When we were in Bergen, a friend of ours tuned us on to the fact that it's possible to purchase a transmitter, hook it up to your iPod and then tune your car radio to the transmitter, hence being able to use your iPod to play music in your car.
It may very well be that I was the last person on the planet to find this out, but I still thought it was mighty awesome, as we always lug around 50 or so CD's when we go on a long road trip. In one of those smaller folders, but still - it takes up a lot of room. This looked like a great alternative.
The flip side of this shiny coin? It involved the use of an iPod, which is the same technology as in a Mac and thus the demon seed of Steve Jobs and his Apple losers. Not a big fan of Mac - I think it is akin to a pc with training wheels, specially designed for people who cannot grasp technology which exceeds single-button complexity.
When we came back and I was raving about this newfangled possibility, the one and only Pigeon informed me that this transmitter technology was available for pretty much any type of mp3 player. Moreover, it was old news. He even looked a good model up on the ol' interweb for me. Thanks for that, by the way - much obliged!
Still; we figured that we would need a new mp3 player with bigger capacity, so that we could load just about every CD we own onto this bad boi and be rollin' large and in charge. Again, Pigeon was very helpful in suggesting a brand, Archos, which supposedly kicked all kinds of ass and kept taking them names. So; we checked stuff out in various stores, and found that Archos could by far deliver the largest capacity of the non-Apple portables. However, an Apple iPod Classic 160 Gb costs ~2750 NOK. An Archos with 30 Gb capacity costs 2000 NOK. An Archos with 80 Gb capacity costs 3800 NOK.
You see where I'm goin' with this? Sure; I don't really like Apple, but you'd have to even worse at math than your average Mac user to choose the Archos when faced with this simple cost analysis. I never would have thought that iPods were comparatively cheap, but there you go.
It may very well be that I was the last person on the planet to find this out, but I still thought it was mighty awesome, as we always lug around 50 or so CD's when we go on a long road trip. In one of those smaller folders, but still - it takes up a lot of room. This looked like a great alternative.
The flip side of this shiny coin? It involved the use of an iPod, which is the same technology as in a Mac and thus the demon seed of Steve Jobs and his Apple losers. Not a big fan of Mac - I think it is akin to a pc with training wheels, specially designed for people who cannot grasp technology which exceeds single-button complexity.
When we came back and I was raving about this newfangled possibility, the one and only Pigeon informed me that this transmitter technology was available for pretty much any type of mp3 player. Moreover, it was old news. He even looked a good model up on the ol' interweb for me. Thanks for that, by the way - much obliged!
Still; we figured that we would need a new mp3 player with bigger capacity, so that we could load just about every CD we own onto this bad boi and be rollin' large and in charge. Again, Pigeon was very helpful in suggesting a brand, Archos, which supposedly kicked all kinds of ass and kept taking them names. So; we checked stuff out in various stores, and found that Archos could by far deliver the largest capacity of the non-Apple portables. However, an Apple iPod Classic 160 Gb costs ~2750 NOK. An Archos with 30 Gb capacity costs 2000 NOK. An Archos with 80 Gb capacity costs 3800 NOK.
You see where I'm goin' with this? Sure; I don't really like Apple, but you'd have to even worse at math than your average Mac user to choose the Archos when faced with this simple cost analysis. I never would have thought that iPods were comparatively cheap, but there you go.
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Apple and oranges, my friend.*
You've compared a iPod classic mp3-player with a Archos media player (and, I think you're price is a bit high as well: ARCHOS 705 WIFI Media-Player 160GB 3300 NOK). The difference is that the iPod is a pure mp3-player, while the Archos is a mediaplayer with a 7" color monitor (i.e. can play movies and shit). A compareble model from Apple would be iPod touch 32Gb at 3900, but that's with only 3.5" monitor and 32 gb HD. So Apple still won't win a price contest. Anyway, I don't know much about mediaplayers, so there may be better options out there.
That said, for your use, it doesn't sound like you are after a mediaplayer. And I don't know any other manucafturer that makes a player with a capacity in the 160 Gb range. But how much do you need? Creative makes on with 32 Gb, and their players have gotten favorable reviews. Don't think there are any pure, non-Apple MP3-players out there with much more capacity then that.
*Did you get that? :-D
The price I listed is what I found at Lefdahl.
That SO ain't the point, though. We wanted a device which would allow us to play music using said device in concert with our car radio. If you're deluded enough to think that the 3x4 and 6x8 pixel screens on the two Archos models, respectively, are suited for watching movies on long flights, then good for you. You can obviously scale back on the prescription strength in your glasses, then.
7 inch "monitor"? Are ya freakin' kiddin' me? The one I posted to be ~4 kNOK at Lefdahl was the 504 or 505 whatever, and if you think that's seven inches, I shudder to speculate what measures you guesstimate other things to be.
..I forgot to add some kind of sassy smiley tot hat comment, btw.
My point was:
1. If you compare mp3-player vs mp3-player or media player vs media player, Apple is never favorable in price. But this is beside the point of your post, more important is:
2. At the 160 Gb range, iPod is the only mp3-player. So I suggest you a) Considered if you need more then 32 Gb or b) check out some media-players. Media players may or may not have the right price/ capacity, I don't know.
If you're deluded enough to think that the 3x4 and 6x8 pixel screens on the two Archos models, respectively, are suited for watching movies on long flights, then good for you.
Don't know what you mean by 3x4 and 6x8 pixel, the 504 comes with a 480X272 pixels screen.
The 504 comes with a 3.5" or 4.3" screen. The model I listed, the 705, comes with a 7", 800x480 pixels screen and was the one I compared with Apples media player. I don't think anything less then 7" are usable for watching movies, but both Apple (and Archos) thinks otherwise. The Apple media player iPod touch comes with a 3.5" screen.
All which is totally useless info, since you're looking for a music player only. A device with a 7" monitor would by default be too bulky to work as a portable mp3-player. Anyway, whatever you get, I'm sure you'll be happy with it.
I shudder to speculate what measures you guesstimate other things to be.
I have some small sized matches that photograph favorable next to other things...
:-D
At the 160 Gb range, iPod is the only mp3-player. So I suggest you a) Considered if you need more then 32 Gb
We kinda' bought the iPod Classic, Chief. We figured we wanted more than the 32 Gb. The Archos felt like a rip-off when the bigger screen was utterly, utterly uninteresting, and 160 Gb was only 500 NOK more expensive if we went for the iPod Classic.
Like you said (although I may be paraphrasing here); we didn't really give a flying fuck whether the thing was equipped with a 4x6 pixel tiny screen-ette on which you wouldn't even be able to recognize Chris Farley when all we wanted was something to store music on.
I have some small sized matches that photograph favorable next to other things...
You just KNOW that somewhere out there on the interweb, there's someone selling 40% sized matchboxes for just such a purpose.
We kinda' bought the iPod Classic, Chief.
Ah. You didn't say specifically whether you bought it or just checked the prizes. Anyway, welcome to the world of hip, cool, design focused and trendy people. Now you have a converstion starter with the guidos in your local gyn. I'm sure they'll be mighty impressed with you. ;-)
..so I take it you bought the Archos, Chief? ;-)
Thanks. I'll sure use it as an ice-breaker with the guidos. Like "Dude; check out how the iPod with A7F like totally matches my eye shadow and the color of the jug for my post-workout shake, brah"
Now I'm in teh process of stuffing our cd's onto the iPod........
No, mp3-players aren't my thing. I was nerdy enough to have a minidisk player (remember those? the Laserdisk of portable music), but ever since I got the Sony Ericsson P800 mobile phone, I've used my mobile as a music player. I carry around with way too much in my pockets, so one gadget less is great for me. I'd rather invest my mp3-player money in a new cell phone with a larger capacity (I'm pretty much sold on the P-series to SE).
On a side note, a media player is more interesting. I'm looking into buying a new portable dvd player for the kids before the vacation (trust me, moving Kaptein Sabeltann and Dyrene i Hakkebakkeskogen from the car stereo to dvd-players with head phones on, is a much greater improvement then getting 50 or so CDs to an mp3-player). But, as I said above, the tiny screens on media players and the price seems to make me wanna go for a regular dvd-player. Question is, one player with dual monitor or two separate dvd-players/ monitors. Choices, choices.
rust me, moving Kaptein Sabeltann and Dyrene i Hakkebakkeskogen from the car stereo to dvd-players with head phones on, is a much greater improvement then getting 50 or so CDs to an mp3-player)
THAT I can believe. A seven-hour car trip would seem like seven years if it was All Teletubbies, All The Time.
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