SanDisk vs. iPOD, Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news7265.html

http://www.physorg.com/news7265.html

I believe that within a short time, iPOD will have major sales competition because of SanDisk"s m200 series of MP3 players that sell for much less $. I have an m230 and its great, and more user-friedly than iPOD. Why would I spend the money on an iPOD?
See this article:
http://www.betanews.com/article/SanDisk_Un...ayer/1128531074

When you hear people fussing about the $1.99 cost, realize that phone companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars selling musical ringtones, which are just short music snippets. And they are selling them at $1.99 a pop. Apple created an entirely new ecomomy with the iPod/iTunes arrangement for music, and I expect the same thing for video. Apple has over 80% of the market for portable music players, and if the two new iPods sell at the rate of previous iPods, they will within a couple of months have the same market share for portable video players. And they have shown a talent for maintaining that kind of lead.

You can get a refurbed 1 Gig iPod Shuffle from http://store.apple.com for less than $113.

So Apple is more competitive on price that you may have thought.

What really sucks about the m230 is that it uses batteries.

Most people would prefer to recharge via a USP port on their computer and never pay for batteries at all.

>You can get a refurbed 1 Gig iPod Shuffle from http://store.apple.com for less than $113.
> So Apple is more competitive on price that you may have thought.

Bzz! Wrong! The M240 1Gb is < $100 and has a very nice DISPLAY. Compare that to your refurb.

> What really sucks about the m230 is that it uses batteries.

Yeah, things that use batteries really suck. What exactly do you think the ipod
runs on?

> Most people would prefer to recharge via a USP port on their computer
> and never pay for batteries at all.

WTH is a USP port? Oh... you mean U S *B*! Forgetting the fact that my 20Gb ipod does NOT charge through USB (ok it is kinda old) having a replaceable battery can at times be convenient. Think camping trips where you have no USB recharging source

"You buy a PSP to play games, and an iPod to listen to music," Horwitz said. "Each does a poor job at duplicating the other's core functionality.

The iPod is not a game machine. So that part doesn't make sense.

"But this time next year," he added, "better versions of both products will be available."

That has got to be the most useless waste of a sentence ever. You think they are going to get worse? dumbass writer.

Hey your a moron!

Ipod is better, their stock is kickin' butt and buddy no matter how much ya whine...that sandisk stuff just isn't an ipod.

First of all, it's "you're". See, the apostrophe takes the place of the "a" in "are". When you combine two words like that, it's called a "contraction."

Second, who cares about the stock? That doesn't prove a damned thing. For example, they announce record profits, and the stock falls 10 percent.

The customer doesn't benefit one bit from the vendor's stock price. What a worthless reference.

Hey, the only SanDisk MP3 player I've seen was a 1GB model for $100. All reviews said that it had terrible sound quality, much worse than Creative or Apple players. If, history repeats itself, don't call other people suckers for spending a bit more for quality.

According to Apple's web page on the new iTunes videos, you can burn them to a CD. While it does not say you can burn to a DVD, it does not say you can't, and I can't imagine a reason why they'd restrict that.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/videos/

The real questions are, can other players play it, or only iTunes/QuickTime? Is the format rippable--can you "repackage" it?

But in the end, the size of the video is its downfall. iTunes music works because you can buy high-quality music, easily, cheaply and legally. To illegally download a song, you have to do a search and probably attempt several downloads to find a copy that is of good quality. The iTMS offers something very good and right away, no hassle, at a price where you feel you won't notice it missing from your bank account.

Not so with the video. Sure, it's quick and legal, but the quality sucks. If you're content with watching TV on a 2.5-inch screen, then this is your thing. But most people would at least demand NTSC-level quality, and hell, while they're at it, why not HDTV 720p? That's available via file-sharing downloads. It's more effort, but many would be happy to wait for the downloads to come in to get the better quality. 320x240 just doesn't clear the threshhold. And holding the quality down to 320x240 doesn't make sense. The only reason to withhold higher-quality options is the fear they'll be ripped and distributed. However, that is ALREADY happening from the TV broadcasts. So what would be the difference?

In the end, it's quality: if the quality of iTMS music offerings were as low as the video quality on the new TV shows available, few would be frequenting the iTMS for music.

There are so many low cost players already but the reviews of their audio qualities have not matched Apples. There are plenty of competitive choices, many that are much less than a shuffle and offer a fm tuner, voice recorder, etc. Given that, why do people still flock to the Ipod/Apple market. Your opinion that one more choice will drastically turn the tide against the more expensive Apple product is flawed. A Chevy Cavalier costs much less than a Mercedes, they both take you from point A to B. It comes down to how you want to ride. Simple as that. Apple is the Mercedes of the computer market (At least they successfuly sell themselves as such) Just an opinion.........

As a somewhat long-time Apple-phile, I must admit that the design factor does weight heavily on my perpective and my evaluation of said product, but having said so... yes it is questionable that that television episodes & music videos fall at the same price point... but seriously... take a step back and think about it... this the convergence of two previously seperated mediums. in comparison, I wouldn't think twice about paying a buck more to have the video for a song... 'specially if it was something obscure out of MTV's back-catalogue which hadn't been played in ages... while on the other side of the coin you've got TV episodes... where if you wait long enough, you can buy the entire season for a mere $20.... yeah sure the quality's not the same, but c'mon kids... this is America... the home... the genesis... the epitome of the instant-gratification lifestyle.

You'll find people flocking to these 320x240 episodes just so they can watch them while on the subway in to work from east jersey.... or show the highlites to their bestest friends... you know you've had those moments (don't pretend you haven't)... talking to someone the day after a show has aired, telling them this 'classic' line which was muttered. THAT is where the immediate value of the video iPod lies.

I'd go on about how this gives them the perfect transition to moving into providing movie-grade HD content to consumers (what with '05 being the year of HD, and Apple intoducing iMovie HD, FinalCut HD, and all of their large flat panels being HD) IMHO... Apple is moving towards providing HD-grade video content to the masses... and this is just the first volley

b(izzle)

Wow. This video ipod is the first one I'm interested in buying. As an engineer, there are dozens of webcasts and other 45 minute-to-90 minute information sessions available for free or a small fee that could greatly improve my performance. I don't want to waste my time looking at them in the office, though, and I need to get home at the end of the day.

With this device I can download new product announcements and training webcasts before I go home from work, and watch them while I'm on the train. This is the greatest product ever! It'll pay for itself in new certifications and contracts in just a few months.

Whoever posted this, where the heck did you get that price from? The Sandisk website itself sells them for 119$.

Anyhow, besides discussion between an ipod and a sandisk media device, the first stated article was about video from itunes, not about digital music players. Then for someone to throw out that sandisk has a new low cost mp3 player is not really relevant to the first stated article.

Although this is a healthy discussion (i am personally in favor of apple and they're dang good ipod line), the first stated post is vastly misleading.

That's my two bits worth.

- Amok

[U][I][B]

Ouch. I am in so much pain. I was on a date with my really cute boyfriend who i really love and i was at this really high point on a mountain (we were hiking.) then i fell off a cliff. I broke my right leg in 12 places, my left leg in 2, my right arm in 3, my left wrist in 2, and 6 fingers. I also injured my neck and my back. my hip is fractured. I am in the hospital (i came back to conciousness about a week ago and now i m using a laptop.) i have nothing to do. i can't take it any longer. i'm missing so much school too. lot's of my classmates sent me flowers and cards. my boyfriend and friends and stuff all come in during lunch. they'll probably be here in about ten minutes. also- about i-pods, those things are cool. i DO want one. see? now it's related to the topic![/U][/I][/B]