Yes, the news is dominated by this week's revamped iPods, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other good media players out there. Put off the colourful Nano, or the shiny Touch? Then here are ten of the best alternatives. Counting down, in reverse order, we kick of with the...
Creative Zen X-Fi
Click here for the full …
The best thing about iPod's is in fact the iTunes software - it does exactly what it says on the tin and just works, unlike hideous alternatives like Windows Media Player.
NOTICE? Never been ANY complaints about any of these brands?
#
But the HISTORY of nearly all of the iPuds has been riddled with complaints, bugs, flaws and LAW SUITS.
So much for the iPhony moniker of Apple product confidence. (EVERY one of those user surveys giving Apple high marks has been skewed by AppleTards voting like Democrats in a US election - "vote early and vote often (a lot more than once)).
I was surprised not to see the "original" Creative Zen on this list. I bought one about 4 months ago for £55 for the 4GB version and it has worked pretty well for me.
Didn't realise until I watched Lord Jobs' keynote that SanDisk actually made music players! - Let alone get a market share that big.
We are always comparing devices to the iconic iPod, and all these manufacturers strive to become iPods and to get a decent taste of the iPod market share. But they need to give up, and try and come up with new features and impressive designs - which takes them beyond the iPod.
(More importantly they all need to collaborate, and build a platform that can compete with iTunes!)
"two-thirds of the player's musical content only accessible through a basic Directory menu."
Where can I get one that enables *all* the content to be accessible through a directory menu?
I know where the music is on my PC. I don't want iTunes or the like to organise it for me. I just use Windows Explorer or the Linux alternative. (OK, Media Monkey isn't bad because it lets you browse by location.)
I'd like the same on a portable player. The inability to browse by directory is one of the great disappointments of my Creative Zen Vision M.
I know some will say the solution is to make sure your music is tagged properly but this is hard to do with classical. The usual databases can be very inconsistent in the way they store data. For instance, 'artist' can be interpreted as meaning composer, orchestra, conductor, or soloist.
I think the entry for Sony A-series Walkman sums up the typical Ipod owners... just so in love with their gadget they often forget that it is just an portable music player.
As for me, I still find my Walkman A818 amazingly practical, slim and above all else capable of pumping out quality sound. Being not tied to any software is a great and wonderful thing.
So much is missing from these reviews. For example, how good the supporting PC software is. My last purchase is great hardware, but abysmal PC software (SonicStage), which makes my player a chore to use. Same can be said for iTunes. got given a new iPod yesterday, immediately gave it to the missus, as the sound quality of all ipods is abysmal (a music player for people that fall for slick marketing, as opposed to music real music lovers). Anyhows, the iTunes 8 totally locked up my dual core PC, whilst working out gapless info from the music on my network share, and estimated it would take over a year to complete. Of course all the time it was doing this, iTunes UI was totally unresponsive.
Love mine (A829), bluetooth = no more catching the headphone cord on things and it works great with my phone connected at the same time - pause for call then music back on. Synchs great with MediaMonkey, WMP or just drag and drop.
As for iTunes - having recently set up an iPod shuffle on iTunes/Vista it's easy to see what their priorities are - walking you through signing up to the iTunes shop and taking credit card details!
Which of these support the USB Mass Storage Device standard (and so can have music added and removed using the normal file manager of any OS)?
Having to use cruddy software like iTunes or the above-mentioned (and indeed just awful) SonicStage is an absolute deal-breaker for me. I can't understand why any manufacturer would make a device without USB-MSD, it's not exactly a difficult feature.
Considering exactly half the devices came in at an 80% rating or below, I'd think it isn't really a good reflection on the competition if this truly represents "Ten of the Best iPod Rivals" - expecially with 2 devices rated in the 60's.
"Quick! We can't let an Apple product refresh announcement go unchallenged! Throw together 10 things that may or may not be any good and call them viable alternatives! We'll teach them to snub us!"
Try not ripping your Mp3s in 128 or low end AAC. Just because you don't know how to compress music is hardly Apple's fault. Ever embrace the concept of changing your DEFAULT SETTINGS? My Lame ripped 320 VBRs sound great on my pod.
>Anyhows, the iTunes 8 totally locked up my dual core PC, whilst working out gapless info from the music on my network share,
You did your gapless playback scan........ Over your network share.........? "I bet it was 802.11.g too"
Do I really have to say what's dumb about that to anybody? Its also not Apple's fault if you can't properly use a program that does everything for you but hold your hand when you pee. And it also says a great deal about Windows networking.
It whips through my 80 gig or so of audio in about ten minutes. "and no I don't do it over a network, I use an external drive" Sounds like another failure caused by "loose nut behind the wheel" syndrome.
I may replace my Gen six ipod with something else. but only because like Gen 1-5 the Gen 6 battery is REALLY un-replaceable. I've been doing battery replacements for people's iPods since Gen 2 and its been easy, but most banks should be locked as tightly as a Gen 6 ipod classic. Pity, as they finally made the things properly scratch resistant.
I just hope something matching it in storage capacity, battery life and ease of use shows up soon. If Sansa made a player with decent storage I'd be seriously interested. I'm at 160 gig, a flash player won't cut it till at least 2010.
fuck webster, you're even thicker than i thought
#
have you ever heard about the creative zen micro? generally speaking, every single one had the headphone socket fail either just before or just after the (1 Yr) warranty expired. I had one. It died and i got it replaced (free) with a different model. Also, apple currently sells LOADS of different players, but they are all called ipod, and so every single fault on every single ipod from the last howeverthefuckmanyyears gets called by you as evidence. The more sold, the more faults will be reported, and apple has sold the most. learn something about statistics you twat, before you post yet-another-pointless-inaccurate-incoherent crap reply. I shouldn't bite, really, but Damn does webster get irritating.
Now that Toshiba have a 240Gb 1.8" disk and Apple have canceled the 160Gb Classic and downgraded it to 120Gb, where's the competition? Why doesn't *anyone* address the needs of people with too much music and video?
My first mp3 player was a SanDisk (an m100 I believe), and they've alwas been my favorites, so I'm pleased to see them at the top of the list.
As for iTunes doing exactly what it says and just working, I guess I missed the part where it says iTunes will take up loads of space on the hard drive, install unwanted additions like QuickTime, and make an overly complicated mess of COPYING FILES.
With most non-iPods, esp. the SanDisks, you actually have the option to simply treat the player as another USB drive, so you can just copy the files using the file manager of your choice. No need for extra crap. What I'm saying (Missing Info) is that if you need supporting software*, then the player is crap.
*Other than, perhaps, a transcoder to optimize video.
Of course none of this counts as I am clearly a mac/ipod/apple fanboi/mactard etc. And how dare I quest the Great Nerd that is Webster Freaky. <sarcasm>I wish I were him. It must be great trolling the net to find Apple stories and make riduculous and incoherant comments about them.</sarcasm>
I own an Archos 605 Wifi. It's a superb video player, great audio player and has bags of features. Surely it deserves a place in this list? It smacks the arse of the ipod!
Then again, it's a last-year gadget isn't it? God forbid something released last year could still be one of the best of its ilk.
Been using the 30GB Zen since launch, taken it round the world for a year charging in Canada/USA, New Zealand/Australia and now back in the UK it gets daily 12 hour use, then charges over night for another full day plugged into the office hi-fi. Disappointed to hear the bad reviews for the X-Fi as I only have a couple of gig left before mines full and really want to jump up to a 60GB to give me plenty of future space.
I'm a bit confused by the hate for Windows Media Player? I use it to Sync my Zen very easily, just plug it in and drag across the latest CD, only small problem I had initially was my pc is old and a USB 1.1 speed for the initial sync took a loooong time. Admittidly if I want to scroll through the albums on my pc, it does stutter a little, but thats probably my pc.
<rant> So there are some nice mp3 players out there. I knew that before. Thing is, compared to, say, the 160 GB iPod Classic they lack storage capacity. Heck, most compare badly to the iPod Nano, even. As to sound quality, use some serious headphones (let's talk Sennheiser 530s here, f'rinstance-OK, they're old, but they're still great) and encode your stuff in high quality and you won't be able to honestly complain. That last goes for many other players, too, of course.
I personally wish Apple would include the Ogg Vorbis CoDec in a software update, but that's about it as far as complaints go. My iPod does things smoothly I have seen most other players to do badly or not at all, it serves great as a multi-boot external hard disk which I use to check up on "dead" computers (take that, S(PH)ONY...), and otherwise offers me flight entertainment for the entire duration of a transatlantic flight, which many other players won't do either due to lack of battery capacity.
Considering the iPod Touch, I don't think there is any device out there at this time that could honestly compete with the functionality. I don't need that functionality, so I don't have one, but I must say it's one sexy device... evolving quickly into a combination PDA/mobile game console.
As to the iPod Shuffle, hey, it's a great device. I have one which I clip to my car's dashboard and use as my in-car entertainment system. I don't need to watch video while driving, after all. And the nano... well, OK, there are one or two devices out there that might out-do it. Unfortunately, those won't work together with the iTunes music store (@Steve Knox, get off it about iTunes installing QuickTime. Guess how much garbage WMP brings along... which you don't notice because that POS is forced down your throat by MS? And QT is more like extra value for Windows users, because it allows you to use more file formats than Steve B. can throw chairs at. Hint: iTunes uses QuickTime as playback engine... And if you would be so kind as to look at the file handling settings for iTunes, you might notice you can tell it to use all media files from right where they are found w/o copying anything...).
As to the commenter a few posts up who wondered why the Zune was not mentioned, I'd say it's because the Zune is just plain shite. I've attempted to use one for a bit (together with the associated music store), and I wonder whether there is any current owner who'll be masochist enough to buy another one. Just my personal experience, though; guess your mileage may vary. I can imagine that people used to, say, Vista, would be delighted that the Zune actually does work without hitches occasionally. </rant>
Just to make sure it's understood, I am not employed or in any other way associated with Apple, Inc. or any of their subsidiaries.
Thus far the only one's that have even begun to come close to my iPod are the offerings from Cowon. Every manufacturer has issues of one stripe or another but in the end it's about what, how, and in what format you want your music. Despite the uninformed and pointless ramblings of dolts like webster the iPod is still a solid product and it takes all of maybe two minutes of altering settings in iTunes to make it organize my music the way I want it.
All in all some of the offerings in this list are utter shyte and others are decent enough kit. If you want more real world information and reviews of products that do indeed compete with the iPod then I suggest sites such as head-fi where users have used/own/have reviewed just about every offering out there.
We need the rating you'd give the ipod(s) so that we can properly compare.
I got a Sandisk e280 and love it. It was $50 cheaper than the equivalent ipod, had a radio (the only reason I chose it over the ipod since they were even on most other scores) and expandable memory. Memory is so much cheaper now than two years ago. I often use it for transferring large files between PCs since it is so quick and easy, and I don't have to carry a thumb drive around.
Quite simply put, Windows Media Player, is an MS product. Thats what "makes it bad".
Quite honestly, I think people get too worked up about these things. People are hacking into credit card companies, but "heaven forbid if our music applications don't work as we fix THAT problem"
I own an Ipod. Generation 2, 15GB. And personally, I'm getting irritated at the Itunes bloat as well. Yes, it works. It has to because 90% of Ipod users are quite simply put - retarded. They are teenie bobbers who don't know what a USB port is, or much less an MP3 itself. I'm not anti Mac. I'm an IT guy, I can't be Anti anything because that would just be ignorance. I run XP pro at home, because thats what I'm faced most with.
I do however enjoy seeing the turn against Apple as their market share grows. Its just not cool, to be cool anymore. I think Steve should go talk to Bill to help him through the feedback from the very people who took him too the top turning against him. Deja-vu.
So that's why iPod's have market share uber pwnage.
#
Looking at that list I now understand why iPod's are where they are at.
The competition isn't very sexy apart from the Walkman range. Adding off the wall features doesn't make a product better than the competition when the whole products purpose is to play music. Apple made this, the simplest of things to do. That equals win. Desire and design have a big role to play here. Zune? Who wants a brick with 70's styling?
From all the negative comments that anti-fanbois come out with at every Apple launch, you'd guess that there were some good alternatives out there buried under Apples hype. But apparently not.
Is there any of these which can play from one track to another WITHOUT pausing, like a CD? Much of classical music should keep playing from one track to another, and the pause introduced by my iPod makes me want to scream.
Every day I walk around with three MP3 players in my pocket - each with it's own strengths and weaknesses. Two are phones, and because of their proprietary audio connectors (ZTE F252, LG U8380) they only get used for playback via their speakers.
The third however, an aging Palm T|X, does a very good job as MP3 and Video player, as well as all the other things Palm used to do well. DivX support, MP3 support with equaliser and limiter (very useful for podcasts that go loud then quiet while you're driving), proper audio outputs and decent battery life. Option to browse by file system structure or by ID3 tags. Streaming audio over WiFi too, and a touch screen not far from iPhone size.
Again like most of these I guess the software that comes with them is a let-down, but since it's an SD card (and they're so cheap) content management can be done through WMP, or through any number of sync apps.
For me, there's no need for a dedicated MP3 player.
I tried two nice media players: Zune (the 8GB SSD version) and paid $250USD. It had a nice build but I had a couple glitches and had to use MSs decent software to convert and load music. I took it back after a week. I went off and got a Sansa View 16GB I was largely happy it cost $150USD and I didn't need to convert media except for some vids. I set it on the roof of my car one day and was puzzled where my audiable books went. Gone... After that I just figured I don't need the flashy features and choose to replace it with a 4GB Sansa Clip which cost me $60USD. I should have got a clip to begin with. It has a cheep build but it does the job. Zen stone seems very similar but it cost a bit more.
So now I can give a laugh to those smug Mac users with their stone washed tattered jeans and over priced mp3 players. Mine MP3 just works and my jeans are tattered because they're 15 years old, I spent a fraction to get this crap.
Is that each step of the end-end experience is simply "nice" and hasn't been obviously designed by a techie. The whole package is just pleasant to use.
Anything that doesn't make it easy to plug device in, load up software automatically, buy music / video, listen / watch media in software, unplug device, listen / watch media on the move, fails at the first hurdle. That pretty much rules out anything that requires use of an on-device file browser or an explorer window in windows.
Anything with any more than around oh .... let's be generous and say 5 (left, right, top, down, centre) *intuitive* multi-function buttons equally has lost before it's left the factory. Don't knock the ipod until you've experience the click-wheel.
Then you have the device's graphical interface which needs to actually be tailored to someone using it to play media (as opposed to fitting around the underlying software). Sounds obvious right?
The amount of companies that fail to grasp these three basic requirements is absolutely astounding. If any of them aren't there, you've got yourself an "MP3 player", as opposed to a "music player" and it should be fairly self-evident which of those markets is bigger.
Hey, I believe that each person should have the player that is best for them.
But, most of us ......
Do not want software that SUCKS. Period
Do not want two features that are good and 10 that SUCK.
Only Windows Media plays-for-sure, well mostly, maybe if MS lets us..... nuff said.
iPods have 73% of the world market cause 73 % of the people like them best. PERIOD. 2.5% like Zunes (or Hate Apple... what a stupid reason to buy a player.....)
the rest are split up amount many different players and companies.
HMmmm, do you think that the slight lead by Apple could be cause the advertise (well mostly they do not) or that Steve Jobs told them they must buy an iPod (actually he never did).
Enjoy your player. I have several mp3 players that work just fine but they sit in the drawer cause my iPods are just ..... more enjoyable to me. PERIOD>
Well, if you don't mind your music sounding meh and only one or two file types being supported. I do admit the iPod's interface pwns all.
I'm surprised it wasn't the D2 listed here either, since that's more directly similar to the other devices. 8GB flash onboard, SDHC card slot, and plays all the media formats you can throw at it. And sounds good while the battery lasts for days. The A-series are more full-blown PMPs - take to watch movies on and the like.
One of the reasons I don't use an iPod is because iTunes is such a vile piece of crap.
The others are that iPlods don't support Vorbis and FLAC, and don't have proper replaceable batteries. Only designs that are cheap and disposable can be excused for having a non-replaceable battery (the iPod Shuffle, for instance). In any other case, it's planned obsolescence to "encourage" people to buy another unit instead of simply replacing a worn-out battery.
I bought a 160Gb classic last year primarily for the storage; it's nearly full but as someone else mentioned, the sound quality is poor compared to other players.
Comparing the same mp3s (320kbps - hence why I need a 160Gb drive) on the ipod to my Archos 405 shows a massive difference, and when you factor in that I'm using the same headphones/car/home hi-fi for playback then, yes the comparison is valid.
The iPod interface is slick, the hardware is nice, iTunes sort of works and is excellent for synchronising music, but seriously, take a listen to the alternatives before buying an iPod. I only wish someone else had been offering a properly big HD when I bought my classic last year; and that Archos hadn't decided to charge for just about everything that they used to include for free...
"Try not ripping your Mp3s in 128 or low end AAC. Just because you don't know how to compress music is hardly Apple's fault."
Try not making flawed assumptions. The ipods sound crap, not because of the quality of rip/encode, but because of the high SNR, and crap DAC's fitted. iPods are crammed full of el-cheapo components. Anyone owning a iPod is clearly not a music lover. Once you have heard a decent personal music player, you will wonder why on earth iPlod is as popular as it is, given it's not actually got much going for it, besides slick marketing for the sheep market.
As a Sansa e200 (8gb) I'm very surprised to see a Sansa at the top of this list.
I bought the e200 because I thought it did everything I disliked about the ipod at the time. It was larger (at the time) then the largest Nano's and expandable through MicroSD cards. It has had a replacable rechargable battery.
However, like many I'm still waiting on firmware to fix many problems with the player like
Very slow startup time. The player will not go into a sleep mode that it can quickly resume from, unless to put on unsupported firmware that is extremely buggy. With the actual supported firmware, the player cold boot every time taking quite a while to startup and longer to rescan the inserted SD card (every time you restart the player)
No radio on European Sansa's. The HW is missing from players on ale here for some arcane tax reason.
Connectivity. The Sansa used to be just a mass storage device with a regular drive letter when plugged into the USB port. but then Sandisk crippled it in later firmware by using Microsoft's DRM riddled MTP. Linux and Mac users were SOL trying to use the player.
I got so fed up with the thing that I bought an 80Gb iPod classic and I'm actually in the market for a 160Gb before they dissappear. I'll never buy a Sandisk player. I notice nothing in the list has anywhere near that capacity.
Unless you're back-packing around the world, why would anyone need to carry around more than about 2Gbs worth of music?
I just have a tiny little USB-stick player. It has a crappy little one-line LCD for an interface, but that doesn't matter because it only holds about 80 tunes anyway, ordered by directory. It only cost about £10 on ebay, it weighs about a gram, it's virtually indestructible, and no one's going to steal it. When I want to change the tunes, a quick transfer from the PC only takes a few minutes.
Best of all it doesn't need any crappy software like iTunes.
iPod's are far more a fashion accessory than a necessary gadget.
iTunes is the worst thing about owning an iPod. It sits on your hard drive like an elephant turd in a cat litter box. If you don't turn off the updates then it seems to update itself every 12 minutes requiring you to download hundreds of megs more of bloated apple code. It keeps trying to get you to install quicktime as well (why on earth would anyone want to??) and more recently apple's crappy browser too.
'it just works'... Give me a break! You know what would just work? allowing you to just connect your i-pod to a usb port and have it detected as just another drive, then just drag and drop mp3s and movies across. How is it easier or simpler to spend ages downloading and updating apple's bloated propriatary media player? They must have you brainwashed. I reckon iTunes must insert subliminal messages into your music when you convert it. That is the only explanation why software that does something so simple needs to be so large and why everyone puts up with (and even praises) this pos.
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Ten of the Best... iPod rivals
Yes, the news is dominated by this week's revamped iPods, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other good media players out there. Put off the colourful Nano, or the shiny Touch? Then here are ten of the best alternatives. Counting down, in reverse order, we kick of with the... Creative Zen X-Fi Click here for the full …
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Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:17 GMT
Xander
Damn it #
Dammit el Reg. I just yesterday bought a Creative Zen...
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:17 GMT
Anonymous Coward
iPod rivals #
The best thing about iPod's is in fact the iTunes software - it does exactly what it says on the tin and just works, unlike hideous alternatives like Windows Media Player.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:17 GMT
Paul Hargreaves
Oh dear #
If that's the best of the rest then I'll stick with my Touch...
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:17 GMT
Anonymous Coward
There is no iPod Rivals #
My Job's device is superior all rivals !!!1!!ONE
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:17 GMT
Webster Phreaky
NOTICE? Never been ANY complaints about any of these brands? #
But the HISTORY of nearly all of the iPuds has been riddled with complaints, bugs, flaws and LAW SUITS.
So much for the iPhony moniker of Apple product confidence. (EVERY one of those user surveys giving Apple high marks has been skewed by AppleTards voting like Democrats in a US election - "vote early and vote often (a lot more than once)).
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:17 GMT
Cosmo
Creative Zen? #
I was surprised not to see the "original" Creative Zen on this list. I bought one about 4 months ago for £55 for the 4GB version and it has worked pretty well for me.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:17 GMT
okubax
Where the Zune ?? #
I searched for the Zune and lo' it couldn't be found...am thinking it is because it is not yet on sale in the UK, right ?
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:18 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Why? #
Didn't realise until I watched Lord Jobs' keynote that SanDisk actually made music players! - Let alone get a market share that big.
We are always comparing devices to the iconic iPod, and all these manufacturers strive to become iPods and to get a decent taste of the iPod market share. But they need to give up, and try and come up with new features and impressive designs - which takes them beyond the iPod.
(More importantly they all need to collaborate, and build a platform that can compete with iTunes!)
Paris, cause she'll only ever have an iPod!
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:18 GMT
Brian Miller
Why on earth??? #
Would anyone pay an extra £65 for 6 GB extra storage when the device can take a bigger cheaper microSD card.
I am speaking in reference to the pricing structure of the No.1 editors choice.
Rhetorical.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:18 GMT
Charlie Barnes
All very well... #
But why cant we buy a decent mp3 player for £50 with more than 10gb memory? The prices jump as soon as you get above 4gb.
I don't want the video, dvd, internet, bluetooth rubbish that eat into battery life, just a decent sized music player.
With the prices of hard drives plummeting, why are mp3's not cheap as chips?
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:18 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Browsing files #
"two-thirds of the player's musical content only accessible through a basic Directory menu."
Where can I get one that enables *all* the content to be accessible through a directory menu?
I know where the music is on my PC. I don't want iTunes or the like to organise it for me. I just use Windows Explorer or the Linux alternative. (OK, Media Monkey isn't bad because it lets you browse by location.)
I'd like the same on a portable player. The inability to browse by directory is one of the great disappointments of my Creative Zen Vision M.
I know some will say the solution is to make sure your music is tagged properly but this is hard to do with classical. The usual databases can be very inconsistent in the way they store data. For instance, 'artist' can be interpreted as meaning composer, orchestra, conductor, or soloist.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:18 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Sony Walkman #
I think the entry for Sony A-series Walkman sums up the typical Ipod owners... just so in love with their gadget they often forget that it is just an portable music player.
As for me, I still find my Walkman A818 amazingly practical, slim and above all else capable of pumping out quality sound. Being not tied to any software is a great and wonderful thing.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:18 GMT
Steven M
The Best MP3 Player ...... #
Is the currently the Creative ZEN.
Small size, lightweight, excellent sound quality and available with 32GB of storage.
This is the best MP3 player I have yet owned ... and I have quite a few.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:18 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Missing Info. #
So much is missing from these reviews. For example, how good the supporting PC software is. My last purchase is great hardware, but abysmal PC software (SonicStage), which makes my player a chore to use. Same can be said for iTunes. got given a new iPod yesterday, immediately gave it to the missus, as the sound quality of all ipods is abysmal (a music player for people that fall for slick marketing, as opposed to music real music lovers). Anyhows, the iTunes 8 totally locked up my dual core PC, whilst working out gapless info from the music on my network share, and estimated it would take over a year to complete. Of course all the time it was doing this, iTunes UI was totally unresponsive.
Total pants.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 16:27 GMT
Christopher D'Souza
Cowon D2? #
Smaller screen that the A3, but better battery life
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 17:56 GMT
Grant
Sony Walkman #
Love mine (A829), bluetooth = no more catching the headphone cord on things and it works great with my phone connected at the same time - pause for call then music back on. Synchs great with MediaMonkey, WMP or just drag and drop.
As for iTunes - having recently set up an iPod shuffle on iTunes/Vista it's easy to see what their priorities are - walking you through signing up to the iTunes shop and taking credit card details!
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 17:56 GMT
And Clover
USB MSD #
Which of these support the USB Mass Storage Device standard (and so can have music added and removed using the normal file manager of any OS)?
Having to use cruddy software like iTunes or the above-mentioned (and indeed just awful) SonicStage is an absolute deal-breaker for me. I can't understand why any manufacturer would make a device without USB-MSD, it's not exactly a difficult feature.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 17:56 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Not so sure about this #
Considering exactly half the devices came in at an 80% rating or below, I'd think it isn't really a good reflection on the competition if this truly represents "Ten of the Best iPod Rivals" - expecially with 2 devices rated in the 60's.
"Quick! We can't let an Apple product refresh announcement go unchallenged! Throw together 10 things that may or may not be any good and call them viable alternatives! We'll teach them to snub us!"
"You got it, boss!"
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 17:56 GMT
Dana W
@Anonymous Coward #
>as the sound quality of all ipods is abysmal
Try not ripping your Mp3s in 128 or low end AAC. Just because you don't know how to compress music is hardly Apple's fault. Ever embrace the concept of changing your DEFAULT SETTINGS? My Lame ripped 320 VBRs sound great on my pod.
>Anyhows, the iTunes 8 totally locked up my dual core PC, whilst working out gapless info from the music on my network share,
You did your gapless playback scan........ Over your network share.........? "I bet it was 802.11.g too"
Do I really have to say what's dumb about that to anybody? Its also not Apple's fault if you can't properly use a program that does everything for you but hold your hand when you pee. And it also says a great deal about Windows networking.
It whips through my 80 gig or so of audio in about ten minutes. "and no I don't do it over a network, I use an external drive" Sounds like another failure caused by "loose nut behind the wheel" syndrome.
I may replace my Gen six ipod with something else. but only because like Gen 1-5 the Gen 6 battery is REALLY un-replaceable. I've been doing battery replacements for people's iPods since Gen 2 and its been easy, but most banks should be locked as tightly as a Gen 6 ipod classic. Pity, as they finally made the things properly scratch resistant.
I just hope something matching it in storage capacity, battery life and ease of use shows up soon. If Sansa made a player with decent storage I'd be seriously interested. I'm at 160 gig, a flash player won't cut it till at least 2010.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 17:56 GMT
Lee T.
fuck webster, you're even thicker than i thought #
have you ever heard about the creative zen micro? generally speaking, every single one had the headphone socket fail either just before or just after the (1 Yr) warranty expired. I had one. It died and i got it replaced (free) with a different model. Also, apple currently sells LOADS of different players, but they are all called ipod, and so every single fault on every single ipod from the last howeverthefuckmanyyears gets called by you as evidence. The more sold, the more faults will be reported, and apple has sold the most. learn something about statistics you twat, before you post yet-another-pointless-inaccurate-incoherent crap reply. I shouldn't bite, really, but Damn does webster get irritating.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 17:56 GMT
Brian Morrison
Will buy a Sansa Fuze when.... #
....they get the firmware updated to cope with FLAC and Ogg.
It's promised soon, but so far it hasn't actually appeared.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 17:56 GMT
Julian Bond
160Gb? #
Now that Toshiba have a 240Gb 1.8" disk and Apple have canceled the 160Gb Classic and downgraded it to 120Gb, where's the competition? Why doesn't *anyone* address the needs of people with too much music and video?
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 17:58 GMT
Steven Knox
Admittedly, I'm biased... #
My first mp3 player was a SanDisk (an m100 I believe), and they've alwas been my favorites, so I'm pleased to see them at the top of the list.
As for iTunes doing exactly what it says and just working, I guess I missed the part where it says iTunes will take up loads of space on the hard drive, install unwanted additions like QuickTime, and make an overly complicated mess of COPYING FILES.
With most non-iPods, esp. the SanDisks, you actually have the option to simply treat the player as another USB drive, so you can just copy the files using the file manager of your choice. No need for extra crap. What I'm saying (Missing Info) is that if you need supporting software*, then the player is crap.
*Other than, perhaps, a transcoder to optimize video.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 19:55 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Problems... #
Creative Zen Problem 9,280,000 results on google
Creative Zen Lawsuit 118,000 results on google
Of course none of this counts as I am clearly a mac/ipod/apple fanboi/mactard etc. And how dare I quest the Great Nerd that is Webster Freaky. <sarcasm>I wish I were him. It must be great trolling the net to find Apple stories and make riduculous and incoherant comments about them.</sarcasm>
Your 'learned' opinion ain't fact. Twunt.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 19:55 GMT
dingo_chutney
What about Archos? #
I own an Archos 605 Wifi. It's a superb video player, great audio player and has bags of features. Surely it deserves a place in this list? It smacks the arse of the ipod!
Then again, it's a last-year gadget isn't it? God forbid something released last year could still be one of the best of its ilk.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 19:55 GMT
Roger Barrett
Zen Vision M 30GB for me #
Been using the 30GB Zen since launch, taken it round the world for a year charging in Canada/USA, New Zealand/Australia and now back in the UK it gets daily 12 hour use, then charges over night for another full day plugged into the office hi-fi. Disappointed to hear the bad reviews for the X-Fi as I only have a couple of gig left before mines full and really want to jump up to a 60GB to give me plenty of future space.
I'm a bit confused by the hate for Windows Media Player? I use it to Sync my Zen very easily, just plug it in and drag across the latest CD, only small problem I had initially was my pc is old and a USB 1.1 speed for the initial sync took a loooong time. Admittidly if I want to scroll through the albums on my pc, it does stutter a little, but thats probably my pc.
Anway just wanted to chuck in my twopence worth.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 21:11 GMT
Anonymous Coward
*shrug* #
<rant> So there are some nice mp3 players out there. I knew that before. Thing is, compared to, say, the 160 GB iPod Classic they lack storage capacity. Heck, most compare badly to the iPod Nano, even. As to sound quality, use some serious headphones (let's talk Sennheiser 530s here, f'rinstance-OK, they're old, but they're still great) and encode your stuff in high quality and you won't be able to honestly complain. That last goes for many other players, too, of course.
I personally wish Apple would include the Ogg Vorbis CoDec in a software update, but that's about it as far as complaints go. My iPod does things smoothly I have seen most other players to do badly or not at all, it serves great as a multi-boot external hard disk which I use to check up on "dead" computers (take that, S(PH)ONY...), and otherwise offers me flight entertainment for the entire duration of a transatlantic flight, which many other players won't do either due to lack of battery capacity.
Considering the iPod Touch, I don't think there is any device out there at this time that could honestly compete with the functionality. I don't need that functionality, so I don't have one, but I must say it's one sexy device... evolving quickly into a combination PDA/mobile game console.
As to the iPod Shuffle, hey, it's a great device. I have one which I clip to my car's dashboard and use as my in-car entertainment system. I don't need to watch video while driving, after all. And the nano... well, OK, there are one or two devices out there that might out-do it. Unfortunately, those won't work together with the iTunes music store (@Steve Knox, get off it about iTunes installing QuickTime. Guess how much garbage WMP brings along... which you don't notice because that POS is forced down your throat by MS? And QT is more like extra value for Windows users, because it allows you to use more file formats than Steve B. can throw chairs at. Hint: iTunes uses QuickTime as playback engine... And if you would be so kind as to look at the file handling settings for iTunes, you might notice you can tell it to use all media files from right where they are found w/o copying anything...).
As to the commenter a few posts up who wondered why the Zune was not mentioned, I'd say it's because the Zune is just plain shite. I've attempted to use one for a bit (together with the associated music store), and I wonder whether there is any current owner who'll be masochist enough to buy another one. Just my personal experience, though; guess your mileage may vary. I can imagine that people used to, say, Vista, would be delighted that the Zune actually does work without hitches occasionally. </rant>
Just to make sure it's understood, I am not employed or in any other way associated with Apple, Inc. or any of their subsidiaries.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 21:11 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Tried multiple MP3 players #
Thus far the only one's that have even begun to come close to my iPod are the offerings from Cowon. Every manufacturer has issues of one stripe or another but in the end it's about what, how, and in what format you want your music. Despite the uninformed and pointless ramblings of dolts like webster the iPod is still a solid product and it takes all of maybe two minutes of altering settings in iTunes to make it organize my music the way I want it.
All in all some of the offerings in this list are utter shyte and others are decent enough kit. If you want more real world information and reviews of products that do indeed compete with the iPod then I suggest sites such as head-fi where users have used/own/have reviewed just about every offering out there.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 21:11 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Roger Barrett #
I'm a bit confused by the hate for Windows Media Player
Simple its an MS product. I like it but because its an MS product it has to be hated.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 21:11 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Apple has won #
I think the title of the piece says it all really. There are iPods, and there are other mp3 players.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 21:11 GMT
IR
Where does the iPod come in? #
We need the rating you'd give the ipod(s) so that we can properly compare.
I got a Sandisk e280 and love it. It was $50 cheaper than the equivalent ipod, had a radio (the only reason I chose it over the ipod since they were even on most other scores) and expandable memory. Memory is so much cheaper now than two years ago. I often use it for transferring large files between PCs since it is so quick and easy, and I don't have to carry a thumb drive around.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 21:11 GMT
TJ
@Roger #
Quite simply put, Windows Media Player, is an MS product. Thats what "makes it bad".
Quite honestly, I think people get too worked up about these things. People are hacking into credit card companies, but "heaven forbid if our music applications don't work as we fix THAT problem"
I own an Ipod. Generation 2, 15GB. And personally, I'm getting irritated at the Itunes bloat as well. Yes, it works. It has to because 90% of Ipod users are quite simply put - retarded. They are teenie bobbers who don't know what a USB port is, or much less an MP3 itself. I'm not anti Mac. I'm an IT guy, I can't be Anti anything because that would just be ignorance. I run XP pro at home, because thats what I'm faced most with.
I do however enjoy seeing the turn against Apple as their market share grows. Its just not cool, to be cool anymore. I think Steve should go talk to Bill to help him through the feedback from the very people who took him too the top turning against him. Deja-vu.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 23:42 GMT
Matt White
Lack of Archos... #
I mean come on, that's got to be the one to go for for anyone with a large storage need now.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 23:42 GMT
Frank Bough
This is Just #
...a group therapy session for Apple refusniks, right?
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 23:42 GMT
tardigrade
So that's why iPod's have market share uber pwnage. #
Looking at that list I now understand why iPod's are where they are at.
The competition isn't very sexy apart from the Walkman range. Adding off the wall features doesn't make a product better than the competition when the whole products purpose is to play music. Apple made this, the simplest of things to do. That equals win. Desire and design have a big role to play here. Zune? Who wants a brick with 70's styling?
From all the negative comments that anti-fanbois come out with at every Apple launch, you'd guess that there were some good alternatives out there buried under Apples hype. But apparently not.
Posted Thursday 11th September 2008 23:42 GMT
ratfox
Didn't bother to read the review #
Is there any of these which can play from one track to another WITHOUT pausing, like a CD? Much of classical music should keep playing from one track to another, and the pause introduced by my iPod makes me want to scream.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Dana W
@ratfox #
>and the pause introduced by my iPod makes me want to scream.
So, how old a version of iTunes are you USING? We have had gapless playback for YEARS.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Sarev
@ ac #
> Creative Zen Problem 9,280,000 results on google
> Creative Zen Lawsuit 118,000 results on google
right, and:
"ipod lawsuit" 1,880,000 results on google
"ipod problem" 3,420,000 results on google
hardly a resounding victory on the iPod front or a meaningful metric of anything.
I have a Zen V Plus as does my other half. We've had them a couple of years and not had any problems. Hey ho.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Michael Kean
How about PDAs and Phones. #
Every day I walk around with three MP3 players in my pocket - each with it's own strengths and weaknesses. Two are phones, and because of their proprietary audio connectors (ZTE F252, LG U8380) they only get used for playback via their speakers.
The third however, an aging Palm T|X, does a very good job as MP3 and Video player, as well as all the other things Palm used to do well. DivX support, MP3 support with equaliser and limiter (very useful for podcasts that go loud then quiet while you're driving), proper audio outputs and decent battery life. Option to browse by file system structure or by ID3 tags. Streaming audio over WiFi too, and a touch screen not far from iPhone size.
Again like most of these I guess the software that comes with them is a let-down, but since it's an SD card (and they're so cheap) content management can be done through WMP, or through any number of sync apps.
For me, there's no need for a dedicated MP3 player.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Raddimus Voracious
Just get a cheepo. #
I tried two nice media players: Zune (the 8GB SSD version) and paid $250USD. It had a nice build but I had a couple glitches and had to use MSs decent software to convert and load music. I took it back after a week. I went off and got a Sansa View 16GB I was largely happy it cost $150USD and I didn't need to convert media except for some vids. I set it on the roof of my car one day and was puzzled where my audiable books went. Gone... After that I just figured I don't need the flashy features and choose to replace it with a 4GB Sansa Clip which cost me $60USD. I should have got a clip to begin with. It has a cheep build but it does the job. Zen stone seems very similar but it cost a bit more.
So now I can give a laugh to those smug Mac users with their stone washed tattered jeans and over priced mp3 players. Mine MP3 just works and my jeans are tattered because they're 15 years old, I spent a fraction to get this crap.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Marc
The thing about Ipod + Itunes... #
Is that each step of the end-end experience is simply "nice" and hasn't been obviously designed by a techie. The whole package is just pleasant to use.
Anything that doesn't make it easy to plug device in, load up software automatically, buy music / video, listen / watch media in software, unplug device, listen / watch media on the move, fails at the first hurdle. That pretty much rules out anything that requires use of an on-device file browser or an explorer window in windows.
Anything with any more than around oh .... let's be generous and say 5 (left, right, top, down, centre) *intuitive* multi-function buttons equally has lost before it's left the factory. Don't knock the ipod until you've experience the click-wheel.
Then you have the device's graphical interface which needs to actually be tailored to someone using it to play media (as opposed to fitting around the underlying software). Sounds obvious right?
The amount of companies that fail to grasp these three basic requirements is absolutely astounding. If any of them aren't there, you've got yourself an "MP3 player", as opposed to a "music player" and it should be fairly self-evident which of those markets is bigger.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
elder norm
Such a funny article. :-) #
Hey, I believe that each person should have the player that is best for them.
But, most of us ......
Do not want software that SUCKS. Period
Do not want two features that are good and 10 that SUCK.
Only Windows Media plays-for-sure, well mostly, maybe if MS lets us..... nuff said.
iPods have 73% of the world market cause 73 % of the people like them best. PERIOD. 2.5% like Zunes (or Hate Apple... what a stupid reason to buy a player.....)
the rest are split up amount many different players and companies.
HMmmm, do you think that the slight lead by Apple could be cause the advertise (well mostly they do not) or that Steve Jobs told them they must buy an iPod (actually he never did).
Enjoy your player. I have several mp3 players that work just fine but they sit in the drawer cause my iPods are just ..... more enjoyable to me. PERIOD>
Just a thought.
en
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Trix
Cowon *close* to iPud? #
Well, if you don't mind your music sounding meh and only one or two file types being supported. I do admit the iPod's interface pwns all.
I'm surprised it wasn't the D2 listed here either, since that's more directly similar to the other devices. 8GB flash onboard, SDHC card slot, and plays all the media formats you can throw at it. And sounds good while the battery lasts for days. The A-series are more full-blown PMPs - take to watch movies on and the like.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
George Madison
iTunes - *FEH*! #
One of the reasons I don't use an iPod is because iTunes is such a vile piece of crap.
The others are that iPlods don't support Vorbis and FLAC, and don't have proper replaceable batteries. Only designs that are cheap and disposable can be excused for having a non-replaceable battery (the iPod Shuffle, for instance). In any other case, it's planned obsolescence to "encourage" people to buy another unit instead of simply replacing a worn-out battery.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Anonymous Coward
You can get gapless playback on the iPod: #
If you have the right model:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1797
Depends on the model you have. Works well though, I never have any complaints.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Calum Morrison
iPod sound quality #
I bought a 160Gb classic last year primarily for the storage; it's nearly full but as someone else mentioned, the sound quality is poor compared to other players.
Comparing the same mp3s (320kbps - hence why I need a 160Gb drive) on the ipod to my Archos 405 shows a massive difference, and when you factor in that I'm using the same headphones/car/home hi-fi for playback then, yes the comparison is valid.
The iPod interface is slick, the hardware is nice, iTunes sort of works and is excellent for synchronising music, but seriously, take a listen to the alternatives before buying an iPod. I only wish someone else had been offering a properly big HD when I bought my classic last year; and that Archos hadn't decided to charge for just about everything that they used to include for free...
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:08 GMT
Anonymous Coward
@Dana W #
"Try not ripping your Mp3s in 128 or low end AAC. Just because you don't know how to compress music is hardly Apple's fault."
Try not making flawed assumptions. The ipods sound crap, not because of the quality of rip/encode, but because of the high SNR, and crap DAC's fitted. iPods are crammed full of el-cheapo components. Anyone owning a iPod is clearly not a music lover. Once you have heard a decent personal music player, you will wonder why on earth iPlod is as popular as it is, given it's not actually got much going for it, besides slick marketing for the sheep market.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 09:12 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Sansa sucks big time #
As a Sansa e200 (8gb) I'm very surprised to see a Sansa at the top of this list.
I bought the e200 because I thought it did everything I disliked about the ipod at the time. It was larger (at the time) then the largest Nano's and expandable through MicroSD cards. It has had a replacable rechargable battery.
However, like many I'm still waiting on firmware to fix many problems with the player like
Very slow startup time. The player will not go into a sleep mode that it can quickly resume from, unless to put on unsupported firmware that is extremely buggy. With the actual supported firmware, the player cold boot every time taking quite a while to startup and longer to rescan the inserted SD card (every time you restart the player)
No radio on European Sansa's. The HW is missing from players on ale here for some arcane tax reason.
Connectivity. The Sansa used to be just a mass storage device with a regular drive letter when plugged into the USB port. but then Sandisk crippled it in later firmware by using Microsoft's DRM riddled MTP. Linux and Mac users were SOL trying to use the player.
I got so fed up with the thing that I bought an 80Gb iPod classic and I'm actually in the market for a 160Gb before they dissappear. I'll never buy a Sandisk player. I notice nothing in the list has anywhere near that capacity.
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=103
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 10:23 GMT
omg
I don't get it. #
Unless you're back-packing around the world, why would anyone need to carry around more than about 2Gbs worth of music?
I just have a tiny little USB-stick player. It has a crappy little one-line LCD for an interface, but that doesn't matter because it only holds about 80 tunes anyway, ordered by directory. It only cost about £10 on ebay, it weighs about a gram, it's virtually indestructible, and no one's going to steal it. When I want to change the tunes, a quick transfer from the PC only takes a few minutes.
Best of all it doesn't need any crappy software like iTunes.
iPod's are far more a fashion accessory than a necessary gadget.
Posted Friday 12th September 2008 11:05 GMT
Tony
@anyone that thinks iTunes is any good #
What planet are you from?
iTunes is the worst thing about owning an iPod. It sits on your hard drive like an elephant turd in a cat litter box. If you don't turn off the updates then it seems to update itself every 12 minutes requiring you to download hundreds of megs more of bloated apple code. It keeps trying to get you to install quicktime as well (why on earth would anyone want to??) and more recently apple's crappy browser too.
'it just works'... Give me a break! You know what would just work? allowing you to just connect your i-pod to a usb port and have it detected as just another drive, then just drag and drop mp3s and movies across. How is it easier or simpler to spend ages downloading and updating apple's bloated propriatary media player? They must have you brainwashed. I reckon iTunes must insert subliminal messages into your music when you convert it. That is the only explanation why software that does something so simple needs to be so large and why everyone puts up with (and even praises) this pos.
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