iPhone as iPod replacement

[Mephistopheles]

Well, my 60GB ipod photo just died, and I'm in the market for a new ipod. Both of my previous iPod died due to harddrive failures, which is why I'm looking into a flash based solution. So here are my Q's:

1) How does the iPhone perform as an iPod? I primarily listen to music in my car and in a Logitech Audiostation, but that might change were I to get an iPhone (as I'd have it with me all the time).

2) Are flash-based iPods truly more reliable than harddrive ones? I pretty much ravaged my previous two iPods (8+ hours a day here at work, every day), so I'm not that surprised that they didn't last that long over 3 years.

3) I'm a current AT&T customer, and I understand the process for upgrading to an iPhone (data plan, etc). Is there any way to avoid signing the 2 year contract (maybe buying a used iPhone)?

4) I've got a 60 GB music collection. How frustrating is it to have an ipod smaller than your music collection?

Like I said, I'm not really seeking the iPhone as a phone replacement, but as an iPod replacement. Although if I get one, you can bet I'll be surfing the net like crazy on it.

[Germansuplex]

1. It performs extremely well as an iPod, but it is not without limitations.

1. Unless you are using the headset, you have to pretty much look at the device to skip through songs. Navigating to a particular song is speedy, but simply advancing, fast-fowarding, etc. is more cumbersome due to the lack of dedicated physical buttons. The included headset works great for my needs, but if you don't like it, there are other ones out there for purchase. Remember, most of your current earphones will not work with the iPhone due to the narrow passage to the audio-out port on the phone. Adapters are cheap though.

3. Yes, they really are. Naturally, ANY electronic can be easily damaged, but the flash drive is more reliable than a harddrive. However, the iPhone probably loses durability points because what it makes up for with the flash drive, it gives up with a glass screen. Drop it the wrong way and you're out of a phone, iPod, and who knows what else. A rugged case is pretty much a necessity for any extra-curricular activity. Better safe than sorry. That's not to say it doesn't hold up well: I've had mine nearly six months and it's in great shape, and I often go without a case.

3. The phone itself is not what causes you to sign a new contract. You can easily buy the phone from an Apple store and they don't care whether you're a customer or not. But as far as I know, extending your contract, adding a new line or going pre-paid are the only alternatives. I am on the pre-paid plan and I love it. Once a month, AT&T automatically debits your checking account or credit card, and you're good for another month. They are slightly more expensive, but I don't have to worry about extra fees, contracts, etc. One downer, non-AT&T customers can port their number to pre-paid, but existing customers cannot convert their number to pre-paid. I don't know why. Maybe they will if you pressure them, but I've heard from most people that you can't.

4. My library is roughly the same as yours (about 65gb of music, 100+ gb of video) and I was surprised by how little I was hampered with only 8 gigs. I created a playlist folder on iTunes, and then created several playlists in that folder.

The key is utilizing smart playlists. I have a playlist called "EXCLUDE". This playlist includes duplicate tracks, comedy tracks like live standup, videos, etc. That gives me a pool of only music that I want to listen to when shuffling tracks. I then created a playlist called "Essentials" with the settings "Playlist is not EXCLUDE", "Playcount is greater than 3". If this is still too large, you can limit the playlist to a few GB. Boom, I've got a playlist of a few hundred of my favorite songs. Then, I create a playlist called "Random". I use "Playlist is not EXCLUDE" and "Playlist is not "Essentials". I limit this to about 1/2 Gig of music. Finally, I have a playlist called "Misc." I use this for putting songs like a new album I just added, songs that I specifically want on the iPhone, etc.

You can then create other playlists with songs that are in those playlists already on your phone. You can use settings so that songs get rotated on and off of your iPhone, or you can set them up so that you have to change them on your own.

Using this method, you're guaranteed that a good portion of the stuff you want is on your iPhone. I leave a couple gigs for video and try to leave about a 1/2 gig free for whatever I want at any given time.

It's really a great device. The only reason I own a classic is because I like to scrobble my tracks to last.fm and the only way to get songs from the iPhone to scrobble is by jailbreaking it.

You can always purchase it and use it for two weeks and return it if you don't mind losing around 50 or 60 bucks for a restocking fee.

[everunman]

Just to add you cant use any standard 3.5mm headphones without an adapter and to go from 60gb to 8gb isnt an option (for me anyway) unless your ok with changing music evry couple of days/weeks or so.

[kdogg]

1) How does the iPhone perform as an iPod?

O.K. The touchscreen is different in good and bad ways. Everyone is use to the feature that separated iPods from all other MP3 players - the Click Wheel.

2) Are flash-based iPods truly more reliable than harddrive ones?

Solid state memory has no moving parts so it can withstand more abuse. I've never had an iPod more than 2 years (keep upgrading), but I've never had any HW failures.

3) Is there any way to avoid signing the 2 year contract (maybe buying a used iPhone)?

I'm sure you can get a jailbroken iPhone. Unless you're one to always getting the latest phones (or keep losing/breaking phones), then a 2 year contract isn't that big of deal. Like buying any unlocked "smartphone", you'll end up paying more up front for the not being locked into a contract.

4) I've got a 60 GB music collection. How frustrating is it to have an ipod smaller than your music collection?

For me personally, tedious. I upgraded from the very first iPod Mini I bought because I found many instances where I didn't have a song/album I wanted to listen to. I'm an album listener with a very broad spectrum of music tastes. Playlists for me are tedious and cumbersome.

It may sound like I don't like my iPhone, but I do love it. Most importantly, it doesn't replace my iPod. It a great phone that does email, texting, real web browsing, videos, and music, but it can't replace a music only device.

Not until they come out with an 80GB iPhone...

[Dean C]

Just to correct the poster above, jailbroken iPhone will still lock you into A&T or whatever provider your country is using for the iPhone so you will still have a 2month min term contract. You can get an unlocked iPhone if you know where to look (for quite a lot of cash), or you can buy one and do it yourself but you can't currently unlock 1.1.2 firmware out of the box, and you need a hardware solution to fix it. It's a pain in the ### to be honest, and I'm happy with my 02 contract in the UK.

[jhollington]

I have both a 160GB iPod classic and an iPhone. Although 8GB may sound limiting, it really depends upon how you use the device. As Germansuplex points out, with a decent set of smart playlists you can very easily rotate music on and off the device easily enough, and I've been doing that for some time already with my iPod nano.

The iPod classic is primarily used for travel (when I'm going to be away from my iTunes library for a few days), or in situations where I want to have ALL of my music with me (going to a party for example, where it's fun to just plug in the iPod and let other people pick what they want to play).

Further, if you're the type of person who likes exploring different music, a set of smart playlists can assist with this. On the other hand, if you're out and about, and suddenly decide you want to listen to some obscure, random track from your library, chances are that your 8GB device won't have that track on it, whereas a standard iPod would have your entire library.

In my case, however, I've found that having a limited set of content is a good thing, since it forces me to explore more of my library (I use smart playlists for unrated and unlisted content to keep some fresh new stuff around that I haven't heard before, for instance).

In my case, I use a series of playlists/smart playlists -- A couple of playlists for my standard favourite items that I always want on there, a "top-rated" playlist which selects my five-star songs (there is some overlap between the two), and then several smart playlists to select a set of recently added tracks (ie, new content that I may not have listened to yet), and then some unlistened and unrated content that I still have to sift through. As I listen to content on the iPhone and then later sync it, these smart playlists are updated with new content, which in turn update the iPhone with new content, and remove the old. It's really a very clever and efficient system once you have it setup, and requires minimal effort to support.

If you pretty much hit the cradle every night and aren't overly concerned about having your entire library with you at all times, you'll likely find that an 8GB limitation isn't nearly as bad as you would expect. Smart Playlists are one of the best features of iTunes, and make it very easy to keep fresh content on the iPhone pretty much automatically.

[catpodder]

I was skeptical about going from a 60 GB iPod to the 8 GB iPhone. I was an existing AT&T customer using a Windows-based smartphone. I was tired of rebooting the phone every day to clear the memory and I was on my 3rd one while under the 1-year warranty. I'm in the same boat as having a lot of music. However, while at work, I listen to all of my music library off of my computer.

I setup the iPhone to use daily. I created a lot of smart playlists and have them sync to the iPhone. I also put about two books on there, which I listen to on the way to work. I still use my 60 GB iPod, but mostly for working out, listening around the house, on car trips, etc. I find the controls on the screen difficult - especially if you need to rewind just a little bit of a book. With the click-wheel it was easy. Also, it takes several tries to get the iPhone to pause while in iPod mode. Finally finding out how to use the Apple earbuds helped - squeezing the microphone once pauses the playback, squeeze it again and it starts up again, squeeze once to answer an incoming call, squeeze twice to fast forward to the next track etc.

I love my iPhone, but I still find my iPod useful.