So, thinking about an iTouch

If you are a Mac OS X Hints forum-goer, you’d know that right now I’m considering a iPod touch for my next paycheck. If not, well now you know.

Seeing as my $20 outlay for the new iPod cover for my 5G iPod totally failed to save it from getting scratched up and banged up (I had a white nano and it hardly took a scratch), I decided: Now’s the time for something new.

iFusion: The resurrection of a 5G iPod

A badly beaten up iPod video (30 GB) came into my possession (Quite a while ago, actually). (It can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/anticitizen/1488499268/)

Among the various problems, it has a badly damaged front cover (What you see is the iPod after some very intimate time with a can of brasso), and the battery was kicking the bucket. Searching the serial number said it had been purchased January 2006.

So I got about $50 together and set to work restoring this iPod to it’s former glory. The battery arrived last week (It’s a NewerTech), and it’s been installed. This thing now gets longer runtime than my iPod Photo (Who could go for 16 hours!). Of course, this is with the brightness turned all the way down. I never use it for movies, so I keep it as low as possible.

And now, I ordered a front cover for it (White, since white doesn’t seem to scratch as easily as black does) from iFixit.com, which arrived last week. I installed that part, and unfortunately, it was a little bit of a letdown. The front cover doesn’t scratch as easily as the black one did, but it still scratched quite a bit. Thankfully, the white cover hides the damage better than the black. If you turn the brightness all the way up (or even midway), you will see the blemishes in the screen.

For $50, I got a product that will last me for at least another two years, a fraction of the cost of replacing it with an iPod Classic/Touch/Nano.

…However, I went to Costco today to look around, primarily to eat lunch (You could walk the store and eat lunch for free. Just partake of all the samples), and saw the big iTouch/iPod display, and lo and behold, they had two Nanos and a touch sitting there. I tried powering up the touch, but it balked that it needed to be charged. Still, I was quite sucked in by the device. It was small, and even though it was a store display, it didn’t look damaged at all.

+1 for durability.

While I could run down to Apple Store Walnut Creek and get a display model that actually powers up and lets me mess with it, I don’t want to go to Walnut Creek because I have no license, and as such, no way there. And parking’s a bitch.

However, I think I’ve made up my mind, and starting Nov. 2007, I am going to be an owner of an 8GB iPod Touch. While many may complain that 8GB is too small, it isn’t for me. My library is only 5 GB at most. 3 GB if I prune out the stuff I never listen to but just have on my computer for archiving purposes. And videos? Those have yet to break the 1 GB mark, let alone 512 MB mark. So a8 GB touch it will be.

Zune vs. iPod round two

You know it: Zunescene does another unfair comparison between the Zune and the iPod since both sides revised their lineup. Let’s go for it again. http://www.zunescene.com/comparison/

Price and storage remain constant among the compared models.

Wifi is absent in the iPods, present in the Zunes. This time around, however, the Zune actually gains wireless synching. HOWEVER, unless it supports 802.11n, it will be almost as slow as USB 1, meaning it’s useless for transferring movies.

File sharing: iPods once again don’t have this feature–but then again, why do they need it? The Zune’s wireless sharing is SO crippled that no one wants to use it. And then you have to find another Zuner to squirt with.

Landscape mode is present in the Zunes but you don’t gain MUCH screen real estate. Plus, totally absent in this comparison is the iPod touch, whose “landscape mode” blasts the Zune out of the water.

Portrait mode? Excuse me, iPods do NOT have portrait mode. The screen’s height is NOT higher than the width in the iPod.

Preloaded audio and video? Uh, who gives a damn? It’s likely stuff you’ll never listen to, and even better yet, if you are buying a player, you’ll likely HAVE SOMETHING TO PUT ON IT.

Now on battery life, the Zune is absent, stating a nice big ? for battery life. On top of that, the iPod has 30 hours of battery life on the Classic, not 24.

Preloaded virus?! Those zunetards are still beating the dead horse? This isn’t 2006, this is 2007. The iPod virus is done and over with.  Idiots.

Custom background is absent on iPods. Then again, who cares?

And why the hell are they comparing manufacturers? As if Flextronics is OMG SO MUCH BETTAR THAN FOXCONN.

Colors: Zune loses. Period.

Click wheel: Zune loses again. So sorry.

Tactile and touch control is there on the iPods, but the zunetards fail to see it. The menu, forward, back and play/pause buttons are tactile. The clickwheel is touch sensitive. Someone didn’t do their research.

For $14.99US, you get unlimited downloads. If you don’t pay…goodbye they go. iTunes you get 1 song for 99 cents. And you get to keep it for life.  Plus, Microsoft points rip you off, as well.

The rest is a total pissing war from the zunetards: Apple chose the right path by not giving us some stupid-ass iPod communities, social networking, or any stupid shit like that. And you’ll notice at the end that Macs are cut off from the Zune. Nice way to treat the Apple guys, Microsoft.

You might notice I was being more abrasive than usual in this article. All bets are off when stupid shit like this is said:

“Think Different” is a trademarked phrase
and has no place in public
except Apple retail stores
and the short bus.

iPod is king. Honestly.

This guy has the right idea

Yes, I know Halo 3 came out, and I think it’s trash. How is it getting all these 9’s and 10’s?

I’ll do my own writeup soon, but for now, someone gets it.