J-McKech

Fall and Winter is coming and im looking to get a trainer for my road bike and also an Mp3 player. I have been looking between the iPod and the Dell DJ. Looks like the DJ is the better buy. Just curious to see if anyone has either of these and how they like them. Thanks

john_galt

I feel sorry for people that don't have an ipod, they dont know what they are missing.

Guest

I have an ipod. Rushed out and got it the first day it was released. Haven't used it since. I just don't have the time to sit down and figure it out yet. I am not adept with electronics, and my brother just never has time to sit with me. I hope to get to it by the end of the year. Otherwise, I'll sell that bad boy. I have no idea about the Dell... just know the ipod is more hyped up.

Koffee

catatonic

iRiver makes a very nice MP3 player that is like the dell.

I jsut use my Palm Tungsten E, with a 256MB SD card. I just encode everything at 96kbps since I'm only using it while on the train or sitting, and I'm looking for music, not audiophile bliss.....though i did jsut buy a set of Shure E2Cs today....so I might jsut splurge for an iRiver or the Creative Nomad Zen. That will be next month of course, after I restock my bank acct form buying my new bi-wheeled toy

izgod

I use a Sony MD (mini disk) recorder/player. Those hard drive players like Dell and Apple have built in batteries that are not "user serviceable." When the battery gets tired of taking a recharge, the device no longer works, and needs to go back to factory for a new battery at high cost. The MD recorders use one regular AA battery. They are small and light, you can record from iTunes off your computer,
The disks are small enough to make it easy to stash a few in a backpack, You can also use a mic with MD to record voice notes, or your band, or create Karaoke disks. Just a lot more versatile IMO.

khuon

I'm a pretty big Archos fan. I have an older 1st. generation Archos Jukebox 6000 (6GB). It predates the iPod by a couple of years so seems a tad bit clunky in comparison but Archos hasn't been sitting on their butts either and has continued to release products to compete with the iPod as well as some that can be considered over-the-top... true personal multimedia players such as the AV400 which can even act as a portable DVR/TiVo box. Archos' iPod equivalent is the Gmini 220 but has more functionality than the iPod and is just as compact. You can find out more about Archos products from their website. The thing I really have enjoyed about the Archos stuff is that they're cross-platform or rather platform/OS agnostic. This is important to me as I use my Jukebox also as a portable hard drive for things other than music and I have to attach it to not just Wintel platforms. Additionally, for the Jukebox series of players, there's been a lot of opensource development on the firmware so new features are coming out of the public community all the time that extends the life and functionality of the product. Also, while the unit is rechargable, it will take normal batteries as well. And the user can field-replace the rechargable batteries with ones of higher capacity if they want since they take AA sized batteries. The other thing I like about Archos is their commitment to ruggedised portability. My Jukebox has extra armoured bumpers and special shock-proof mountings for its components. Additionally, it has built-in sensors which will shutdown and park the drive when it senses excessive G-shock loading. I have dropped my Jukebox several times on hard surfaces without damage or data loss.

lisasimpson

i have the shure E2's also i love those things. I cant live without them on the train. they block out all the cruddy loud noise and all i hear is my music. it is the best. My bf has the nomad also. that thing is really nice. one thing it has that the ipod doesnt that i love is the ability to make playlists. although i think the new ipod may have this function but not pos. the dell mentioned earlier is similar to the nomad but has much better battery life. i definitely recommend that over that the ipod. i think the ipod is popular because it well advertised and nice looking and got its name for being the first mp3 player to hold lots of music. however i think players like the nomad and the dell give it good competition and in some cases a better value for the money. but that is my opinion

catatonic

actually the first MP3 player with large capacity was the Archos. It's just Archos does not advertise, it's more of an insider's brand than anyhing. Oh...and they also make a DivX player that is has a 5" screen that's about the size of an external floppy drive.

Apple jsut has the power of marketing on their side. Much like Kleenex wasn't the first to make tissues, just the first to be widely known.

Really, I think the iPod will have it's place...Apple has been known to pioneer, but I have yet to see them ever stay in the mainstream for very long. They already have the leg down on pricing, and the whole battery fiasco, at least to me, has killed any chance I will ever buy one. The archos is ok, but archos was never known for great features, but their units doubls as USB2.0 hard drives...so you can jsut drop stuff in without special software, and can use it to take your work home etc.

Yeah, I'm lovin these E2s...I just gotta get the soft silicone plugs, the clear plastic ones wont fit, and the foam ones are going to get nasty pretty quick....I kinda wish they included a set of them...especially on a $100 earphone set.

Oh last note....if you take one to work, make sure your allowed to. Workplaces are starting to ban hard disk based MP3 players lately, due to how easy it is to steal data with one. A few years back I remeber some kid who got caught stealing mac software at a CompUSA, by merely plugging his iPod into the store display machines, and copying hte installers off the system's hard drive. Kinda shows that some folks will ruin anyhting for us

khuon

Yeah, the older Archos interface can leave a bit to be desired. However, the opensource firmwares for the older Jukeboxes is excellent. The new AVOS for the AV-series is magnificent. They really did improve a LOT with it. And as far as I know, there's nothing else that has the featureset of the AV400-series.

khuon

I ran into this sort of issue at a visit to a high-security environment a few months ago. They asked me if I had floppy disks and a laptop and I said yes. I always carry emergency FreeBSD boot-floppies when I travel just in case I need to recover my laptop from a particularly nasty problem. They asked me to declare them and stuck the floppy disks in a plastic bag with a seal that said to the effect of "do not open until off premises". They did not ask me about an mp3 player. When I went to leave, they re-inspected my laptop with my escort signing me out and then inspected my backpack. That's when they found my PDA, my Archos Jukebox, my digital camera, a bunch of flash memory cards, etc... Ooops!!! The security guards went non-linear. My hosts were a bit amused though. They confiscated all my stuff so they could spend the night doing a thorough inspection and told me I could retrieve it the next day following the subsequent meeting.

dobber

Why? The iPod is nothing revolutionary. Plenty of great flash, CD and HD based players before and since. iPod just managed a good marketing campaign and got a good herd mentality going. And you gotta love the non-replacable battery. Glad I don't have to toss my bike when I get a flat !!

Bzzt, wrong. The PJB100, designed by Compaq and licensed by Hango was the first solid/reliable mass marketed HD based player.

BigFloppyLlama

The iPods do have a replaceable battery, just not easily. I had a second generation ipod that I found and ended up selling because I never used it. I personally don't think the iPod is anything special, and that the price is inflated more by the Apple name (like so many of their products) than by the specifications inside the player. You'd be fine with pretty much any of the hard drive players, iRiver, iAudio, iPod, Dell Jukebox, Creative Zen.

slvoid

I feel sorry for people who DO have an ipod.

slvoid

I have the nomad zen xtra, basically same as dell DJ, better battery life, better value.
I can't stand how on the ipod, you have to scroll through the wheel, especially the new ipods, on the face. I like having the buttons on the side a la walkman so I can hold it comfortably in my hand and still pretty do everything blind folded.

Poguemahone

I can't see buying one of these things, being completely deaf in one ear and partially deaf in the other. My life, alas, does not feel incomplete due to missing the ipod or whatever, so any sympathy is wasted on me, and you can always send me cash in lieu of sympathy. But out of curiousity, are you folks riding your bikes while plugged into these things? It may be my partial deafness, but I somehow can't see limiting my hearing at all while I'm on the bike.

lisasimpson

yea i hear ya about those hard plastic plugs. they are a bit rough to get in the ear but actually after looking at the instructions i found it easier. i put em in the ear and tug on the back of my ear lobe a bit while pushing the plastic plug in. that forms a real nice tight fit and they stay just fine. without that they tend to pop out. i wanna upgrade though. i love mine but the shure E3's have the softer plug and seem a lil easier to get in the ear plus have a bit nicer sound. i will prob hold off though cause they are expensive and mine do the trick but it is on the back of the list hehe.

oh and wow about the not taking discs into places. I totally did not know that. i mean i knew like an airport might check a laptop but didnt even think about a mp3 player or palm. oof i gotta keep track of my electronics when i go places now hehe.

khuon

Actually, the original Archos Jukebox 5000 debutted in 1999 about a month before (late Sept) the PJB wich debutted in Nov. 1999. I think it was only available in France for a time though so I guess that might exclude it from the "mass market criteria".

khuon

I ride while listening to my mp3 player... but only when the bike is attached to the stationary trainer.

lisasimpson

i do listen to music while riding or skating but i keep it pretty low. i use it mainly for the background beat and i use cruddy headphones so i hear more background noise than music. the beat just helps keep me pumped, which when going up a big hill can be especially difficult. once at the park where i tend to ride the loop i tend to pick it up a notch but still enough to hear outside noise, that is always my primary concern.

catatonic

yep i tried the instructions...its jsut my ear canals are smaller than the small plastics...so i get that nice burrning seensation when they are only halfway in

Oh well, might just buy a 100-pk of foamies...

seely

Ok once and for all-

The battery on an iPod IS replaceable... Apple broke down and now says its servicable.

redfooj

i like my nomad zen. its easier to grab and scroll as slvoid said. its built like a brick. the apple is not just replaceable... its easily changeable. the cover opens and battery pops out like a cell phone! each battery lasts twice as long as does the ipod, and i have 2 of them

lisasimpson

wow and i thought i had mad small ear canals. yea the foamies might work. although i must say i find the foam ones weird when in the ear. i prefer the plastic even though a tighter fit.

catatonic

It is, but the entire fiasco reminds me of why I hated apple back when my parents had one. Go figure over 14 years later, and they are still thinking inside their own little cyanide and ahllucinogen filled box.

given...the halucinogens gave them great ideas...but that cyanide is still gona get em.

slvoid

I have the shure E3's (not the E3c ipod white "rob me now" ones). I actually find the softer plugs pop out pretty easy. If you're having problems with it popping out, try pulling the tip of your ear up to enlarge the opening then jam it in.
The E2's fit better than the E3's. My girlfriend has the E2's and they're shaped like a pod that stays in the lobe of your ear, the E3's tend to hang out more.