New iPods and Zunes

by Bob Seidel

We have finally fallen under its spell - we bought our first iPod last week.

The "we" in this case is my wife and I - but you have to understand that it wasn't really my choice - the iPod is for my wife and her rationale for buying it seems somewhat irrational to me. There are lessons to be learned here and with the end-of-year buying season commencing, you might want to be aware of some of these issues.

Apple has been making iPods for years now and has also been very successful with their iTunes online music store. The product line seems to have converged of late into three distinct offerings: the full iPod that has a large hard drive and can play both music and video, and can also store digital camera files; the very small Shuffle which plays only music and has a limited amount of storage and controls (and no screen), and the mid-range Nano that has a screen usable to navigate your music and more storage than the Shuffle.

My wife was captivated by the new Shuffle - the current model of which is about the size of a large stamp (really) and comes with a built-in pocket clip. She wanted something very small that she could take everywhere easily, or use when exercising. At $79, the price is quite reasonable.

Of course, this was not our first portable music player purchase. We have had at least three various types of players over the years, and I now have a Dell DJ-30 unit which has a 30MB hard drive and can store literally all our music with room to spare. Unfortunately, Dell has dropped that product line, so future support for new music formats, and etc. is probably going to be minimal to none.

The reason that I picked the Dell was because it played not only MP3 standard music files, but also played the Microsoft WMA format. This is the native format for the Windows Media Player and uses about half the file space of an MP3 file; we could fit more music in our old players with limited storage. Our entire music library is in WMA format. But due to battles between Microsoft and Apple, the iPods do not play WMA. I would have to convert my entire library to MP3 (or the Apple AAC format) to be able to use an iPod. This can be done - I just resisted the effort. But now, of course, that has changed and that gradual conversion to MP3 has begun.

But if you go iPod there is now a third possibility. Music files you download from the iTunes store are in M4P format, which is in effect the latest version of MP3. You should check on the iTunes website to understand how music files can be used and copied - there are restrictions.

But just announced is the Microsoft Zune player. MS has publicly stated (perhaps TOO publicly) that it is going after the iPod market. But first reviews of the Zune do not support that yet - the screen is bigger than but not as crisp as the iPod's, and the control is still not considered as good as the now classic iPod click wheel.

So, do you stay with the tried-and-true (and truly excellent) iPod or do you go with the newer Zune? If my experience with the Dell unit is an example, then stick with the iPod. If MS drops the Zune in the future, just as Dell dropped the DJs, then you are left with an orphan. You know that Apple will be in this business for the long haul - after all, they pretty much created the business and all other are also-runs. Apple wasn't the first, but they were by far the best.

This holiday season, music players still make excellent gifts. Just make sure that the intended recipient is in favor of the choice you make for them. Giving music (you can buy music cards just like phone cards) is also a very nice gift, but again be sure you have the correct format / online store.

Oh, and my wife loves her cute little Shuffle!

(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)