giving at the local Apple Store.)
But I don't own a Ipod though
Well, that explains why your post is so confusing. I think you have the wrong impression about the iPod. You might want to take another look.