From Monday I will no longer be driving to work, instead Ill be taking the train, roughly 45 minutes in the morning and again in the evening.
So Ill need something to keep me entertained ;)
Im talking more along the lines of portable music/video than gaming... I have a PSP and rarely use it, and the interface is crap for regular music/video use. Im completely out the loop in terms of whats current so what are my options? Needs to be relatively small (no bigger than an iPod Video, ie no Archos). Is there anything that includes built in DAB these days (and the ability to record)? Mostly be used for music/audiobooks and maybe some videos (TV).
Apple - from what I can tell, it doesnt look like well se a new iPod soon as theyre focusing on iPhone, which we also wont see until 2008 at this rate.
MS-Zune - Supposedly a new one coming out soon?
Others - ?
just a decent mobile phone.
Some smartphones can do what you want.
I have an Nokia N80... nothing spectacular, but runs mobipocket ebook reader, msn, irc, emails, plays mp3s.
and has a miniSD slot to expand the memory :)
Sorted.
Options... (following from Fleabay)
MS Zune 30Gb, Black with Premium Zune Ear Plugs - £155 delivered (http://search.ebay.co.uk/zune-black_MP3-Players_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQflocZ1QQfromZR10QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ3QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQga10244Z10425QQitemcondnZ1QQpriceZ1QQsacatZ73839QQsaprchiZQQsaprcloZ100QQsascsZ2QQsaslcZ1QQsbrsrtZl).
- International Warranty?
- Not too fussed about the Premium Ear Plugs, as I have some B&O Earphones (http://www.bang-olufsen.com/page.asp?id=46), but it only works out at £5 more, so if I do go for a Zune I might as well get them.
Apple iPod 30Gb, Black - £149 delivered (http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&catref=C6&from=R10&satitle=ipod+black+30gb&sacat=73839%26catref%3DC6&a41399=-24&a6=-24&a14=-24&a34=-24&a35=-24&a10244=-24&alist=a3801%2Ca41399%2Ca6%2Ca14%2Ca26092%2Ca34%2Ca35%2Ca10244&pfmode=1&reqtype=1&gcs=1906&pfid=2708&pf_query=ipod+black+30gb&floc=1&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&sadis=200&fpos=Postcode&sascs=2&itemcondn=1&ga10244=10425&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&price=1&saprclo=100&saprchi=&fsop=3%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search).
Apple iPod 80Gb, Black - £199 delivered (http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&catref=C6&from=R10&satitle=ipod+black+80gb&sacat=73839%26catref%3DC6&a41399=-24&a6=-24&a14=-24&a34=-24&a35=-24&a10244=-24&alist=a3801%2Ca41399%2Ca6%2Ca14%2Ca26092%2Ca34%2Ca35%2Ca10244&pfmode=1&reqtype=1&gcs=1906&pfid=2708&pf_query=ipod+black+80gb&floc=1&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&sadis=200&fpos=Postcode&sascs=2&itemcondn=1&ga10244=10425&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&price=1&saprclo=100&saprchi=&fsop=3%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search)
Looking out for other manufacturers, but nothings really caught my eye so far... (Creative Zen Vision W looked interesting, but reviews havent been favorable.)
Quote from: M3ta7h3adjust a decent mobile phone.
Some smartphones can do what you want.
I have an Nokia N80... nothing spectacular, but runs mobipocket ebook reader, msn, irc, emails, plays mp3s.
and has a miniSD slot to expand the memory :)
Sorted.
I used to use smartphones quite a lot and went through several (Ericsson R380, SE P800, P900). Im loving the simplicity (and camera!) of my SE K800i right now.
I have been thinking about getting another smartphone but if I did it would need to have GPS. Im only looking at standalone audio/video players as Ive yet to see a phone of any sort with an intuitive interface & good enough screen for audio/video use.
The Nokia N95 has the features, but its looks arent winning me over.
The o2 XDA Orbit looks interesting, but once again not sure of its playback functionality.
The main problem with smartphones/pdas etc is they just dont have enough memory. When they start coming with 30gb+ then Ill ditch my ipod. Until then, Ill be carrying both when I travel.
Quote from: funkychicken9000The main problem with smartphones/pdas etc is they just dont have enough memory. When they start coming with 30gb+ then Ill ditch my ipod. Until then, Ill be carrying both when I travel.
Yep, that as well.
Ive had an iPod before; bought it in Feb 2005, a 40Gb one. I only had it for 4 months, until it was stolen (never replaced it even though I claimed it on the insurance). At the time the main thing that bugged me about it was iTunes. It was too slow and far too prone to crashing when syncing. Hopefully thats changed. 80Gb is tempting me back :)
Then again, will I see benefits with the system Ill be syncing it with being a media centre? I have read some promising reviews for the Zune.
I dont think either the iPod of Zune can claim they do video well... most TV eps and all movies are in 16:9 these days.
I suppose I could get one of them, then sell up when a widescreen iPod/Zune comes out.
I think itunes is quite good, it syncs fine for me.
original greyscale chunky gameboy is where its at!
3 X-Series mobile is what you want
N73 smartphone, Install ORB & be able to use anything on your PC. Music, Movies, TV Episodes, Surf the Web, or just watch TV (providing your Computer has a TV Card or you use a Slingbox).
Oh & install a gameboy emulator on it ;-D
Memory...
you can get multi gigabyte micro sds now I believe.
My pda only has a 4gb microdrive in it. I use 2gb and thats after ive got a shedload of applications installed on it.
If memory is really the issue micro sds are small enough that you can carry shedloads of them in your wallet without even realising it, have one full of music, one full of games, one full of ebooks. sorted.
Not sure why anyone wastes time with this question really, if the question is "I want a portable music player with 10s of Gbs of Storage what should I buy?" there is only one answer. Get the iPod on order now.
Ive had my 3g iPod for 2.5 years now, never really had a sync problem except when trying to use under linux, latest version of itunes seems to sync faster than ever. From what Ive seen of the new ones, the video screens are surprisingly impressive, although suppose it might get slightly tedious on a screen that small after a while.
Anyway, best interface, best size, just the market leader, end of.
Quote from: funkychicken9000The main problem with smartphones/pdas etc is they just dont have enough memory. When they start coming with 30gb+ then Ill ditch my ipod. Until then, Ill be carrying both when I travel.
My sentiments exactly.
Quote from: M3ta7h3adMemory...
you can get multi gigabyte micro sds now I believe.
My pda only has a 4gb microdrive in it. I use 2gb and thats after ive got a shedload of applications installed on it.
If memory is really the issue micro sds are small enough that you can carry shedloads of them in your wallet without even realising it, have one full of music, one full of games, one full of ebooks. sorted.
Right, so you spend £100 on 20gb in micro sds, then have them all jangling round in your pocket? Say youve got a hankering for a bit of The Proclaimers... now which card is it on?
Ipod all the way. Like soy says its pretty much the smallest, which is a big plus in my books. As for syncing, i used to use the ipodml plugin for winamp, but afaik winamp now has ipod support built in.
Quote from: funkychicken9000Quote from: M3ta7h3adMemory...
you can get multi gigabyte micro sds now I believe.
My pda only has a 4gb microdrive in it. I use 2gb and thats after ive got a shedload of applications installed on it.
If memory is really the issue micro sds are small enough that you can carry shedloads of them in your wallet without even realising it, have one full of music, one full of games, one full of ebooks. sorted.
Right, so you spend £100 on 20gb in micro sds, then have them all jangling round in your pocket? Say youve got a hankering for a bit of The Proclaimers... now which card is it on?
Ipod all the way. Like soy says its pretty much the smallest, which is a big plus in my books. As for syncing, i used to use the ipodml plugin for winamp, but afaik winamp now has ipod support built in.
Ipods are fine, seems a bit pointless a post if thats all he wants.
What I disagree with is the need for 40gb of memory in a portable entertainment device.
Sure... if it came with at least a 7inch screen and supported divx and similar I could see an advantage, but an ipod ffs... I mean let me just check...
I have 5488 mp3s (in the main folder)... they take up 23gb. I am never.. in all of my life going to need 5488 mp3s. Saying an average length of 3 minutes a song.
Thats 274 HOURS of music.
The idea behind the ease of itunes and its playlists and syncing; to me at least, means that they dont expect you to fill the ipod with mp3s, but rather they believe that most people will throw on a few tunes in a playlist, then amend that playlist as time goes by.
In my head: 1Gbyte is more than enough music for any train journey.
I just dont see why "memory" is an issue. If its a smart phone sure theres more need for memory but Ebooks are anything from 1mbyte to 15mbytes in size, applications are tiny... largest one I have is 20mbytes, and pictures and mp3s take up the most space. 512mb miniSD will happily carry everything I could want really, should I need more then yes... I just buy a 1gb one for a few quid (think about £11 nowerdays).
As for staying organised. I refuse to believe that Mr chicken of funkynine is that disorganised in life. What the heck do you do when you carry spare cards for your camera? I certainly dont drag around a big bag with me everywhere I go, no no... rather I carry a small plastic case that fits into a credit card slit on my wallet fine, with my spare cards inside of that.
Hardly difficult to keep track of "music" if you have some form of intellect. A - L ahh thatd be the card on the left, M - Z thatd be the card on the right. That said, as I explained above, there should never be a need for that. Its a train journey to and from work... not an expedition to timbuktu. :)
Kunal... just get an ipod. You want an mp3 player. Sorted.
Again, shine on you crazy diamond :lol:
lets be realistic here, 200 days a year at work, thats 400 albums to listen to at a rough approximation - personally I dont have the time or patience to be constantly sick of swapping tunes on and off a player, and further to that, I dont know what Im going to listen to in the next hour, never mind after a day at the office. Having most of my collection at my fingertips is definitely for the win.
I just use my mobile phone & access any content I want on my Phone. 30gb IPOD? Pah, I can access my whole media libary. Choons, Flicks, Pics & Internet. No storage card needed... just a 3g signal :-D
The limitations when it comes to video playback does bug me when looking at the iPod & Zune.... screen is the wrong dimension, not big enough, doesnt support the codecs I want etc.
But these issues arent going to be fixed for a while from what I can tell. Ill most likely trade up soon as a widescreen iPod/Zune comes along so now its just down to deciding between the two.
I have to agree with BigSoy about having the patience to swap tunes - I dont have the time. Im out the house by 8am and dont normally leave work until after 9pm, at which point I get home grab a quick bite and watch an ep of Heroes/BSG/Lost/etc.
iPod 80Gb
Pros - Its got enough space to store my fav artists collections with enough left over for a fair few TV eps. Its also hard to go wrong with that interface.
Cons - The screens too small, and its lost its wow factor for me. The iPhone brought a bit of that bcak, but that might as well be vapoware.
Zune 30Gb
Pros - Bigger screen, very durable, Zune software will integrate with my Media Centre software better than iTunes will. Has me a bit excited (ie the wow/gadget factor).
Cons - Doubt 30Gb is enough, WiFi is fairly useless. If I could sync using it I wouldve definitely gone for it.
Its also annoying that none of the mainstream media players have DAB integrated.
Still undecided... 60/40 Ill go for the iPod 80Gb right now.
Quote from: funkychicken9000Again, shine on you crazy diamond :lol:
comfortably numb :lol:
Quote from: EggtasticoI just use my mobile phone & access any content I want on my Phone. 30gb IPOD? Pah, I can access my whole media libary. Choons, Flicks, Pics & Internet. No storage card needed... just a 3g signal :-D
Either you have a "gold" sim which allows you unlimited data transfer, or youre paying through the nose for your data plan :P
Quote from: KunalThe limitations when it comes to video playback does bug me when looking at the iPod & Zune.... screen is the wrong dimension, not big enough, doesnt support the codecs I want etc.
But these issues arent going to be fixed for a while from what I can tell. Ill most likely trade up soon as a widescreen iPod/Zune comes along so now its just down to deciding between the two.
I have to agree with BigSoy about having the patience to swap tunes - I dont have the time. Im out the house by 8am and dont normally leave work until after 9pm, at which point I get home grab a quick bite and watch an ep of Heroes/BSG/Lost/etc.
iPod 80Gb
Pros - Its got enough space to store my fav artists collections with enough left over for a fair few TV eps. Its also hard to go wrong with that interface.
Cons - The screens too small, and its lost its wow factor for me. The iPhone brought a bit of that bcak, but that might as well be vapoware.
Zune 30Gb
Pros - Bigger screen, very durable, Zune software will integrate with my Media Centre software better than iTunes will. Has me a bit excited (ie the wow/gadget factor).
Cons - Doubt 30Gb is enough, WiFi is fairly useless. If I could sync using it I wouldve definitely gone for it.
Its also annoying that none of the mainstream media players have DAB integrated.
Still undecided... 60/40 Ill go for the iPod 80Gb right now.
What about some archos stuff?
Larger screens :)
and christ @ 3g man. :|
Quote from: KunalQuote from: EggtasticoI just use my mobile phone & access any content I want on my Phone. 30gb IPOD? Pah, I can access my whole media libary. Choons, Flicks, Pics & Internet. No storage card needed... just a 3g signal :-D
Either you have a "gold" sim which allows you unlimited data transfer, or youre paying through the nose for your data plan :P
gold Sim
I need the bandwidth. I can check on my downloads. Watch anything on my cable/satellite TV, Check my security cameras, adjust my central heating, switch on the slow cooker, check the security cameras, check for phone messages, watch a film, listen to some music, etc. Im considering getting one of those Storage Boxes which I can open remotely for any deliveries :-D
Has "gold sim" changed meaning since I last checked?
Last I heard a gold sim was one that carried a phone number that was very memorable. like 07900 111 111
or something like that.
How does that entitle you to insanely high amounts of bandwidth and data traffic? If so... how on earth do you get them? would love one for my phone.
atm the creative one looks the best imo. ipods stopped being cool 10 years ago. Id go for a basic mp3 player and wait til something good comes out for video.
QuoteIn my head: 1Gbyte is more than enough music for any train journey.
Aye, I got a 2gb player and only ever put like 5-6 albums on it. Its not like it takes ages to copy stuff over and it plugs in to the usb anyway to recharge.
Quote from: M3ta7h3adHas "gold sim" changed meaning since I last checked?
Last I heard a gold sim was one that carried a phone number that was very memorable. like 07900 111 111
or something like that.
How does that entitle you to insanely high amounts of bandwidth and data traffic? If so... how on earth do you get them? would love one for my phone.
http://www.three.co.uk/xseries/index.omp
I thought X-series still had a fup?
Quote from: funkychicken9000I thought X-series still had a fup?
whats fup?
fair use policy..
Yea, they do. I think 20-30hours a week is fair use.
Regardless of how cool that is, a crap solution for train travel surely? :?:
Quote from: BigSoyRegardless of how cool that is, a crap solution for train travel surely? :?:
only the battery life ;-)
Quote from: EggtasticoQuote from: BigSoyRegardless of how cool that is, a crap solution for train travel surely? :?:
only the battery life ;-)
Do you get a consistent 3g connection on the train?
Quote from: BigSoyQuote from: EggtasticoQuote from: BigSoyRegardless of how cool that is, a crap solution for train travel surely? :?:
only the battery life ;-)
Do you get a consistent 3g connection on the train?
The last time I was on a rattler, they still went Choo Choo -)
But it works fine when driving around in my car watching hardcore pr0n on the satellite ;-D
wouldnt be ideal for me on the train, tunnels :( grr...
Spose gold sim means different things to different people. Two people at my company have a gold sim (including my boss) which they received from the telco who is our main client as a thankyou for some past projects. Suffice to say the sim equals infinite calls/data connections at no cost no matter where you are.
Im looking at Archos again... the smaller ones.
http://www.archos.com/products/video/archos_404/index.html?country=global&lang=en
looks ok-ish if that kinda thing floats your boat. Still probably > than Id want in my pocket.
Other question, do you travel with a laptop on the train?
Zune & Xbox 360 (http://www.zunescene.com/xbox-zune/)
DivX/XviD/MPEG & MCE DVR-MS files sync with Zune (http://www.dumbstart.com/) (click on Zune in the menu)
A mate of mine is going to Miami tomorrow morning - Zunes can be bought for $199 right now - tempted for £100.
The Archos 604 (http://www.archos.com/products/video/archos_604wifi/) looks good.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000I5Q07O/interactiveda3004-21
£260ish though.
Virtually everything I download is in XviD/AVI format and I use MCE to record a lot of TV to DVR-MS format. I think I might try a Zune if I can get one for £100.
I sometimes take my laptop, but I dont really want to take it out on the train. Too bulky / cant be bothered.