iPods?!

[naut]

Now I don't know about you, but I'm fairly certain that Microsoft and PC's are the recipients of malfunction, no?

But, I do believe I have been dooped and misinformed on the subject of iPods however. I have yet to find a product that:

• Malfunctions more often
• Crashes more frequently
• Produces errors (both run-time and logic) more frequently
• Causes anomalies more frequently

It is astounding that Apple prides itself for being "blue-screen" free, but iPods are obviously another matter entirely, for no iPod is complete without its copy errors, syncing errors, connection errors, even turning the damned thing on can be a nightmare. But what's a PC without the fabled "Alt + Ctrl + Delete" as the answer to the common crash, irritating freeze and most aggravating screen of death. But iPods are in no way excused, not by a long shot, they posses their own form of "Alt + Ctrl + Delete", the constantly summoned and pressed, "Play + Enter".

I have had my iPod for no longer than 6 months, and yet it is already at the stage of no-return, beyond hope and into the grave. Tell me why is all 1.24 GB of my Pink Floyd synced 3 times over? Pray explain why my collection of Hawkwind albums are synced not once, nor twice, but a grand total of 7 times? Why is it that upon connection to my computer, iTunes (a horrible program in itself) will not appropriately recognise my obviously attached iPod? And I do wonder what causes it to crash at random intervals while it is on and playing music?

I'd like to know why that is? Why doesn't Apple put effort into creating a quality product, that is efficient? I'll take a punt and say that as they virtually have a monopoly they have no reason to spend money pointlessly upgrading and improving a product that the masses will buy anyway, even in its crude Neanderthalithic form.

Lucky for me my warranty lasts for 4 years, thank you JB Hi-Fi.

[Lemur]

I think part of the problem is that Apple tried to do the iPod OS from the ground up. A company called Pixo did the heavy lifting, with Apple giving suggestions. Jobs is now talking about getting OS X onto every mobile device they sell.

I find the flash-based iPods to be much less wonky than the HD-based ones.

[Ramses II CP]

My experience with iPods has been the complete reverse of yours. I have a 30gig video and 3 sundry Nanos in the family, and all they do is work. I'm not aware of a single crash or error message out of any of them. I rather intensely disliked the version of iTunes that was running 1.5 years ago when we got the first one, but the first update knocked out most of the issues I had with it and the current iTunes handles multiple iPods and computers with more elan.

Oh, and battery life on the video isn't what you might hope for a 'portable' device.

So what model do you have? Maybe you could get it replaced under the warranty; if it's a HD version there have been manufacturing problems with some of them.

[Whacker]

Oddly enough, haven't had any problems with my iPod or my wife's one. Honestly though the only reason I got it was because it was the only 60 gb music player available, and my music collection clocks in at 55gb. Very much would have preferred to get an iRiver instead.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I have an iPod Nano (2GB), and I've never had any problems with it whatsoever. It's always been reliable.

[naut]

Looks like I got the dodgy one in the bunch.

[Drisos]

Sony all the way!

I had an iPod, until it was suddenly without any clear reason broken. non-fixable. I disliked iTunes as well and just the general way of using the iPod. I'm back to Sony now! 4gb, 30 min charge, 30 hours play, easy search function, wonderful design and lcd screen, 120 euro's. Nice!

[Husar]

I'm still using my almost 3 years old Smartphone, I treat it carefully and it's almost as good as new. The only drawback is these smartphones(the series mine is from) have some sort of built-in cracking between the music but as long as you concentrate on the music you don't really notice it. Never had an iPod and I don't really like iTunes either.

[Lemur]

I have a 30gig video and 3 sundry Nanos in the family, and all they do is work. I'm not aware of a single crash or error message out of any of them.

I've lost two iPods, but in both cases I think it was my fault. One was dropped on asphalt, twice. The other also got some physical abuse.

Now I've got a flash-based iPod and it chugs away, seemingly unbreakable. The only software problems I've ever had are with my wife's Nano, which I have to do some fiddling with to update. It doesn't like updates, for some reason.

iTunes gets the job done, but it ain't the be-all and end-all of music players. (The software it's based on, SoundJam MP, was a better app.) I'm quite exited about the potential for Songbird, if they ever get a working beta out the door ...