[snerdy]

Originally posted by lrmat
the ipod blows them all away and i'll tell you why; third party support. it gives the ipod a longer lifespan and more felxability then any other jukebox out there bar none, believe me i've researched this with the new crop (rio karma, iriver, philips, zen ultra) and while they offer more battery life, more features the ipod still .

Oh, dear me. Longer lifespan, eh? You tried throwing a new battery in your iPod recently there, kiddo? And what happened to the end of that paragraph? That's just weird, duder. "The ipod still" ...what?

The Treo definitely rocks the house on portable music, even if it doesn't compete in the same arena with a hard drive based music device. An expensive SD card and highly compressed audio files will provide a significantly long and perfectly enjoyable listening experience. The Treo really shines, though, with Pocket Tune's Shoutcast support. It is a thoroughly different kind of device than the iPod or any other portable digital music thinger.

[ajstribling]

Originally posted by thr61
<<Mine is plugged into the AC charger in the trunk; the line-out is routed through the CD changer>>

I have the Belkin charger and wonder how you plug it into the iPod for power when you have put it in the trunk. Did you extend the cable?

A 10-foot cigarette lighter extention jack from Radio Shack. $13. You can also get that other kind of charger that's just a Firewire plug, then buy as much Firewire cable as you need, but that was more expensive, and the Belkin was on sale at Circuit City for $20.

[lrmat]

snerdy, i have not changed the battery but there are third party vendors who sell replacement batteries and the tools to open the ipod (when the zen battery dies, i have a paper weight (or just use it with ac), it is no longer portable.

i was in a rush and didn't proofread. what i meant to say is the ipod still holds well against them all when you look at the whole.

i love my treo (this is a treo forum) but as mp3 players go and as gadgets go ipod's simple elegance can't be beat in my book.

[skidoo]

Originally posted by Jazzer
iPods play more than MP3s.

So does Pocket Tunes on the Treo. All the music files on my Treo are OGGs.

I store a few hundred songs on an SD card for my Treo. This "playlist" gets modified regularly, as I store many thousands of songs on a PC and a 20 gig Archos Jukebox. But the Treo is with me *always*, so it's nice to be able to carry around a selection of new stuff, or old stuff being revisited.

I would never carry my Jukebox (or an iPod) around all the time.

[Prismatic]

Originally posted by snerdy

Oh, dear me. Longer lifespan, eh? You tried throwing a new battery in your iPod recently there, kiddo?

Snerdy your information regarding the ipod is out of date, Apple now offers a battery replacement program for Ipods which are out of warranty.

http://depot.info.apple.com/ipod/

[Prismatic]

Originally posted by skidoo
I would never carry my Jukebox (or an iPod) around all the time.

I used to think this too, till I actually got an Ipod. Now I listen to my ipod at home, use it as a jukebox in my vehicle (with itrip), and also listen to it at work in between phone calls and assignments. Although I don't 'WEAR' my ipod like my treo, I use it all day long.

[skidoo]

Originally posted by Prismatic
I used to think this too, till I actually got an Ipod. Now I listen to my ipod at home, use it as a jukebox in my vehicle (with itrip), and also listen to it at work in between phone calls and assignments. Although I don't 'WEAR' my ipod like my treo, I use it all day long.

If I paid that much for an MP3 player, I'd probably carry it around all day too .

[Jettero]

I have no real opinion on this "debate," but I note that a 1.5 gig SD hard drive is scheduled to come out next year:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...hiba_tiny_disk

If they can keep cranking up the storage on these SD devices -- and larger capacity versions are reportedly on the drawing board -- and if PocketTunes or similar tweaks their storage management software a bit, then I don't see why the Treo can't be a worthy substitute for an iPod.

[snerdy]

Originally posted by Prismatic
Apple now offers a battery replacement program for Ipods which are out of warranty.

Yeah, that does water down my argument a little. The iPod is definitely cool, and being able to get a replacement battery (or, more likely, a whole new iPod) is a significant ...uh, "feature." (I guess one would call that a feature.) I'm just gonna say "expensive" and "fairly inconvenient" and hopefully we can let it go at that.

[darrenorb]

To all of you who mentioned using ogg format to get more music on your device:

I just tried converting some MP3 files to ogg but the files ended up the same size. Is there a parameter that I should be playing with to get more compression? How far do you tweak the variables and still get good quality audio? And what order of magnitude of total compression are you ending up with?

Thanks.