Check out the new iPod

[AlbertSiegel]

New features include:

- Click wheel (like the iPod Mini)
- A millimeter thinner
- More efficient Menus
- Multiple on-the-go playlists
- Listen to audiobooks slower or 25 percent faster without affecting pitch
- Longer play - 12 hours of battery life due to more power conservation
- Lower price: 40GB - $399, 20GB $299 (no 15 gig model now)
- Still kitchen appliance white

[devicenull]

your host sucks

[AlbertSiegel]

your host sucks

Why?

[Taro Toporific]

- A millimeter thinner
- More efficient Menus
- Multiple on-the-go playlists
- Listen to audiobooks slower or 25 percent faster without affecting pitch
- Longer play - 12 hours of battery life due to more power conservation
- Lower price: 40GB - $399, 20GB $299 (no 15 gig model now)
- Still kitchen appliance white

Sad to say, there's no new features such as AM/FM, stereo recording, or bluetooth anything. Besides ...the smaller form factor "mini" is not available for love or money. Meh.

[Watcher]

Still sucks in features compared to my iRiver H120... particularly in the remote control interface... I mean, everyone in Japan loves their remotes. They're a fashion statement on their own. How many Sony remote sticks do you see clipped to shirts or jackets? And you can do everything with these little sticks, including reading a screen of what's playing. Same with the iRiver (and it's 4 line to boot so I can get all the info that's on the main player). Until iPod gets a decent remote I wouldn't consider it... oh yeah, did I mention that my iRiver gets 16 hours of experienced play and has the am/fm radio and a built in mic and optical lines in and out... so all you iPod-heads can just keep paying for all that marketing. I'd rather pay the same price for more features.

[devicenull]

your host sucks

Why?

redex

[kotatsuneko]

nice, but I`m still intending to buy an iriver 340 with colour screen which is a lot less cash than the 40gig pod over here.. no display on the remocon this time tho.. unlike the cheaper b/w iriver.. why oh why?!

colour screen good for those lonely on the toilet moments

[GuyJean]

Tokyo Apple Store Holding iPod Mini Event Saturday
http://www.macminute.com/2004/07/22/tokyoipod

Apple's large retail store in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district will be holding a special iPod mini launch event this Saturday, July 24. "Join us this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. and be the first to get the new iPod mini. The first 1,000 customers in line get a free commemorative t-shirt. Plus, listen to DJs spinning tunes on iPod, music demonstrations and free classes throughout the day."

GJ

[Caustic Saint]

Tokyo Apple Store Holding iPod Mini Event Saturday
http://www.macminute.com/2004/07/22/tokyoipod

Has the line started forming yet?

[GuyJean]

Has the line started forming yet?

Nah, probably this evening. I'm not kidding!

GJ

[kamome]

I've been comparison shopping for MP3 players for a while now and it definitely looks like the iRiver is the better deal. The color-screen 340 is cool, but it's pricey (on sale: JPY 52,000). You can get the b/w iRiver with 40GB and all the other cool features that iPod doesn't have for about JPY 30,000 now.

Caustic, why would I want to get an iPod when iRiver is pound-for-pound a better buy?

[Taro Toporific]

I've been comparison shopping for MP3 players for a while now and it definitely looks like the iRiver is the better deal. The color-screen 340 is cool, but it's pricey (on sale: JPY 52,000). You can get the b/w iRiver with 40GB and all the other cool features that iPod doesn't have for about JPY 30,000 now.

Caustic, why would I want to get an iPod when iRiver is pound-for-pound a better buy?

Because the SOFTWARE integration is 10,000 times better and easier.

I've been stuck with garbage Sony player with -10x23rd software quality (thank buddha it was free). I have a color LYRA Thomson mp3 and MPEG4 player-recorder which has less than useless software. Both brand new players are sitting in my sodai-gomi now. The color LYRA Thomson is pound-for-pound a better buy since it plays and records TV, video and MP3s---it's useless trash. Sad to say Mrs. Taro runs around using my iPod (it records 4-6 hours of audio for meetings) so I never get to use it.

Side by side iPod software stomps dog-doo Sony and Thomson like Godzilla. I doubt the iRiver is any less primative Sony and Thomson.

Why is software so important? If you have 20GMB of MP3 tunes you REALLY need have them organized well. Just slapping them in files with no labels will become useless after 100 tunes. The iPod auto-labeling process, organization, integration with iTunes on your PC is the key. Morons like Sony haven't a clue. Of course the trash Thomson folks do not deserve consuming the earth's air.

[Caustic Saint]

I've been comparison shopping for MP3 players for a while now and it definitely looks like the iRiver is the better deal. The color-screen 340 is cool, but it's pricey (on sale: JPY 52,000). You can get the b/w iRiver with 40GB and all the other cool features that iPod doesn't have for about JPY 30,000 now.

Caustic, why would I want to get an iPod when iRiver is pound-for-pound a better buy?

Why is software so important? If you have 20GMB of MP3 tunes you REALLY need have them organized well. Just slapping them in files with no labels will become useless after 100 tunes. The iPod auto-labeling process, organization, integration with iTunes on your PC is the key.

What he said. I haven't looked at iRivers stuff, so I can't say whether it's worth your money or not. However, there's a reason the iPod is the #1 HD-based music player.

Join up! Become a pod person!

[kamome]

But if you have all the mp3's organized well on your PC and then just import that file structure directly to your player, does it matter what kind of organizing software is on there?

I realize these might be newbie-esque questions to you guys, but I've never owned one these machines and am trying to be a picky buyer.

[Taro Toporific]

But if you have all the mp3's organized well on your PC and then just import that file structure directly to your player, does it matter what kind of organizing software is on there?
I realize these might be newbie-esque questions to you guys, but I've never owned one these machines and am trying to be a picky buyer.

The "importing the file structure directly to your player" is B-A-D bad because the MP3 player does not allow browsing via a mouse (or keyboard). As Caustic and I have said, we don't know how bad iRiver's software is but if it's anything the Sony's dogpoop software for players ....you'll be like me and
want to strangle the engineers who foisted it off on the poor users.

[Ol Dirty Gaijin]

The iRivers looks OK. The interface will make or break you.

Go to a store and try it, that is if any store has one out of the box with a least 10 Gig of files on it.

But if all you are going to do is play every thing on random all the time, it wont matter.

[Taro Toporific]

Tokyo Apple Store Holding iPod Mini Event Saturday
http://www.macminute.com/2004/07/22/tokyoipod

Has the line started forming yet?

400 meters long in 36C/100F heat!
http://img12.exs.cx/img12/9048/line.jpg[/img]
See Gettyimages.com

The Rest of the Story...

Timid Tokyoites Delay IPod Frenzy
WIRED.com / 02:00 AM Jul. 27, 2004 PT
TOKYO -- Thousands of Japanese shoppers lined up outside Apple's Tokyo store on Saturday morning for a chance to buy a coveted iPod mini -- but were delayed by a pair of camera-shy customers at the head of the line.
About 1,500 Tokyoites lined up to get their hands on the first shipment of iPod minis to Japan, according to Apple. But when the store's doors were thrown open at 10 a.m., the two young men at the head of the line refused to enter because of the small army of reporters waiting inside to greet them.
The two men, who began queuing at 5 p.m. the day before, were intimidated by the cameras, they said. Refusing to give their names, they said they didn't want their pictures taken as they entered the store. More than 40 reporters from Tokyo's major newspapers and TV stations were positioned just inside the store's front door.

[Watcher]

So what Caustic and Taro seem to be saying is that if you are completely unorganised or lazy than the iPod will somehow manage to fix everything nice for you... hmmmm... I don't know so well about iPod soft but every music organising soft I've used has managed to mangle my files. The only softyware that's ever worked 100% of the time to exactly m,y liking was my own organising. All in a nice filetree structure. Genre/artist/album/song. Works perfectly... and as to navigating the iRiver I have no problems at all negotiating that style of structure (from the remote no less). iRiver does have it's own database system that will run off of ID3 tags... but from what I hear it's pretty slow and you're better off doing it yourself from a playlist or shuffle the directory. There's also alternative software for the iRiver from Redchair (not that you need it if it's organised and just use explorer, like me).
What we really need are for car stereo headunits to have a usb port to fully integrate all of our players into and be controlled by the steeringwheel buttons (instead of the radio transmitter I've been using).

[Taro Toporific]

Has the line started forming yet?

400 meters long in 36C/100F heat! It's that good. That is the iPod NEVER farks up when organizing unlike those eat-shit-and-die folks at Sony's NW-E2 Digital Music Player DIE! DIE! DIE! If I ever find the Sony scumbags who are responsible for that software...

Japanese music fans rush to buy new iPod Mini players
Thousands of people lined up outside electronics stores in Japan on Saturday as Apple Computer launched sales of its iPod Mini digital music player.
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, July 24, 2004)
About 1,500 people were lined up outside Apple's store in Tokyo's Ginza district before the store opened at 10 a.m. Tens of thousands of the devices have already reportedly been reserved by customers.

[Taro Toporific]

Join up! Become a pod person!

It looks like Apple Japan nicked your line, "Become a pod person!" for their PR campaign as seen in this picture of the iPod press event on Omotesando.


iPod mini Zombie Models via Wired27 July 2004

[mr. sparkle]

About 1,500 Tokyoites lined up to get their hands on the first shipment of iPod minis to Japan, according to Apple. But when the store's doors were thrown open at 10 a.m., the two young men at the head of the line refused to enter because of the small army of reporters waiting inside to greet them.

Should I bring a handful of iPod minis with me? How much would the kids pay anyhoo? I've got a line on a silver one and a blue one.

[Caustic Saint]

I finally got to get hands-on with a mini this week. They had demo units (all 5 flavors) at the Apple Experience Center and I fiddled a bit while waiting to pick up my iBook. My thoughts?

They're really fucking tiny.

I know they're physically not that much smaller than my 3G iPod, but they feel a lot smaller. I can see why they're selling by the truckloads.

Of course, they don't have any in stock yet, but the guy said they'll have them in a week or so. I don't expect them to have a line anything close to what Tokyo had though.