I’m aiming to buy a digital audio player. Any advice?
iPod looks good, of course: no one I know who’s got one has ever wanted to give theirs back. But I’ve also been eyeing Samsung’s Yepp YP-900GT, which is now set to be released in October (the date keeps getting pushed back). The Yepp has (or will have) a 10 GB drive, an FM transmitter (so you can pipe output to, say, your car radio) and, best of all from my standpoint, direct CD encoding—meaning that you can convert to MP3 or other formats straight from the stereo, without the computer as the middleware. I’ve got too many peripherals as it is and I’m also not looking for another keyboarding task, so this feature alone could sell me assuming the unit gets decent reviews overall.
Anyone know of another digital audio player that offers that kind of direct encoding? Anything else I should be looking at besides Yepp and iPod?
Posted by mgk at August 26, 2003 09:37 PMYes, but. The Ipod is . . . beautiful.
Posted by: Tyler at August 27, 2003 06:02 PM | Link to CommentI'd go with the iPod. You can transmit from your iPod to your car radio (with an adaptor, I think). It's cool that the Yepp can rip MP3s directly, but how quickly does it do it compared to your computer? It can be a time-consuming process.
If your MP3s get ripped directly to the Yepp, do you have a way of backing them up? If not, you'll have to rip them all over again if you replace or lose the player. If you first rip onto your computer's hard-drive (and then perhaps backup on CDs) you can dump the files onto as many players as you like.
Just my two cents.
And, um, I don't have an MP3 player so I do not speak from experience.
Posted by: George at August 27, 2003 08:27 PM | Link to CommentThanks George, those are some interesting considerations.
Posted by: MGK at August 27, 2003 10:49 PM | Link to CommentLook at Archos's JukeBox Recorders. Mine's got a 20 gig hard drive, records from stereo or an internal mic, has an open-source firmware replacement called "Rockbox", and is about half the price of the Ipod.
The only problem is customer service, which is virtually non-existent.
Posted by: Brandon at August 28, 2003 04:18 PM | Link to Commentipod i've had the first version since it came out, 5gb, still going strong, plus it plays audible audio books and things natively, and audible.com just sent me an email saying it is giving $100 off an ipod for a subscription, not a bad deal, though if you don't like audiobooks, it isn't a great deal either. beyond using my ipod as a music player, book player, etc. i've use it as a boot device and a backup device for some electronic documents, plus it has the every wearying version of breakout which just about lasts 30 minutes before i get extremely bored. the one time my ipod did break, it is first generation, i called applecare and they sent me a new one arriving the next day, i stuck the old one in the box and haven't had a problem since.
Posted by: jeremy hunsinger at August 28, 2003 08:58 PM | Link to CommentPerhaps you have already seen this: Different Yepp reviewed at DesignTechnica. Discussion at Slashdot.
http://tinyurl.com/m5h7
hang about for the toshiba gigabeat - released already in japan and on its' way over here (wherever that may be!). Better battery life , SMALLER ! ! (and same 20gb hdd) , MUCH better looking , and not made by (cr)apple.
The UI of the ipod is seriousely lacking in some aspects - if your album title is longer than something like 20 letters then you can't see the album's full name. That's one thing that leaps to mind. And the piezo buttons are great for a bit, but if gets annoying when you've accidentally skipped back/forwards for the 80th time. The general feel is great, but when you get up close and personal I don't rate it highly at all.