Thanks ita.

Huh, I wonder if it's the way eMusic does their encoding.

OK, I just noticed that they use LAME. And in my googleing I saw, "There has been A LOT talk of stuttering with LAME on ipods." And not just the Nano, although that's the only one I've had the problem.

Oh, also

I have a couple (2-5) tracks that skip but my library was encoded at the preset standard and I currently have 4000 songs. So 0.125% of my library skips due to the VBR mp3's and the iPods inability to keep up the processing power (for a small percentage of songs) when the bitrate jumps high.

Huh. I guess I was right.

eta: Lot's o' info: [link]

iPod nano/mini 2G use clock speed optimisation to increase battery time.

VBR songs with a sudden increase in bitrate may cause the iPod nano/mini 2G to stutter as the clock speed is not increased fast enough to deal with the increased bitrate.

This has so far been observed for songs encoded with LAME --preset standard and is only true when not using the equaliser.

in'eresting. Off to try the equalizer....

eta: Or do they mean the LAME equalizer?

eta³: OK, I changed the Equilizer Preset for that song from 'None' to 'Electronic' and resynched to the Nano, but no dice....

Dana, I've had on and off luck with D-Link. I prefer Linksys. But I know nothing of your device in specific.

Heh, I've had on and off luck with Linksys. I prefer D-Link. But, like ita, I know nothing of your device in specific.

tommy, does the nano not have a built-in equalizer that needs to be turned on or off? I think my 3G iPod had one - if it's set to "Off" then I don't think presetting it would turn it on, as turning it off is often used to save battery power, so that might be worth checking.

My guess would be that when it's on, more of the song needs to be read into memory at a time to apply the effects, so the increase in bitrate is noticed and anticipated. But that's pure guesswork.

I've had lots of trouble with Linksys wireless (I bought a router that I had to reset about every 15 minutes, replaced it and the next one smoked after a half-hour, replaced it and the next one worked okay but wireless requires a reset about every two days) but Netgear has worked flawlessly for me (I got an access point, set it up, never had to touch it since).

tommy, does the nano not have a built-in equalizer that needs to be turned on or off?

Oh, that might be it. Now I remember reading that iPod power consumption is higher with the EQ on. I'll have to give it a try tonight, as I have my other iPod with me.

Linksys routers vary widely by model # in terms of reliability -- if my office internet access were running at full speed, I'd look up the one I have, which has never given me any trouble. I know that the Wireless-G models have gotten worse reviews than any of the old B ones.

Looks like AOpen is going to make a Mac Mini knock-off (with Linux or Windows of course).

[link]

What's AOpen's quality like these days? Back when I worked for a VAR who was being cheap, we integrated a ton of them. They were horrible wrt reliability.

No idea. The only AOpen hardware I've used have been a mouse and keyboard. I don't have much interest in a computer that small anyhow, I like having all standard sized parts. Nice looking piece though.

On the low end they are only $100 cheaper than a Mac Mini, and it sounds like the Pentium M model will actually be more expensive than a Mini.