OK so after whoring iPods here for years, and loving mine enough to result in some embarassing poses, my damn iPod broke. Hard drive failure. Not a batteries thing or anything that can be fixed. It’s also two years and two months old, so just enough out of Dell’s 2 year plan (I bought it just before Dell stopped selling iPods).
Well, no biggie. Mechanical stuff like a spinning disk can break. It happens.
So now I need a new mp3 player. I’m searched through old threads here and the general consensus is iPod if you use iTunes or really like the interface, or iRiver/Dell DJ otherwise. There’s some smokin deals on all of them right now, including a 30Gb iPod photo for $280 shipped. If someone doesn’t use the iTunes store or Apple’s proprietary format, is the price the only real reason to dodge getting another iPod? If so, does a deal like the one I just mentioned more or less make the sale?
The only conditions is that I like having most or all of my music on it, especially because I use the player while driving between Sac and Vegas or other long trips. So 15Gb is the minimum storage which is acceptable, but more is fine.
I assume you saw that Apple just went “photo” with all the iPods now, cutting the line down to shuffles, minis, and a 20gig, 60gig, and uh, U2 versions of the normal iPod, all color now. I imagine that’s the reason for the $280 30gig photo you found, which I would definitely grab if I were you.
Yeah I’m impulsive as hell, so I went ahead and picked it up. 30 Gb iPod photo for $299 - $10 (instant) - $10 (mail in) = $279 + tax.
If anyone else wants one, they’re at buy.com. Go to the main page, click the big “$10 off” banner to get that in your shopping cart, then search for “ipod photo” and select the 30 gigger. NICE!
Can anyone suggest a decent mp3 player for a runner? I lurve my iPod (though the battery sucks so bad I want to scream–it’s one of the 40g models from two years ago), but I’m thinking using it as my running companion isn’t so good for it. I don’t know if it’s the jarring or the heat, but I’m getting more and more freeze-up type situations (doesn’t totally freeze up as in crash, just stops playing for awhile).
As with shift6, I need a good amount of storage space as I listen to podcasts and audio books on fairly lengthy runs and don’t want to have to swap new music/shows onto the thing after every single run. And, as I mentioned, I’d prefer something that can withstand athletic activity. I also don’t want to pay a million dollars.
Thanks.
“Come and get it. It’s a running buffet. All you can eat!”
If you want an MP3 player that will give you the fewest problems while doing something active, you want one with no moving parts (no Hard Disk), which means it is going to be hard to find one that gives you more than 1 gig’s worth of storage.
My pick:
Rio Forge 512 ($140.00ish)
Add a 512 flash memory card ($80ish), and you’re good to go.
When I’m employed again, I’m going to be seriously tempted to pick up an iPod Shuffle just for running. I don’t need one, but my sister’s got one and it’s just so small and light. I could start a whole new fashion, tucking it comfortably into my headband.
iRiver’s 79x and 89x series promise four times the battery life of other
players. They do use AA instead of the typical AAA, but it’s the player
I want (799 or 899, whichever becomes available in a brick & mortar
store - my main requirement for hardware) after researching a bit.
