I am planning on setting aside a bit of money soon and using it to buy an Ipod or something similar. So what do you recommend? The only thing I have had has been a cheap MP3 player with no features. Tell me what kind of Ipod you have, why you like it and so forth. Also recommend the best ways/places to get music for it. Also don’t leave out other products like the Zune if you like that. Any help would be appreciated.
Depends what you want. If you’re looking for mobility, the shuffle is the way to go (although I don’t like the newest one-- they put all of the controls on the headphones). Ideal for jogging or travel, plus cheap.
If you want it primarily for listening to in the car or somewhere that a heavy one wouldn’t be an issue, go for the classic if you have enough music to fill it.
In between those is the nano, which is really light but still has a decent capacity. I don’t have a ton of music, so I have a nano for my car, and use a shuffle for exercise. I find the classic too bulky for my taste, but for storage space it really can’t be beat.
I’m not much of an iTunes fan, but I manage my music primarily through Winamp, so that’s not a problem. I do find it kind of frustrating that Apple hoards its batteries and makes it difficult for the user to replace them. I guess that’s good marketing?
I have a Touch and I am obsessed with it. It was a gift, an 8 gig. I have about 20 gig of music so I just picked all my favorite stuff, about 3 gig worth to put on it and I change it up every once in awhile. I also learned how to encode my DVDs so I have video on there; I watch stuff when I am biking at the gym. I also have a lot of fun little games, I’ve played a LOT of solitaire, it’s great to bust out when I’m waiting around to kill time. Having the internet and my Gmail set up on it is cool when I am in a wifi spot. I’d really love an iPhone for the constant internet access but the Touch has no monthly fee so I’m cool.
The only thing that’s really annoying is changing songs - I like to keep the screen off when only music is on so I don’t drain the battery for no reason, and I also have a code lock on it. So when I decide the song on sucks, I have to turn the screen on and enter in my code to change it. Not sure but maybe the headphones with the controls could avoid this?
It really depends, do you want it just for music? How much is a bit of money? Are you already familiar with iTunes and the finicky old lady slowness of it?
But I think the best all around ipod right now is the ipod touch. You can get an armband if you want to exercise with it, as it’s slim and weighs next to nothing, but the touch screen and wifi and all the apps make it like a mini computer/entertainment center. The 2nd gen Touches have the Nike + software built in, if tracking running might be what you’re into (still need to buy the sensor separately) since the Touch doesn’t have the GPS–I’ve been using my iphone and the runkeeper app, and that aspect of these types of ipods is pretty neat.
My husband loves games and there’s a ton of them in the app store, some of them quite good and quite cheap, and loves the New York Times app. I like the more “useful” apps that track or store info–9tools and epicurious, or the ebook apps of Stanza and Kindle. If you can think of something, it seems there’s an app for it.
He still wanted to get a shuffle though, for running, because he doesn’t like the armband thing and thinks managing that stupid white floppy cord will be easier somehow if the machine it’s coming from is lighter. It just came today and I’ll be taking it for a spin to see how easy it is to use–I kind of can’t imagine using this the way we usually use our ipods though, and as an only ipod, I hope we don’t lose the fancy earbuds it came with, with the integrated volume control and center select, yikes. I hate how floppy the new cords are too, they bounce around like crazy when you’re running.
You’ll never fully realise how disgustingly greasy your hands are until you’ve handled an ipod touch. If you get one, get a screen protector and a case, although I have managed to drop the iphone on the cement sidewalk unprotected and it just got a tiny little triple stipple on a corner. We’ve dropped the touch and the iphone (wearing their silicon jackets) on hard tile a few times (once one of them was accidentally flung quite a ways before impact) and they’ve been just fine, so they aren’t as fragile as they look.
On refreshed preview:
myskepticsight you can change that under the settings menu->general->home-> select ipod so that by pushing the home button twice it brings up the ipod control (a simplified menu that lets you skip back or forward or pause/play) without having to wake it up. Or if you buy the 3.0 OS, there’s the new “shake to shuffle” feature.
Anyone use a touch for working out or outdoor exercise? I’ve got a 2nd generation nano which is perfect for those. But, I know it will eventually die on me as it has very heavy use and been banged around a few times.
I use my Touch at the gym with an armband, but only when on the bike really, because all my weightlifting and more difficult exercise is done during classes where I need to hear the instructor. The screen is glass and mine at least doesn’t have a scratch on it, but I’d be afraid of banging it into something while weightlifting and possibly cracking the screen. If you want a mp3 player to abuse at the gym I’d recommend a back-up cheapy refurb Sansa clip or something. If you’re like me and just do cardio and stuff a Touch is fine, just get an armband so you don’t drop it. And the armband is cool for me when I decide to use a recumbent bike, cause the way those bikes at my gym are, I can take the armband off and hook it onto the bike so I can comfortably watch my videos like it’s a little TV.
And thanks, Tortuga, after I charge mine back up I will check that out.
Where do you plan on getting your music from?
I like the Creative Zen - I get to drag and drop what ever music I own onto it, and can add subscription music from Rhapsody onto it with no difficulty - I can transfer those with Windows Media Player or the Rhapsody program. I find the subscription cost to be a much better deal than 99 cents a track - I get to listen to a wide range of music for one low (to me) price. I download a dozen albums each month - it’s like being in a candy store.
I have a nano, an 80GB classic, a 32GB Touch, and an iphone - lots of ipods here although the Touch is for sale right now. Ironically though the Touch is actually my favourite of them all but I needed a new phone anyway. I haven’t had any problems with any of them beyond having to reset them once in a blue moon. I also haven’t had any issues with itunes. As far as which is best it really depends on what you want to do with it. I kept the nano (for my wife) and classic because they work best with my car stereo. The iphone is for the phone and portable e-mail mainly but I use a lot of other features on it.
I have a large enough CD collection that most of my music came from there and about 20 albums from itunes. Make sure you back up your music! A lot of people don’t even think about it until something happens and then they’re kicking themselves in the ass. I limit myself to about 74GBs of music so I bought an 80GB external hard drive and copied my entire itunes folder to it. There are other ways to backup but that’s what works for me.
I always point people to the ilounge website. It was very useful to me in getting started with my ipods, especially the tutorial sections.
Double-click the home button (the big round one at the bottom). You’ll see iPod controls appear, so you can change songs without having to unlock it.
If you get an ipod, do yourself a favor and the minute you connect it to iTunes, DISABLE THE “SYNC MUSIC” OPTION. It will eliminate 80% of your potential headaches.
I would opt for too much storage rather than too little, although that’s gradually becoming moot.
I would also opt for something with a display. I don’t think a shuffle would be a good 1st ipod.
The 16gb nano is $199 and the 120gb classic is $249. :eek: 16gb is a lot of music but for another $50 you get all that storage. 120gb is overkill, IMO if you’re just doing music with the thing.
I don’t know much about the touch, except that I’d get the iPhone first.
I think out of all of them the 120gb classic is probably the best value, unless you’re into what the touch offers.
I have an 80gb classic with mostly music, some movies that my girls watch once in a blue moon, and a bunch of pictures. I’ve used a little more than 1/4 of the storage. I like buying album after album and putting it all on the ipod. My first was a 4gb mini and I ran out of space pretty quick. Plus the battery management sucked.
If I wanted walking around mobility I might get a shuffle, but I don’t do walking around listening to the ipod much anymore.
I use it 95% of the time in the car. I have a Belkin mixer that I plug it into at home and I can record music to it directly (I dabble in composing/songwriting).
Sure I’m tempted to get something newer but I haven’t come close to exhausting this thing yet.
I used to use rhapsody and emusic but let my accounts expire after getting what I wanted. I get my music from itunes store, ripping CDs, or dubbing audio into one of my music programs (Acid, Cubase, Wavelab, etc.) and then exporting it to MP3.
I just bought an mp3 player, a Sony Walkman. (Hey, what can I say? I’m a child of the '80s!)
I really like the idea of an iPod, but I don’t know that I like the iPod itself. I’ve heard too many bad things about iTunes to put it on my computer, and while I know that you can use other programs to manage your music, it seems to me that if you do so, you’re just paying an additional premium for looks and packaging (and buzz, that too). They’re undeniably cool, but I couldn’t justify spending an extra $50 (at least!) for a comparable player just because it’s from Apple. So I went with the Sony, and like it so far.
It doesn’t require any additional software - it does come with Windows Media Player 11, and it says that you’ll need to install it to do drag-n-drop, but I found that wasn’t the case. Everyting worked fine on my system that only had Media Player 9. And I know that the Windows player isn’t optimal either, but it was already there.
I’ve avoided a solid state music player for quite some time now, but recently received a free Motorola EM330 Music/Media cellphone as part of an AT&T provider plan. And I am quite happy with this “best of both worlds” multitasker. I’m kind of draconian like that. I usually wait until the prices bottom out, or the next format comes out, (or I get it for free…in this case) whichever comes first… living through records, cassetes, CD’s, MP3’s, VHS, Beta, Laser Disc, DVD, now Blu-Ray, etc. will do that to you. My decision was also based on the fact that I really had no burning need for constant portable music, I listen either on my computer at home or the radio in the car. I have used a cheap CD walkman portable device that was gifted to me maybe twice. I really like music, but I am not tied to my collection and just listen to it aloud if I am reading at home… Not much of a jogger, kind of a homebody, if I were a student I would listen at a lecture, feel no need to punctuate every moment between classes or in the library with music… I don’t see them as status objects and value practicality over “techno hippness”…
That said, I am quite impressed with this phone/MP3 player, Not only is it one of the clearest phones with the best reception I have ever had, it is a perfect MP3 player for my situation with an equalizer and powerful playlist and search options and with cheap 2 gig MicroSD cards (you can get them for 5 bucks online) I can have my entire music collection at my disposal on my “communicator”. With the MicroSD flash USB convertor it is simply drag and drop, and many computers now have the drives built right in. Also, I have found that by ripping my CD’s to WMA format on variable (which is one of the several audio formats supported by the phone) I can easily fit upwards of 20-30 full CD’s on a MicroSD with negligible loss of fidelity. The Battery is also surprisingly long lasting, and gives me quite a bit of play time. One can also download music directly from several online music stores with the phone.
When it comes to this kind of thing, I think the new trend, as with the Iphone, will be bundling multitaskers. I definitely buy into the Alton Brown multitasker ethos… never buy a single purpose item.
iTunes is a mess… I’ve tried to use it, but it just wouldn’t work.
Oh, one other thing, I had been wanting to get a fairly powerful flash drive for the last couple of years, but I couldn’t justify the expense. The MicroSD’ and its USB flash convertor killed that bird with with this phone. At around 3 dollars a gig it’s very affordable, and now they have a 16 gig capacity MicroSD.
The Nano is much more compact than the Classic, and durable. I carry my Nano in my shirt pocket every day and I don’t even notice it’s there. I wouldn’t do that with a Classic. Also I’ve dropped it onto the floor countless times and it hasn’t failed yet.
I’m thinking about getting a Classic to supplement my Nano though, so I have access to my whole music library while I’m at the office. Then again, I may just copy the library onto my laptop…
As for the iPhone, it comes with a monthly phone bill. If you need a smartphone anyway, that’s OK. If you don’t really need a smartphone, it’s a lot of unnecessary expense.
While possibly true, this is a really unhelpful comment. iTunes works, and works well, for the vast majority of users. Call it a hunch, but I doubt you just “tried to use it” - rather, were you wanting iTunes to do something that it isn’t designed to do? How exactly did it “just wouldn’t work”?
For the casual user, iTunes (while bulky and slow), works perfectly fine for storing and organizing music, and transferring that music to a portable device. Its specific functions are, in fact, intuitive and easy to find and use.
What kind of features do you want, that it didn’t have?
Amazon.com is one good source. They always have a few free songs available, and a “deal of the day” where they offer an album for $1–4. Don’t forget that you can always get music the “old-fashioned way,” by ripping from any CDs you have (which lets you pick the bitrate you want). And you can find free music, among other things, at the Internet Archive.
I tried to download ripped music from my PC to a friend’s iPod with a dial-up connection, total FAIL. It’s fine, I’m sure, if you have a Mac and everything starts with a lower case i, and you have all the patches and veri.
What do you mean, download to an iPod with a dial-up connection? The iPod doesn’t have a modem.
iTunes is somewhat bloated and slow, but I’ve never had any problems with it on various Windows computers I’ve used it on.
Nope - I don’t have a Mac. Nor do the vast majority of iPod owners who use iTunes I’m sure (based simply on the number of Macs out there). Not really sure what you mean by “dial-up” as my ipod connects to my computer via a USB cord. Likely, all you had to do was authorize your computer for that iPod, which takes two clicks of the mouse.
Seriously folks - if you get an ipod, 95% of your problems are solved with the following:
- Disable “sync music” (“Music [tab]” -> uncheck “Sync music”)
- In iTunes, authorize the computer you’re using (“Store” -> “Authorize Computer”)