Media update: on the horns of a dilemma

[cmdr_zoom]

Every time I make my mind up to get either an iPod nano or a Zen, someone says something that makes me reconsider. Here I am, a week later, and I still can't decide/commit - especially since it involves dropping $200 on something pretty much sight unseen. (If only I was a tech writer, who got both for free to play around with for a week and write a review.)

Both of them come in 8 and 16 gig sizes (I want the latter). Both of them have some features I don't see myself ever using. Both have "concerns" - the Zen's a less-known brand that no one around here carries, and some people I've talked to (including a former owner of a different model of the same brand) have quality concerns, while the iPod is said to work great if you do everything the way Apple wants you to, and if you don't, too bad. (I note that the new models claim to require Windows Service Pack 3, by most accounts a buggy pile of dung which I have so far avoided "upgrading" to, along with the latest iTunes for PC.) Both are about the same price, $180 + free shipping vs. $200 go down and get one right now.

I worry that I'm going to end up with either a piece of plastic crap, or something that's so picky about how it wants to be set up that I either have to let it have its way or take it back.

Many thanks to pjack, whose loan of a CD Walkman makes this interregnum slightly more bearable. (He doesn't need it. He has an iPod.)

In this and other ways, it seems that the stress I had when jobless has not gone away, merely changed form.

Comments

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I have two XP systems here; one took XPSP3 with no difficulty at all, while the problem that the other one had was technically Hewlett-Packard's fault, not SP3's. Neither has given me any trouble since I got the HP issue sorted.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I keep reading the horror stories on fora... maybe I shouldn't do that.

In fact, a part of me wonders if I'm overthinking this in general. But $200 is not an impulse purchase for me.

[kowh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not aware of any remaining issues with SP3. It's mostly a collection of Windows updates, it's not like SP2 where they added and changed a bunch of things in Windows. I've deployed it across all the computers here and it's been utterly unnoticeable for end users.

The only issue I've seen is it refusing to automatically install through WSUS on some of the Thinkpads, but those ran fine through Windows Update and you wouldn't be involved with WSUS on a home computer anyways.

[pjack.livejournal.com]

(Karjack has the iPod. I only have use of it on occasion. Which usually works out OK.)

1.) You could install iTunes and Service Pack 3 on your computer now. If it doesn't work out for you, then you know an iPod isn't for you.

2.) You could buy the one that has a return policy. If you don't like it, return it and buy the other one. (Likely you won't find a policy on either, but it's worth looking into, at least.)

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

I have iTunes now, the latest version even, but rarely use it.

The Zen does offer a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. I may take them up on it.

[caluche.livejournal.com]

You could get an ipod and use a free firmware :
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/25/rockbox-3-0-firmware-breathes-the-life-back-into-your-mp3-player/

Then you get all the hardware advantages of the ipod and complete freedom from itunes.