My wife’s brother gave her 60GB iPod, but it has no cables or charger. I found a USB 2.0 Sync Data Cable for it on eBay for $2 and it’s description claims: “Easily charge your iPod by simple connecting to USB port of your PC or MAC”.
Will a cable like this charge the iPod without anything else such as an adapter that plugs into an electrical outlet?
Well, yeah, but it’s strange that her iPod didn’t come with that cable to begin with. It’s how the thing synchronizes with iTunes (or what ever other software you use) and it’s how it charges. You can get an adapter that’ll charge it from the wall, but it won’t synchronize. There are also adapters that will charge it from the cigarette lighter of your car, but again, it won’t synchronize.
How did she get anything on there in the first place? Maybe her brother loaded it up and forgot to give her the cable.
Her brother has had it for a while and lost all the cables and accessories. It has a ton of music that he has put on it.
I found another deal on eBay that has the same cable and an outlet and car charger, but it says: "Compatible with: ** iPod with dock connector only including iPod 3G, 4G, 5G (with video), iPod mini, iPod nano**
Do I need that dock for anything, or will I be able to synch with my PC and put new songs on it with just the above parts?
The only thing you need to charge the iPod and upload songs is the USB charger. I will say though that it’s nice to have something that’ll charge it in the car. There’s an item out there that’s both a charger and a little FM transmitter. You set it to a certain FM frequency while it’s hooked up to your car’s cigarette lighter and then you tune your radio to that station to listen to your iPod. MUCH better than the those tape things that were traditionally used to listen to a portable CD player.
So with a cable like this, I’ll have all I need for charging and synching?
That looks right to me.
Second that the ‘cigarette lighter in the car/transmitter thing’ is handy, though I find it is way quieter than FM radio, so if you change from the iPod to a real radio station, you get a blast of loud until you scramble and find the volume knob. YMMV
Does it have that problem with the FM transmitter? I know it’s near impossible to get proper sound with the tape item and I have to crank it up and still not get too loud. My friend had a transmitter and she didn’t have a problem with the sound at all. From what I’m reading in the reviews it has something to do with the sound settings?
I will give that a try the next time I’m in the car. Our biggest challenge here in Toronto and South-Western Ontario in general is finding an FM frequency that doesn’t already have a radio station on it. I’ll try tweaking the EQ and see if that does anything. Many thanks, AngelSoft!
Actually, charging an iPod is not recommended. They are very sensitive to quick motion and if you try to charge one it will drop you at ten meters.
Much better to sneak up on one, preferably on one’s belly, in the hope that you can get your hand on it before it can take up a defensive stance.
Prepare to be disappointed with a modulator (“little FM transmitter”). If you are in a heavy populated area you may get all kinds of interference. Finding a clear frequency can be a challenge and change within a few miles. Yes, they do what they say they will but not as seamlessly as they would like you to believe. Actually, I’ve had better luck with the “tape things” as poor as they are.
Agreed. My car only has a CD player, so unfortunately the tape adapter is not an option for me (though I wish it were). With the FM transmitter, it’s best to get one which has multiple programmable presets so you can adjust the frequency based on where you are. I know that where I live (Bay Area), I have one preset for home and another for work; requiring me to switch over partway through my commute. Of course, in lesser populated areas this is not as big a deal and one frequency may well work the whole way through.
I always have 8 extra AA batteries on me. That’s not counting the four that are in my camera. All rechargeable.
I’m a photo nut and I have to be prepared.
I found a AA charger for ipods. Link. It worked great for my 80 gig ipod classic. I actually never even fully killed the classic battery but 2 AAs brought it all the way back up from 1/4 full. I only did that once.
I bought an Ipod touch and thought “hrm, battery dead, charge on the walk to work. Cool.”
Not cool. It didn’t charge. And it doesn’t charge in the plug in speaker system that it plays fine on either (the 80 would work fine for it).
So I found this, a small battery you can plug in to charge then plug into your ipod when needed.
Just to let you know about the whole charging issue.
Just be careful with the whole syncing thing. Ipods are linked to one computer, so if you try to sync anything new to it from your own computer rather than the original owner’s machine, the ipod will wipe itself. I understand that there are ways around this problem easily available on the net, so do your research before linking to iTunes.