iTunes gift cards - good idea/bad idea?

MP3 players Sansa Clip | Clip+
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Indeed GB , I hope I didn’t ruffle any feathers.

I haven’t tried the latest iTunes client, beyond a quick browsing. I’m sure it is worlds apart from the early variant I struggled with, once I get a chance to work with it for a little longer.  iTunes wanted to mess with file associations- just like Rhapsody, RealPlayer, and others do as well, wanting to wrest control away from Windows Media Player.

Back when computers were significantly less powerful (and fast) as modern ones, this was a huge problem.

I have tinkered with iTunes a little bit on my neighbor’s computer, and find navigation much better.  Rhapsody has radically updated their experience as well. 

I have a major bone to pick, watching the price of compressed and lossy media being sold at $1.29 per track, with the “bonus” of being DRM-free.  Like you, OK for some quick tracks, but give me the whole PCM enchilada, for less per track, for a real CD.  Something’s wrong with their math. Oh, sorry, it’s just greed.  My bad.

Sounds like you found a decent price on the Touch.  For a product that’s so very commonly available, the strict control on price really ■■■■■.  It’ my biggest point of contention with all things Apple.  Not that I don’t like them, I have owned a whole gaggle of Apple products, starting with the II, IIe, II+, c, the original (kinda cool, looking back) b&w Mac, PowerPC, iMac (those things were really cool when they debuted, talking of the concentional CRT version, transparent case and all.  I still look fondly at the wee MiniMac, the little rounded box with CD slot.  That’s a cool design.

The iPad?  Eeewww.  No USB ports.  Bigger problem?  No SD card slots, just a bloated iPhone, hehe.  I have no issue with the overall package.

Back to AAC format.  It’s a natural progression from basic MP3.  Nice to see the format supported on the Fuze+.  Installing Rockbox would normally be a no-brainer, as you know I love to tinker.  But I cannot risk zorching Rhapsody or Audible capabilities, so Rockbox is a risky proposition in my case. 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

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Not a problem at all, Bob.  Yep, I rarely purchase anything at the iTunes store, if it is available on CD.  My preference will always be a lossless format…but they (iTunes) have tons of content that you can’t find anywhere else.  And being the completist I am where it comes to artists; I tend to pick up these iTunes only issues as well.  Generally speaking, I’ve been pretty much pleased with the quality of the content.  I just downloaded a “Sessions” release by Diane Birch the other day, and it sounds quite good.  It was encoded at 256 VBR .aac in the .m4a container.  Not as good as lossless, but it still sounds quite good.


Don’t get me wrong.  I still use and enjoy my Sansas (as well as other Brands), but I don’t consider Apple, iPod or iTunes evil like some people do.  I’ve been very happy with my Nanos, Classic and now Touch.  All perform exactly as advertised and are quality units.