>> . . . but I've yet to see anything as slick as the iPod.
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Am beginning to look for an upgrade to my old Bantam mp3 player. I "am" a devout anti Apple person
so would probably never purchase an iPod and am always looking for same or better features in competing products. Right now, the top player on my list is the Dell DJ30.
So, am wondering if you can give me more detail as to the features that make the iPod "slicker" than a DJ30? From what I read so far, there are not that many -- and the DJ has features not available on the iPod. Here are some items I found so far:
o A hard drive DJ can store almost twice the number of recordings. For example, it takes a 40gb iPod to hold the tunes (10,000) of a 20gb DJ due to the lack of WMA format on the iPod. As far as quality is concerned, I can find no reviewers that rate the WMA less then the iPod format. I have WMA as one of the formats on my old Bantam and it's just fine for my needs. Tremendous sound.
o Battery life is longer on a DJ.
o The DJ supports WMA format and now allows music management via Windows Media Player 10 and I read somewhere that Real Player will be their next supported SW. Other reviews I have read do not rate iTunes that much higher then MusicMatch also w/DJ. They both have a few features unique to each.
o Clearly the iPod is over priced because of demand and clever marketing. I can get a new DJ30 with docking station for $250 - probably close to $200 less than an equivalent iPod.
o Voice recording. This item I have not looked into in depth as yet -- but understand the iPod requires a $50. add on to do voice recording whereas the DJ comes with that capability within the basic unit at no extra cost.
o Assessories: Am not sure of this one either -- but with Apple comptuer stuff, one has to pay a premium for each add-on or assessory. From what I see so far, that is true with the iPod as well.
There was some other item concerning the limitations on what can and where one can download via an iPod but I didn't quite understand at the time. Most outlet's for the DJ give several free months of Napster -- but that is not one of my big concerns. I "would" be concerned if I am limited to sources of download of tunes. Can I shop around or like most Apple stuff - does Apple decide where I can purchase (or in this case, download)?
Anyway -- am looking forward to those with more knowledge posting comparison stuff. The Dell looks very good to me right now, but if it has a gigantic flaw or two I would like to find out about it.
Thanks for starting a timely thread for me.