Mine's properly died now, soon after a nasty drop onto the floor. I'm cursing my failure to replace my damaged case promptly, especially as I was going to upgrade to the larger iPod Touch when it's released in summer. Now I've got to decide whether to buy a soon to be redundant 160GB classic now, wait and rely on my phone and a dictaphone as substitutes until August or so, or buy another brand, most of which don't have as much storage. I need at least 120GB and preferably a lot more.

I lost my iPod a couple of weeks ago when travelling down from Nottingham. But it turned up a Nottingham Station's Lost Property Office. For a small fee, they sent it back.

And that's the end of my story about my iPod and me.

120 GB?! is that for like videos and stuff?

I rue the day I found out there is SOILTAIRE on my ipod.

It'll have been the barbeque that swung it for Villain. Looking at Apple users' forums, it seems sheds and cement mixers work equally well.

My current, dead iPod is 80GB and it only has about half my music collection. Using it as a dictaphone takes up a lot of storage, as does feeding a podcast habit.

Does anyone apart from Apple even make large storage players any more? I could have sworn Creative had an 80GB+ model but I can't find it on the website. None of the other major players seems to come close.

I now feel very lacking in music. Granted, I have to delete something every time I put something noew on, but still.

Having thought about it a bit, I reckon the best solution is to buy a cheap flash mp3 player with a few gigs of storage and a built in mike, then see what comes out over the summer. iPod seems to be my only option storage wise, but it makes no sense buying a new one until the next range comes out. Anyone have any suggestions? I need to be able to plug in a 3.5mm jack and record directly.

What is happening soon that will supersede the 160GB?

I had a 60GB Creative and never had a problem with it, very easy to use, sounded great (though it looked like a Bulgarian cassette player from the 80's) but as you say, they seem to be concentrating on smaller flash models.

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It'll have been the barbeque that swung it for Villain. Looking at Apple users' forums, it seems sheds and cement mixers work equally well.

It has behaved itself ever since. Job done.

"What is happening soon that will supersede the 160GB?"

Hopefully, the 160GB (or more) iPod Touch. When they introduced the touch interface, they only included it on the iPhone and low storage iPods. They've already said they're going to be updating the iPod Touch this year, and it makes sense to expand it to higher storage models. The only question is how far up the scale they choose to go.


I paid a visit to Tottenham Court Road after work and it looks like I'm stuffed. None of the cheap mp3 players can cope with line-in recording, so I'm stuck with a dedicated voice recorder, which aren't as cheap as you'd think, and using my phone for podcasts for a while. There goes my battery life.

No secondhand options?

Hmm. iPod Touch has only gone up to 32GB and I'd thought it was restricted by using flash memory. It seems a bit of a leap even to 60 or 80GB.

I'm looking to buy a new mp3 player myself and was tempted by the current 160GB iPod model (I'd need at least 80, I think). Is there anything else I ought to be aware of about the 160GB model, does anyone know? I'd heard the volume limiter is a bit strict, but assume this wouldn't be a problem if using decent or noise cancelling headphones.

How do you record stuff on an iPod? You need a special iPod microphone for that, don't you?

I have a massive music collection, but I'm very fussy about what I pit on my 80GB iPod, because I can't be bothered to scroll through loads of stuff I'm unlikely to play to get to the Wilco album I do want to play. So my iPod isn't even half-full.

I had an idea a bit ago that you could have personal image consultants for your ipod, they would go through it and remove everything that's a bit rubbish or that you never listen to, and add you some things that you ought to have because they suit you, etc.
Like I can imagine it now, "Ms lyra, no one needs this many lloyd cole albums, when was the last time you listened to the whole of Gotterdammerung all the way through, and why have you got no girls aloud, let us remedy that" etc.

Pan Tau: yes, you do, but there are lots of third party manufacturers.

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I have a massive music collection, but I'm very fussy about what I pit on my 80GB iPod, because I can't be bothered to scroll through loads of stuff I'm unlikely to play to get to the Wilco album I do want to play. So my iPod isn't even half-full.

I realise I'm in a minority here, but this to go against the whole appeal of mp3 players for me - being able to listen to anything in your music collection whenever you want.

I've decided to go for this voice recorder, which at least nominally can be used for podcasts. Anyone had any experience with the Olympus DS-50?

QUOTE:
I have backed up on CD or DVD and on my external HD. I'd be fucked if a fire burnt down my house, but otherwise I don't like taking chances.

You're right Pan Tau. I wonder when online servers are gonna get the space to allow me to remotely backup everything (about half a Terabyte)?