mp3 Player's reviews

To my earlier post about the media creating a hype for iPod, I have got post from people defending the rightness of Apple iPod in the mp3 players supremacy. I think the Apple fans got offended unnecessarily!

My point was against the biased media, and not against the iPod. But since its now going towards which mp3 player is the best, I think this is the right post for that.

Personally, I like my Rio (this might offend the iPod fans! but its ok), its sleek, its black, its different, its not iPod (hahaha...) and last but not least its also plays good quality music. iPod I feel is unnecessarily too popular... !

Married to the Big B.

Amitabh Bachchan, is probably India’s most popular celebrity. Only to be seconded by Mahatma Gandhi. Ridiculous as it seems, I mean putting Mahatma Gandhi and a film star, in the same boat? One who died for non-violence, and the other who got his fame for his stunts where he beat up a dozen odd gangstars?

Just today morning, being Saturday (17 Dec. 05, around 11 am.), I was lounging on the sofa wanting to watch some good television program. Channel one, an English news channel NDTV 24x7, displaying the LIVE caption at the top right, above their channel sign. And what was being aired? A few tens of people standing or crowding or loitering outside some hospital. People have never aired a hospital entrance live, even when our Prime Minister was getting operated upon. So, I paused to listen to the news. Good Lord of sweet Heaven’s. The channel reporters were waiting with their live cameras outside the hospital, as though they had nothing better to do. And the reason being, there was a rumour that Big B. who recently got admitted in this hospital was expected to make an exit through that hospital gate at any time. Kudos! What a news coverage!

I was naturally not interested in knowing the precise time as to when Amitabh Bachchan leaves the hospital. So I clicked the advance button. Channel two, a Hindi news channel, Zee News, similar LIVE caption, same location, and same news! Unbelievable!

I thought lets see some other news channel. So I clicked the remote again. Channel three, Star News, similar LIVE caption, same location, same news! Can’t be true! This is insane!

I switched to channel four, Aaj Tak, Hindi news channel, similar LIVE caption, same location, and same news!

What the &*^£!!! I just did not believe this. This is what the 21st century news channels do? Is this called fierce competition, or total insanity? I could not believe, that none of those four channels had any better news. The occasion was definitely not as auspicious as the reincarnation of Lord Shri Krishna! Certainly if he were to reincarnate, he wouldn’t possibly phone these dumb ass news channels about the time and location! But then, neither was it something like the End of the World type movie sequences, or man landing on the moon for the first time! Even these things are cliché now!

One film actor, who happened to be a super star violence preacher. Ok I know he is a great actor, he is very down to earth and humble and non-alcoholic for a change! And does not smoke neither! But still, he is just an actor, right? I thought the Americans were nuts of the world! Didn’t know Indians would so blindly copy every wrong aspect of the Americans! Good mother lord! Please, give these news channels some sense of logic!

If they cannot find new news 24/7, then can just air some wild life films, music videos, those indi-pop videos where the models dress up only coz someone told them not to go out naked! (I wonder why would they think that going naked is bad? If stripping and getting skimpily dressed is good!) Or just switch off your transmitters, that will give them rest; the news editors can also get some time off to actually think what they can do with their time!

But airing live telecast of some hospital gate, just on the tip off that one popular film star is going to step out of it? I do not know whom they consider to be their viewers? Channel’s like NDTV, their chief Prannoy Roy? Who once got his fame for the quality of news he once covered? I mean, Prannoy Roy, please wake up. Which of your viewers would want to sit glued to the TV sets to know exactly when Big B is out from the hospital? I know there are lots of Indians out there who might be interested in knowing exactly that! Probably coz they clearly have nothing better to do! Fine, they are insane, or extreme fans! But are you going to heed to their insanity?

If you have the privilege to air whatever news or event you please, does that not put a sense of responsibility on your shoulders? Should you not decide for yourself, whether the content being aired on your channels is really of that importance that the whole country would benefit from it? You, the News channels have the power to do what you want, as far as spreading it out to the public is considered. Do something good with it!

But blaming any one news channel would be highly unjust. Coz if one is dumb, the other is dumber! They all collectively need to be bashed up and awakened!

Media Menace - Prologue

Not that the media are always up to something big, to make some sensational news, like blowing up some sex scandals or some heavy money laundering. Often there are these little things that these media men keep blowing out of proportion until it finally starts irritating you.

Here’s one such example. The hoopla-hu created about the mp3 player named iPod.

These days, the television and the paper media have decided to create hype about the iPod’s. Its not just the Indian media that is a victim of this stunt, but world over, the iPod is probably the only thing that has got so much hype about itself after Monika Lewenski (Monica, please pardon my spelling for it still doesn't auto correct in MS Word spell-check!) . It’s just that shameful as it seems, the Indian media is slow in mimicking the West. At least when it’s about portable mp3 players. Now, whether its Apple Inc.’s deliberate effort to bring their product into the spotlight or its just their good luck, the media has been a significant catalyst to their sales volumes. Either Apple Inc. used the media to hype the iPod, or if not, then the media self volunteered into this bandwagon. Rather the media are themselves the bandwagon.

Personally, I did not buy the iPod for three reasons. One, I started hating it for the hype it got. Second, it’s expensive than many others. And thirdly, I strongly feel that in this e-age, it’s just not possible that of the zillions of manufacturers, only one company is able to produce the best quality portable mp3 player.

Probably half the readers have raised their eyebrows reading the label ‘portable mp3 players’. And it’s not the fault of the readers, for the public can only see what the media decides to display. And this is the very precise point. The people have let the media take control of deciding what’s good for them and not. The media is suddenly policing around, censoring things and blowing trumpets. And the innocent readers and viewers are left to believe that the media have not lost their conscience. That the people in media truly know what’s good and what’s not for the masses.

Let me now stop talking in circles and clear the doubts as to what’s the link between the media, mp3 players and iPod. Well here goes. iPod is primarily an mp3 player. Revelation? Apple is just one of the manufacturers, amongst thousands of others like Creative, Sony, Samsung, Rio, iRiver and god knows how many more, who all manufacture the same type of mp3 players. Apple decided to name their mp3 player as iPod. That’s it. Revelation 2? Samsung named their mp3 player as Yepp, while Rio named one of their’s as Rio Carbon. So they all basically are based on the same technology, using either the flash memory or mini hard drives to save their contents or music files. Revelation 3? Of all these, iPod got the maximum publicity. Lucky for Apple Inc. for whom many say, iPod become the sole chariot to ride the company out of their heavy losses.

But then what has media got to do with this mp3 player business? Well, simply that while media started talking specifically about iPod’s as a medium of carrying music around. The media lead half of the discrete readers/viewer’s to believe that if they wanted to be hip and cool, and if they felt that walkman’s and discman’s were thing of the past, that the iPod was the only saviour. Soon iPod became a must have.

The iPod craze not only took the techno shy people for a ride, but also the technology freaks (or the Gadget Guru’s as one TV show so calls themselves) as well. The ‘Gadget Guru’ a TV show on one of the premium channels is supposed to display the coolest and latest electronic gadgets and gizmos that are available in the market. I could not believe when they had an entire section of their episode dedicated to just iPod! Somewhere at the end of show did the host decide to say one line that there are other mp3 players available in the market as well..

Give me a break! I thought Sony was good at audio products. Maybe Philips took over, as they are technology innovators. But Apple? The computer company? One fine day, the computer company thought - hey, our computers are superlative, but somehow still don’t sell, so how about building audio music players instead? And God has been really kind to those inventers at Apple for blessing them with iPod.

And the media was largely responsible for making this success. You still asking why??

The main point that I want to drive home is, fine the marketing department at Apple Inc. did a splendid job of creating the hype for iPod. But was the media sleeping? Is one to believe that the entire mass media is so naïve that they blindly believed the guys at Apple? Is their job not to expose similar marketing gimmicks, should they not make the viewers and the readers’ knowledgeable about the competitors of Apple Inc. who are also in the line of manufacturing mp3 players that are at least cheaper if not sleeker than the iPod’s?

I was scandalised the other day when I opened the morning paper’s local edition and found an entire quarter section of a page dedicated to some of the corporate heads’ who use iPod? And they all talked of iPod as though it were a Silver Bullet. My iPod is great, or I have been using it over a year or I like its menu. I mean come’ on, give me a break. Have you tried any other players? To make a comparison, you at least require something else to compare with. Or you are so dumb as to declare your verdict by looking at just one of the them. Its like the story where the turtle tells his friends I came first in the running race. Everyone is baffled. Finally when one of his wise friends dares to explore the facts asks ‘how many participants were there in the race?’ The turtle replies in a whisper ‘only one’.

But my dear friends, iPod is not the turtle. Unfortunately. There are many other mp3 players that can better suit your requirements. So please check them out first. Do not rush into the bandwagon blindly. Be a proud and conscious owner of some good mp3 player, not just an iPod.