Some of my thoughts on mp3 players

Since my last post was about my experience with getting my mp3 player replaced, I figured that I'd post my opinion.  I know I'm not the foremost authority on the subject, only having owned one mp3 player for myself, but I think I have enough experience with them to make a few comments.

Apple's iPod mp3 players dominate the market.  In the minds of many people iPods and mp3 players are equivalent sets rather than the former being a subset of the latter, as the actual case is.  For instance yesterday, my mother, knowing full well that Apple did not make my mp3 player, asked if my iPod had arrived.

I think it is unfortunate that iPods hold the market share they do, not because I hate Apple or feel that people shouldn't own them, but because they are not the best devices one could buy for their price.  Take the iPod nano.  It is a thin flash mp3 player.  It does not have video support or an FM radio (you can get a radio add on for $49 from Apple).  Furthermore, it has a troublesome file structure, forcing one to edit the songs via iTunes unless they hack the player.  The 2GB version costs $149, the 4GB version costs $199 and the 8GB version costs $249 according to Apple.

In contrast, the mp3 players in SanDisk's Sansa e200 line does play video and has a built in radio.  According to SanDisk, the 2GB version costs $120, the 4GB version $150, the 6GB version $170, and the 8GB version $199.  Both the 4GB and 8GB versions are $49 cheaper than the corresponding nano.  Yet, the majority of buyers who buy flash memory-based mp3 players buy iPod nanos over Sansa e200 series players.

Now, I'm not going to say that SanDisk's player is better for all people.  It's not.  For one thing, it doesn't support games.  I'm not one to play games with handheld devices, so that didn't matter to me.  As well, for some, the touch scroll wheel of the nano is preferable to the mechanical scroll wheel of the e200 series (for me the situation).  Others may find that the form factor of a nano is worth plunking down an extra $49 dollars.  To me, if it fits in my pocket with room to spare, I'm happy.  However, given the features and the prices, I cannot believe that the nano's market share is due to rational, knowledgeable choices being made by users.

Of course, there are other mp3 players beyond those produced by Apple and SanDisk, which happen to have the first and second place market share respectively, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were comparable players that have better features and/or a better price tag than both.  For instance, I have little doubt that there exists a flash player that works with a different format or formats than the space-consuming .mov format that the e200 series uses.

This is one of the irksome things about the e200 series.  Video is converted to a 90° rotated scaled down .mov file (one of the formats used by Apple's Quicktime player).  Presumably this is so that the player can directly play it without using many resources, but since it is uncompressed, it can sometimes take up more space on the player than the original file did, even if the original file was of higher resolution. 

My mp3 player issues

In February, I bought a SanDisk Sansa e260 mp3 player at the Grinnell Super Wal-Mart. It was the first mp3 player I have ever bought and I really liked it. It's a flash player, like an iPod nano, except it has more features and a cheaper price tag. There are some minor gripes I have with it, like the lack of support for Asian characters in the English interface (I have a few songs that have some Chinese characters...if I had more, this would be an issue for me). However, overall, I was more than satisfied.

But, last week, I hit a snag. Like the iPod, the Sansa transfers songs from the computer and charges via a USB cable. One day, I was plugging in the player as usual when instead of plugging in smoothly, there was resistance. I unplugged it to find that two of the wires within the port had separated from the plastic ridge in the middle, leaving it looking like this:

I ended up contacting SanDisk via their support site. After a few exchanges they asked for some pictures of the player, which is why I have the picture above. They decided that they would replace the player. They gave me a three day delivery UPS shipping label to print out and use to send them back the player on June 12. I sent it that day. They received it on the 15th and sent the replacement on the 19th and I will be receiving it today and will update this post when it comes.

Update: I got my mp3 player today as expected. They sent a completely new mp3 player, which has some benefits and some downsides. The benefit is that it's new and shiny and is in really good shape. There were a few nicks on my old player, as you can see from the above picture. As well, I have a new pair of cheap headphones. I probably won't use them as I have a better pair of headphones from Sony (nothing noise canceling, but with better sound and better fit to my ear).

The downside is that I have to add all my songs back onto the player. This isn't a total disaster...it means that I can go back and look at what music I want on and what music I don't. Of course, I could go back what I had on my old player, since I do have it backed up on my external hard drive. However, that would take only a little less time, and I want to make sure some things are cleaned out.

Now, as for what I got. The new player had different packaging that went along with their "Lil' Monsta" marketing campaign. Here's a picture of the new packaging:

Contrast it with the old packaging:

Overall, I am happy to have an mp3 player again that is functional. I may say more later, but for now, I have to go to work.

Now for that personal rambling

I thought that since I haven't posted anything since last year, I'd start by updating how things are going for me. I finished my sophomore year at Grinnell College this past year. My second semester was less than stellar, but I am looking forward to a better Junior year.

This summer, I am working third shift (6:45-4:45 Sundays and 9:15-4:45 Monday through Thursday) at School Specialty in Greenville, WI. I perform a few different jobs in the warehouse there, which is full of (surprise!) school supplies. It's not a terribly stimulating job, but it will help me earn a bit more money for school and hopefully for a summer in China next year.

Another thing that I'm doing this summer is learning Japanese. I've taken upon myself the rather ambitious project of getting through the first year なかま (Nakama) textbook, which is used by Grinnell College in its first year Japanese course, by the end of break. This is going to be tricky because, for one thing, I don't really have anyone around to practice Japanese with. Having someone to speak to in a foreign language makes learning the language quite a bit easier. We'll see how it goes.

As for my online life, I've completely quit out of the Online Debate Network, where I was a moderator for a while. It was fun while it lasted, but my interests have changed. I now like to read a few science blogs and tech blogs. It's nice to delve into subjects that interest me instead of constantly coming back to stagnated debates over religion, evolution, or politics. Over the next few days I will be updating this site so that it better aligns with my interests.

Also, if you happen to be one of the few people to chance upon this blog and read through, I am open to suggestions about how to improve my blogging.

Trying this out again

When I first created this blog, I thought it was a novelty that I wanted to try out.  However, I didn't really have anything to post about outside of what was happening in my own life.  This time around, I think I will begin to post about outside news stories and give my opinion on the issues raised.  I have no clue where this will lead me, but at least this blog will be something more than off and on ramblings about my personal life.  This is not to say that I won't ramble about my personal life...but I will talk about other things too.

A long summer

Summer has been long and dull so far this year. When I first came home, things were a bit tense between my mother and me, as I hadn’t finished many applications for jobs. We had a few disputes over the conditions of me staying home. Things got better near the end of June when I landed a weeklong job at the Oshkosh Hilton Garden Inn where I was to work as a dishwasher.

After learning that, I went to work at my grandfather’s house doing some maintenance on his driveway, tennis court, and deck, which had grown cluttered with sticks and lichen growth after a few years of neglect. As well, I helped him move a sculpture to the house of a lady friend of his that bought the sculpture, which in my opinion is a nice work. I was there for a week and a half, including my birthday and ending on Independence Day. For my birthday, I got some new rope sandals to replace my old smelly decrepit ones that I got at Sea Base a few years ago as well as some books and a travel Sudoku puzzle board with a Da Vinci Code theme (my family saw it while I was at college and apparently liked it).

Meanwhile, online, ODN has done a bit of updating. We finally have a working automated infraction system, though we will probably be making some modifications as soon as it comes back to the table. As well, Apok installed a wiki, so we can have a little ODN knowledge base known as ODNdium. Because I’ve done a little bit with Wikipedia, which runs on the same software (MediaWiki), I was able to play a large part in getting the wiki to a nice look. As well, all the moderators were promoted to Super Moderator to allow for simplified, quicker moderating. On top of that, our site has started a little alliance on OGame.org.

Of course, working during the EAA at the Hilton has interrupted my ability to participate online. The job had long hours, was fairly dull, and forced me to live most of the experience in a fantasy world to maintain sanity. To add to that, my co-worker mumbled and articulated poorly, making him understandable about 10% of the time he opened his mouth. However, I found the experience somewhat rewarding, as it broke the cycle of boredom and nagging that I had come to know.

The end of my freshman year

It is finally the end of my freshman year of college. Quite a bit has happened and I think that I have grown quite a bit as a person. I’ve definitely made some good friends, and it was a pity to see them all go for break. It’s going to be tough for the next few weeks since I feel like I’m going through withdrawal. This is a reason never to take addictive drugs. I feel bad enough leaving my friends behind…I can’t imagine what it would feel like leaving heroin behind. It’s especially tough to leave Emily.

I am back in Neenah and I just ripped out carpet from the townhouse that shares a wall with my dad’s. It was tedious but not incredibly difficult. I got paid $30, which seems fair to me, as the work wasn’t very labor intensive and I’m not exactly sure how many hours I put in, since I took quite a few breaks and some of them were pretty long. Oh well.

Wow, that was a corny post.

Test Blog entry from Microsoft Word 2007

So I downloaded the beta 2 version of Microsoft Office 2007 and now I’m testing out one of its features: blog posts. If this posts, then it worked.