Ok then, I am getting an iPod. I work hard enough, and have been spending responsibly for the last several years, so I feel I deserve it!
Now, what should I know about iTunes & the iPod? I should specify I am on Windows, as I haven’t made the jump quite yet, though this may be a step in the right direction. I’m also in Canada, so we don’t have the mini yet (do we?), and we have no access to the iTunes music store yet.
I’m planning on getting the 15GB iPod, with a dock (to hook it up as a permanent component to my home stereo), and an 2 AC Adapters, 1 for the car and 1 for the house.
I am actually looking forward to not just the music, but some of the little extras on the iPod. In particualr, the ‘Notes’ feature that displays text files. I am typing up directions to places I don’t drive frequently enough to not get lost, and a few other things I wish I could carry (tip table, and sports teams schedules as well)
As for iTunes, right now I am importing all my CDs to my hard drive. This may take a few more weeks, but I’m getting there. I’m hoping i have all my settings right as I’d like to avoid having to go back and re-do anything later. Any advice?
I’m not sure if you do it this way, but you should probably do all converting of your CDs with iTunes, making use of the AAC format. Syncronising with your iPod will than be really easy. I’m using a Mac, so YMMV.
You said you’re using windows but didn’t mention how you’re connecting the iPod.
I’d highly recommend installing a fire wire if you don’t have one already. (Since it charges the iPod and the battery won’t run out when transferring songs via USB2.0).
A couple other “niceties” I’d suggest:
New earphones. The ones that come with seem too tiny for me and keep popping out and the sound quality is just ok.
iTrip. This is as good as the other transmitters to radio stations for sound quality and reception (IMHO) and also runs off of the iPod’s battery so no plug ins to a cigarette lighter or extra batteries are needed.
A better case for it. The thing gets scratched up easily and I’ve never been too comfortable with the one that comes with free. I bought a Marware brand one that has a clip on, a removeable front cover, direct access to the dials, and a nice strap for working out.
Also, check out iPodlounge for a lot of great info.
If your music collection is less than the storage of the iPod, just set your iTunes/iPod preferences to update your entire library automatically. Then it’s brain-dead easy – you plug it in, iTunes syncs everything, and your music is always with you wherever you go.
And to cotnradict electrozion a tad, there’s no need to encode everything in AAC if you don’t want to; most of my stuff is still in MP3s, and the iPod doesn’t have a problem with that. It might increase the size of your files and reduce your iPod storage, but that may be moot depending on the size of your collection.
(…going to give my wife her brand-new iPod mini tonight, as a matter of fact…)
I found that using the foam covers that come with the iPod earphones makes an enormous difference in comfort. Without them, I also have trouble with earbud-type phones popping out, not to mention making my ears sore. They’re a pain in the butt to put on, but well worth it. When they get dirty or lost, you can get cheap replacements at Radio Shack.
NEAT! I have nearly 2 GIGS of just music by The Cult…of course that’s every single note they ever recorded over almost 25 years (and thankfully the largest single artist in my CD collection).
I think I’m going to get the 20GB iPod, so I’m not sweating 2 GB going to one artist; I think I’ll be able to fit my entire CD catalogue on the iPod. -At least anything worth keeping.
Thanks for the advice so far. Anybody else want to add anything?
When I first started using iTunes a few months ago (after a couple of years of using EphPod software to manage my iPod), I managed to wipe out all the songs on my iPod.
How? Well, I had iTunes set to automatically sync my iPod when I connected it, and since I don’t store my songs on my PC (not enough hard drive space) the only things in my iTunes Library were the songs I had just bought from iTunes.
So when iTunes sync’ed its library with my iPod… poof - all songs gone except the ones that iTunes knew about. Ouch! Hours of work putting my CDs on the iPod gone in an instant.
I promptly set iTunes to only sync manually.
YMMV - this catastrophe was probably in some way my fault, but it was such a pain to redo all that work.
BTW, I use iTunes & my iPod on a Windows PC.
I also still use EphPod (www.ephpod.com) for most of my iPod management. I like it better than iTunes for most functions, though I still have to use iTunes to add the m4p & aac songs I buy from iTunes to the iPod, because EphPod doesn’t work with the protected files from Apple. Once the songs are on the iPod though, EphPod will manage them fine - it just can’t be used to add them.
Also, IMHO, the MusicMatch Jukebox software that comes bundled with the iPod sux.
If you have live cd’s or any that do not have silence in between songs, use “join cd tracks” under “advanced” in the itunes menu to rip the tracks as one song, or else there will be a slight pause between tracks.
I bought one for me and one for the Wife right after the mini was announced (got two 10 gigers for about $230 each) It WILL change the way you listen to music.
At the high point in music trading, I had about 73 Gb of music…I then burned the stuff I was never EVER gonna listen to to DVD+R and the collection has shrunk to about 35 Gb.
It plays AAC and my Mp3’s perfectly…I’ve bought quirte a few albums from iTMS, and have been playing around with www.allofmp3.com while it’s still around. (Yeah, the SAYS it’s legal, and it’s in Russia, but I doubt they’ll STAY legally in business forever.) I’ve been buying stuff from them at 160 kbps VBR.
I’ve thought about doing this, but will it merge the two tracks permanently? By that I mean, say I’ve merged ‘TRACK A’ with ‘TRACK B’. Is there any way to listen to just ‘TRACK B’, without having to listen to ‘TRACK A’ first?
The capacity of the iPod shouldn’t be any larger than the hard disk space you can devote to iTunes without your computer locking up. I had so much on iTunes that my iMac (20 gig HD) stopped working. I have the 30 gig iPod. I now have a 120 gb outboard hard drive, but that’s just for storage. I’m considering upgrading to 120 gb hard drives on the iMac and iBook so that the synch to outboard (and to iPod) is trouble free.