When a good design is better than a good product?

I had 2 MP3 Players before my iPod family. I had an iRiver 512MB and after that a Creative Muvo (or something like it) 1GB.

The iRiver didn't last a week, it broke when I was on the like for the bank. The Creative Muvo was much cooler but it brooke when I was snowboarding...

So after that I bought an iPod Shuffle wich is still alive even after running, snowboarding and riding a jet ski with me...

That made me like the iPod so much that I decided to buy a iPod Nano 1 week after it's release, wich was the coolest thing I ever had, pretty good functions, and I have to say that the iTunes integration helped a lot, since that's the best software for music I've tryed.

Now I have the Shuffle, the Nano (wich I'm trying to sell) and the iPod Video.

It is true that the iPod Nano I have 'just works' (except for one small issue that was not intuitive to resolve, which cropped up once I finally had more than two gig of stuff in iTunes to download to the two gig Nano, but I digress).

What their design efforts appear to be good for is limited function utility stuff. Like the iPod. It plays audio. Period. (Yes there are games and it stores text files and can be used as a clock or even a stopwatch, but these things are 'noise' functions.)

What their sales of computers seem to indicate is that they are not as good at designing a 'general purpose' device.

So, I think they need to focus on that strength. Go off and create an iFon and an iWallet and an iKeyRing and an iFridge and even an iTV. Apple should become the 'embedded software' supplier. A separate design for each thing.

But they need to just give up on the computer and sell all their computers with Windows only (or maybe run OS-X from inside a MS window).

Only cost $25 for battery. Nice to go longer than 15-16 hours between charges on long drives; or even if you just fly cross country you leave home/hotel and its well over 10 hours later when you have a chance to charge again. And if you're too tired or forget you still have a back up.

ps: not difficult to do at all, and you can get a battery or a harddrive(?) for them online for cheap. of course this voids the warranty, but by the time your battery discharges, your prolly out of the warranty phase by then anyway.

pps: how does the new ipod compare to the M in battery life now? i have a 3g and im lucky if it lasts 45 minutes on a full charge! but i hear the new ipods have much better battery life.

I was wondering again reading all the reply in foruns and some come up:

NO PRINTED MANUAL
If Im not mistake when I bought my Ipod video didnt came with print instructions about how to operate a IPOD, I mean came some sheets about how to connect to computer, charge and so on but the instrucions about how to operate the IPOD (choose music, configure time)I think is only in CD if exist at all, so make me think... they (apple) belive so much that they products is so easy to operate that they dont print instructions about how to operate at all!

SWITCH
Im a not huge MAC fan, for years I use a Windows PC, and just last year I bought my first Mac an Ibook, I have to say: I heard so many people talking about mac, that I decide that it was time to buy one! I read and heard about a lot about how is easy to use, but to be honest, I dont know if is me or what but I dont think that the MAC OS is so easy to use as people say. I mean is good OS, interest features but easy... I dont know, I think that a begginer user probably have some problems to switch from a pc to mac

3-4 years ago I got a 30GB Creative Labs Jukebox Nomad Zen Xtra (not nearly as snappy a name as "Apple iPod," is it? That may be part of the problem).

At the time iPods were 20GB or 40GB, for about $400 and $500 respectively. You could assume that a 30GB would go for about $450. I got the Zen Xtra for $212 at Circuit City. That price stuck for over two years while iPod prices crept down.

Of course I bought the protection plan and fortunately for me, almost right away it developed a couple very minor glitches that were worth living with, for the knowledge that they would one day (just barely) qualify for replacement under the protection plan. One problem was that one out of every 20 or 30 times I turned it on there would be a mild static-y noise over the audio. Once in about every 40-80 hours of play the static would come on out of the blue. Turning it off then back on fixed it.

Another problem was that after a while the buttons got a tad glitchy: to get the command I had to press noticeably harder; except for every now and then they were overly sensitive. Both amounted to occasionally mild annoyances, but never got frustrating. Also I was a power user, with about 100 hrs per month.

Navigating was always easy. I wasn't a huge fan of the pc software for transferring files onto it, but I got used to it. I was envious of a friend who had an early iRiver that allowed him to drag and drop folders. I had an extra cell phone battery that I did use for the player. I often used it for long trips and it was nice to know I always had the extra battery. Also, at the time, iPods were boasting 10-12 hrs battery life, I was getting no less than 14.

My Zen was a tad thicker and heavier than an iPod but it wasn't that noticeable. The display was fine. It was easier to navigate while it was on my belt. If I didn't need to actually look at the display to navigate menus, I could do all commands while it was on my belt, no need to even open the holder. With the player on my hip I could: power on/off; play/pause; FF/RW; go to next or previous tracks; change volume.

I used to flout in the face of my iPod friends the two best features. One was the ability to make playlists on the fly, the other was better audio quality. I listen to a lot of jazz, acid jazz, electronica etc in a factory environment and clear accurate bass is essential.

About a year ago I noticed that the last 40GB Zen Xtra was on the shelf of Best Buy, for that still low price of $212. By then iPods were coming down in price a bit but I loved the Zen by then. So I bought the 40, then sent in my 30 and got store credit at CC. I got the 40GB even though I knew that my needs were changing and I desired something smaller for everyday use. But I knew that no matter what, I could make good use of a solid, reliable, flexible portable 40GB hard drive.

For the smaller player I recently got a Samsung 1GB flash YP-F1. The display is almost too small, but it gets the job done. True I don't need the voice recorder or FM radio. But it manages folders well, has decent enough equalizer, I can drag and drop folders so no need to use the software; which is OK as those things go. Downsides is no playlists on the fly, the sound quality is a step down from the Zen but this player is primarily for podcasts anyways.

The two best things: the size and price. Its smaller than your thumb and flatter and very light. It was the smallest one available at the time. It was only $109. It fits in my jeans coin pocket; or I clip it on my T-shirt collar or on my cell phone holder.

Bottom line, except for a few minor trade-offs, I think my non-iPod devices worked just as good as any iPod. And for a lot less money. The Zen Xtra was a tiny bit bigger, but the sound was better, access to the battery was nice, playlists on the fly is essential. I don't know how you could live with a 40GB device that doesn't allow for that.

The Samsung YP-F1 may be a tad thicker than a Nano but not more mass, not heavier. I love the built in clip, the display is actually robust, loading and navigating is a breeze.

I'm sure that for many, for entirely practical reasons, iPod is the way to go. But for very many people, its just herd mentality, eye candy, not performance. I say shop online, read reviews, think about which features are most important. Then go into the stores and hold various devices in you hand. Take a set of headphones with you, most display models have some music files loaded.

With both my Zen Xtras, the battery is user replacable. With my first one, I kept an old cell phone batter on hand and used it quite a bit to prolong time between charges.

But eventually, after a couple years of heavy use, the battery life began to degrade noticeably, from about 15 hours to under 10. I ended up sending it anyways for other very minor glitches, and got credit for a replacement and bought a new Zen Xtra. But its just nice to know that as long as the device holds up, if the battery starts to die, I do have the option of purchasing a new one. I'd rather spend $50 for a new battery than $200 for a new device.

A girl I know, ipod fan, gave her ipod to her 20-something cousin to load it up with music from his collection. Where did he get his music from? Partly ripping his own cd's, partly from friends. If you can get to know other people with digital music players you all can pile up a lot pretty quick.

Before the first digital music players were even in stores, I had been on a mission to rip all my cd's to my hard drive on my pc. I was tired of having lots of cd's laying all over the place, in car wallets, on top of my stereo etc. Plus its great when people come over, to just whip up a playlist, hit shuffle and let it ride.

I own over 700 cd's, but about 200 are not for everyday listening (christmas, novelty, extreme, nostalgic, etc). Then the library is always a great source, and I've borrowed dozens if not hundreds of cd's from friends.

A real stroke of luck for me is that a friend of mine is a volunteer dj for a non-commercial radio station. He plays lots of obscure and bizarre music. He's trusted by the station to take cd's out, and he loans me lots of stuff that you'd never hear on commercial radio. For his show, probably over half the stuff he plays is his own music that he takes into the station. He doesn't like reggae at all, I do. I told him that of all my music I have practically no reggae. For the next few weeks he'd give me 4-5 cd's at a time. I'd rip them to the hard drive and give them back, he'd give me 4-5 more.

After dig.music players came out, my wife and I got one as a gift for her sister. The gift didn't just include buying the item. While her sister was on vacation, we took 80% of her cd collection out of her house (well over 200) and over a long weekend ripped all her stuff to our hard drive, then loaded them up on her device. So the gift was really that we gave it to her all ready to go. Then of course, I also owned all those songs.

I like to give as well as take, too. My radio station friend is a bit old school, due to his new wife, he finally has his first pc in his house. Now I can start giving him mp3 discs with stuff out of my collection that he would like.

I'm sure you can see how quickly you can get up to 40GB if you look for sources of music besides itunes. I haven't been into acquiring new music in the form of "singles" since elementary school, I don't think the internet is going to change that habit.

I understand not everyone has a friend at a radio station (his personal collection includes thousands of vinyl LPs, thousands of cd's, tapes). But look for opportunities to share with others. I know this is what the music industry hates, but I still spend as much on music as I ever did before.

If you were a Linix fanboy would you say:

"Windows: for people who do not know any better." ???

There's no one, singular, typical anything with people, including ipod fans. I think there can be a dividing line between two types.

For many people an ipod makes the most sense. When they're given a well informed choice and keep an open mind while shopping, it turns out that the apple products is the most practical product.

Then there are those who may do better, practically and economically speaking, to get something else. But oh, they just can't resist that meth-like call of those ubiquitous, identifiable white bud headphones that tell the world - even if your device is in a pocket or under an untucked shirt - that device is indeed an ipod. As if its a given that any other brand of digital music player is just not the real thing.

I've discussed with more than a few people all the ins and outs of why they settled on the ipod. For many, it was a way for them to say that money is no object, they insist on having the best, the real deal, the original, the top of the line.

I know two women with remarkably similar stories. Both owned computers for years when they got their ipod. Neither had any music on their hard drives, nor even knew how to rip music. And this was before iTunes. As if you're going to put 10,000 tracks on your player one dollar at a time, anyways. Sheesh.

Anyways both splurged on the largest or second largest capacity ipods available at the time. Actually one received her ipod as a gift (40gb) the other bought hers (20gb). Post purchase, both discovered that they needed to upgrade from Windows 98 to 2000 or higher. So they upgraded.

The 40gb/gifted owner upgraded after a few months, but she owns very few cd's, and it took her a while to get a system down and become comfortable ripping music. Now, years later, she's still got no more than 10gb filled up and listens to all the same songs over and over.

The 20gb/self-bought owner took a while getting around to upgrade. But she owns quite a few cd's and fairly quickly got a few hundred titles loaded up. When she and I compared eachothers' players, and I talked to her about other stuff available for far less money, she waved me off saying, ''Well I used my tax refund money and I figure, hey, that's what windfalls are for; to just get what you want without worrying about the price too much.'' Her 20gb ipod = $400; my 20gb Zen = $212. I don't think the ipod was really so much better to justify being nearly twice the price.

Back then it really was all marketing. But now ipods have become slightly more competitive, and the functioning can be more streamlined. So I think now that its more reasonable of a choice for many. But there's still a certain type of ipod consumer who just buys it for fashion reasons.