Hi - Hope this is the correct forum - My daughter wants an IPod for Christmas (she’s 14 1/2). I am pretty computer literate, but know nothing about these machines or about downloading music. I’ve seen ads for Ipods for under $100 but they don’t store as many songs (obviously). What do you experts out there think? Are the cheaper ones worth it or should we go with a “bigger” one? Any advice at all on this subject will be sincerely appreciated.
Among the MP3 players available, there are those that have disk drives and those that store the music on memory chips. The ones with disk drives will store 40 gig or more of data, which is enough to contain my entire CD collection. The downside of these is that they are expensive and fragile, compared to the memory storage ones. The memory-only players will store from dozens to hundreds of songs, they don’t cost much, and they can take a punch. Many teenagers are quite happy with the lower capacity of the smaller players, because they switch out the music frequently anyway. For a teenager, I think an IPod Nano would be perfect.
Here’s a previous thread with some advice and links to other threads.
The iPod Shuffle is under $100 but its functionality is limited. It has no display so it’s difficult to find a specific song you want to hear. But if you just want to put a bunch of songs on it and play them in random order, it’s the perfect choice.
The iPod Nano has a nice display. The 2GB model can hold maybe 500 songs, and you can easily pick out a specific song you want to hear.
The full-size iPod obviously holds more music, 30GB or 80GB versions being available. It may be less robust (more vulnerable to shock) than the smaller models because it uses a hard drive.
I think the Nano is the best choice for most people, while the full-size model is better for people who collect/accumulate a lot of music (100+ CDs) and want access to them at all times.
If you’re going to go with the Nano, I suggest getting the red one. It’s a new color, part of the proceeds goes to fighting AIDS in Africa, and I think it has a “cool” factor going for it as well.
Thanks so much for the responses & links.
Now, once I decide on the Ipod, which of the multitude of accessories available out there are really useful? Which do you guys like or find necessary? Gracias once again.
Definitely some kind of cover or case is necessary. I believe the new Nanos are metal and I assume they scratch easily. There are tons of different iPod cases - leather, plastic, rubber, ones that go on your arm for working out, etc.
Most other accessories I’ve seen have to do with charging on the go (in a car) or playing through other speakers (like FM transmitter for car, or standalone iPod speakers). Those are all up to you.
The middle schoolers I’ve seen recently have this thing that plugs into the bottom of the Nano and they wear it like a necklace. A lanyard connector or something like that? It has earphones… ah, I found it on Apple’s own site.
I got my 12-yo daughter an iAudio G3:
It comes with a clear plastic cover, and a lanyard to hang it around your neck. It’s a tiny thing, about the size of a lighter. One standard AAA battery will power it for up to 50 hours, and it holds around 500 songs. It also has a FM radio function, and it can record from the FM radio, voice with a built-in mic, or an external line-in source.
As long as your daughter is about the music and doesn’t have to have a genuine “Apple iPod” for the status factor, I would highly recommend this player. The trouble I have with iPods is that you can’t just drag and drop songs to it; you have to use their iTunes software or other software. When you plug the iAudio G3 into a USB port, it comes up as a drive letter and you drag and drop songs/folders into the Songs directory, in whatever Artist/album structure you want. Also, this player uses flash memory for storage, which is more reliable than hard drives, which will eventually fail.
I like the Creative brand “Jukebox Zen” models. They have up to 60 gigs of storage and are, IMO, a whole lot more versatile than an iPod. You don’t have to use that wretched iTunes software, for example. Oh, and you can replace the battery. At least way back when I had an actual iPod, once the battery was shot, you had to get a new iPod.
I was at a Regal Cinemas last night, and one of the pre-movie commercials had a handheld device for video and music, that apparently could connect right up to other users and share files wirelessly. Does anyone know what device that was? I forgot the name for the website…
I’d go for a 4GB iPod Nano with some form of casing (i prefer rubber, for traction) which is around $150 and a GOOD headset. My current favourite is the Koss PortaPro, which has simply suberb sound at a very good price 
(Around $50)
At any rate, I’d prioritize the headset, really. Get a cheap memory-based player and a good headset and she’ll thank you (eventually) 
In all probability the Microsoft Zune - http://www.zunescene.com/
Oh man. If you can talk 14.5 year old girl into wearing those things, you should be selling ice to eskimos. They want cool. They want portability. They’re not going for the Geordi look, no matter how good they sound.
Also, I wanted to pipe up and pitch the Sanyo SanDisk player. I have the 4GB one and I love it. I connect to Rhapsody and sync over dozens of albums with no problems. And all for one flat fee every month. I will let you know - there is a compatibility problem that screws up the names/titles when you transfer from Rhapsody, but I always shuffle anyway so it’s irrelevant to me.
It is a whole different feeling though than iTunes. While I like the concept of “owning” the digital music you buy, I’ve adapted to “renting” pretty quickly. Especially since I get so much access to so many albums that I would never buy. For example, the other day I really wanted to hear some Django Reinhardt. So I went online and downloaded 5 of his albums. Piped them over to my Sanyo player and now I can listen anywhere. I think a teenage girl would like being able to grab whatever she wanted. Want the latest hit? Just download it and throw it on your player. And it’s all legal!
Other features of the Sanyo? You’ve got FM which is nice sometimes. And it runs on a single AAA battery, which I prefer. I definitely recommend it.
That appears to be it! Thanks!
It’s worth noting that music you share via the Zune are wrapped in Microsoft’s digital-rights protection scheme and can be played only three times by the recipient. This includes previously-unprotected MP3s and other music that you may legally own.
I also like Steve Jobs’ take on the Zune file-sharing gimmick:
Probably a dumb question, but what OS are you using on your computer? My tale of woe.
Why is this a good thing? Using iTunes you can have many playlists with songs in ay order you want. Can’t see how dragging & dropping is superior.
You can configure iTunes to let you drag-and-drop music to an iPod.
The point is, for an iPod you have to use iTunes, or some other special compatible software to get music onto your player. Without it you’re dead in the water. When the music is copied to the iPod, it’s stored in a special directory structure and the files are renamed 0001.mp3, 0002.mp3, or something along those lines. And you can’t copy music off the iPod at all without third party software.