I pods and MP3 players

[hopalong]

What's the difference between  I pods and MP3 players and what's best?

[Mattk]

Essentially,there is no difference ie they both play encoded music files.Ipod is not necessarily the best but it is certainly the most fashionable !

it all comes down to tastes & budget etc etc

i own a sony network walkman which only has a 512 meg limit but it encodes music in sony's own format(atrac) which has superior compression ie it makes the file sizes smaller to squeeze more in.

[fo3nix]

ok, so "mp3" is just a file type... like your_song.mp3. an mp3 player is something that plays mp3s (not surprisingly). an iPod is one of many mp3 players, and thus is an mp3 player. it's just that iPod is the brand name... like hoover and vacuum cleaner.

as for which is best, well I like the iPod (I have one of the older ones, and they are brilliant). they're certainly the most stylish, and imho the easiest to use with their scroll wheel.

I am quite sure Mattk will disagree with this, but I would advise to stay well away from Sony products. Firstly their computer software is terrible (compared to iTunes, which you use with an iPod). Secondly, they use their own proprietary format called ATRAC, instead of mp3. This means that you can still listen to all your songs in their ATRAC format, and it will sound great. but, if you ever change devices to a non-sony product, then you're in trouble as it won't play.

The Apple iPod is one of a few players that also supports another file type known as AAC, as well as mp3. This file type is just as high quality as ATRAC (and produces files just as small so you can fit plenty on your iPod), and what's more, its not Apple's own proprietary standard!

if you just want a little player to play your fave 250 or so songs, get the iPod Shuffle 1GB. If you want something to store plenty more (over 1000 songs), but aren't bothered about taking your whole CD collection with you, get the iPod mini. and for those who want all their music available to them, all the time, go for the iPod. simple. now has a colour screen too!

[twiglet4frog]

Mattk is probably more right now than he would have been a few months ago, Apple Ipods couldnt be touched in any way shape or form for quality, content, ease of use and accesibility, I have a ipod mini and love it, use it almost everyday. But what Mattk is saying is that the competitors are catching up fast and slowly trying to push the boundaries that ipod started so now Ipod has the edge in fashion but not neccesarily the cutting edge technology that others are suddenly coming up with.

Point in case is that he now uses a sony walkman that is considered very good now but about 5 or 6 months ago Sony were refusing to even allow MP3 formats to play on there products thinking everyone would prefer there own format which was a huge blunder and cost them many sales. Only recently are they accepting MP3 and starting to catch up as a worthy consideration.

As this happens the Ipod is becoming more a fashion must have than a fantastic product that beats all others. Having said that i still think Ipod is the best MP3 player still on the market, but for how much longer is debatable

[Mattk]

dont get me wrong ! ipods are great i was just saying that ipod is not necessarily the best as it comes down to taste ! and fo3nix is right - the sony software is crap ! 

but i do like the atrac format as i can squeeze many more songs on my 512meg sony player than on an equivalent non atrac product.

[fo3nix]

http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/27/

interesting comparison. that article confirms what I thought, the atrac3 codec is perhaps slightly better than the aac format used (if you want to) by Apple.

Still, go Apple.