Try http://www.allofmp3.com/. A Russian site offering paid downloads much cheaper than iTunes. No region restrictions, no DRM. It doesn’t have quite the range of itunes but it is substantial.
It’s allegedly legal 
Allofmp3 has signed an agreement with the local royalty-collection agency, which should cover its back but the record labels are unhappy. Use at your own risk. I do.
I was going to point out for you that that’s what that Ipod shuffle thing is, but I’m glad you found that out on your own.
About half of Apple’s “innovations” seem to be of this type – solving the problem of the difficulty of choosing songs on a small LCD by taking that feature away alltogether. Woo! Go technology![/quote]For flash players, I don’t see the point of having a screen anyway. They’re tiny in size enough without having to read the song as you’re jogging anyway.
Like a previous poster pointed out, the ipod shuffle also plays in playlist order.
I need to confess, I went in to buy an iriver, but saw the ishuffle sitting next to it … anyway I got the shuffle. If Taiwan radio was half decent, I’d go for something with an FM radio, but hey, there ain’t any decent radio in Taiwan.
I’ll probably still use CDs someday. Whenver I get a decent stereo with SACD, DVD-Audio, or whatever is better by then. I may even use analog vinyl. I’m sure I will, it just may be hard to find for somethings I want.
A nice thing about iTunes is you an effortlessly stream your music to your stereo. No extra software, very little extra setup. Just add a wireless Airport Express click one button in iTunes to choose output.
Still, with digital out and Lossless encoding, it’s still just a CD. If your stereo is good enough…
I’m really waiting for the day where you can get the best reproduced sound ever made ever in your pocket. I think digital amps have only in recent years become decent being 99.9999% distortion free. I can hear distortion on all portable players and most of the very high end stereos I’ve heard.
Any comparison reviews out by extremely discriminating people? Any reviews using losslesss only and very very good headphones, even with headphone amps?
Here’s a start.
There are iPod reviews in Stereophile and some other magazine. The more I read about UE-10 earphones, the more I want them.
Holy cow, from their web site: “Price: $900” And, no, that’s NOT Taiwan Dollars. :loco:
Yes but the UE-10’s are amazing.
The Zen Micro is pretty sweet too…
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=10795
Might get me one of those. Retails at Nova for NT$7990.
I’d recommend really using all players for at least half an hour at a store.
Best mp3 player at the moment is definately the new 1GB creative flash player(Also available in 512mb). My brother just bought one here. It runs on batterines so you dont have to worry about the built in battery prob with the iShuffle.
I’ve finally given in to the temptation and bought a 6GB iPOD mini. The 20GB iPOD is only 1000NT more, but I wanted something small enough to carry in a pocket.
The number one reason for which I got the iPOD (instead of the Zen Micro, for example) is the interface. The scroll wheel is simply brilliant (or “insanely great”, as Steve Jobs would say 
). I hate those up/down volume and navigation buttons that you can find on most players, because you cannot control the speed. The iPOD’s click wheel is a lot more natural for scrolling through the playlists or changing the volume.
It works fine in Linux (SuSE 9.3) with gtkPod, amaroK, or Konqueror (I haven’t tried the “extra” functions, like synchronizing contacts or a calendar - but I don’t think I need them anyway).
So, overall, I’m very pleased with it. It’s not just another iProduct.
I have been reading a lot of reviews (Cnet, Creative’s user forums) about the Sony,Creative and I river models,
The Creative Micro has LOTS of complainst about the headphone jack breaking, besides that the features are great: 5gb hd, removable battery, usb 2.
The Sony NW-E107 uses one AAA battery (cnet claims they can ‘only’ get 30 hours out of it instead of the advertised 70 hours). Major problem is that it only uses SonicStage to transfer files, no drag-and-drop.
The Sony NW-E507’s battery is not removable and it also uses SonicStage.
The Creative MuVo
oh guys,
i saw the shuffle on the net, it’s got a switch on the back where you can choose in order or random. i don’t need the screen really cause i’m telepathic almost with songs.
Andre,
congrats. Have you tried iTunes? It works with CrossOver Office, the iPod too. I’d recommend trying it out. Once you get used to it, you can decide if you like it a lot or not. It is very easy to use, just like the iPod. Find or browse songs, dynamic playlists, burn CDs, and automatic CD importing. It organizes your music so you don’t need to know where on your HD all your songs are. More apps are becoming like this, but iTunes is still the simplest.
Even if it takes one extra mouse click in one program to do something than in another, is it worth it? I want to get stuff done. Studies still show people are more productive on Macs. You see their design of the iPod, check out iTunes or seriously study it before knockin’ it like most people.
Uh gary, Andre runs Linux, so iTunes is not an option for him.
It runs in Wine/CrossOver Office, but it was really slow the last time I tried it.
I know iTunes, I’ve tried it for a couple of weeks or so. It’s not bad, but all I can say is 
.
Amarok is just as easy to use, has all the features iTunes has, and even more. A lot more. Somehow they managed to keep everything extremely simple, without dumbing down or cutting features.
Anyway, I’m an “old school” computer user, so I know where my files are . Sometimes I move or resize partitions, or change hard drives, so I really need to keep everything organized.
gtkPod, OTOH, is not a music player by itself (it calls XMMS to play the tunes). It does just one thing (manages the tracks and playlists on the iPOD), and it does that better than amaroK or iTunes, IMHO. Well, at least I find it easier to use.
I called a Creative’s Customer Services guy in Taipei today. I was told that the Zen Micro 6gb will be available in Taiwan in July.
I also asked if he know about the many complaints users are making about the headphone jack problem.
He said he was aware of that.
I asked if the new Micro 6gb had been re-designed to solve this problem. He said that he did not know because he did not have the data for the Micro 6gb, but that this data would be available in June.
SO, it might be worth waiting a couple of months.
I just bought the 1GB iPod shuffle and I love it. I know a bunch of you are mp3 fiends who consider 1GB way too small and iPod way too trendy, but I don’t care. They say it’ll hold 240 songs, which I can change at any time. And some have knocked the rechargeable battery, but supposedly it’ll play for 12 hours continuously. One of the reasons I bought the iPod is because I find most technology frustratingly complex and I got the impression that iPod is especially user friendly (partly due to jlick’s comment). It is. Even my dad could figure it out.
I really only wanted (needed) an MP3 player because someone was kind enough to give me Pimsleur’s Chinese lessons and I don’t want to be tied to my computer to listen to them. I didn’t think I had any need to also listen to music on the road; I’m happy with silence. But I suspect that may change. This thing’s great. And the mini is reaaally mini. Not a bad price either: US$150 (NT$4,700).
I know a lot of you download songs for free and I may do the same, i don’t know, but iTunes isn’t a bad deal either. $.99 per song, for any song. Cheaper than CDs and you only get the songs you want. Besides, I’ve got a fairly large CD collection and I suspect it’ll also be simple to download songs off of CDs.
So I’m a happy camper. And the wife can’t complain about me buying more toys, cuz it’s too late now.
Glad you’re liking your Shuffle. After you’ve had it a while, let us know whether you miss the lack of a display or not. That was the main factor that made me go for the 6gb mini instead. And it’s funny that I’ve been using mine for Pimsleur as well. Figured it was about time to brush up my pathetic Chinese.
Anyone else notice that the iPods seem to be sprouting like mushrooms around Taipei in the last month? I see them being sold just about everywhere now, and see lots of people on the streets with them. Seems like some of the fashionable types are using them more as decoration than to listen to music.
[quote=“jlick”]Glad you’re liking your Shuffle. After you’ve had it a while, let us know whether you miss the lack of a display or not.quote]jlick, I’ve had mine for a while and the screen for me isn’t an issue. I’ve got this thing going where I listen to the first couple of seconds of a song and I know both the artist and song’s name 
.
creative.com/products/mp3/zenneeon/
I just rang the customer services in Taiwan again and was told that the Zen Neeon will be available here at the end of May or beginning of June - no price available yet.
In a previous post I mentioned that the Zen Micro 6GB will be available here at the end of June or beginning of July.
I asked the customer services rep what the differences where between the Neeon and the Micro. He said that the Zen Neeon has a different file system, so you don