[milhaus]

Read what she writes about the iPod in a review re: Dell DJ . . .
"The Dell DJ 20 Digital Jukebox is the MP3 player for music aficionados who aren't fans of the big Apple. Like some of the new Apple iPods, the Dell DJ 20 holds 20 gigabytes of music: that's about 4,900 songs. But Dell's simple user interface makes the iPod seem silly, if not altogether cryptic. Instead of the iPod's oversized, rotating circle, the Dell DJ has a small, clickable scroll wheel (much like the one found on computer mice). The Dell DJ is sleek and stylish but doesn't sacrifice usability for the sake of aesthetics."

link here
In the same paper, she cites the website complaining about the iPod battery, but doesn't mention that Apple fixes it for about $100 now.

Please shower her and the editors with your opinions on the matter . . . (I would, but don't have the time right now)

geez, I really should update my sig . . .

[imactheknife]

here is the email I sent her....what a putz...

Hmmm, must work for dell eh dude? Mabe you should check out the new ipod
before you write an article about it..just makes people look REALLY DUMB
when they say stuff like big scroll wheel! maybe get your facts straight
first. The third generation ipod has no moving parts (like the scroll wheel
and button) it's all done by touch. Really lame article lady, and it won't
stop the ipod from still being the #1 selling digital audio device in the
world either. Too bad Dell can't design something nice, or have their own
innovative ideas for once. Dell always have to rely on Apple to make
something awesome first then they copy it and call it their own! HAH...good
one dell! so creative...losers! cheers, meatball...


hehe, Mark

[Kermy]

Here's my email I sent her.

Ignore the crApple fanboys with their idiotic lack of respect for other's opinions. And regarding the "no moving parts," of course there's moving parts, what do you call the hard drive? Some people are just some blinded by crApple propaganda...sheesh.

[ViewSonic]

Acually, if you bother to read the actual newsPAPER, rather than just the website, they do mention the "ipodsdirtysecret" website, and how apple now offers a replacement battery for USD 100$.

Also, a guy they in the article says that he's on his third "free" battery because the battery died each time just before the one year warranty expired.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by imactheknife:
here is the email I sent her....what a putz...

Hmmm, must work for dell eh dude? Mabe you should check out the new ipod
before you write an article about it..just makes people look REALLY DUMB
when they say stuff like big scroll wheel! maybe get your facts straight
first. The third generation ipod has no moving parts (like the scroll wheel
and button) it's all done by touch. Really lame article lady, and it won't
stop the ipod from still being the #1 selling digital audio device in the
world either. Too bad Dell can't design something nice, or have their own
innovative ideas for once. Dell always have to rely on Apple to make
something awesome first then they copy it and call it their own! HAH...good
one dell! so creative...losers! cheers, meatball...


hehe, Mark

hmmmm ... must work for Apple, eh dude?

[ryaxnb]

My (long) e-mail to him/her:

Uh, what's wrong with the iPod's buttons? They're just the right size. The iPod looks stylish, AND is practical.
Why is the iPod cryptic? Modes and stuff look more cryptic. The scroll wheel on the DJ is bad. You spend about HALF your time just moving your finger up to the top of the wheel again with the DJ! What's wrong with the iPod's button? It's good-sized, easy, and probably faster then the DJ's scroll wheel. The big Apple? What do you mean? Dell is AFAIK a far larger company then Apple. The Dell can't use iTunes, the excellent software for music management, and don't forget it's available for Windows now too.
'The Dell DJ is sleek and stylish'? It's substantially uglier than the iPod IMPHO (In Most People's Humble Opinion,) and also quite a bit bigger. The DJ is only available at sizes up to 20GB, whereas the iPod is available at sizes up to 40GB.
The iPod is also an external hard drive; the DJ isn't AFAIK.
The iPod takes the standard AAC files, as well as MP3s. These files are open standards made by the MPEG group, the group that created MP3s. In contrast, the DJ takes files in WMA format and MP3. WMA is a proprietary format by Microsoft, who is far more of a 'big brother' then Apple.
Apple is now offering battery replacements for $99, or you can do it yourself for $49. And the 18-month life thing seems to be a myth; many iPods older then 18 months are running their original batteries just fine.
The iPod has an optional accessory microphone.
Furthermore, users may get the idea that the iPod does not have good sorting options and such. AFAIK it does. And as for equalizer presets, the iPod let's you make your OWN equalizer presets AFAIK. Does the DJ let you do this.
The iPod also can store your calendar and your contact information. You can also play games.

I think two of the biggest points in favor of the iPod, aside from the better IMPHO aesthetics, are it's ability to act as an external HD and store calendar & contact info, as well as iTunes, the excellent music software package. It has an excellent music store with more volume then MusicMatch's, and a better interface (IMAPHO, in many people's humble opinion) then either MusicMatch or Napster. Plus, you may find yourself using Napster for getting music and MusicMatch for syncing and managing, rather then one program, iTunes.

[imactheknife]

actually I would love to work for Apple, and it would be an excellent career choice...but never the less I don't...it just irritates me that 2 years ago she wrote ( same journalist) about how the ipod is so great and blah blah blah...so now she totally makes her self look dumb and writes something completely opposite to what she wrote originally? nice one! good job

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...d=968332188492

so eat that ya cheesballs who replied to my earlier post...

[ryeguy]

I am with imactheknife. Enough childesh games. Her article is laden with subjective, opinionated rubbish. Hey guys, if you like the Dell better than the ipod, then great. But why do you like it better? She really does not get technical and the article ends up being just another rant. Sure, the ipod has a few problems (i.e. battery). However, it is undoubtably a very sophisticated peice of machinery that DOES work well and that has been out on the market for about 2 years. I think this ranting is a good sign, however. Why? Beacause Windows users are having to defend their products more and more, so it seems to me as an avid reader of computer related press, in the face of such an innovative company like apple making really cool, practical and easy to use products that are almost always "ahead of the game." Dell sucks and no I do not work for Apple. It should be noted that anything Microshaft, for me, sucks.

[radarbob]

The reviewer doesn't know scheiss from shineola about user interfaces. I can give only a few points to him(?) in that the interface of the Dell player is more like a mouse, being more familiar. But to dismiss and dis the iPod interface like that? This totally ignores the fact that there are millions of satisfied iPod users.

This is the same sophomoric mentality that never "got" Macintosh in the first place.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by radarbob:
This totally ignores the fact that there are millions of satisfied iPod users.

Does the fact that there are 10's of millions of satisfied Windows users mean that Windows has a successful interface?

[dracoleb]

My only question is why is this in the iBook forum? I know I'm not a mod but I think this would go better in the peripherals forum.

[joltguy]

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
Does the fact that there are 10's of millions of satisfied Windows users mean that Windows has a successful interface?

I think you'd be very hard-pressed to find 10s of milions of satisfied Windows users. Most Windows users settle simply because they are victims of herd mentality.

[FXWizard]

Originally posted by dracoleb:
My only question is why is this in the iBook forum? I know I'm not a mod but I think this would go better in the peripherals forum.

Because the OP couldn't figure out the forum interface?

[milhaus]

Original poster here. I guess that's why I couldn't find my subject in the peripheral forums, where it was supposed to go. Oh well, multiple windows in a Windows IE browser can get you in trouble. I should have been using something tabbed, like Mozilla or Safari!

As for the apple-evangelism, I'm not fond of that myself. But there are rules and standards for intuitive design, and the Dell DJ is _not_ more intuitive than the iPod. But I suppose she could simply be stupid; we can't design something that fits everyone's level of intelligence.

[historylme]

I agree, I think she is simply too stupid to know the difference ...

I do wonder what her background is and how she came to have such an "expert" perspective?

[bimmerphile]

I am ever so glad to see that the bias against Apple has even permeated the supposedly objective media. Aside from the misleading fallacy you created by linking to the site concerning the iPod's dying battery life (though as a tech editor, you should know that all batteries over time lose their charge, or so I would hope) without mentioning the multitude of replacement methods, INCLUDING Apple's warranty. But, that is obviously of no concern to you, as Michael Dell's head is up your skirt...or are you going down on him?

Regards,

Portable Music Afficianados around the world.

[Drakino]

Originally posted by ryaxnb:
Furthermore, users may get the idea that the iPod does not have good sorting options and such. AFAIK it does.

Nope sorry. One reason I haven't bought a single portable hard drive player is due to the lack of control over my music. I have a car MP3 player that has been out since 1999 that uses a concept called "hierarchical playlists". Basicially it's like your hard drive. You creat folders, then you can create folders inside of there, and so on and so on. "Aliases" can be made, so the music is only on the drive once, but in multiple playlists, and each playlist has several options. One being "Ignore as child". If I tell my player to play all the songs, it will ignore the ones in that folder, unless I specificially go into that folder to find something. For me, I use this to keep my audio book collection out of the playlist when I do a 3600 song shuffle.

So, no, the iPod does not have good sorting options. Nor does the Dell, or any other player. The good news is the one portable player in the market based off my car stereo will support this soon in an official capacity, and already does with a 3rd party sync tool.

Once you have full control, you can never go back.

[zro]

Originally posted by Drakino:
So, no, the iPod does not have good sorting options.

Being that iTunes is used to manage the iPod I'd say it has fantastic sorting.

[klinux]

Somebody should straighten out the zealots.

Any journalist who does not like Apple 100% is labelled as "journalist" ; an analyst who does not like Apple 100% is labelled as "analyst".

Rather than casting doubts on people's abilities, judgements, opinions, etc like immature children, why don't you whiners get your ass in an influential position - a journalist, analyst, CIO, etc - and actually make changes instead of whining in the iBook forum?

Several of you pointed out Apple now replace batteries. Well, what took them so f***ing long? I like Apple as the next guy here but I don't think they are infallible like some of you here.

[the Rebel]

It has always been possible to replace iPod batteries.

The only recent change is that Apple is now offerring to do it for you for $99.

People still seem to be ignorant of the fact that you can still change the battery yourself.

Also, this claim that iPod batteries only last 18 months is simply not true. I know of several people, myself included, who have iPods that are over 2 years old and are still running on the original batteries. I have no doubt that some people have had their iPod batteries die in 18 months or less, but that certainly does not justify their generalization.

Anyone who has ever used any battery powered device for any length of time should realize that battery life varies. Obviously the amount of actual usage has an effect, but there are other variables with rechargeable batteries. How often do you charge and recharge the battery? How often do you drain the battery completely? What range of temperatures has the battery been exposed to? Etc.

[ERG]

everyone has different opinions on everything, even on what looks as undismissable..

If you want to check a different opinion (and a very funny comparison with Lex Luthor creation..) on Dell DJ vs, iPod, enjoy this one..

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/techn...548314,00.html

[icruise]

Originally posted by Drakino:
Nope sorry. One reason I haven't bought a single portable hard drive player is due to the lack of control over my music. I have a car MP3 player that has been out since 1999 that uses a concept called "hierarchical playlists". Basicially it's like your hard drive. You creat folders, then you can create folders inside of there, and so on and so on. "Aliases" can be made, so the music is only on the drive once, but in multiple playlists, and each playlist has several options. One being "Ignore as child". If I tell my player to play all the songs, it will ignore the ones in that folder, unless I specificially go into that folder to find something. For me, I use this to keep my audio book collection out of the playlist when I do a 3600 song shuffle.

So, no, the iPod does not have good sorting options. Nor does the Dell, or any other player. The good news is the one portable player in the market based off my car stereo will support this soon in an official capacity, and already does with a 3rd party sync tool.

Once you have full control, you can never go back.

You really should look into these things before criticizing. While the iPod doesn't have a "sort by folder" option (thank god!) it does have ways of managing your music that are far far superior. These are known as playlists and smart playlists.

Case in point: if you don't want your audio books to show up in the shuffle, simply create a smart playlist that excludes anything with an audio book genre tag. I also do this to exclude Christmas music (since you don't want to hear it for most of the year), my old-time radio shows, etc etc.

Speaking of audio books, I was always having trouble remembering where I left on audio books that had multiple (like 30+) files. So I just set up a smart playlist that only includes items from that book that have never been played. Now whenever I go the playlist in iTunes or the iPod, the next chapter is at the top of the list. You can do something similar for your 3600 song shuffle, so that it only includes songs you've never listened to, or only songs you haven't heard in the last two weeks, or only songs you haven't heard in the last two months that don't include country & western and you rated 4 stars above and that have the word "blue" in the title. You get my point, I hope. The possibilities are endless. So please don't tell me that your folder interface is superior.

[joltguy]

Originally posted by klinux:
Any journalist who does not like Apple 100% is labelled as "journalist" ; an analyst who does not like Apple 100% is labelled as "analyst".

Fair enough, but the inverse is also true... any journalists who are generally favourable towards Apple get labelled as "fanboys" or "zealots". (Charles Haddad and David Pogue come to mind)

[klinux]

Originally posted by the Rebel:
It has always been possible to replace iPod batteries.

Untrue. It was at least a few months before someone cracked the iPod to get the battery detail and then a few more months (maybe closer to a year?) before a third party retailer offered a kit to replace the batteries.

Originally posted by the Rebel:
The only recent change is that Apple is now offerring to do it for you for $99.

Well sure, no one is disputing that but why didn't Apple think of this earlier?

Originally posted by the Rebel:
Also, this claim that iPod batteries only last 18 months is simply not true. I know of several people, myself included, who have iPods that are over 2 years old and are still running on the original batteries. I have no doubt that some people have had their iPod batteries die in 18 months or less, but that certainly does not justify their generalization.

Anyone who has ever used any battery powered device for any length of time should realize that battery life varies. Obviously the amount of actual usage has an effect, but there are other variables with rechargeable batteries. How often do you charge and recharge the battery? How often do you drain the battery completely? What range of temperatures has the battery been exposed to? Etc.

Sure, yours is running but there are plenty of others whose iPod is not after 18 months or less than that. Therefore, their claim of 18 months, while not authoritative, seems close enough by the estimation of many iPod owners out there.

No one thinks a battery should last forever. Case in point: your car's battery is not meant to last forever. The car manufacturer made provisions for that battery to be replaced. Sure, the dealer would be glad to do it for you at a premium $$$ and maybe for some people that would be worth it. However, they also made provisions for people who want to save $ by doing that themselves.

So the criticism out there is really that Apple did not think ahead until a few years later - people are not going to throw away their investment just because the battery is dead!

Worse yet, parts of Apple's support site still says "iPod's battery can't be removed."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61141

[klinux]

Originally posted by joltguy:
Fair enough, but the inverse is also true... any journalists who are generally favourable towards Apple get labelled as "fanboys" or "zealots". (Charles Haddad and David Pogue come to mind)

Really. I don't see people throwing those labels at them. They are quite respected in their field and I follow their coulmns religiously.

I do see, however, fellow Mac users being extremely critical of them when they point out some of Apple's deficiencies.

That gets more even more incensed since it fuels the preception out there that Mac users are blind followers who think Apple is infallible.

[icruise]

Originally posted by klinux:
Worse yet, parts of Apple's support site still says "iPod's battery can't be removed."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61141

Not being removable and not being replaceable aren't the same thing. My Sony Clie lists its battery as being unremovable because you can't take it out and put a new charged one in like you can with most digital cameras, etc. But that doesn't mean that you can't replace it if it eventually dies.

[joltguy]

Originally posted by klinux:
Really. I don't see people throwing those labels at them. They are quite respected in their field and I follow their coulmns religiously.

Check out the "Comments" on MacNN the next time they link to a new pro-Apple article by one of these guys. You'll probably see at least a couple of [anonymous] snide remarks dismissing the article's findings due to it's author's fondness for Apple. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but it does happen.

I do see, however, fellow Mac users being extremely critical of them when they point out some of Apple's deficiencies.

I see this too, and you are right... many times it's just plain pathetic. However, in this thread, I'm gonna have to side with the OP and say that describing the iPod's widely acclaimed intuitive UI as "cryptic" when compared to the new Dell me-too player is ridiculous. Her comments suggest that the iPod is all form and no function, which is very misleading to prospective buyers.