I had to do some serious soul searching for this one. I was thinking about getting a new mp3 player. The Archos Jukebox Recorder has served me well for around 5 years, now, but it's starting to show its age. The AC adapter broke, so I can only charge the batteries by taking them out and putting them in a separate charger. The hard drive has been acting weird, sometimes audio will drop out for a few seconds or it'll just stop playing randomly. And I was starting to think that 20 gigabytes was not enough. The final nail in the coffin was that it let me down on my recent 5-hour journey to Ithaca. So, I started idly looking around to see what else was out there.
I only have a couple of demands: it has to be UMS compliant, so I can drag-and-drop and organize things the way I want them, it has to play illegally pirated drm-free stuff and it has to be cheap. I was initially drawn to the Cowon line. Their benefit is that they offer really good audio quality. Unfortunately, though, they're really expensive. Also, most the mp3s I'd be playing through it aren't high enough quality to really benefit. I looked at some of the other, newer Archos models, but none of them in my price range really did it for me. Then, I was looking at the site where I got the alternative firmware I use in my Archos and saw that they make firmware for the iPod. That intrigued me. I learned that I can get an iPod to do everything I want it to do. Next stop, Ebay. I looked around and discovered that if I was smart about it, I could get a 60 gig iPod w/video for just over $150. That was exactly my price range. So, I decided to go for it.
The only lingering advantage of my old Archos is that the thing is built like a tank. It has those huge rubber stoppers that you could run over with a truck and it'd probably still work. It occurs to me, though, that I never have run it over with a truck and I'd likely never run an iPod over with a truck either, so that shouldn't really be a major concern.
Now, I just have to live with the shame of carrying around an iPod. At least I'll have the secret thrill of knowing I'm getting all the benefits without any of the drawbacks. I'm not locked into iTunes. I can do what I want with my media. I didn't give Apple any of my money. And, hopefully, it'll be compatible with all the peripherals. So, I can finally get that musical toilet paper dispenser I've always wanted.
3 comments:
I wonder who damaged their soul more. You buying an iPod or Ben buying an Xbox.
Good to know about the pirate firmware. I always overlooked iPods because of their BS restrictions.
Did Ben mention I bought a Playstation Portable? I was on the fence with it until I discovered the pirate firmware for it that allows homebrew apps, Divx playback and bootlegged games.
Gotta love nerds with too much time on their hands and apparently something to prove for supplying us all with such great things as pirate firmware.
Sellout. Let me know if you find any cheap v9 razr phones when you go looking for a hip way to justify buying a cell phone.
I didn't hear about your PSP. Does it have an NES rom emulator? Apparently, the Rockbox iPod firmware has a Game Boy emulator plugin.
My secret shame is that I've always wanted a Treo.
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