New iPod Owner Onslaught Overwhelms iTunes

Billosaur writes "In the post-Christmas rush to power up and use their new iPods, an onslaught of downloaders brought iTunes to its knees, according to CNN. Monday and Tuesday saw users posting message after message about slow downloads and the iTunes site denying them entry. The heavy traffic was apparently more than the system could bear, what with the large numbers of people receiving iPods and iTunes gift cards. Perhaps Apple was underestimating just how successful they were going to be?"

And strangely,

[Hawthorne01]

The Microsoft Zune store was working just fine.

Huh.

Re:And strangely,

[sirket]

I just spit soda all over my keyboard. Damn you! :)

ever wondered...

[rucs_hack]

Ever wondered what an iTunes store looks like while it burns? :-)

Re:And strangely,

[Tim Browse]

Thanks for explaining the joke to us. Do you have a card, so we can call you the next time a joke comes up?

Oh goody!

[$RANDOMLUSER]

It's September on USENET all over again.

Re:

[Overzeetop]

I don't get it. What happend with the usenet in September?

Re:Oh goody!

[croddy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September [wikipedia.org]

Sorry..belay that post.

[Overzeetop]

Yes, I've heard of the S/93-AOL stuff, but had filed it somewhere inaccessible.

I thought something actually happened this past September on the usenet and I somehow missed it. There are times I'm just too busy to get on and catch up. There was a bit of panic that my source for audio and video on the net might be somehow threatened. Luckily, it's just iTunes that's borked.

Re:

[spatrick_123]

Me too!

OP had a senior moment

[Overzeetop]

No, OP had a senior moment, but some moderator was kind enough to "laugh" at the "joke". ;-)

Re:

[BRSQUIRRL]

Closed-captioning [catb.org] for the 'Net history-impaired. :)

Re:Oh goody!

[jam244]

It's September on USENET all over again.

Me too!!!!!

Re:Oh goody!

[maeka]

We all know that top-posting is the only correct way.

It's September on USENET all over again.

Me too!!!!!

Re:

[kalidasa]

September will NEVER end on USENET.

Re:

[WilliamSChips]

Actually, Billie Joe Armstrong woke up on USENET when AOL decided to drop Usenet support. There was even a Slashdot article about it. But I'm too lazy to look for it.

iDoted

[Lucan Varo]

iTunes got slashdoted, iDoted.

Doting on the iPod

[mr_matticus]

Actually, most iPod owners could easily have a bumper sticker or wear a T-shirt that says "iDoted" with regard to the little music machines.

Re:

[CelticWhisper]

There's an Illinois Department Of Transportation joke in there somewhere for those bold enough to seek it out.

So what?

[notque]

So they underestimated how successful they'd be, and will quickly throw money at the problem and correct the issue.

I don't see this as positive, or negative. It happened, if they fix it quickly we'll all move on.

Re:So what?

[neoform]

Maybe so, but this definitely shows that those rumors of apple's iTune sales being way down were total crap.

I helped with this

[sgt.greywar]

2/3rds of the gifts I bought this year were iPods and iTunes music gift cards. I think I am not alone in this and the traffic shutdown on iTunes shows it. Apple has done a great job with their service and I don't mind paying for it. My wife did have to wait until yesterday to buy the rest of her Tunes though since the site was so hammered.

Re:

[iocat]

Please see post above about "normal people" -- aka those not on slashdot, wondering why everyone isn't building robots.

Anyway, even as I sit here, wondering if it's nice enough outside to test this robot I built yesterday, I have iTunes running. I dislike DRM music, but still appreciate the odd iTunes gift card, because IT'S FREE. And if I want to buy, say, Surrender, by Cheap Trick, to add to a mix, I don't really feel like going to Best Buy, buying a full CD of music I don't really want/need, and waitin

Re:I helped with this

[needacoolnickname]

I'm guessing that someone who might have thought of getting you a gift, you already gave this rant to and they decided just to get you some nice socks.

Shit. It's a gift. Say thank you and smile.

Re:

[Kesh]

Y'know, you could just offer to sell the gift card to some kid on the local campus, a relative or *gasp* a friend, right? Then you'd have the cash to spend however you want.

Also, those socks have terrible DRM. I mean, you can only use them on your feet! Talk about restricted use. I mean, maybe you can use them as a rag, or a hand puppet, but you have to do some serious hacking to get any other serious use out of them. ;)

Re:

[Angostura]

Why not get them something useful like a Best Buy gift card so at least they can go pick up the CDs at the store

Because they have to go to the store? Because they have to pick up an entire CD, rather than an individual track?

Re:

[sgt.greywar]

Good grief, iTunes sounds great to anyone not looking at the music through an o-scop and bitching about the degraded waveform. Basically if it is even somewhat close to the CD and better than the radio people like being able to pay .99 ofr one song they want as opposed to $15-17 for a CD with 2 songs they liked. For people with iPod's the DRM isn't an issue either. I bet your family *loves* buying gifts for a bitchy old curmudgeon.

Re:I helped with this

[geekoid]

You are an ass and you are giving UNIX a bad reputation.
Immediatly change your logon and then think hard about the idea of hitting someone just because they give you a GIFT.

You ungratefull S.O.B.

1) No one,not even you, can tell the difference without looking at high end equipment.

2) "Epensive" is determined by the market, not by your opinion. YOU may find them to expensive, but clearly the market doesn't it.

3) No music you buy from anywhere is yours. The media is, and the ability to listen to that media any way you want is, but the content is not your, and never has been in the history of music.

4) How much would you spend at a music store if you wanted only 1 track that is on 10 different CDs? You would have to pay 100 bucks to get the home made compilation. 25-50 bucks if you could get it as used music.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

CNN confirms it!

[fatboy]

CNN confirms it! iTunes is dieing!

Sales were supposed to be weak weren't they?

[Anonymous Coward]

Quote: "Perhaps Apple was underestimating just how successful they were going to be?"

I thought the press was saying the iPod wave had crested and the sales were on a downward spiral....
What if Apple believed those reports and scaled back iTunes?... Naaw not likely. But it is nice to see Apple get suprised once in a while.

It's Win/Win for Apple

[mrshermanoaks]

Apple sells a ton of iPods, and then gets press about how many iPods they sell. You can't just do a news story about Apple selling a lot of iPods for the holidays, that's the story we hear every year. You need a situation where they sell so many damn iPods that their service is overwhelmed. That's a story. And you're further reinforcing the idea that "everyone" owns an iPod and nobody owns a Zune. Yeah, it was a pain for people for a day or so. If I read a story about how many iPods were returned because people had trouble with the iTMS, that's something else. But do you think those iPods went back? Doubt it.

Microsoft may have been just too late

[Shivetya]

to get into the game. Simply put the iPod has had time to establish dominance. It has become part of culture. I know many people who refer to buying an iPod but don't consider it the same as an MP3 player. Being late to enter the market of any product which sparks public interest will leave all others behind, it doesn't hurt that most of the early competitors were trapped under MusicMatch (or whatever that horrid product was)

I think another thing the gave Microsoft issues, and it continues to hit the oth

Re:

[EastCoastSurfer]

The so called "halo" effect the iPod is claimed to have on this site and elsewhere doesn't seem to exist where I live.

I was in Denver last week (stuck b/c of the snowstorm) with time to kill and went into an apple store for the first time. They were selling ipods as fast as they could unpack the boxes. Anyway, there were tons of people looking at MBs (a few buying). I think the halo effect is there and starting to work, but moving from a $100-$200 purchase (which can be an impulse buy for many people) to

Re:

[Lars T.]

On a related note I encountered family this holiday that got an "iPod" but not the Apple one. It was an off brand of some player that does everything an "iPod" does.

Was it this [hardmac.com], this [hardmac.com], this [hardmac.com], or this [hardmac.com] "iPod"?

Re:

[CDarklock]

I'm eyeing the Zune. So far, every single detractor I have heard about it is a software problem. Lot of problems, to be sure, but most of them amount to "not an iPod" or "not what I wish it was". Very few of the complaints are in any way reflective of an inability to do the job: play music and video in a portable format.

Compare iPod: can't change the battery, case easily scratched, screen not large and bright enough. Those are hardware. Once you have those problems, you have to just get a different player.

Re:

[c00rdb]

Compare Zune: Bigger screen with the exact same resolution, bulkier to carry, less efficient interface (deemed by most), no options other than color for the hardware....

Re:It's Win/Win for Apple

[gordgekko]

bulkier to carry

God, I wish this would die. The Zune is marginally larger and heavier than the latest iPods. If the Zune is a huge brick, that means every previous iPod was a monster as well.

And before someone resorts to that tired accusation of "shill", I own a 5.5G 80GB iPod and a Mac (along with two Windows XP machines).

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

Very few of the complaints are in any way reflective of an inability to do the job: play music and video in a portable format.

True. But I think some of the problems that Microsoft was also marketing. In order to beat Apple they may have hyped certain features that did not turn as people expected. i.e. Zune has wireless. Technically true but when you use "wireless" most people expected full 802.11 connection not Zune to Zune limited sharing. Every company does some hyping on features in marketing, but

Re:

[mgv]

So of the two things you could get right, Microsoft chose to focus on the physical device that needs to be shipped and examined and repaired, while Apple chose to focus on the readily copied and distributed software that would otherwise need to be downloaded from the web.

Overall, I think Zune made the best choices of where to fail. Both sides are failing a little, but the Zune doesn't have any failures that can't be fixed free of charge later on down the line.

Right. Like windows XP, it doesn't have any fai

Re:

[plopez]

You get my 'tinfoil hat' award for this one. More likely, like all corps., Apple just went cheap on thier hosting. Or if they internally host, went cheap on setting up thier systems. They are a large corporation and therefore clumbsy and clueless from time-to-time (though not as bad as some, e.g. HP or MS who make 'F-troop'
look downright organized).

Proof?

[repetty]

A couple anecdotes and an analyst who uses the technical term "blew up" are a pretty week foundation for a news story.

I have drawn these conclusions:

1. The iTunes service has operated just fine
2. It's a very, very slow news day

--Richard

Re:

[Dunbal]

1. The iTunes service has operated just fine

      Funny, why is CNN running the story then? I know their standards have dropped a lot in recent years, but SOMETHING must be wrong with the site.

Re:

[fatboy]

Well, I had trouble purchasing a song 2 days ago. From what I could gather, the servers used during the checkout of my purchase were responding with an error "503 Service Unavailable". IIRC, the dialog box had "Retry" and "Cancel" buttons. I had to click retry a few times, but I was able to get my copy of "We are the ones" by Zombie Girl. :P

Clearly they were caught short.

[CODiNE]

Heh... from the article

"No doubt it was a very, very popular gift, and no matter how well you plan on the server side of the equation, there are always times when you get caught short."

How I love differences in US [about.com] and UK English [phrases.org.uk]... yes I imagine they were caught short indeed!

Dear Apple,

[TheOldSchooler]

I bought my wife an IPod Nano and an I-Tunes gift card. I am so sorry.

Re:

[antdude]

You have a wife? I am amazed (still single and over 30 years old). [grin]

Signing in.

[Spazntwich]

I was gifted with an iPod shuffle for Christmas, and haven't even bothered to try out the iTunes store yet.

This post is about as useful as an alligator both on fire and LSD.

Content Delivery System

[NewWaveNet]

Doesn't Apple host the actual content with Akamai? I know their website did.

Looks like The Register has huge egg on its face..

[Archeopteryx]

...they were talking of the FAILURE of iTunes just a month a go!

Systems and Spikes

[MrGHemp]

In the brick-and-morder storea if you suddenly had a spike in sales... no one blamed you if you didn't get a new store constructed in a day or two to meet the demand. Plus if the demand spike only lasted a day or two did anyone expect you to construct an extra store and have it just sit dormant until that one or two days next year when you had the sales to support using it? No. So part of me doesn't wonder if some of these big online applications don't kinda expect to have there hardware taxed for a day

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

Who says increasing server capacity would have prevented the problem. Maybe the problem was in the network/bandwidth area? I'm not an expert in these matters but the problem may have been more systematic than not enough servers to handle the transactions.

Stupid....

[mark-t]

To automatically download album artwork, it requires that you log into your itunes store account, which requires a credit card number to complete, even though there is no mention of any fees involved with doing so.

Idiotic, if you ask me.

Re:

[mark-t]

You may not need a CC to have an itunes account, but the itunes software says you must log into the itunes store to download album artwork and step 3 of the 3 steps for creating an itunes account is entering credit card info. If you cancel this step, you still can't download album artwork until you "log into the itunes store"

Oh, Great

[Beer_Smurf]

Now in addition to being swamped, they are going to be slashdotted by everyone checking if they really are swamped.

Or maybe it was Taiwan being offline

[heroine]

The internet was overall extremely slow after XMas, mainly due to Taiwan going
offline for an earthquake. All the traffic to Asia had to go through the Atlantic cables instead of the Pacific cables.

Re:Or maybe it was Taiwan being offline

[kalidasa]

Good thought, but I doubt it. I had no problems browsing, and just slowdowns adding to my cart, but when I tried to redeem a gift card, iTunes threw some kind of error that looked more like an overloaded server error than a comm error.

slashdotted?

[SnarfQuest]

I wonder how much of a load this article is adding to those servers?

Why was everyone downloading?

[SeaFox]

Every iPod includes a CD with iTunes on it.

Re:Why was everyone downloading?

[TheRaven64]

That must suck for people who don't have broadband (yes, there are some, and many of them have extensive CD collections). Since all iPods can act as USB mass storage devices, why not just put it on the device itself?

I used to own a serial adaptor for my Psion Series 3 palmtop. It came with a blob of flash in the middle of the cable that contained all of the drivers etc. required to use it. I don't see why iPods shouldn't adopt this model. Sure, download a newer version of iTunes if you want, but at least provide the software required to use it...

Packaging

[fupeg]

Since I own stock in Apple, I sure hope this was because of tons of iPods being sold and overwhelming demand for ITMS downloads. However, it might have been caused by Apple's change in packaging. When I bought a Nano in October 2005, it came in a cardboard package, approximately the size of two CDs. It needed to be bigger than a CD because it contained a CD -- a CD with iTunes on it. If you buy a Nano or Shuffle (not sure about the video iPod) this year, they come in a clear plastic package that's a rectangular solid similar in size to a soda can. The packaging can be smaller because it does not contain a CD with iTunes on it. Instead, you have to download iTunes from Apple. So maybe that was the cause of the traffic in Christmas morning. Lots of first time iPod owners all trying to download iTunes. That's a 35 MB download, compared to the ~4 MB downloads for most songs on ITMS. Steve Jobs was touting that the smaller packaging was more environmentally friendly (maybe cheaper, too?)

Re:

[lakeland]

Why not put itunes on the ipod? Every ipod has a capacity > 35MB.

reality check-building to capacity

[way2trivial]

if you expected a 4 fold ncrease for 72 hours, then demand to drop to more moderate levels- you might decide to take the service hit rather than make a huge capital
  investment that would cover your 'brownout'

software updates

[ElephanTS]

I had to fix a family member's Ipod mini on Xmas day and found that the ipod software updates were overwhelmed too. I wonder if many of the new pods were downloading updates too - it was nearly 20Mb I think. Seems like they come through the store now. Got it in the end though.

DRM raises the stakes

[EERac]

Obviously it's a bummer to not be able to buy new music for a day, but with DRM, there's more at stake. On Chrismas, I wanted to transfer some songs and videos I already owned to my new iPod, but I was using my powerbook which I hadn't authorized to play the songs. Even though I had the files, iTunes wouldn't put unauthorized content on my new iPod. When I tried to authorize my computer, I couldn't because the iTunes music store was down.

Even if the iTunes store is too flooded to handle new purchases, Apple has an obligation to keep rights management up and running. It's very disheartening to lose access to content you made the deliberate choice to buy legally.

Re:First Post!

[baryon351]

Similar here. It'd be easier to count the number of relatives who *didn't* get iPods as christmas presents. That'd be me, my mother, and my two year old nephew. Everyone else closely related that I can think of has a new nano, shuffle or iPod, and they're anywhere from 8 to 71 years old.

Re:

[leenks]

I love the spirit of Christmas. Soon *everyone* will know that Christ was born with a pair of Nike trainers on his feet and an ipod in his pocket!

Re:First Post!

[Anonymous Coward]

I do not know of a single family member or co worker that got an iPod for Christmas.

Your post was modded as interesting. In theory, my comment should be moderated just as "interesting" as your post as we are sharing the same exact subject and material but with opposite results.

Let's see if there is a bias in the moderation around here.
I have a feeling how this will work out because I would not classify one person posting about knowing a bunch of people that got an iPod for Christmas as "interesting".

Here's one for you. I know of at least 10 people in my family (ages 18-80) that got snow globes for xmas!

I know tons of people that got iPods this year, +5 interesting
I do not know anyone that got an iPod [silence...still silence...no moderation)

Re:

[CrazyTalk]

And I GAVE them as gifts (Christmas party grab bag, etc.), so I guess I contributed to the mess.

Ah yes, Christmas.

[shaneh0]

It's a chance to tell somebody "I love you this many dollars worth"

Re:

[CrazyTalk]

I don't recognize the reference - perhaps you'd care to explain it instead?

Yes

[Rix]

Creative's products are better. Especially if you want to play videos in a format people actually use (divx).

Re:Yes

[DECS]

Which is why Creative is losing huge amounts of money. While DIVX might be popular among people who don't pay for things, it's not something that NORMAL people use. And by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots.

Creative stuff is generally big and bulky - not exactly the mass market stylish and simple product that Apple's been churning out with the iPod.

--

Inside Apple's iPhone [roughlydrafted.com]

Re:

[krakelohm]

And by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots.

Classic.

more marketing research required by competition

[SethJohnson]

And by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots.

That comment, sir, got you added to my friends list.

Your other observations about the importance of market research in determining a product's feature set are stating the obvious, but valuable nonetheless. Extremely granular market research that determines who will pay how much for this product over that product because of which features is what should have sent the Zune designers back to their drafting tables.

Seth

Re:Yes

[TheRaven64]

Depends on what you mean by better. I don't care about video, but I do care about size. The direct competitor for the iPod from Creative seems to be the Zen Vision M (their product line-up seems quite confusing, so I might have missed something). It is about 50% bigger by volume than the iPod.

Oh, and for the record, DivX is a specific implementation of MPEG-4. The iPod also plays MPEG-4, including MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) which gives much higher quality for the same bit-rate (look for anything encoded with X.264; there's a lot of it floating around).

That's nice

[Rix]

I don't want to have to re-encode everything I download, though.

Re:

[CronoCloud]

Since most of the portable video "out there" seems to be in MPEG4 SP or h264 AVC that means your options are either a video iPod or a PSP.

Re:

[CronoCloud]

Portable means having a good quality of video for a smaller file size, and the MPEG2 you're burning for your DVD player doesn't fit that qualification. Especially since the Zen Vision M's screen is 320x240. Why play MPEG2 on it when you can use video specifically designed for good quality, low file size and that looks good at 320x240. Meaning MPEG4 SP/MP or h.264 AVC. You could still play those files on your computer, though admittedly not on your DVD player.

But it has a 60GB drive in it

[Rix]

h.264 certainly will give a smaller file size for similar quality, but it's also much more processor intensive to decode, and would eat the battery much faster. Further, why go to the trouble of re-encoding things to some esoteric format, when I've already got lots of stuff in divx that I can just throw on the device and use? And why would I want to keep two archive copies, one for the PMP and one for the DVD player?

There's also the fact that the Zen can output at 640x480 to an external display.

Re:

[OriginalArlen]

Portable means having a good quality of video for a smaller file size

Ye gods, what are they teaching the kids at school today??

Definitions of 'portable': [google.co.uk]

Definitions of portable on the Web:

• easily or conveniently transported; "a portable television set"
• a small light typewriter; usually with a case in which it can be carried
• of a motor designed to be attached to the outside of a boat's hull; "a portable outboard motor" wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Re:Yes

[fermion]

I always hear about the competition, and I don't think that the iPod is all that great, but it is a good system for the average person. iTunes automagically loads CD, and stores them in a DRM free format. iTunes loads music onto the iPod. If you choose to use the store, it is easy to get the music, and will work with the iPod.

The biggest problem with the competition are two fold. First creative and Sandisk do not have a great reputation. I would never buy a creative again because I lost a $300 investment because of a cheap piece of plastic. I don't know about Sandisk, but they also seem more concerned about price than quality.

Second, there is a question about online purchased music. When purchasing music, people do seem want a format they can depend on. We have LPs, tapes, and CDs. There are arguable better formats, but the other formats never achieved critical mass. Likewise, the old formats die quickly. We still have cassette tapes, but how many 8-tracks do you see? The LP market is absolutely speciality. The advantange that Apple has is that is recognized the the DRM defined a format, and the format would drive the market. No one is going to buy an LP when all they have is a cassette player. Likewise, the mistake that MS made was to not take the format seriously. They have shot themselves int he foot by changing formats midstream. Who is going to trust them only to end up with useless content in a year?

So while other music players may be better in certain areas, like playing movies, they are not neccesarily better on the core needs, and importantly do not play the predominate only DRM format.

Re:Yes

[nsayer]

Especially if you want to play videos in a format people actually use (divx).

Hilarious.

The only digital video format that could reasonably be described as a format "people" (i.e., a non-trivially-small fraction of them) use would probably be MPEG2 (as in ATSC & DVD). After that probably comes all of the flash being watched by YouTubers.

Re:Yes

[jonnythan]

This is a repost of something I posted previously:

The 30GB iPod takes up 31% less volume than the Zune and 42% less volume than the 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M.

The 30GB iPod has 15% less mass than both the Zune and the 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M.

The 80GB iPod has 167% more storage space than the Zune and takes up 12% less volume than the Zune.

The 80GB iPod has 33% more storage space, takes up 38% less volume, and has 12% less mass than the 60GB Creative Zen Vision:M.

The 80GB iPod has 167% more storage space, takes up 26% less volume, and has 4% less mass than even the 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M.

No one makes an MP3 player comparable to the iPod in the capacity/form factor department. Same goes for the Nano. iPod owns the market because Apple has no real competition.

Let's step out of the reality distortion field...

[Rix]

The iPod owns the market because of good marketing. Period. Apple would have to majorly screw up at this point to lose that. If an iPod meets your needs best, fine, that's nice. Have fun. But there's no need for a religious crusade against people who's needs are better met by other things.

My Zen is slightly thicker, but otherwise the same size as an iPod. It fits in my pocket, and that's all that matters from my perspective. 60GB is more than enough for me, so more isn't really much of a selling feature (ag

Re:First Post!

[Ucklak]

While I'm not an iPod owner, I heard this Zune thing was poised to take over the portable media market.
It did record numbers for November. It'll probably beat last years sales for December too.

Re:First Post!

[compm375]

Stuff by COWON America is pretty good. They support a whole lot of audio formats, such as mp3, wav, flac, ogg vorbis, and wma (including DRMed, though it requires a firmware update on all but their newest player). I just got an iAudio x5l, and I am quite impressed by it, especially the 35hr. battery life. The only downside as far as I'm concerned is the video, which is only 160x128 xvid at a bitrate of about 256kb/s, but they have a model specifically for video playing called the A2.

Re:

[dangitman]

Ewwww! You just got cow on my America!

Re:

[Dunbal]

Actually, I don't think I know anyone that got an iPod as a gift this year.

      Maybe it's not just that people got iPods at Xmas, but rather thousands of teenagers getting a gift certificate, or permission to download some songs on dad's credit card as a 'present'.

Re:First Post!

[dangitman]

I know of two people that got Zunes (somehow...) and my sister got a Sansa because my mom didn't want to spend the extra for a Nano

Ahh, so that explains why murder rates have risen recently.

Re:

[CrazyTalk]

Mod parent down as troll!

Re:

[geekboybt]

Best competition? There's stuff from Sandisk and Creative, as well as Microsoft's Zune. But none of them have the marketshare of the iPod, or the vast amount of accessories. Whether or not the store is "as populated with songs as they say it is" is really a matter of opinion. It suits my needs, but mine may not be the same as yours. You're free to install iTunes and browse the store anonymously (without creating an account) for free. You can even preview the 30 second clips without an account, though the s

Re:Apple and iPod...

[System.out.println()]

If money's a factor, you can always go the route I did - go to the Apple Store online and look in their refurb section. Everything on there is backed by the same warranty as the new stuff. They used to have (and may still have) first gen (black/white) 2Gb nanos for $99, for example.

For Christmas I got a refurb'd 60GB iPod video. I'd told my parents that I had no need for 80GB, but 30 was too small (they really should stick a 60GB in that $300 hole) and pointed them to Apple's refurb site. Since the 5G 60GB is for all intents and purposes the same as the current generation aside from the capacity, it seemed like a good call.

Re:

[NineNine]

I'd get a Sandisk. Somebody handed me an extra iPod Nano that they had the other day, and I've since had it lock up on my twice, and iTunes (the software... not the store) sucks balls. If I wanted an MP3 player right now, I'd get a Sandisk one. They're cheaper, they do a lot more (hopefully, without locking up), and you don't have to use that god-awful iTunes software.

Re:

[Prophet of Nixon]

I've had a Sansa e260 for a month or two now, and its never locked on me, and has generally been far more robust than my ex-iPod. I'd say its the most reliable mp3 player I've seen since the original Rios. Its not perfect though, it only plays one format of video (quicktime based I believe, I messed with it once and never looked again, though it does come with a converter), the big center button really should be the play/pause button yet isn't, and it comes out of the box with a firmware problem that caus

Re:

[mrbooze]

What are people doing to their iPods? We've had three iPods of different generations in this house for several years, and we've never had one "lock up" on us ever. Hell, I've dropped my mini on the concrete more times than I can count and still never had a problem.

I've got another friend who has had several problems with his iPods, though. I just don't know what people are doing to them to cause these problems.

Re:

[aristotle-dude]

I never invested money in an ipod, due to some of the rantings and ravings about it. What would be its best competition out there on the market? Also, is the ipod store as populated with songs as they say it is?

Why do you base your purchase decisions based on how you feel about the views of others? Give different players a try on the displays, ask questions from the store staff and buy which ever one you find to be the best.

I have a feeling that you are trolling but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.

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[orgelspieler]

Hey, bro. I'll elaborate on my tale a bit. Basically, after I had paid for the content, I could not "authorize" any more devices because the store was down. And I didn't just try once, but about a dozen times before I got fed up with it. I was finally able to get through last night. All in all, it wasn't too bad, but they should have known exactly how much traffic to expect. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that every single iPod and iTunes gift card ever sold in the last few months was going to

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[MoneyT]

The limitations on the sync back to the computer make sense from the standpoint that you want to keep the RIAA happy so they don't pull out completely. You need to keep RIAA fears of hundreds of iPods creating a physical world napster at bay. So you only allow transfer of purchased songs, as they require to identify you as the owner to play. Now the RIAA is happy because you assure that the person recieving the songs is authorized to play them. And, it's a reasonable policy because as far as Apple or the RI

Re:

[beelsebob]

While I agree with you mostly, I should add an FYI... With iTunes you *do* get the cover art, and in fact with most albums you get a pdf copy of the cover booklet too.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion