Ipod classic 160Gb or 149Gb ?

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Level 1

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Ipod classic 160Gb or 149Gb ?

Just bought an Ipod classic 160Gb.

When syncing, noticed on summary that capacity indicated 148.79Gb

Usage numbers are : 225 Mb used; 148 Gb free

I asked a local salesperson on suspected flaws on the hard disk.

A local support technician replied ( to my astonishment ) that :

1 - Apple meant that 160Gb = 160 000 000 000 bytes. ( !! )

2 - to figure out why capacity marked 148.79Gb we should perform the following:

160 000 000 000 b / ( 1024 * 1024 * 1024 ) = 149.011 Gb

as there are 225Mb used, this yields to

149.011 Gb - ( 225 Mb / 1024 ) = 148.79 Gb as resulting capacity

The statement made by the local techie that Apple treats 160Gb as
160 000 000 000 bytes is technically wrong and totally unconvincing.

I just bought a 160Gb Ipod and that means 160Gb, strictly speaking, and not 149.011Gb.

I strongly suspect that there´s a set up going on.

I´d like to know your views on this respect, and what can I do about it.

Itautec, Windows XP

Posted on Dec 19, 2007 4:57 PM

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Answer 1

StarDeb55

Level 6

19,695 points

Dec 19, 2007 5:31 PM in response to lstorch

There is nothing you can do about it. This is standard practice in the computer industry when calculating capacity on any drive, it's not just the way Apple calculates things. I have 2 Lacie external HD's, one with a posted capacity of 250GB, but the usable capacity is something like 225 GB. It's simply the way the industry as a whole runs their calculations, & Apple is not "ripping" anyone off.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30065

Message was edited by: StarDeb55

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Answer 2

lstorch Author

Level 1

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Dec 19, 2007 5:48 PM in response to StarDeb55

Thank you +very much+, StarDeb55, for your reply.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Dec 19, 2007 5:59 PM in response to lstorch

It's called marketing...

In SI notation the kilo prefix means 1000, mega means 1,000,000 and giga means 1,000,000,000. So to describe 160,000,000,000 bytes of storage with the abbreviation 160 gigabytes seems plausible. On the other hand memory is generally allocated by assigning a number of bits to hold the address. 10 bits gives 1024 possible addresses. By convention then, 1024 bytes is called a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes is a megabyte and 1024 megabytes is a gigabyte. Using this convention for the size of a gigabyte, the same 160,000,000,000 bytes gives 149.011 gigabytes.

Both numbers have some claim as a valid description of the capacity, but you'll think you are getting better value for your bucks if it buys 160gb as opposed to 149gb so it's no surprise that the larger value is used. This is nothing new in IT marketing.

tt2

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Answer 4

lstorch Author

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Dec 19, 2007 6:20 PM in response to turingtest2

The subtleness of marketing : to make a buck out of someone's distractions.

thanks for your insight.

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Answer 5

lstorch Author

Level 1

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Dec 19, 2007 7:54 PM in response to lstorch

To sum up things I must say that :

1 - The contributions from StarDeb55 and Turingtest2 were really valuable.

2 - Suppose I had a 6m wall and several 24" boxes. Would it be fair to calculate 6m / 24" in order to know how many boxes fit on the wall ?

In a similar fashion, this is what the industry does when calculating hard disk space.

Enough said.

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Answer 6

Jubal1

Level 1

0 points

Dec 19, 2007 9:10 PM in response to StarDeb55

Of course Apple are ripping people off, just because everyone does it, does not make blatantly deceptive advertising acceptable.

Sure, anyone who deals with technology knows what to expect, but the iPod and iPhone are mainstream devices and there's no doubt that people are being mislead, and apple are doing it intentionally.

'Standard industry practice' is no excuse for lying.

Message was edited by: Jubal1

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Answer 7

deggie

Level 10

167,525 points

Dec 20, 2007 2:08 PM in response to Jubal1

It actually isn't marketing or lying, and don't forget some space is used for software.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harddisk_drive#Capacitymeasurements

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Answer 8

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Dec 20, 2007 2:48 PM in response to Jubal1

If Apple (or anyone) stated the device was 149GB, the same people would complain because it contains a 160GB disk drive.

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