Frequent syncing of your Flash device will reduce its lifespan. Not a major concern with a cell phone, which will almost certainly fail in some other way (or be superseded by the Next Bitchin' Thing(tm) ) before you hit your erase-cycle limit, but still something to think about.
I am a poor predictor of what music I will want to hear between syncs, and since I currently _do_ have everything in my backpack, on my Flashtrax, I don't see why I shouldn't have everything in my pocket.
I see devices like this as a hard drive first and a media player second, so I'm very into the $/GB ratio. And bigger is always cheaper in these things. Also, not having room for _one more file_ pisses me off unreasonably, and happens far too often even with my 80GB Flashtrax.
Finally, it saves me $600+tax and accessories to hold a hard line on this topic. :)
I'd point out though, that flash memory being used in the iPod nanos is rated in the range of 100k write cycles. At 10 *complete rewrite syncs a day*, that's still 3 years worth. That isn't anything to be worried about. The days of 10k cycle flash being used in routers and dying unexpectedly are thankfully gone. :)
The worry I have is that there isn't load-balancing across the media, so most of your erase cycles are going to be concentrated in a relatively small area of the memory. Thus you don't need a complete rewrite sync, *any* rewrite sync is going to consume lifetime. (I see the usage scenario of a device of this type as: some % is the static set of files, which you always want on there, and some other % is the volatile, in-and-out files, and it's in this area of the memory where the erase cycles will add up.
It doesn't change the _practical_ longevity of the product much, but if you go into it thinking that you have to erase and rewrite every bit 100,000 times before the unit dies, you're not going to be happy down the road--my (admittedly limited) direct experience with Flash media is that it doesn't degrade like a hard drive, where bad sectors get marked and the system stops using them, thus merely reducing your storage space by the amout of the damage, but instantly and completely.
Besides, I'm inclined by nature and training to see the negatives of a situation, and communicate those negatives clearly. :)
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-09 08:30 pm (UTC)I am a poor predictor of what music I will want to hear between syncs, and since I currently _do_ have everything in my backpack, on my Flashtrax, I don't see why I shouldn't have everything in my pocket.
I see devices like this as a hard drive first and a media player second, so I'm very into the $/GB ratio. And bigger is always cheaper in these things. Also, not having room for _one more file_ pisses me off unreasonably, and happens far too often even with my 80GB Flashtrax.
Finally, it saves me $600+tax and accessories to hold a hard line on this topic. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-10 01:54 am (UTC)I'd point out though, that flash memory being used in the iPod nanos is rated in the range of 100k write cycles. At 10 *complete rewrite syncs a day*, that's still 3 years worth. That isn't anything to be worried about. The days of 10k cycle flash being used in routers and dying unexpectedly are thankfully gone. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-10 05:34 pm (UTC)It doesn't change the _practical_ longevity of the product much, but if you go into it thinking that you have to erase and rewrite every bit 100,000 times before the unit dies, you're not going to be happy down the road--my (admittedly limited) direct experience with Flash media is that it doesn't degrade like a hard drive, where bad sectors get marked and the system stops using them, thus merely reducing your storage space by the amout of the damage, but instantly and completely.
Besides, I'm inclined by nature and training to see the negatives of a situation, and communicate those negatives clearly. :)
Apropos...
Date: 2007-01-11 06:22 pm (UTC)Just announced at CES, or so I understand.
With 32GB available now, won't be long before we see real capacities...