electronics store

Apple's always at the top of their game - whatever game that is - and this top of the line iPod is no exception. Let's pause a moment for the analysis:

40 GB. That's roughly 40,000 megabytes. Using today's AAC or mp3 music encoding technology, a 72 minute album rarely consumes more than 80 megabytes - even at near-CD quality. What does that mean to you? Yeah, you did the math right - 500 albums. You could sit there and play music 24/7 for nearly a month without repeating. Or head down to your local club and be DJ for the night - just slip the iPod out of your pocket and plug into the sound system!

OK, so it'll hold all your music. But what the numbers don't tell you is that it holds your music in STYLE. About the size of a stack of 8 credit cards, and only a trifle heavier, this'll fit on your belt, in your sleeve, in your backpack's cellphone pocket, in your purse, or wherever else you want to put it with no hassle. The controls lock so jostling around doesn't accidently push buttons. And what cool buttons they are - the 'scrollwheel pad' and no-click touchbuttons make for an easy, fun and durable interface.

Also, the thing just looks darn cool - with its white front, silver back, and little backlit screen, it's got instant 'bling bling' credibility, day or night.

It comes with everything you need - belt clip, earbuds, dock to recharge the battery and transfer music over from your Firewire- or USB 2.0-equipped computer. But I'd recommend two additions: first, the optional FireWire cable makes this into a portable 40G hard drive, highly useful in today's information age. (I carry a copy of the human genome around on mine.) Second, ditch the included headphones and grab a pair of the Sony neodymium-magnet earbuds, model #MDR-EX70LP. They transform your iPod from merely great to INSANELY great.

Cool tunes to ya, my friend!

Let's face it, the puny 128 mb players are expensive and worthless. That is why we are moving up to the bigger leagues. Well there has been big competitors trying to run the 20 gb market. Dell has one, rio has a nice smaller one than ipod, neuros, archos, and **Creative**. Now why did I stat Creative? First I will explain why I gave the ipod 2 stars.

First off, I have two 20 GB MP3 Players. I have a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox 3 (Same thing as the Zen) and a 20 GB Ipod.

Good:

Setup was simple and transferring files to the ipod was fast. It comes with a nice docking station and yes it is small.

Bad:
Let me uncover the truth about the ipod that no one knows about and that people never will say because they are now stuck with the pod like me. Apple will tell you I believe when you open the box that the pod is meant for your computer ONLY. That means you can't go over to a friend's house and copy your friends music. Ok well that isn't legal, but no matter what there are people who want to do that everyone knows that will happen, SO WHAT MOVE ON. So you are limited to only your PC. Now here is the tricky thing that no one even think of. Take my computer for example. I had the virus that spreaded across the net and I like to reformat my drive every year to give it that nice fresh start. ****Warning**** IF YOU REFORMAT A DRIVE OR ACTUALLY TRY TO INSTALL IPOD ON ANOTHER COMPUTER, EVERY SINGLE THING WILL BE ERASED!!!! That is what happened to my Ipod. See when you reformat a drive, you have to install the software over again because everything is erased off the computer. So when you reinstall it on your pc or a friend's pc, the ipod does not like when you try to copy so the software has a reset in it and will wipe out everything you have. I have 2,000 songs and 4 months of work (because I have other work to deal with) gone down the drain as if I never touched the d*** pod. Secondly, unless there is some way to change the settings, every cd burned, ipod makes a copy of each song in the library making you have to erase each copy which becomes extremely annoying because it makes a copy of it on your ipod which is so stupid. Unlike the creative, you can't change anything directly from the device, only on the computer which isn't good either.

Now back to the Creative. I have the Jukebox 3 which is the SAME EXACT THING as the Zen. Zen has a different style so that is why it is called that. To prove it is the same, check the prices at Comp usa and other stores. They still sell my at the same price as the Zen. Plus all the firmware and accessories are made for both devices. The creative allows you to use it on anyone's computer and it is compatible with everything. Apple is known for having there products strictly work for them. The drastic windows change didn't change that much. Apple you are limited to there firewire and usb attachment and you must have every wire that comes with it or else you have to buy it again because you can't just go to a normal store and buy any usb or firewire because it won't fit your pod. Creative will work with anything. you can go out and purchase any cable for it.

Next is the firmware. It comes with a simple easy to use program where you can see everything on your computer and see your device on the other screen. the scrolling is great and the sound quality is superb. You can choose some great accessories for it. I purchased a $68.00 FM Tuner with built in Microphone and mini display with the play, stop, fast forward, and rewind all on it. The biggest difference is the price of the Creative. It is $100 cheaper than the pod and it has more features and works well. Ipod has gotten so much publicity when I feel it shouldn't. Creative has been knocked down just because it isn't white and a couple inches smaller. Creative truly is better. It isn't as if I wanted to advertise it because i am a Creative fan because this is my first product I purchased from them besides the standard soundblaster built into Home PC's. I have both the Ipod and Creative Labs and I would take Creative over ipod any day. My mother went with the hype and bought the ipod and I took the Creative going with my instincts and a lot of reviews. Look who came out as the winner. I still have my songs and less of a headache. Don't make the same mistake like my mother.

I have been the proud owner of the Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen (original model) and the XTRA. Both of these machines were well worth the money. The sound quality was amazing, the GUI eas easy to navigate and the sound features were more than sufficient. Even though the battery life was less than advertised, it still gave many hours of music playback.

About three months into the life of my XTRA, the headphone jack broke. After reading many other reviews out there, It seems like this is a regular problem. If it were not for this reoccurring issue, the XTRA would definitely be the way to go.

After returning my XTRA, I had no choice but to settle with an iPod. I was aprehensive to say the least, but since I personally knew some people that swear by their iPod, I decided to give it a whirl.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of USB 2.0 compatibility straight out of the box. I was forced to buy a $20 cable that would make it work with my computer. This was disappointing since I just spent $500 on a new machine that wouldn't work.

After I found a store that carried the cable, it was off to the computer to download the music to the player. This is where the majority of the problems came to pass. First, the software made my computer crash (I own a top o' the line PC that was custom built). When I finally got the software to work, I quickly loaded all of the songs onto the player. The transfer only took a few minutes, but I noticed that it completely drained the battery life.

After leaving it to charge overnight, I took it to school. The first song I ever tried to play froze the iPod. The first song! It worried me, but I read the User Guide and found out how to reset the player. Since then, I haven't had much of a problem, however, sometimes iTunes will not rip cd's properly. It is a quality purchase, but when Creative comes up with a new and improved Zen (Keep a look out for the Zen Portable Media Player), you can bet that my allegience won't stick with Apple.