MP3/IPOD woes

*blows dust off thread*

Right, now that I'm having a few problems with my Creative I thought it only proper to raise them here. Some I'm sure I've mentioned but I'm too lazy to double check.

1) Dodgy connection to earphones - My fault I spazed it really hard into the floor landing connection first while the 'phones were plugged in
2) On/off button fooked. Again my fault trying to take it apart to *fix* it when all it needed was a quick reset
3) The battery life is starting to deminish. I'd never noticed before as it had always been magnificent on long journeys and such. But I went to Tenby last week and after a three hour drive there, a three hour drive home, various playings while we were there I got home with virtually no battery left I'm guessing now that I have around 12-15 hours battery compared to the easy 20hours+ it used to get.
I think I have contributed partly to it's diminishing battery, I mostly use it in 10 minute batches on my way to/from work and have to leave it standing so the autoshutoff turns it off because of 2) mentioned above.
Also, I tend to leave it on charge overnight. Never thinking this to be a problem I've been told that this practice apparently 'cooks' the battery I'm not sure if there's any truth to that, surely a simple cut off would prevent any over chaging when the units are left plugged in....would creative really be so silly as not to inlcude something so simple into their design??

So now I'm thinking about putting it into semi retirement and getting a new one. The old zen can become a home music box plugged into my stereo/pc speakers, or take permentant residence in my car. Now I have the new firmware it can be a very convenient and very portable/bashable 20gb remote USB harddrive on any pc or mac so now the battery is going I don't know how long I have left so want to make the most of it which daily use just isn't going to do.


So I've been looking around, and, surprisingly for me, I don't think I'll buy a new one! Really I here you ask? Yep! But for very good reasons:


1) My phone contract is due for renewal soon, I can get a new mid range phone with a free 30gb video ipod for a £30/month contract. Now that's a super bargain in anyones money seeing as I'll be getting a new phone anyway!!
2) Hard drive phones like the samsung 8gb or the Nokia 4gb are becoming more common place. Also Super size me flash phones like The Sony W950i with 4gb of flash memory are awesome!

The Nokias even come with a 3.5mm headphone jack so you don't even need a silly dongle to get any decent sounds out of them. (although the standard sony walkman phone phones are pretty damn awesome for freebies)
Also the Sony/Ericson and Nokia really are beautiful, especially the sony

So what do I do? Get a mid range phone with some memory and get a free ipod, get a top range phone (althought still free with contract) and get a harddisk in it. Or just look for a phone I like and get another 2nd hand mp3 player like I did last time that will last me another 2 years.

I'll miss having 20gb+ of space for tunes but that's only an advantage on a super long journey or to save me being lazy and actually manage my onboard music collection a little more often.

Whaddya reckon guys?

For me personally I don't do Convergence when it comes too electronics. A phone is a phone and i like it that way and an mp3 player should also do just that.

Plus of course if your listening to tunes a lot the phone battery will run out quicker so you'll either need to keep a charger with you or sort something else out. Nothing worse that being out and about but with a phone that's flat when you need it.

Just my two cents and lookie,, i didnt say buy an ipod once

I would never waste money buying an ipod

Personally I think convergence works well, a camera on my phone has given us some awesome pics that just wouldn't be possible without a handy good quality pocket cam, but that's a really good point about the battery life. A car charger would certainly be a nessecity.

Now if I could get a W950i AND a free ipod I'd be a well happy chappy

you say that now

And ok I'm going to eat my words and agree about the phone cam bit,, because i find myself agreeing heh,, but i still standby the battery life if your going to use it as a music player,, that and how naff most phones have been on the ui when it comes to easily choosing and playing songs,, as lets face it,, no matter how good the player,, if the ui sucks then it just becomes pain trying to live with it.

Sounds to me like getting a phone AND an iPod is definitely the best way to go,, its only a shame I've still got 5 months left on my contract or else I'd be nudging you to find out who's doing that deal

I doubt Dunc is interested in good UI - he's used to a creative player so anything is going to be better than that.

well, instead of a phone that can hold a couple of songs, they should make an mp3 player that can make a couple of phone calls

i love the idea of a super gadget that can do eveything at once, but until they think up a better battery thing, it would probably have about 30seconds power.

If you're not going to buy a new player for definate, then i think you should go for the one with the free ipod... because a mid range phone probably already has a digital camera and video and whatever, and yes the mp3 look nice, but do they sound good or hold much music... i think not... plus it would be really annoying if you got stuck in a situation where your phone would be really useful, but the battery had died because you were playing mp3s, like for instance, locked out of the house... (this is a hypothetical situation, not experience, FYI my phone does nothing but make phonecalls, send texts and is a tiny portable gallery for pete fowler screensavers...)

as for the creative battery thing, i wonder if i fried my battery already, i seem to charge it up every couple of days, but i'm not sure if that's the amount i listen to it - all the way to work and back is nearly 3 hours per day... which makes 6, but then it never completely dies, but gets to a point where it will die halfway through the morning trip if i don't recharge it, and i wonder if that's what fried it... I got some replacements today actually, because they were on offer, but not sure if they're the right ones... anyway ramble ramble, take the free 30Gb!! You can be pro-ipod if it's free, it's perfectly reasonable

With regard to sound quality comments, I have a SonyE K750i now and through the headphones the sound is as good as any other stand alone player. Also the UI is pretty good as it's a one click button on the side of the phone to open the media player which takes you straight into the song list. I can't see their new phone being any slower to get into tunes and looking at the pics I think it has the same function button on it so......
I don't think battery life will be as major a problem as we might expect, my mate has a the current SonyE walkman thing and has over 100 tracks on it which he can play all day before needing a recharge. But obviously I'd hate to have listened to music all day, and then find myself out and about somewhere unable to use my mobie.

 Written by: cheeky boy

I doubt Dunc is interested in good UI - he's used to a creative player so anything is going to be better than that

The Creative UI is just fine Mister!

 Written by: Me

I'd never waste money buying an iPod

 Written by: Pen

You say that now

Maybe I was a little ambiguous on that, I'll rephrase; I'll happily take one for free or maybe take advantage of a super reduced bargain or a 2nd hand even superer bargain but if I'm buying a brand new player I'll always be looking outside of the apple market. (and Sony market, their walkman ATRAC rubbish pisses me off)

 Written by: Pen

its only a shame I've still got 5 months left on my contract or else I'd be nudging you to find out who's doing that deal

Just google phone deals mate, they're everywhere now. Some of the offers I've seen have even offered the choice between a free 30gb ipod, an xbox 360 OR a PSP with your phone!

its your lucky day dunc...

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1959



if you're thinking about dumping your current mp3 player because it's battery life is only '12-15 hours', don't go for a mp3 phone!


cole. x

Great, now we'll be able to get phones twice as expensive as all the rest I bet they'll be sooper purdy tho


I'm not looking because it has 12-15 hours of life now, it's because if I keep using it as I do it'll soon be les than 12, then less than 9 and this time next year probably sweetFA and I'll be moaning just like all those ipod junkies out there. I want to keep the convenience of a battery powered harddrive for as long as I can without having to worry about it dying on me.

By the way - I know this isn't anything to do with what Dunc is talking about, but 2 and a half years after I got my iPod the battery was down to about 2 hours life (I've used it a LOT over that time). I got a new battery for £4, it took me 5 minutes to change it and now it's just as good as new

hmmm.....I wonder if my battery is interchangeable?

*goes to ask google*

all this talk of apples is getting me hungry.
:licks own elbow:

It seems of the entire Creative range I have the ONLY player who's battery isn't interchangable

A warning about Sony - with the phone, they'll probably get you to use SonicStage which is the worst program for music management. I've had some bad experiences with Sony devices, so I don't really like them (despite the fact that they do sound good, and they look really pretty)

For the most part, Sony products are quite fragile, and like I said, the software kills me. And my computer for that matter. Sony products always work best with other Sony products. If you get the phone, I hope everything works out for you!!

Dunc, is this what you're after?

I know it's from the states, but it might be worth trying for the sake of keeping your "amazing" zen and not having to go down the filthy iPod route

It's ok Bobo, the phones aren't really the same as sony mp3 players, the whole SonyEricson brand works quite differently and presuming the cool new phone works the same as my current SE phone it doesn't use sonic stage at all. It just acts as an additional drive when you plug it into your computer like any other mp3 player.

Sym, I'm very dubious about that battery actually fitting, especially if eBay is the only place that says the battery fits. I had the player apart when I fooked up the on/off button and the bettery didn't really look interchangeable then, and the whole jukebox range takes different batteries to mine aparently Arse, I was quite excited for a minute then!

(this is Sym)

Yes, I agree, but seeing as it's £4 or something I thought it was worth the risk - you've taken it apart enough now to know what you're doing...or at least you've broken everything else so why not that?

May I butt in and ask for a little help?

Have never been able to use the 'manually update' function on iPod, its never worked before, but for some reason last night it would. Ok i think, sweet.

So I clear all the songs out of 'Aimz's iPod', check iPod, songs gone. Thats all good.

Go to stick a play list in my fresh ipod and it tells m that there is no space! What? Thats only a teeny tiny playlist.

Upon closer inspection it says everything is still on there, the memory is 3/4 full, only the songs are invisable, and I have no idea how to clear my iPod without restoring to factory settings..

A little help?

P.S. Might I add that I hate the bloody thing with a passion, and it has given me nothing but trouble since I got it, and if my 'I-can-hold-30-songs' MP3 player hadnt well and truly died after 4 years of use I would still be using that.

are you using a mac or a pc aimee?

and i'm guessing you're using itunes to do all of this...?


cole. x