Can you believe it has been 8 years
 

8 Years sense iPod was introduced to the market and it took over. I just watched the intro to it and he even said that this will be the leader of them. And he was right.





And the first ipod commercial





Enjoy

Ahhhh....the "golden age"....when downloading songs was available.....without risks! :p

Nice post, BigA! :tup:

LOL ya thanks man I remember that when I did not care about compressed music and all. And windows people literally started paying attention to apple. And now they are the number one seller of music players and the number one seller of songs online. They are getting rely good with there stuff.

No they are not ... I can tell you first hand that apple is more about the image than they are about making a quality product. Every single POS apple product lasts for what 2 years? and then they show battery issues or just magically stop working close to the warranty ending... They have you hooked so bad that when your iPod breaks you are ready to get the new better one thats .5 grams lighter and now is in COLOR!!! oh yea it also costs another couple hundred more...

Apple has always been about selling an image... once they get you hooked its sort of cult like - its not like they have the best UI or anything... thats not changed since day one... Its just that so many people have them ... that every one else thinks they are the cool people gadgets... and hey... cant blame everyone for wanting to be cool.

you cant?

now if only they could do something about that shitty program called Itunes...maybe mediocre is a better word

Ha ha ... I mean ... dont get me wrong ... I have an Ipod... and an iTouch for development sake... but seriously... I have gone through sooo many iPods its not funny... pretty much one for each generation ... hmm... see a pattern?

^fanboy

I never had an iPod....just like I've never played WoW. Eh, thats ok...:icon17:

Okay for both of you that just busted on the ipod and itunes. LOL your funny. I have a ipod mini that the battery lasted for 3 and a half years. Than replaced it and it still works to this day. They are the best and number one selling player in the world. They proved that at there last meting they have sold more ipods than anything else and over 96% of people have them. For itunes great program very easy to find songs and easy to keep everything organized. You can sit there and go on and on about how you do not like them and bla bla bla. But the truth and the fact is, that they are the best and they are just getting better. PERIOD

No problem here, still have my mini. All I did was replace the battery. My father still has his shuffle first gen, he has maybe charged it 5 times in teh entire life he has had it. Ipods last a long time. You just have to fallow the recommended charging and all for them and not let them sit and die for a month. ipods RULE

One last though, have you noticed that the ipods have not gotten more expensive but cheaper. They are not trying to get you to buy a new one every year at all. They last as long as you want them to last as long as you take care of them.

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree: They have won the digital music race and they are still not backing off. They make some of the best products and there interfaces are great as well. iTunes I swear by just as you do and I will never use anything else to organize my music.

Wrong.
Apple sells what is popular. Now I will agree they are a business and that they are here to make money, no business can never say otherwise. But Apple sells on the notion of what looks, feels, or is hip/cool.

Here is how Apple got to where they are today. They introduced the iPod, it was 6 months from being pulled because of lack of support. Apple had iTunes which worked for the idea of syncing music, but how do people get the music? Apple then created the first central music syncing MP3 player on the market and meet the needs of the next digital wave. People wanted a simple way to carry their music, they did not care about quality, or the device, or even how much it was. People like simple, non-complicated, computer/technology gadgets and Apple gave them exactly that.

Lets start with iTunes, at first it was a good idea for syncing media to a device because neither Windows nor OS X were capable of handling this connection. Now we have a simple way of doing it, even faster than iTunes can do it, simple drag/drop. Now iTunes use to be small, compact media player, but it has turned into a beacon of bloat and looked at as useless resources. When I loaded iTunes up on a clean boot with 4GB of memory, it took up over 1.8GB out of the 4GB, that is just horrible for a program. I run programs from video games to mapping software that do not even come close to that amount, and these other programs do a lot more than iTunes. I could add on even more to what is wrong with iTunes, but you get the general idea on how Apple has failed to even evolve iTunes into a worthwhile program. Yes they have added support for an iPhone or for downloading movies, but I can get better quality movies downloaded without the need for extra software easier.

Now onto the iPod, or the iPod touch, or the iPod nano, or the iPod shuffle, or anything else Apple has created for media playback. Stop limiting features. Apple should have put a camera from day one on the iPod touch, and now they say they cannot do it because of space and because that is not the focus of the iPod touch. Bull-f*cking-****, you have an iPod nano with a camera and not the iPod touch, it is not the focus of the iPod touch. Really? So all those ads I saw for the device saying it is an all in one computer basically are lies? I have laptops from at least 8 years ago with a camera, and yet today Apple "claims" it is to small for a camera or not the focus for a portable media device.

I am a bit tired and done writing, but Apple started out with the idea of the iPod as being ground breaking and it was, sort of. They were actually not even the third to the market with an MP3 player. But Apple has been so overtaken by how well the idea of an image sells, that they have lost all focus on innovation throughout the entire line of products. The iPod/iTunes line up needs to open its eyes to what is going on elsewhere, open usage of codecs for playback, simple drag/drop of music, being able to easily fix the device at a home.

I have more, but you can counter with what you want to show how Apple is better. Yet let is show, that brands such as Cowon, Archos or even iRiver are steps ahead of Apple in the portable media devices and features. Now they do not have a places to buy music, but what they do is provide very excellent support for buying from multiple, yes multiple sources (Amazon, Rhapsody, etc.).

Na man you think what you want to think. I know how well there products are made. I have a 5 year old mac laptop and a 6 year old ipod both still working great. They could not put a camera in there because there was not enough room for a shutter controller. I believe that I have taken them apart the older models there it barely any room as is. THE IPOD NANO IS MUCH SMALLER THAN THE IPOD TOUCH OR IPHONE. MUCH LESS SPACE TO WORK WITH

That drag and drop junk is for people with plenty of time and plus with the size of todays ipods you do not have to be limited by what you bring. You want drag and drop make a new play list drag and drop in there and sync with your ipod done deal. It is not image they are selling it is quality.

That is not exactly correct. Say iPod 8GB (whatever version) is 199 then a year later is is 99 and they release iPod 16GB for 199. They have not really lowered the price, but adjusted the price for what the acceptable market value is. It looks great for Apple when they do this in a bunch or group, but it hurts them when companies periodically lower prices throughout the year for the gradual market value.

Apple does make some extra pennies with this method and can definitely show it off more, but it has come to hurt them now since people can track the lifespan of their devices and see that after X time it is a bad buy. I can tell you there are plenty of people who get near point X and will hold back from buying until the new device which hurts Apple and there overall sales.

All I know is man it has been 8 years they are still going strong. Every company makes new stuff every year or 2. You arguing this is like arguing about buying a computer and in 5 months there is a better one out for the same price. All companies do that it is just how tech. evolves.

So do I have, I have been using Apple products since the Apple II. I bought the original iPod, I almost bought a Macbook Pro 13" a few months ago, but Apple cannot control their quality still. The past few years have been horrible for them with overheating MBP, bad drives that turn 3.0Gbps SATA drives into 1.5Gps SATA drives. Apple's QC/QA has gone down hill, and might or will soon bite them in the *** if they do not work it out. They are doing great in selling more, but as they increase their sales more issues arrive that would not have been found when they were in the <5% market share.

Really, you have taken a new iPod touch apart, odd because I have photos of the current gen iPod touch with a camera in it. Here:

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget....eal-rm-eng.jpg

Clear proof that the current iPod touch could have a camera and Apple clearly withheld it so as to release it a year later to get re-buyers.

So you are telling me that my 8GB iPod nano is big enough to hold my 16GB of music? Sorry, but drag/drop is easier no matter what way. Though people see an interface and think, oh simple = better. Plenty of time, clearly dragging my music and waiting a few minutes is slower than loading a bloated program (15 seconds to load on a very very good system) then waiting for iTunes to find the iPod, then selecting the music I want to sync, making sure it does not delete the other things I already have on it.

You can quickly, select what you want to delete, drag over new music all through My explorer on windows and be done in a few minutes. No extra time loading programs, no extra time waiting for iTunes to verify things.

LOL I love how people when they are losing a battle bring up the market shares. That dose not mean much to me and yes I have heard of a few problems from there HD's. But that just goes to show you allow your products to use parts form other companies and problems appear. Honestly we can argue about this until the end of time. I swear by apple and there great products. Never showed me a problem, almost every stereo or car has the ability to integrate the ipod to there stereo. You can not tell me those pie charts showing apple having control of over 70% of the market is not worth something and than over 90% of tehe music store. They mean a lot in my eye.

Except Apple is a step behind in how tech evolves, that is the problem. Up until 1.5 years ago there laptops were many times three months late when they first hit the market. The iPod line was starting to show its age while others were already in the solid state game or having touchscreens. Apple jumped into the game with a solid move (iPhone), but put it out of the reach for the average consumer. The iPod touch helped realize that a bit, but by the time the iPod touch hit the market people were expecting more. Many to most reviews I read about the first gen iPod touch was, it is a iPhone but lacking X/Y/Z features and needs A/B/C features others already have.

When you have a big library like me I like to be able to plug it in dock the new songs and play lists and go. Not go threw every song and be like I like that and than one. Na that is what play lists are for.

I quote market share as a point of reference and data, you have so far only showed me your opinion on what you think of Apple.
Actually, the USB was first integrated into car audio and then they had to add a separate connection because Apple created their own 30-pin connection. I agree that Apple has done great for themselves in getting the majority share, but if you take a step back and look how they did it and what they have done for the market as a whole it is pretty bad. Apple has shaped the portable music industry but at the same time hurt some major selling points for many people, music quality, feature list, user interface. All lost because Apple choose a certain route and now people view it as a standard when in fact it is just one companies view.

The reason the market was down was because the main CEO was out for some time. Getting a transplant. That is why they were low.

Thanks for picking out certain points and not looking at the entire picture of Apple/iPods/iTunes.
Playlists are great for people use them, but I do not. Nor do a lot of people, many people like to have their music as they want it, but iTunes really limits this ability.

Funny thing is I never said I took the ipod touch or iphone apart but the nanos I have. Do not twist my words.

Which for a company is the worst, I mean the worst excuse ever. So what happens when Steve Jobs retires in a few years? Is the company going to survive for five years and then die? Apple limped along with Steven Jobs gone, Bill Gates has been gone for almost a year now and Microsoft is doing even better this year (I sort of am on the fence that Gates should have left two years ago).

Not rely, if you are truly into music you know what you want and can sort by what you want there is no real limit on what you can do in itunes.

I know, I did a presentation for it in my MKTing class in college.

I bet you don't know why iPod's were originally white?
The designers wanted to relate it to the Space Odyssey 2000 movie, and the futuristic theme of that movie.

Yet that is my point, the iPod nano has a video camera in it and has almost no space. Yet the iPod touch has ample room (per image provided) to input a camera and yet Apple failed to do so.

The iPod nano getting a video camera is a worthless feature, yes it is "nice" at first, but the overall usage of it is not going to be worthwhile. I picked one up and the small size was horrible for video recording.

I did not knwo that.

This whole thing takes me back to the debate team days.

K man that is your opinion. I love the fact I can record things and post it right to you tube without editing it.

both are valid points..

i agree and disagree with both of you..

but dreamer has a better view of this.. apple's trend is simple and it all just takes 5 minutes for u to sit down and think about this to realize how everybody who buys apple products is being overcharged n screwed over. apple is completely behind the ball game with technology.. i know ppl who got free phones that had more options than the iphone but because the iphone has a pretty decent touch screen it wins more consumers. camera, mms, etc.

the norm isnt gonna wanna spend on something that isnt attractive, isnt popular and isnt simple, thats just the nature of things. and thats where apple realized this and is capitalizing on, but in an effort to do all this that will be their downfall in the end, unless they eliminate that now. when ur macbook, or ur ipod doesnt work or something in that manner, what usually happens? buy another, as good as that sounds for apple like i said earlier, it will be their downfall in the end. i love my iphone when i travel, but when im here at home or working, i use the G1 it because to me it is the perfect phone.

Haha, wrong.
I love music, only two genres I do not care that much for are R&B and Country, I want my music with me at all times. Heck I have my music on my laptop, my desktop, my server, my Archos, my very very old iPod, just in case something happens to one of my devices. There are limits in what you can do in iTunes though, I cannot load in good quality music that I have (FLAC or WMA lossless), iTunes will slow to a crawl with anything over 50GB of music, iTunes has issues with proper tagging (not in the proper itself but on the outside).

I have better things to do than argue about this lol. They have won and are still winning to this day that is the end of my debate.

Which sells because it is "trendy," not innovative. Apple sells an image, back to where we started.

I did not go with the iphone simply because I did not want cingular as my provider. I love verizon much better coverage as well.

I do love when people write things like this. Win, at what? They have market share, that is the only data you can provide. All your other points have been opinions on how you feel iTunes or iPods work.

All my songs are in lossless format. There are plenty of programs that can convert FLAC to apples formats. I think you are just fighting it because you want to. I rip all my music with itunes never download never use P2P networks either. iTunes jsut works.