Meep. Someone mentioned 1.5 years in the last post, and my inner tightwad started questioning shelling out over $300 for something that wouldn't last very long and isn't something that I MUST have.
Mine's a year and a half old now and going strong. But my best friend had hers for at least 2-3 years before she decided to replace it for a newer model. But she passed on her old one to someone else who is still using it.
I think it just depends on how well you treat it. Get a case, try not to drop it, that kind of thing.
I've heard conflicting things. Mine's a year old and doing wonderfully. And my boyfriend bought a second-hand one that was two years old *and* had a huge dent in the side casing from having a heater dropped on it and it was fine for him for about a year. But I've heard other things about ipods that just randomly stop working... *shrugs*
Average life expectancy of any consumer device is 6 months after the standard consumer warranty expires.
That being said. I have a gen 3 iPod that is still working for my roomie 2+ years later. It depends on how well you treat them. Be smart about battery charging because that's what will kill them. If you think you will be charging it daily, buy the extended warranty. It's cheaper.
I think it's 2 years. The EOL for almost any consumer device is 2 years with low end HDDs being 1 year and better HDDs having a 5 year warranty but averaging b/t 1 and 2 years.
Really, it's not practical for them to last beyond 2 years because of the improvements at that point. Most OEMs/IHV stop supporting devices at that point.
Average life expectancy of any consumer device is 6 months after the standard consumer warranty expires.
Mwah.
That being said. I have a gen 3 iPod that is still working for my roomie 2+ years later. It depends on how well you treat them. Be smart about battery charging because that's what will kill them. If you think you will be charging it daily, buy the extended warranty. It's cheaper.
How does that kill them? If you overcharge or something?
Really, it's not practical for them to last beyond 2 years because of the improvements at that point. Most OEMs/IHV stop supporting devices at that point.
Go for the Creative Zen players bb. Cheaper, compartive size for the same amount of space, comes in more colors for the same price, and I have my old Zen micro still. 2.5 years (nearing three) and still going strong. :) My mother and sister both have the Creative Vision (their video one) and they love it.
I like the Creative Zens too, although I'm currently wishing I'd gone for the 60 MB instead of the 30 MB. :-) I love the Vision aspect, and with the proper cable, I can hook it up to a TV and watch *cough* stuff on the big screen.
The iPod will last for a good long while, providing you don't drop it on pavement from a height of ten feet or drop it in the bath. The battery, on the other hand . . . well, I've had my iPod for since January 2006, and while I have noticed that the battery doesn't stay as charged for long, it still holds a charge for six hours plus. And of course, you can do all the tricks to help preserve battery life, like waiting till it's nearly dead before recharging and all that.
I've had my ipod for almost three years and it still works fine - it helps keep the battery alive longer if you wait till it's completely flat before recharging it, like with mobile phones.
My iPod Mini is going on three years and I haven't had one problem with it. It's been dropped twice and still no problem (and it's a hard drive neverthless).
Probably just depends what day of the week the workers made it. Those Friday ones just never seem to last...
My 2nd Gen one lasted for a good five years, and even after dying last spring, it now plays again. Apparently it needed a long nap. It was dropped, got wet, bounced around at the bottom of my messenger bag, flew all over the place, was constantly overcharged. No problems. The new ones do seem to have more battery trouble and to be a little more delicate.
My first 2nd Gen shuffle lasted for six months and died in the Unfortunate Rollerblading Incident of 2007. But, you know, it was ground into the pavement by my entire body weight, so. My big disappointment with the shuffles is that the new headphones (the ones that come with all iPods) are already falling apart in less than a year of heavy use.
If you're concerned about it, and especially if you're buying one of the expensive ones, get AppleCare. It's completely worth the extra cash and Apple service is excellent.
Personally, I'd also buy it from the Apple Store. I just don't trust resellers.
The new ones do seem to have more battery trouble and to be a little more delicate.
Hmmm.
My big disappointment with the shuffles is that the new headphones (the ones that come with all iPods) are already falling apart in less than a year of heavy use.
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If you're concerned about it, and especially if you're buying one of the expensive ones, get AppleCare. It's completely worth the extra cash and Apple service is excellent.
Sounds like it. People have been mentioning the service.
Personally, I'd also buy it from the Apple Store. I just don't trust resellers.
Well, it was Costco I was thinking about getting it at.
My case is beat to hell, but the ipod is sort of suspended inside by foam and it doesn't have a scratch. I carry mine around in my bag all the time.
The two that I dropped were in another kind of case and hit ground (as in earth, not cement) and croaked. I have dropped this one in the armor onto pavement (granted, not from the saddle) and it didn't even skip a beat.
I have a shuffle and it's going strong after over 2.5 years.
Of course, the reason I chose the shuffle is because, like a flash memory card, it has no moving parts and no hard drive for the head to get trashed on when it's dropped. That was the problem with the original iPods - if it was playing when dropped it was like dropping a hard drive for your PC when it was active. So you'd be scraping the head across the drive, just like a needle scratching a record.
I think they are more reliable now though.
The best rated Apple MP3 player by Consumer Reports was the iPod nano, because it's a flash memory player. Problem is, because it's an 8Gb flash memory player it's about the same cost as a regular 30Gb iPod which has a cheaper HDD. Picture quality also isn't as good as the larger players.
Next was the 80Gb iPod, which is oviously more expensive.
But at the same level as the iPods were several other MP3 players - Samsung, Creative, Cowon, Sandisk, and even Toshiba. With one of the Samsung flash memory players having the best score of all.
I've had my ipod for two and a half years, and it's still fine. Scratched as all hell, 'cause I did not buy a skin or a case for it, but it's doing good. And I drop it a lot, too. I want a new one, but only because my iTunes library is now about six times bigger than my ipod's capacity, and because this one doesn't play video. Other than that, it's lasted very well.
No time to read through the rest of the comments. I had a 20 gig one for two years, no problems. I passed it on to a friend who had a first gen one that finally died after several years. So mine is still going strong. Never really dropped it, but wasn't all that careful with it. I kept it in an ipod condom (my word, duh) which gives it some protection.
I moved on to a black 80 gig video ipod that I love madly and passionately.
From what I've heard, the battery tends to go down after a year or so but that depends on your use of it. Most of the time, I use mine plugged in in my car and haven't had any battery problems.
I highly recommend ipods. I've never personally known anyone who got one who was disappointed.
I've had mine almost 2 years and it's still going strong. And, I use it for music, video (tv and movie), the calendar and address book as well as an external hard drive.
I will second everyone that says "buy a case".
If all you want is a music player and you're okay with random or straight through play of the playlist, then the little iPod Shuffle is supposed to be excellent. At least that's what all my friends who exercise (run, jog, canoe, etc) say.
*Disclaimer: I'm a Mac girl, born, bred and never changing. I worship Steve Jobs. I want to marry Steve Jobs, and if I could afford it, I'd get stock in their company. And buy every single product they ever produce. For example, I almost convinced myself to buy an iPhone, until I realized that I still had a year on my cell phone service and I was being ridiculous.
I've had mine for coming on 3 years now, and I've hardly had more than a minor annoyance with it(I get a little frustrated that if I turn it on after not using it for a couple of days, it has to completely reload, rather than going back to the song that I was listening to. But it does keep the song list for 24 hours, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much). My battery life is still going great (about 10-12 hours I think). It goes with me every where, and while I don't get to use it as much as I would like (stupid work), I have pretty much filled the thing up and it really makes my workouts soooo much more bearable.
The other wonderful thing about iPods is their seamless integration with iTunes. Even if you don't buy anything from iTunes, the organization system makes so much sense and it's really a snap syncing the iPod. Plus as everybody mentioned, the service with Apple is fantastic.
3 years! I like the sound of that! And that is one thing that's a con with that Creative player - sounds like it's really not all that easy to get iTunes stuff on it...or use it with it. Yeah, a con.
I'm not quite sure why, but I can't stand iPods. Maybe it has something to do with Apple wanting to take over the world.
I've got 8GB Micro Photo which is rather rather and kind of big for just state to state travel. I really only use it when I go out of the country. And a 4GB Zen V that I use all time. Both of them I've been really happy with.
As per my usual I really have nothing constructive to add. Just was thinkin' 'Holy Crap, Michelle got buttload of comments! I think I shall add one more.'
And as an aside: I bought my iPod nearly six years ago. Still works like a small electronic champ.
Incidently, if you do go iPod, use iTunes for buying your music, but use WinAmp for creating your playlists, dealing with your music library, moving things to & from your iPod, etc. I HATE iTunes with a passion, and have had NOTHING but problems with it. With WinAmp, I can sort the music the way I want it sorted (and it's free. Yay for free).
I've had a 4th gen for... well, since the christmas when 4th gens were out. I've not had any problems with it, except the battery life is slowly shortening. When I use it to work out, I keep it stable, in an armband; I only let it jounce around in my pocket when I'm just doing boring, not-very-jouncy daily stuff (walking to class, working, that kinda thing). Other than that, I'm not Miss Prissy McGentle with it- it gets tossed into the bottom of my bookbag (a very dangerous place), onto the kitchen table, etc etc. It's banged-up looking, but still works well. I consider its patina a theft-deterrent feature.
My husband, on the other hand, has had his just as long (got 'em at the same time), but he just recently had problems with his skipping/tracks breaking up. He didn't keep his in an armband when he was doing jouncy-abouty stuff (like running)- he kept it loose and unstable in his pocket. However, it did take it until this year to start failing, and we were able to get it replaced via the extended warranty we got on it.
Now, this is relevant because those iPods had regular hard-drives in there, with moving parts and stuff, so jouncy-abouty affected them. If you had them running while you were running, and let them jounce about, that could affect the hard drive. The nanos (well, at least the 1st gens, that's the last I looked at 'em) use a flash (solid-state, I think it's also called) memory- no moving parts- so they're less susceptible to damage from repeated small impacts. You do, however, give up some capacity.
It's been a while since I've looked into 'em, but I think that the system is the same- regular iPods have regular hdds, nanos & shuffles have flash memory, and I have no clue what minis have because I never cared for them (are they even still around?). So it comes down to what you'll be using it for- working out? Having at work? Data storage? Are you likely to cause it severe trauma, or lots of medium trauma? Might be worth a visit to the Apple Store or your Best Buy/Circuit City/Consumer Electronics retailer to quiz some guy that's seen 'em, ask for informal return statistics, that kinda thing, too.
Oh- I've used both iTunes and WinAmp. I used WinAmp from 1998 til I got an iPod. Started using iTunes, started seeing the wonders of BitTorrent, realized that I could have iTunes manage my music almost as anally as I would have myself with much less involvement, and never looked back. I also never buy music from iTunes- if I want to buy music, I get the CD. To get around the AAC copyright stuff you have to burn it to CD anyway, so may as well just do it the old-fashioned way and get some pretty cover art for an extra couple bucks, and you can encode the stuff at a higher quality.
I've had mine for aaaaaages, so long in fact I can't remember exactly when I got it, it was either late 2003 or early 2004, so what, 3-4 years? The only problem i've ever had is the minor flake out it took when I plugged it into Vista, cos it's you know, old, but that was my bad for never updating iTunes, it's all in perfect working order again after a quick reset. I also drop mine, like, a lot, onto concrete and it doesn't seem to do too much to it...
But then I've also heard horror stories of them barely lasting...I think it's like anything, you gotta take your chances with it...
Okay, this is obviously a way late comment, but you're asking about iPods, so I have to chime in. :)
I bought my first iPod 4+ years ago, and it's still going strong. Sure, I need to recharge it every other day, and yeah, sometimes it decides to be difficult and not do what it's supposed to do when I press on certain buttons, but we all get a bit cranky as we get old, right?
And that thing with nanda's iPod needing a nap? Same thing happened with mine. iPod refused to work. I brought it to an Apple Store. Guy there said it was dead and I should get a new one. I gasped in shock. (Abandon my iPod? Surely you jest !) Went home, didn't touch my iPod for 2 weeks, and voila, it started to work again. Sure it can be difficult, but it sure is purty!
Right before I left for China, I went and bought an iPod shuffle because I wanted something smaller and I didn't want to deal with my original iPod getting cranky on me while in a foreign country. I have to say the battery in those shuffles last FOREVER. 2 weeks passed (with me using it on average of 4 hours a day) before I had to recharge it. And even then, a charge of 30 minutes was all it needed. Amazing. Plus, as chiroho mentioned, since the shuffle is essentially a flash drive, you can do all sorts of spiffy things (like run) with it on without it getting all weird on you. But the shuffle doesn't have a display, which I do miss from time to time.
As to whether you should get one? I think it depends on what you mainly plan to use it for. My brother's gf got a shuffle for Christmas and she LOVES it because she only uses it when she exercises, so it's small size and practically non-existent weight are huge pluses.
If you plan on keeping your entire music library on it and need to be able to sort through it, then you definitely shouldn't get a shuffle.
From what I've read of iPods vs. other music players, it sounds like each have their own pros and cons. I think a big pro for the iPods is how many people now own them. So getting them serviced and finding online help for any problems you encounter will be easier.
But yeah, if you end up going with an iPod, definitely buy Apple Care and definitely buy a good case. As for the headphones, I've never used the ones that come with th iPods because I like headphones with built-in volume controls. Makes life easier, imo.
Awwww! You ARE bored if you're reading my old posts!
My main use for and iPod would be the video instead of music, which makes me lean towards the Zen. Which also comes with an A/V cable to plug into hotel TVs!!!! ;)
I have no idea if they're as fussy as an iPod though. Probably.
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I'm on my third in 4 years. But two of them were dropped.
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I think it just depends on how well you treat it. Get a case, try not to drop it, that kind of thing.
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Probably not helpful at all, LOL.
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That being said. I have a gen 3 iPod that is still working for my roomie 2+ years later. It depends on how well you treat them. Be smart about battery charging because that's what will kill them. If you think you will be charging it daily, buy the extended warranty. It's cheaper.
I think it's 2 years. The EOL for almost any consumer device is 2 years with low end HDDs being 1 year and better HDDs having a 5 year warranty but averaging b/t 1 and 2 years.
Really, it's not practical for them to last beyond 2 years because of the improvements at that point. Most OEMs/IHV stop supporting devices at that point.
Errr. more than you asked, right?
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Mwah.
That being said. I have a gen 3 iPod that is still working for my roomie 2+ years later. It depends on how well you treat them. Be smart about battery charging because that's what will kill them. If you think you will be charging it daily, buy the extended warranty. It's cheaper.
How does that kill them? If you overcharge or something?
Really, it's not practical for them to last beyond 2 years because of the improvements at that point. Most OEMs/IHV stop supporting devices at that point.
True.
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'Course, that's just me and my sound-geekery.
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Probably just depends what day of the week the workers made it. Those Friday ones just never seem to last...
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My first 2nd Gen shuffle lasted for six months and died in the Unfortunate Rollerblading Incident of 2007. But, you know, it was ground into the pavement by my entire body weight, so. My big disappointment with the shuffles is that the new headphones (the ones that come with all iPods) are already falling apart in less than a year of heavy use.
If you're concerned about it, and especially if you're buying one of the expensive ones, get AppleCare. It's completely worth the extra cash and Apple service is excellent.
Personally, I'd also buy it from the Apple Store. I just don't trust resellers.
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The new ones do seem to have more battery trouble and to be a little more delicate.
Hmmm.
My big disappointment with the shuffles is that the new headphones (the ones that come with all iPods) are already falling apart in less than a year of heavy use.
:-\
If you're concerned about it, and especially if you're buying one of the expensive ones, get AppleCare. It's completely worth the extra cash and Apple service is excellent.
Sounds like it. People have been mentioning the service.
Personally, I'd also buy it from the Apple Store. I just don't trust resellers.
Well, it was Costco I was thinking about getting it at.
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My case is beat to hell, but the ipod is sort of suspended inside by foam and it doesn't have a scratch. I carry mine around in my bag all the time.
The two that I dropped were in another kind of case and hit ground (as in earth, not cement) and croaked. I have dropped this one in the armor onto pavement (granted, not from the saddle) and it didn't even skip a beat.
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Of course, the reason I chose the shuffle is because, like a flash memory card, it has no moving parts and no hard drive for the head to get trashed on when it's dropped. That was the problem with the original iPods - if it was playing when dropped it was like dropping a hard drive for your PC when it was active. So you'd be scraping the head across the drive, just like a needle scratching a record.
I think they are more reliable now though.
The best rated Apple MP3 player by Consumer Reports was the iPod nano, because it's a flash memory player. Problem is, because it's an 8Gb flash memory player it's about the same cost as a regular 30Gb iPod which has a cheaper HDD. Picture quality also isn't as good as the larger players.
Next was the 80Gb iPod, which is oviously more expensive.
But at the same level as the iPods were several other MP3 players - Samsung, Creative, Cowon, Sandisk, and even Toshiba. With one of the Samsung flash memory players having the best score of all.
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I moved on to a black 80 gig video ipod that I love madly and passionately.
From what I've heard, the battery tends to go down after a year or so but that depends on your use of it. Most of the time, I use mine plugged in in my car and haven't had any battery problems.
I highly recommend ipods. I've never personally known anyone who got one who was disappointed.
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I will second everyone that says "buy a case".
If all you want is a music player and you're okay with random or straight through play of the playlist, then the little iPod Shuffle is supposed to be excellent. At least that's what all my friends who exercise (run, jog, canoe, etc) say.
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I've had mine for coming on 3 years now, and I've hardly had more than a minor annoyance with it(I get a little frustrated that if I turn it on after not using it for a couple of days, it has to completely reload, rather than going back to the song that I was listening to. But it does keep the song list for 24 hours, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much). My battery life is still going great (about 10-12 hours I think). It goes with me every where, and while I don't get to use it as much as I would like (stupid work), I have pretty much filled the thing up and it really makes my workouts soooo much more bearable.
The other wonderful thing about iPods is their seamless integration with iTunes. Even if you don't buy anything from iTunes, the organization system makes so much sense and it's really a snap syncing the iPod. Plus as everybody mentioned, the service with Apple is fantastic.
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3 years! I like the sound of that! And that is one thing that's a con with that Creative player - sounds like it's really not all that easy to get iTunes stuff on it...or use it with it. Yeah, a con.
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I'm not quite sure why, but I can't stand iPods. Maybe it has something to do with Apple wanting to take over the world.
I've got 8GB Micro Photo which is rather rather and kind of big for just state to state travel. I really only use it when I go out of the country. And a 4GB Zen V that I use all time. Both of them I've been really happy with.
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And as an aside: I bought my iPod nearly six years ago. Still works like a small electronic champ.
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My husband, on the other hand, has had his just as long (got 'em at the same time), but he just recently had problems with his skipping/tracks breaking up. He didn't keep his in an armband when he was doing jouncy-abouty stuff (like running)- he kept it loose and unstable in his pocket. However, it did take it until this year to start failing, and we were able to get it replaced via the extended warranty we got on it.
Now, this is relevant because those iPods had regular hard-drives in there, with moving parts and stuff, so jouncy-abouty affected them. If you had them running while you were running, and let them jounce about, that could affect the hard drive. The nanos (well, at least the 1st gens, that's the last I looked at 'em) use a flash (solid-state, I think it's also called) memory- no moving parts- so they're less susceptible to damage from repeated small impacts. You do, however, give up some capacity.
It's been a while since I've looked into 'em, but I think that the system is the same- regular iPods have regular hdds, nanos & shuffles have flash memory, and I have no clue what minis have because I never cared for them (are they even still around?). So it comes down to what you'll be using it for- working out? Having at work? Data storage? Are you likely to cause it severe trauma, or lots of medium trauma? Might be worth a visit to the Apple Store or your Best Buy/Circuit City/Consumer Electronics retailer to quiz some guy that's seen 'em, ask for informal return statistics, that kinda thing, too.
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But then I've also heard horror stories of them barely lasting...I think it's like anything, you gotta take your chances with it...
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I bought my first iPod 4+ years ago, and it's still going strong. Sure, I need to recharge it every other day, and yeah, sometimes it decides to be difficult and not do what it's supposed to do when I press on certain buttons, but we all get a bit cranky as we get old, right?
And that thing with nanda's iPod needing a nap? Same thing happened with mine. iPod refused to work. I brought it to an Apple Store. Guy there said it was dead and I should get a new one. I gasped in shock. (Abandon my iPod? Surely you jest !) Went home, didn't touch my iPod for 2 weeks, and voila, it started to work again. Sure it can be difficult, but it sure is purty!
Right before I left for China, I went and bought an iPod shuffle because I wanted something smaller and I didn't want to deal with my original iPod getting cranky on me while in a foreign country. I have to say the battery in those shuffles last FOREVER. 2 weeks passed (with me using it on average of 4 hours a day) before I had to recharge it. And even then, a charge of 30 minutes was all it needed. Amazing. Plus, as chiroho mentioned, since the shuffle is essentially a flash drive, you can do all sorts of spiffy things (like run) with it on without it getting all weird on you. But the shuffle doesn't have a display, which I do miss from time to time.
As to whether you should get one? I think it depends on what you mainly plan to use it for. My brother's gf got a shuffle for Christmas and she LOVES it because she only uses it when she exercises, so it's small size and practically non-existent weight are huge pluses.
If you plan on keeping your entire music library on it and need to be able to sort through it, then you definitely shouldn't get a shuffle.
From what I've read of iPods vs. other music players, it sounds like each have their own pros and cons. I think a big pro for the iPods is how many people now own them. So getting them serviced and finding online help for any problems you encounter will be easier.
But yeah, if you end up going with an iPod, definitely buy Apple Care and definitely buy a good case. As for the headphones, I've never used the ones that come with th iPods because I like headphones with built-in volume controls. Makes life easier, imo.
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My main use for and iPod would be the video instead of music, which makes me lean towards the Zen. Which also comes with an A/V cable to plug into hotel TVs!!!! ;)
I have no idea if they're as fussy as an iPod though. Probably.
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