Whooooops, I was a bit drunk last night guys. Didnt mean to rant a little bit off like that... I remember getting pist at someone yesterday cus they had thought my parents were the sole owners or co-signers of my car. Thats were the anger came from, but I dont know why I directed it here.

Ill delete.

 

When we found out you can RCA output from a Video Ipod with a simple cable, we subscribed to "season passes" of our favorite TV shows (Itunes) and cancelled our expanded Cable TV service. Now we just hook up the Ipod to the Plasma and can watch our favorite shows there... or in the car, or while waiting in line....

We had about 5 different Windows CE machines in the 90's because we didn't want to succumb to the "Palm Pilot" fad... each of the Windows machines became obsolete in 1-2 years and each subsequent generation of OS wasn't compatible with the previous... and there was no way to upgrade. After being burned like that, I just went with the flow...

And you know, there's a reason why Itunes / Ipod is so popular... it works easily and there's lots of songs / movies / TV shows available.

Think of it: You could mold a cradle with Ipod hookup into the S2000 dash and have a movie player and entire song library. In the future when Iphone GPS gets better, you could put an Iphone on the dash and have Nav / Movies / Songs / TV shows in a nice little screen that you can take with you... not to mention Internet and Email (could replace a CarPC).

I'm planning to buy a subsequent generation Iphone to do just that.

 

i dont get why people say that it works easily. as far as i understand it, it only reads the format that itunes puts out instead of mp3 from any source. maybe im wrong.

 

i tried vista on several upper end portables and was not satisfied.

made sense to buy a macbook. their superior mechanically except for their thumb pad. OSx seems comparable to windows, it locked up once during the short time i got to use it.

i need a new pda/ phone, the iphone dosnt match up to my needs. if i did not already have a reference of what i want, i have had a functional pda for some time, i would buy a iphone and wait in line to do it. i just think the iphone is a step back in processing speed and connectivity. no 3rd party software

 

Yeah, that would be wrong. From the Apple website:

"Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV"

 

A lot of people that come from the Windows worls state this, but imo its because that is what they are used to, and don't quite realize yet that with Apple, there's less 3rd party involvement b/c Apple does a more comprehensive job than Microsoft, so less 3rd party is needed.

If you want to take your dv film an burn a DVD on a Mac for example, you'd import into iMovie and edit, then export to iDVD, make professional-looking menus, and burn. Microsoft, however, offers MovieMaker for editing, but it doesn't work with all dv cameras, and when it comes to exporting for DVD burning, MS tells you to go "use the 3rd party software that came with your DVD burner".

There are still 3rd party companies that offer DVD burning as well (Toast), and other companies that sell additional DVD menus and designs, but the 80 or so that you can use from Apple are pretty comprehensive already.

There are third party apps, even for the iPhone, but 3rd party developers have to work in the strict confines of Apple's quality control - its how Apple ensures things work so well. People complain that Apple is too controlling, but it pays off with the end-user experience.

I know some people nowadays use Apple products just for the clich

 

Are you guys actually going to complain there is no 3rd party software? This is a HUGE bonus. When you have one company that makes ALL your hardware and ALL your software, how likely are conflicts? When there are 342 different software companies for the programs on your PC, obviously you see your fair share of "errors".

 

There are better MP3 players than the iPod, which are fully compatible with iTunes. Better interfaces, better sound quality, more durable, etc. iTunes is a nice piece of software, but I prefer others to organize and play music. Apple certainly makes nice products, and offers a nice integrated solution, but it's in no way the best available, simply packaged nicely and neatly together

 

That's a nice thing to say vtec9, but would you please list these devices for the sake of discussion? Just saying "there are better MP3 players than the iPod" doesn't help the discussion much.

 

FFS people!!!

It's a computer, which in turn IS A FREAKIN' APPLIANCE!!!. Am I the only person that's lost sight of that??!?!?!?!

I can empathize with the general suspicion with dyhappy - nobody I know likes being marketed to, nor likes to be branded and fashion-accessorized to. However, if you make appliance purchases based solely on your fashion sense, you should be placed in a burlap sack and beaten with phone books.

I own a Mac and an iPod. I hate futzing with crap at home. I work on computers all day, I don't want to come home and have to deal with yet another two whiney boxes that need maintenance. Mac has the shim-layers that allow me to automate updates, and don't require me to second-guess how to work within multiple programs. It's intuitive and I can operate it while I'm brain-dead. That's a good thing.

That said, I'd never WANT that kind of "blind faith" work on my work machines. For better or for worse, Windows has the enterprise. . . and it works. . . finally. It's not the most elegant, it's not sexy, but dammit, it works. That said, my Windows box is also professionally maintained by a professional Windows admin. YMMV. I need it, it works, I can't really piss on it.

My BSD machines are magnificent. It tells me EXACTLY what's going on, and I NEED that when I'm testing software. I don't need sexy, or even entirely intuitive or user-friendly. I need it to isolate the puke from the gold, and it does that well.

What I'm getting at here is, there are no two people exactly alike, so why are so many people in these wild tribal wars to buy ONE computer that will solve EVERY problem for EVERY user ALL of the time? Come on, find out what kind of user you are, prioritize your needs and wants for the computer, and buy accordingly. FFS!!!!