Soarer Central: Archive through July 01, 2006

Soarer Central Off-Topic ATTENTION IPOD OWNERS! Archive through July 01, 2006

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Adam Collins
Tinkerer
Victoria
GTT-L

Posts: 85
Reg: 02-2006

Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!)

Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 07:28 pm, by: Adam Collins (Adrock)

If you've got a 4th gen iPod that experiences problems such as the "click of death" from the hard drive or the "sick ipod" symbol, I have a remedy to fix it if it's out of warranty, thus saving you $100+++ getting it fixed. It's pretty complicated, so listen here -
Pick it up and drop the little fu(ker from a decent height. This has worked for me twice, was just about to get it replaced and got p1ssed off with it, threw it on the floor and voila, working again. All the music and files are still there too...

Just a bit of info for anyone else who may have this problem, it could save you money that would be better spent on our Soarers!

Ken Cornell
TryHard
Western Australia
4.0GT V8 Soarer

Posts: 365
Reg: 01-2006

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 08:10 pm, by: Ken Cornell (Dunadan)

Sounds like what all apple products need!

Ben Socratous
DieHard
SA
Iv'e started to put my interior back together!!!

Posts: 524
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 08:23 pm, by: Ben Socratous (Socrates)

Apple computer products, boat anchors, paperweights, static objects, all much and much the same!

AHAHAHAHAHA, I've had more bad luck with apple than pioneer!

Ben Daniel
TryHard
WA
Twin Turbo

Posts: 257
Reg: 03-2006

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 09:46 pm, by: Ben Daniel (Lexustt)

If only that worked for my nokia 6230.

Simon Triantafillou
DieHard
NSW
Soarer Turbo

Posts: 751
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 10:42 pm, by: Simon Triantafillou (Soarer)

Ben, it works for my 6230, no joke. When it crashes, I drop/throw it a few times, then it turns on properly. If I don't do it, it'll never come back on. Needs new firmware apparently, but I'm too far from the Nokia service centre.

Peter Nitschke
JunkFilterer
South Australia
GT4.0 V8

Posts: 5081
Reg: 11-2004

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:46 am, by: Peter Nitschke (Pen)

Simon, try cleaning the battery terminals. Use a pencil eraser on both the battery and the phone contacts.

Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31

Posts: 1193
Reg: 10-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 06:43 am, by: Matthew Sharpe (Madmatt)

Ben Socratous wrote on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 08:23 pm:
AHAHAHAHAHA, I've had more bad luck with apple than pioneer!

The company I work for is the distributor for apple products in NZ. IPods have a phenominal failure rate (of course they have a phenominal sales rate too)

Luke Nieuwhof
Goo Roo
WA
Soarer TT

Posts: 1125
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 07:30 am, by: Luke Nieuwhof (Luke_nieuwhof)

Simon Triantafillou wrote on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 10:42 pm:
Ben, it works for my 6230, no joke. When it crashes, I drop/throw it a few times, then it turns on properly. If I don't do it, it'll never come back on. Needs new firmware apparently, but I'm too far from the Nokia service centre.

I dropped mine on bitumen from the height of my pocket...now the stopwatch and the golf game won't work!!!! Everything else seems fine...

Daniel Czechowski
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Soarer GT-T

Posts: 1324
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 10:14 am, by: Daniel Czechowski (Dan)

Matthew Sharpe wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 06:43 am:
IPods have a phenominal failure rate (of course they have a phenominal sales rate too)

Hmmm, I see the connection... yet people like sheep still go and buy this piece of sh|t... there's so much better HDD players out there in every respect, hate iPods with a passion!

Simon Triantafillou
DieHard
NSW
Soarer Turbo

Posts: 752
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 10:18 am, by: Simon Triantafillou (Soarer)

I always try that Peter... never seems to change the situation though. I clean the SIM ones too, but that makes zero difference as well

Phil Gibson
DieHard
WA
'94 black/black UZZ31

Posts: 552
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 11:18 am, by: Phil Gibson (Sciflyer)

Hey ive had my ipod for about 3 years now and its worked faultlessly.... battery doesnt last quite as long now but i dont care as it spends most of its life plugged into the ciggy lighter in my Soarer

Daniel Czechowski
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Soarer GT-T

Posts: 1325
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 11:27 am, by: Daniel Czechowski (Dan)

My 6 month old HDD player's battery (Cowon X5L) lasts for good 45 hours of playtime (less if playing videos obviously)... I charge it once a month...

James Harris
DieHard
QLD
TT

Posts: 735
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 11:35 am, by: James Harris (Haro)

very funny.

Hey ADAM _ i just voted on your post rating it 5 outta 5... i have no idea what that means, but you now have stars above your post.

hmmm

Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31

Posts: 1201
Reg: 10-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 01:17 pm, by: Matthew Sharpe (Madmatt)

Daniel Czechowski wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 10:14 am:
Hmmm, I see the connection... yet people like sheep still go and buy this piece of sh|t... there's so much better HDD players out there in every respect, hate iPods with a passion!

Indeed, I can get them at cost, and I still would rather get a Creative Labs Nomad and pay retail for it.

David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 manual

Posts: 2219
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 01:30 pm, by: David Vaughan (Davidv)

If you need to use it portably, Phil, an aftermarket battery kit works well at a reasonable price. I refurbished my previous iPod with one and it has kept chugging reliably along despite being subjected to backpacking around Europe for the last nine months. Our later iPods work well and their interface is superior to something like the Cowon, as you can see from reviews. There are trade-offs between various features of a device, depending on how you use it, so different gizmos suit different people.

Daniel Czechowski
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Soarer GT-T

Posts: 1327
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 03:32 pm, by: Daniel Czechowski (Dan)

Ok, the only thing that the iPod has an advantage over say Cowon for example, is the looks and maybe the interface, though that is a personal taste. I honestly prefer the joystick than the touchpad. With the X5L, you get all the features included standard which you have to pay extra in an iPod for (or might not even have), such as
-in built FM radio
-USB host feature to plug in your digi cam direct with no comp
-voice recorder and direct encoding
-fully specced equaliser
-kickass battery
-(according to most online reviews) more powerful and better sound quality
-playlists on the go (not sure now if iPod has that too now)
-plays ALL computer video formats
-no software issues
-superstrong metal case with no smudges (there was a pic of an X5L on the net that has been bitten by a dog, screen was rooted, but it still functioned fully otherwise) I don't know how many times I've dropped it now, but no marks on it or scratches as yet, and no HDD problems, bulletproof basically
-proper and logical file structure, can just drag and drop files into it, no need for BS iTunes. I've noticed iPod renames all songs and calls them F1, F3, F9 whatever

Would rather have it just like I do on my computer, and browse by folders

Few other things which I can't think off the top of my head. When I was looking at buying a player, I must have read reviews for at least 15 different HDD players and most were better featured than the iPod, but for some reason the iPod scores highly in the looks department, which to me is just bullsh|t...

David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 manual

Posts: 2220
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:08 pm, by: David Vaughan (Davidv)

Cowon X5L by CNET who rated it "Very Good" with 77/100.

quote:
The good: Small size; video player with 260,000-color LCD; customizable wallpaper; FM radio; line-in and voice recording; photo viewer; text-file reader; excellent sound quality; reads photos directly from digital cameras; compatible with OGG and FLAC formats, as well as subscription WMA tracks.

The bad: Must plug in an adapter to attach AC, line-in, and USB cables (however, the built-in side USB port handles camer transfers and MTP subscription downloads); so-so control layout; can't autosync music with a PC; can't browse by artist, album, or genre; many video files need to be converted to play on X5; no slide-show mode or music while viewing photos; no autoscanning presets for FM radio.

The bottom line: The great-sounding Cowon iAudio X5 looks like an iPod killer on paper, but this palm-size music and video player suffers from mediocre music browsing and some key design missteps.

Like I said, different things suit different people. You remind me somewhat of a Mac or Linux user telling people they should never ever find anything good about XP; same thing in reverse. Sorry, I lack your passion for or against these things, but my rational decisions are working extremely well for my needs. You might get more joy on a computer forum.

Phil Gibson
DieHard
WA
'94 black/black UZZ31

Posts: 553
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:18 pm, by: Phil Gibson (Sciflyer)

Also, iTunes is hard to beat imo and has some cool plugins - http://www.last.fm/user/Sciflyer/

Daniel Czechowski
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Soarer GT-T

Posts: 1329
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:36 pm, by: Daniel Czechowski (Dan)

I guess each to their own, here's why I don't agree with the bad points:

David Vaughan wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:08 pm:
Must plug in an adapter to attach AC, line-in, and USB cables

The adapter is half the size of a matchbox, which I keep plugged into the USB cable most times anyway, I charge it once a month so it ain't a big deal

David Vaughan wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:08 pm:
can't autosync music with a PC

Computer software dependent, nothing to do with the unit, as it is basically another harddrive attached to the comp

David Vaughan wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:08 pm:
can't browse by artist, album, or genre

What if you have say Paul van Dyke Politics of Dancing mix, where each song has a different artist name, wouldn't work anyway if you wanna play the set, unless you rename each file or form a playlist. No search function, so I guess that is one down side, but I got my MP3z organised on my comp very logically, so I my unit has basically copied that. Genre/Artist/Album/song logical eh?

David Vaughan wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:08 pm:
many video files need to be converted to play on X5

Out of 15,000 movie files I have (don't ask) I can play a good 95% from the sample I've tried direct. The main reason why they supply you with a converter is to reduce the size of the video, no point playing a 700 meg file with big resolution on such a small screen, unnececerily uses up more power that way too, either way, converting a 700 meg file takes maybe a minute...

David Vaughan wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:08 pm:
no autoscanning presets for FM radio

It does scan automatically, it stops at each station, and you have a choice to preset it, what's the big deal?

David Vaughan wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:08 pm:
suffers from mediocre music browsing

Hate iD3 tags for the reason I gave above...

David Vaughan wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 04:08 pm:
some key design missteps

Such as???

Anyway, I know it's not a computer forum, but I just can't understand some people blindly following an inferior product like sheep, with only the looks being the positive feature. And it's not like the iPod is a dependable standard like XP is in the computer world, they don't network with each other they don't run important things, all they do is play music so it's not like it's hard to justify a switch to another music player.
Comparing this argument to XP vs Linux is like apples and oranges. Those things perform simple tasks, can't get any simpler... oh, and I'm an XP user too

David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 manual

Posts: 2221
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 05:06 pm, by: David Vaughan (Davidv)

Umm, did you notice I did not write that review? Please write to a CNET who cares

quote:
I just can't understand some people blindly following an inferior product like sheep.... oh, and I'm an XP user too

And your argument was...?

You see Daniel, if people's needs are different, then identifying a set of features which suit yourself and are in a less popular product is not sufficient to define the main alternative as sheep-like behaviour. People may have cogent reasons for their selection and they may be performance-based, but against a different set of criteria or different tolerance for certain features and faults. The way in which you look at things and hence what assertions you are entitled to make is what I am trying to discuss. I am not arguing about iPods, as I previously explained. My dig about XP above is as pointless as your corresponding assertion which is the reason I put it in, so you might see things from a converse perspective. If it somehow caused any actual frisson of pain then I retract it unreservedly.

Daniel Czechowski
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Soarer GT-T

Posts: 1331
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 05:16 pm, by: Daniel Czechowski (Dan)

Nah, it's cool, iPods are just my pet hates that's all

Ben Socratous
DieHard
SA
Iv'e started to put my interior back together!!!

Posts: 528
Reg: 07-2005

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Friday, June 30, 2006 - 10:53 pm, by: Ben Socratous (Socrates)

Daniel Czechowski wrote on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 10:14 am:
Hmmm, I see the connection... yet people like sheep still go and buy this piece of sh|t... there's so much better HDD players out there in every respect, hate iPods with a passion!

one word...

MARKETING!!!