no one's done this yet?

are you asking specifically about the apple mp3 player, or about mp3 players in general? it appears to be focused specifically on the ipod...

ipod in particular:

functionality : not crap
ergonomics : not crap
price : crap

the lamest thing about the ipod (beside the high price) is that they deliberately built in the non-feature that you cannot copy music from the ipod onto a computer. from a computer onto the ipod, obviously you can do. but you can't get music off of it and onto a computer without 3rd-party software that is essentially a hack. this was done ostensibly to keep you from copying the songs onto all your buddies' computers. cause y'know, that would cut into the profits of itunes.

overall though, a most-definitely NOT CRAP product.

i have an archos recorder 20, which you can currently get the new one (with built-in FM radio) for $200. 20GB. the reason mine rocks more than the ipod, other than being half the price, is that mine can record live, direct to mp3 throught the built-in mic, through a line input, or through a SPDIF in. so doing shitty recordings of the board mix at a show are simple as pie, and the thing will hold like a zillion of them. recording band practice straight to mp3 is also convenient for the same reason. doesn't sound killer or anything. but lotsa space, super easy to use, portable beyond portable. very glad i bought it.

Nuno Bettencourt Crap.

There are less than a hundred great songs in the world. How many do these things hold?

MP3 stands for Moist Poo Cubed. That's a description of their sound.

damn dude, so really you just hate music is what you're saying? that must suck. dude, you used to be so rad. you used to get more air than anybody. you used to be all punk and shit. what happened to you, man? you can't imagine how scared i get when i picture how the name "nuno bettencourt" could even reside inside your head. i don't even know how many years its been since i heard that name. why are you thinking about him? yikes!

so look ace, i work in an office building. there are people with offices to the left and right of mine, and right across the hall from mine. and everybody keeps their doors open all the time. it's all friendly-like. how do you want me to listen to music at work during the day? lemme guess, i should have a turntable on my desk and some reference speakers? get real. listening at any kinda respectable level would seriously irritate my three neighrbors. so i have a couple tiny little desktop harmon kardon speakers that you would get free with a PC. see, unlike you, i really like music, and enjoy listening to it, lots of it. i've been listening to polvo all day today, pretty much their entire catalog including stuff from 7"s and comps, just loud enough that i can hear and appreciate it, not loud enough that the flaws of mp3 become apparent (on these tiny little speakers). out of all the polvo MP3's i've listened to today, i'd say that at least half of them are great songs by my judgement.

so yeah, you can think it's crap all you want.

my ipod got me through my cross country move from nyc to la (via stl). the itrip is crap, but you can just use a long piece of copper wire...that fixes it.

not crap

I'm listening to tunes ony my Ipod right now as a matter of fact. I got mine around Christmas, and have been putting cd's on here at a moderate pace since then. I've only used over 1g now I think or so and have about 500+ songs on here thus far.

Ipod is definately the shiznit.

I have not used the online itunes music purchasing thing, and doubt I will, I just use this as my music library, and it's been an amazing time.

I'm right and if you think it's crap.....you're wrong.

Maybe I'll approach this in a generic sense -- i.e. we're using "iPod" to mean pretty much any decent MP3 player. (I do own a 20GB iPod.)

It's great for tours/long drives/travel. It's great just for leaving the house. I like the ability to make up on-the-fly playlists to play in-between bands at shows. I like being able to rip obscure CDs from people while on tour and then listen to them later on without dragging around CD-Rs. It's easier than anything else I have for checking mixes. (Would I ever use it for critical listening? Hells no. But for gauging relative levels and overall tonality, it's just dandy.)

And that's the thing -- just like all digital recording/playback, it's the convienience that's key, and the iPod has it in spades.

Regarding the iPod in particular: I don't think it's overpriced, because it's just designed so damned well. Easy to use, intuitive, yadda yadda.

mb

so yeah, you can think it's crap all you want.

Excuse me, Miss, but I have to thank you for being concerned about my feelings about music and technology.

May I also add that listening to music that is "not loud enough" is like reading a book with your eyes closed?

I apologize that you failed to recognize my metonymic joke. It was inconsiderate on my part.

I'll try my best to get real, Ma'am.

yeah, digital music is crap at any volume. we all know that. that's a given. this poll is about the device. the top ipod can hold 57 cd's of wav quality music. if it's a choice between listening to fm radio in my car or my ipod, the ipod usually wins.

the thing everyone who owns an ipod seems to say is that it changes the way we listen to and organize music. i very rarely consider pulling my fahrenheit 451 soundtrack off the shelf and listening to it, but on the ipod, it's one of 450 albums that can be randomly played at any time and all of a sudden i'm reminded how cool some of those songs are. or i can set it to play only hendrix songs, but randomly. i hear juxtapositions and sequences that i would never think of playing on a turntable.

apple is crap for customer service and itunes and not letting us backup to our computers without a hack [ephpod.com], but the ipod overall is the shiznit. can't live without it.

only here wrote:the thing everyone who owns an ipod seems to say is that it changes the way we listen to and organize music.

I couldn't agree more.

My girlfriend procured the 30 gig. model for my birthday and I listen to music about 1,000 times more than I used to. Any device that does that is worth it's weight in saffron to me.

It's only filled to about 50% and I have 2,959 songs at my finger tips, music that I normally would ge a chance to listen to. In addition to the jukebox aspect, I also have my guitarist's shapes to study for our next recording and hours and hours of Richard Feynman and Steven Hawking lectures.

Beyond sound, it makes for a decent organizer for contacts and calendar and a great portable firewire hard drive on the fly when having to move huge files between the office and the ranch.

It is a benediction on tour and now that I have one and I don't need any of you anymore.