Need help selecting portable mp3 player

[MarkRyan]

Also, now that I've got an iPod photo, I can use it to offload pics from my digital camera when I'm out on vacation without needing a computer with me. That's really nice.

Wait, for real? How do you do that?

[Josh]

If it makes you feel better, I'm smart, don't talk a lot and actually useful in real life.

I wasn't talking to you. Slut.

[Omni]

the opposite must be true too.

You're a fucking faggit and worthless pile of shit.

It all evens out now.

The opposite would've been saying "I'm a fucking faggot and worthless pile of shit."

The point isn't if I NEED to have my entire collection with me or not - the point is that now we don't have to make those sacrifices anymore. I can have my iPod and (most) of my library with me, and I can suddenly decide that I just need to listen to a certain song, and I can do it. That's nice. Why should I live in the days of cassette tape anymore, where I had to carefully decide what songs I wanted to listen to that day?

Plus, you can do more than just that with an iPod / whatever. My iPod has my contacts and calendars, and it has files that I like to take around with me. Also, now that I've got an iPod photo, I can use it to offload pics from my digital camera when I'm out on vacation without needing a computer with me. That's really nice.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[Josh]

I'm a fucking faggot and worthless pile of shit.

[Omni]

Oh yeah, forgot about the new rules.

I think it'll be okay...

[Six]

The same way people got tricked into paying more for audio tapes and A-Tracks than for LPs, and the same way they tricked you all into buying solid state receivers.

Because a decent tube amp costs as much as my college education?

How is that trickery?

And you can't play an LP in your car. Well, not while it's moving at least. I mean at a speed that you'd want to go in a car. Ya know? Oh yeah, and don't forget Walkman. Tape Sales + 1 (+/- a million or so)

...and I mean do you really need every single track you possess accessible to you at all times?

Yes.

I don't know a single person that can tell the difference between 192 bitrate MP3 and CD even on the best system, and neither do you. Though I agree, on a really good system, 128 bit-rate versus CD is noticable, but still very minor.

Any amount of compression worth mentioning is noticable when the music is well known to the listener. Take your favorite album ever, encode it at 1021401204kbps and compare. Compression is just to tide us over until we can get a decent sized, reliable, rewritable, cheap, efficient storage system.

[Fe 26]

Because a decent tube amp costs as much as my college education?

And you can't play an LP in your car. Well, not while it's moving at least. I mean at a speed that you'd want to go in a car. Ya know? Oh yeah, and don't forget Walkman. Tape Sales + 1 (+/- a million or so)

1) I'm sure you have a good enough understanding of business to know that if enough people still paid for tube amps each year, the price per tube amp would go down, right? The only reason they cost so much now is becuase there isn't a demand for them.

The industry killed vacuum tubes because transistors made them more money. People are willing to give $500 for a $20 transistor radio, instead of $700 for a $350 tube radio.

2) My dad must have been a very smart man for the time. He used to buy records and then make tapes from them. With a few tapes you could have the best sound at home, and have a tape for the car.

[Calliander]

Subscription services are cute, but not much more than that. It isn't like a movie where you watch it once and then get rid of it. If you're downloading a lot of music that you aren't going to be keeping for long, you're downloading the wrong music, unless you're simply trying out new stuff.

If I want to try out new stuff, though, I don't want to pay a monthly fee to do so. I'll just listen to Podcasts, samples or stuff from my buddies. I don't get subscription services.

And while the Slashdot crowd likes to bitch about how it doesn't play OGG or have FM radio or line in, the market seems to show that most people out there couldn't give a crap.

OGG is worthless and anybody who wants a feature like FM radio is living in the past.

[Schlep]

I do wish there was an FM radio built into the iPods, mostly for sports.

[Nomi]

Wait, for real? How do you do that?

Belkin product, of course. They're expensive and I never hear much anything wonderful about them, but if you don't have a computer handy for a trip or something I could see it being useful.