Who here likes IPods?
I just have to say that I am really sick of seeing IPods everywhere! I think Mac really luck out with the IPod, but honestly does anyone think they are that great? I feel like they are sweeping the world over like a plague, and I don’t see why everyone like them. They are not user friendly and they are fricken expensive! My friend just sent me a picture of an IPod vending machine; to me that is ridiculous. So after I vented my frustrations what do you guys think?

the product has a lot of shortcomings, but it is a great portable device, which is what Apple designed it to be.

if anything, I don't think that they were lucky. they were not the first, but they did execute it with some competence, something that could not be said for the iPod competitors. Apple is Apple, but one thing that can be said for them is that they do their industrial design competently... which cannot be said for the other companies.

...so the other companies should either be firing their ID engineers or the execs should be shuffled out the door for not allocating proper resources for ID. it was not really "genius", it was simply building a product with fewer flaws than everyone else out there.

Just looked at a video i-pod today, and i thoght the complete opposite. Cant get much simpler than a "scrolling" dial thats handles all the menu functions, transport controls, power, select, etc

fads come fads go kind of like hdmi

I'm sorry to hear some of you are disappointed.

I, (Mr. I hate everything and gets easily jealous because I didn't think of it first), think the Ipod is a wonderful contraption and Mac did their homework and got it right the first time around.

I held out for a while, then I decided to started with the 20Gb, (gave that to my wife) then upgraded to the 30Gb; use the farging thing every day. I haven't listened to the radio in about 14 months.

Aside from paying $20. for software to retrieve music from it...it is worth every penny.

And yes, I am aware that is a portable unit and it clearly sounds like crap when compared to a real music server in a home.

Hdmi Is not a fad. Get use to it. Picture is great. they just need some click in so it dont fall out.

and some gold connectors... please monster cable, please....

also some turbine HDMI fittings that rip the HDMI jack off the back of the equipment.

Many years ago, my boss kept telling me "Aw man, surround sound is a joke--- a flash in the pan, it'll never go anywhere?"...

I was down on Ipods, till I actually got to play with one...
Seems like the possibilities for these are many & they'll keep finding ways to kick up their memory...

I WISH hdmi was a fad, but looks like we gotta roll with it!

"beat em or join em" Unless you have a product and a marketing strategy that will wipe out the IPOD phenomenon, you might want to think about how you will best integrate them. Would I prefer something else to deal with. Probably, but as some have pointed out, it's not as if they are difficult to deal with. If they want a limited IPOD system as a source, then as the old addage says...."give em what they want"
As a devils advocate.......YOu can't take an Audio Request with you on a hike or a sail and strap it onto your side with a set of headphines, then come home and plop it into your multiroom system at the frop of a hat. Should the IPOD system be more in tune with what we do?? of course. Is it without some attention to integration, not at all. It has RS232, and IR capability ( Sonance stuff) and with video capability, on screeen feedback. I think it's evolving nicely.

We talk about the less than perfect sound, but honestly, aren't we all glad Bose didn't think it up? Can you imagine 40 million people strutting around listening to fingernails on a chalkboard?

Yamaha's lower end HT receivers sport an optional Ipod dock that throws it all on screen with most of the necessary remote codes. The only thing missing is an easy shuffle and discrete select genres. To people who've had them plugged into the hifi with a cheesy cable this is a major step up. I've been swiping my son's Pod to demo the systems.

I need to get me a nano. I'm not sure what the real usefullness of the video pod is, though. If I'm travelling, I'd be using my laptop so I can actually see the picture.

i'm impressed.

My 60gb IPOD has over 400 CD's on it in 320 MP3. Wired directly into my car stereo it sounds pretty good. If you drive alot, and prefermusic, it is much better than radio. It is also great for plane rides.

I never thought I would like one until I got one for my daughter... That thing's amazing... The video is actually quite good, and the sound too... I lost myself in the South Park episode that ships with it, until my daughter punched me in the arm and said 'hey you got that for me, not you!'.

I ended up with the Sirius version of the iPod. It's pretty cool too.

Has anyone tried the DLO Delux IPod dock ([Link: dlo.com].)
Installed my first one Friday in an Elan system. Could not get it to work right at all. Will try to figure it out monday.

A few of us have used them with RTI and Philips and had success.

This is an upgrade from an earlier version that I will be setting up monday as well. As I recall we had to update the software on the Ipod first before proceeding. I think It looks nice and does the job. We put all the codes on an 850 doing multizone.

It's very much like the Yamaha dock except the DLO has shuffle. It beats the hole in the wall dock that does nothing.