Rokr like a hurricane...

[ggw]

Does anyone have a recommendation for good jogging headphones?
 
 The standard iPod earbuds suck, and I've gone through two pairs of those Sony earbuds (MX71 and MX81). Both crapped out during long run with them.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Chip Chanko:
  It�??s official: ROKR E1 iTunes phone can only store max. 100 tracks
 
 

I think the battery life should be your main concern.  The typical iPod battery is at best 8 hours, but the talk time of a cell phone is usually 3-5 hours (24-48 hours on standby).  
 
 I think you'd cut your listening time way down if you knew that you wouldn't be able to use your cell phone when you finished your commute.

[vansmack]

If I may, I'd like to be the first to predict that these two companies will eventually merge or the loser in these battles will be subject to a hostile takeover....
 
   <img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/09/09/business/sony.span.jpg" alt=" - " />
 
 September 9, 2005
 Sony Takes On Apple IPod by Offering New Walkman
 By REUTERS
 
 TOKYO, Sept. 8 (Reuters) - Sony said Thursday that it would sell advanced Walkman portable music players this year, aiming to move out of Apple Computer's shadow in a market that Sony created a quarter of a century ago.
 
 The announcement came hours after Apple introduced the pencil-thin iPod nano digital player and a long-anticipated mobile phone that plays music in a bid to extend its domination of the market.
 
 "We are not at all satisfied with where we are now," said Koichiro Tsujino, co-president of Connect, a Sony unit that makes portable music players and offers online music distribution services.
 
 "I understand a certain company made an announcement earlier today," he added at a news conference. "We will accelerate our challenge with these new models."
 
 Sony, which created the portable music market with its cassette-playing Walkmans, has lost out to Apple in the portable digital era as it focused on its mainstay CD and Mini Disc players.
 
 Sony will offer two music players based on hard disks - one with a storage capacity of 20 gigabytes and the other with 6 gigabytes - and three flash- memory-based players that will keep the existing models' perfume bottle appearance.
 
 The 6-gigabyte model is Sony's first hard-disk player with a small capacity. Apple's iPod nano comes in 2- and 4-gigabyte capacities.
 
 Sony's new models will add the ability to select and play the songs a user listens to most, and also to pick songs released in a certain year - a function Sony calls the "time machine shuffle."
 
 The models will go on sale in Japan on Nov. 19 and overseas by the end of the year.
 
 The 20-gigabyte hard-disk model, able to store up to 13,000 songs, is expected to be priced around $320 in Japan, Sony said.
 
 Sony aims to sell 4.5 million hard-disk and flash-memory portable music players in the year to next March, up from 850,000 a year earlier.
 
 Apple has sold about 22 million iPods worldwide in four years.

[markie]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  If I may, I'd like to be the first to predict that these two companies will eventually merge or the loser in these battles will be subject to a hostile takeover....
 
   

There has been talk of that for years, especially pre-imac whan apple was on its downers. Right now Sony seems to be the least competent company on the face of the planet. I do not see why apple would want them. Oh and apple has about $4 billion in cash, so I guess it will be alright for a while.
 
 Oh and those sony players are dead ugly.

[thirsty moore]

Originally posted by MTB-Markie:
 Oh and those sony players are dead ugly.

The majority of mp3 players I've seen are hideous.  Did Apple take copyrights out on all attractive design?  What the hell are these other companies thinking?

[markie]

I just went and played with a nano. Those things are truely lustworthy. It makes my 1st generation seem like a brick and it too, once seemed lithe.
 
 They have the nano in stock in the Bethesda store if anyone wants to get me one.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by MTB-Markie:
  There has been talk of that for years, especially pre-imac whan apple was on its downers. Right now Sony seems to be the least competent company on the face of the planet. I do not see why apple would want them. Oh and apple has about $4 billion in cash, so I guess it will be alright for a while.

The dividing line was always the CPU, but with Apple now using the Intel chip, that line no longer exists.
 
 Sony cannot continue to make PCs that are three to four times as expensive as it's competitors.  However, Sony does have high end technologies for the Intel chip that Apple may find worth while.  So Apple may buy Sony's Computer dept to seemlessly integrate with the Intel chip.
 
 And yes, for years, the rumor was Sony was going to buy Apple.  I guess I wanted to be the first to say that Apple will buy Sony.  Oh, how far we've come...

[chaz]

This is the first thing to come along in a while that makes me think that maybe it's time to get a friend for my 15gb 3rd gen ipod....until I see that the headphone jack is on the bottom, next to the dock connector???  WTF?  Bad design choice there.  Guess they had to to it to make it so thin and get the screen in there....

[ggw]

September 26, 2005
 
 The Times
 
 iPods may not be up to scratch
 By Adam Sherwin
 The tiny nano is flying off shop shelves �?? but many are flying straight back with screen problems
 
 OWNERS of the new iPod Nano �?? which is selling at the rate of five a minute in one High Street chain of stores �?? have complained to Apple after finding problems with the portable music player�??s screen.
 
 The sleek, £179 back-pocket player, which can hold 1,000 songs, has almost sold out after a nationwide advertising campaign.
 
 But Apple�??s store in Regent Street, London, has received complaints that the colour screen scratches too easily.
 
 And a website, www.flawedmusicplayer.com, has already been created by disgruntled purchasers urging Apple to recall the product, citing inexplicable cases of screens cracking.
 
 One customer wrote on the website: �??After running with the nano twice and being very careful as to keep it safe, the nano shut off. I reset it but nothing happened, the screen just showed an off white. The music still plays and the click wheel still clicks �?? it�??s as if the screen is not connected to the rest of the iPod.�?�
 
 Another said: �??Last night I broke my iPod while it was simply sitting in my pocket. I was destroyed over it.�?�
 
 He wrote: �??The iPod was in my pocket on the way to work, and when I took it out to show it to all my friends, the LCD was cracked. In my pocket (I wear really baggy clothes) it had somehow met up with the headphones (which were made of metal) and cracked the screen . . .
 
 �??I called Apple to see what could be done to fix it. They . . . told me I�??d be better off buying a new one, instead of sending it in.�?�
 
 The screen is designed to display photos and album covers but can become distorted by scratches if the Nano is secreted in your keys-and-change pocket, buyers say.
 
 Steve Jobs, Apple�??s chief executive, demonstrated at the launch of the nano that the player was specifically designed to be placed in a jeans pocket.
 
 Apple claims that its award-winning design team have produced a screen made of the toughest polycarbonate but stores will examine requests for returns of damaged players.
 
 
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798067,00.html

[godsshoeshine]

interesting. these guys ran theirs over with a car: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/1

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
  interesting. these guys ran theirs over with a car:  http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/1

Fun read.
 
 I guess I didn't realize how small it was having not seen one. The "thinness" I got, but the 1.6" length... wow.