I’m having trouble finding a concise argument against buying an iPod. It’s not that I think that there is none, just that everyone who rants about them doesn’t bother to point out the individual flaws that make up the complete picture of how awful the device is.
It’s likely that the reason is because people are so angry after trying to use iPods that they can’t form coherent thought. At least, that’s how I imagine it.
Maybe it’s just odd for PC users, and Mac users don’t have trouble. I think the underlying problem is how Apple tried to make it very easy to use, and then failed to make it usable.
Using an iPod on the PC seems counterintuitive to how PCs work. This is a fundamental flaw in how some popular software seems to be designed these days. My classic example of this property is iTunes.
To get files onto your iPod (nevermind that there is other software to accomplish this - I’m talking simply about the certified-to-work stuff) you need to run iTunes. iTunes is fundamentally a kiosk for an online music store. The ability to transfer files to the iPod seem like functionality that was bolted on after the fact, as if it’s a mere coincidence that iTunes works with the iPod at all.
The first problem I have with iTunes is that it’s a big clunky Apple interface. Why on Earth did Apple decide that the Windows GUI chrome (the “look” of windows on the Windows OS) wasn’t good enough for their application? Something that graphic designers fail to understand about creating program interfaces is that familiarity is good. If every program on the computer looks a certain way, then people have an easier time learning something new. Providing a Mac interface to PC users is a stupid thing to do.
How does one get files into the iPod from iTunes? You plug in the iPod, of course. Wait. What?
Yes, you just plug in the iPod. What could be simpler? Well, nothing. There is also nothing I can see as being more simple-minded.
There is a period when you first plug in your iPod when you aren’t supposed to remove it from the cable. At that time, data shuttles between the PC and the iPod, synchronizing your music between the two. More accurately, making sure that the music that is catalogged in iTunes is stored on your iPod.
You don’t have to tell it to put certain songs there, and that’s the issue. It puts everything in your iTunes library onto the iPod. Nevermind that I’ve bought and listened to 20 space-hogging audiobooks. Unless I remove them from the iTunes library somehow (and doing so renders them unplayable unless I somehow add them back into the iTunes library) then the audio gets put onto the iPod. Silly.
And what happens when you have more audio in your iTunes library than will fit in your iPod?
Also, the iTunes format is proprietary. If you iPod gets hit by a car in two years and you need to replace it, and Creative has finally taken over the market as it rightfully should, then none of the music you downloaded in iTunes will play on the new player. Why? Because the format in which Apple saves music from iTunes can only be played back by iTunes or an iPod, and that’s all.
Assuming you are able to successfully transfer your music through the proprietary Firewire/USB connector (most PCs don’t have Firewire ports, but regardless of that, the iPod end of the cable is unique to the iPod) into the iPod, you’ve still got a few shortcomings in the player itself.
Who cares how pretty the $300 chunk of silicone wonder is if you can’t get it to play? First of all, the inductive (touch-sensitive) playback controls are all style and no substance.
Imagine you’re at the gym listening to some tracks, and some spoken-work recording sneaks its way into your playlist so you want to skip to the next tune. You’re still jogging on the treadmill, but you’re grabbing the controls. Since you’re not looking at the face of the device, you feel around for the control to jump to the next track. The trouble is, you end up hitting 8 other controls while feeling around, and so you’ve got to stop jogging to operate the iPod. What good is that?
Car and car audio manufacturers put a lot of thought into designing their radios. They design the knobs and buttons so that you can operate the radio completely by touch. You would never be able to drive and tune the radio at the same time if it was an iPod interface you were operating. You would constantly be changing the track!
Didn’t you buy the player not to stare at, but to listen to? When the audio is actually playing, the on-screen interface is also poor.
Usually the jog dial controls the volume. So how do you change the position in the file? You tap the center button.
After you tap the center button to dial forward in the file, you might listen for a little bit and finally decide that you need to jump farther ahead. So you spin the wheel, but instead of moving forward through the song, the song gets really loud. That’s because there’s a delay on the selection of the audio position that toggles it back to volume after the short timer runs out. This delay is way too short, and possibly unneccessary.
Moreover, when you get to someplace you want to stop temporarily, there is no way to set a bookmark to come back later. For instance, you cannot listen to part of an audiobook, set a bookmark, then listen to some music, and then come back to listen to the rest of the book. No, you have to wheel your way forward through the book and find the place where you left off. It’s very annoying.
There are a couple of other tricks that the iPod pulls off, too. The first is the one that Berta surprised me with last week.
She said to me, “It’s a shame you don’t have an iPod because they make so many devices that go with it.” This is a testament to Apple’s crappy design. If they had used standard connectors and provided a standard interface, then any device could connect to these external appliances. Instead, we have a bevy of worthless Apple-compatible audio junk that only works with an iPod which will probably be defunct in a year.
Did I mention that the battery on an iPod is not user-serviceable? You can’t replace it. After it loses the ability to recharge (hey, even expensive laptop batteries do), it’s dead. Unless you can send it back to Apple and have it replaced with a new one that doesn’t have your songs on it. Another option is the dreaded warranty-voiding 3rd-party battery replacement. That’s hardly something I wnat to try on a $300+ device that had been designed to “just work”.
The iPod doesn’t receive radio. So when you’re tired of your music, or you want to hear the news, or listen to the closed-circuit TV radio at the gym - Tough! Can’t do that with an iPod.
iPods don’t have microphones, so you can’t record any ambient sound with them. I used my mp3 player all the time for recording college classes for playback later. If I had bought an iPod, I would have needed to also buy a mini tape recorder.
Oh, yeah… other mp3 players usually cost $100 less than their comparable iPod counterparts, and also have all of the good features I just mentioned. The only thing you’re really paying a premium for is the “iPod” brand. And really, you’re just labelling yourself “sucker”.
