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Recommendations to replace an iPod Touch

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  1. LINCARD1000
    Boffin

    Recommendations to replace an iPod Touch

    Greetings all, I would like, if I may, to pick your collective delicious, juicy brain-meats...

    I've got an aging 64GB iPod touch that I'd like to look at replacing sometime, ideally replacing it with something other than an Apple product (call me disillusioned). I've got a fairly sizable collection of music including stuff purchased through iTunes, so a device capable of playing those AAC files as well would be a plus if such a thing exists... otherwise I can just convert to MP3 but that would take a while and I'm lazy...

    So, what would you recommend? The device *needs* to have:

    - at least 64 GB storage

    - be able to fit in a pocket

    - preferably not be reliant on iTunes or another specialist software suite to transfer files (but can be flexible on this point)

    - quality!

    - NOT Apple

    I'm not in the market for a replacement mobile phone, however if the 'perfect' device happens to be one, so be it. What would you lovely people recommend and more importantly WHY would you recommend it?

    Thanks :-)

    LINC

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  2. bazza Silver badge

    Blackberry?

    I think these days it's phones, phones phones.

    I find my BB Torch (ancient, now) to be pretty good for sound and so forth. It needs no special software (though BB's Desktop Sync Software claims to be able to sync music for you). I just plug mine in with a USB cable and copy mp3 files to the right subdirectory. It takes a micro SD card, so I guess I could put a 64GB one of those in if they exist.

    In comparison to the other manufacturers RIM seem the least interested in locking you in:

    • There is a BB music store, but it's really easy to just copy your own files on or use their desktop software to sync against your PC's music.
    • BBM and music mix quite well - tracks bought through BBM can be officially shared with 50 BBM friends, and you can listen to their collection. If you've a lot of cooperative BBM friends it can be a good way of getting access to a lot of music with minimal outlay.
    • There is a video store in North America, but I just copy the mp4 files on as I wish (I'm referring to a Playbook now).
    • You do have to use their App store (mostly), but it's free for devs to put apps up on it so RIM AFAIK make no money from it directly.
    • They don't try and push a specific email, calendar or contacts system, it'll work with equally well with anything that uses POP, IMAP, SMTP or Exchange Activesync. And their push notification system is clever, efficient and fast yet doesn't kill the battery.
    • They do have BBM for the social side, but things like Facebook, Twitter, etc. get the benefit of their oh-so-clever-battery-and-data-saving-push-notification system too.

    Personally I think that given their current situation they're just grateful if you buy a phone from them.

    However, if the above pattern carries on into BB10 then a BB10 phone might be the answer. If BB10 is as good as the Playbook (on which it's based) then it's likely to be a pretty good solution. Their work / life separation technology (Blackberry Balance) in BB10 could be really good to, makes the whole BYOD far simpler to live with. I'm hanging on and will be examining it.

    I wouldn't mind betting that Android is fairly liberal with the lock-in thing too, but I don't like it's lack of post-purchase updates and the anarchy of its app stores, malware, etc. We all know that Apple is totally for lock-in. I'm not yet convinced MS have got WinPhone8 right, but they certainly are trying to lock users in.

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