iPod: love the music, but the look is metrosexual

All right, I am big music fan, and like the ipod I got, but I gotta say that the forced white theme is bugging the hell out of me. It’s forced branding … you know that anyone with the white wires going from their pockets to their ears is using an iPod. And it looks metrosexual.

So there.

I like the idea of the iPod, and I reckon it looks alright, but I found it decidedly lacking in user-friendliness when I tried one…

The interface does take getting used to, but after you use it for a few days, you can whiz through the choices pretty quickly using the wheel and menu button.

The one thing I don’t like about the iPod interface are the buttons … way too sensitive, and there is no pushback or tactile click that lets you know you have successfully pressed a button.

You also have to figure out how to use iTunes playlist capabilties to get the most out of syncing music to the iPod, especially if you have a lot of music or audio files on your computer.

And then there’s that metrosexual white headphone cord.

just get a diffrent hearphone set or color the cable of yours

I can’t understand why anyone wants to listen to MP3 files (and variants) anyway. The sound quality sucks.

The sound quality is dependent on the compression rate. 128k is alright, but not great. 192 is pretty good. Higher than that, they can get excellent. Anyway, on a little pair of ear-bud earphones, who really notices the difference :laughing:

If you’re that afraid someone will call into question your metrosexuality, buy black earphones and a waterproof casing for a walkman and stick it in there. With that rugged yellow casing, nobody will point and say “Look! A metrosexual!”

apple lossless not mp3
your ears got to be incredible if you can hear a diffrence to a cd

Are you blind or just willfully ignorant? He said MP3 so I replied about MP3.

Anyway, you’d have to be massively anal or have a huge amount of storage space to bother with lossless encoding - you only get an average compression level of about .5, compared to about .13 for 128k stereo MP3. And although 128k MP3 is technically quite lossy, on an average speaker system, or a pair of average earphones, you’re not likely to pick up much of a difference. At least not if you’ve used a good encoder.

I compress at 192 with VBR, which usually translates to about 200-205. It’s pretty clear on the speakers on my mac, but I haven’t tried it on larger speakers on our hi-fi system. I don’t use AAC because of the transfer restrictions. And I am not sure I believe Apple’s claim that AAC is better than mp3.

Another problem with the earbuds, besides the metrosexual cord: they’ve done tests on the sound quality, and it’s about a 20% loss compared to high quality headphones. Of course, the high quality phones don’t slip into your pocket.

well you could always wear white pants and a white shirt. And a belt that matches the ipod case. This way the metrosexual ipod and the metrosexual headphones won’t stand out too much in public.

jesus christ; don’t like white phones? buy fucking black ones. it’s not a particularly brain-taxing work-around is it? (you can tell it’s friday avo can’t you? :wink: )

But you still bought it…so Apple wins!

I encode at AAC at 128k. AAC is noticeably better than MP3: AAC 128 sounds roughly the same as 192kbps MP3 and they’re the same size. I can also still pick out the difference between 128 AAC/192 MP3 and CD quality, but I’m usually listening to my iPod in pretty loud conditions like when I ride my scooter through the countryside :astonished: and Internet bars.

If you do get an iPod, I highly recommend getting some other headphones. If you check out www.ipodlounge.com, you can read a bazillion reviews for earbuds that are as expensive as $350US :astonished: I bought this pair of white Sony earbuds for around $1600NT and they were well worth the money.

Moreover, my extensive T-shirt wardrobe and proto-unibrow effectively rule me out from ever being considered metrosexual.

I think the iPod mini solves this problem. I’ve tested it (couldn’t buy in the states back in March … no store has stock) in the States. The wheel itself clicks in at four points, while the entire wheel itself remains tactile. Pretty cool. I’m not sure what the new iPod does, but if it is simiarl to the iPod mini, that would be an improvement.

I’m actually considering buying an iPod now, since I saw one of the official stores selling the 15Giggers for NT$3300. Worth it? Anything I should be aware of?

Yes, that model is old now. The new one is out with the better scroll wheel. It is 20GB for the same price … at least in the US. I doubt it is available in Taiwan yet.

The 15GB, however, at around 3000NT is a good price. But probably because they are clearing the shelves for the new one thats already out in the states:

apple.com/ipod/index.html

Thanks. Didn’t realise there was a new one coming out. I already knew that they were getting rid of old stock though.

You reckon they’d ship from the US?

[quote=“Tetsuo”]Thanks. Didn’t realise there was a new one coming out. I already knew that they were getting rid of old stock though.

You reckon they’d ship from the US?[/quote]

It all depends on who you buy from, which online retailer. Many will sell, not just Apple. Hopefully it isn’t on backorder, like the iPod mini has been for months.