New iPod -- Case, Dock and Remote Worth It?

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04-30-2003, 05:23 PM
Ramuman

New iPod -- Case, Dock and Remote Worth It?

I just ordered the new 10GB iPod and was wondering if the case, dock (not really applicable since its new) and remote are worth the $100 step up to a 15GB model. I don't need the 15GB space (wouldn't hurt though), but I'm debating if the case and remote would justify the move up. I ordered it with a student discount and it was $270 for the 10GB model and the 15GB would be $370.

Since it doesn't ship till friday, I have time to change my mind if I get input, especially from current iPod owners with and without the accesories. The dock seems like an easy way to recharge without physically plugging in a cord, but I'm not sure if its worth $100 bucks. I plan to buy some case eventually like the iSee (~$20) when its released for the new iPod, so the price difference here amounts to about $80 for 5GB, a remote and dock -- worth it?
05-01-2003, 02:20 PM
Duo

Will you use the remote and the dock? If you think you will then go for it. But if you think that they will just sit on your desk and collect dust then don't shell out the extra money.

Duo
05-01-2003, 03:06 PM
Ramuman

Quote:

Originally posted by Duo
Will you use the remote and the dock? If you think you will then go for it. But if you think that they will just sit on your desk and collect dust then don't shell out the extra money.

Duo

That's probably the way to look at it. The more I thought about it the remote would have been less useful on an Mp3 player with that much capacity since I wouldn't know what song I was skipping to. I barely ever used the remote on my discman. The dock is nice, but not worth the price jump. I stuck with the 10GB version and am looking forward to getting it tommorow. Apple is nice and they did free overnight shipping for anyone that ordered Wed or before. They're supposed to ship today :).
05-05-2003, 01:44 PM
freakboy

Enjoy it! I have a 5 gig model and i love it! i think that the new ones are really nice too. And having more space is always a bonus.

Personally, I wouldn't bother going up to 15 gigs. You can get the remote for 40 bucks from the apple store (with a set of extra headphones) if you decide you want it later.

the cradle? who cares - it's nice if you want to plug your ipod into your stereo, but are you going to do that?

Fb
05-05-2003, 04:41 PM
Ramuman

Quote:

Originally posted by freakboy
Enjoy it! I have a 5 gig model and i love it! i think that the new ones are really nice too. And having more space is always a bonus.

Personally, I wouldn't bother going up to 15 gigs. You can get the remote for 40 bucks from the apple store (with a set of extra headphones) if you decide you want it later.

the cradle? who cares - it's nice if you want to plug your ipod into your stereo, but are you going to do that?

Fb

I love it so far! I'd never used firewire for anything other than DV camcorders and its amazing how fast it is for straight file transfers (something you don't get to see when importing movies). I rip all my CDs at 192kbps, so thats the only reason space might be a concern, but I suppose 2,000 songs is plenty :). Apple overnight shipped all the iPods so that purchasers could have them the morning they launched, which was a nice touch (as was the charged battery :) ).

I'm on a PC, so I don't get to see how "effortless" iTunes would make transfers, but Musicmatch seems to do the job just fine. As for the headphones, I didn't even bother opening them, I'm using Sony Fontopias. They have their short commings, but shy of the Etymotics (which I don't have money for), they're one of the better ear plug type headphones. Those help when I'm in one of the noisy student commons on campus.

I've heard alot of people say that the iPod was the best 300/400/500 bucks they've spent...I don't know yet if its the best $270 I ever spent, but it certainly has impressed me thus far.
05-09-2003, 11:10 PM
ksuohio

I just received my 15 gig model today and I love it. The sync with iTunes is very simple and I've been using the AAC format which is suppose to save a little on space. The space and dock to me are worth the extra price especially since I can use it as a portable harddrive also.
05-09-2003, 11:20 PM
Ramuman

I'm also happy with mine, but have noticed a few of the problems common in iPods. First, I'm extremely careful with all the things I own, and despite this I've managed to scratch the iPod. Its nothing major, but you can see the scratches on the front and back. Some polishing compound gets the scratches out for the most part, but its still anonying. The build quality is solid though, or at least it seems that way (I haven't dropped or anything to find out, but it feels solid).

The other problem is that in "sleep" mode or whatever the off mode is, it still eats a decent ammount of battery, like a cell phone in idle. I've charged it fully a couple of times and on the second charge, the battery is about 3/4 drained. I've only listened to about 2 hours worth of music on this charge, though its been sitting here for a few days on said charge. These 2 hours were on a playlist so the hard drive power issue shouldn't be a problem. I'm going on a vacation in a couple of weeks and should get ample chance to test out the battery life (but hopefully not durability ;) ), so we'll see there.