I’m considering buying an ipod or another mp3 player for my wife for her birthday. I haven’t done much research yet, so I’d like to hear Doper’s opinions on whether I should get an ipod, another mp3 player, and, if I do, what is the best way to get songs to play on it LEGALLY! Thanks in advance.
Just bought an iPod mini off eBay to give as a gift for my wife. IMO, other players might have more storage and cost less, but you can’t beat the iPod for the combination of size/capacity/ease of use, which are important for something you’re planning to use all the time.
As for the best way to get music, I just rip my CDs to MP3s most of the time, though occassionally I’ll buy something from Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
I absolutely love my iPod. I don’t have a CD player in my car, so the radio transmitter is such a blessing. I carry it with me everywhere. It’s incredibly easy to use and incredibly easy to sync. iTunes is a great program for transferring your cds to your iPod. I can take it from listening in the car, to my walk to work, and then plug it in to my computer speakers and listen from work too. It’s fabulous.
My only complaint: with the new iPods, the ones with the touch pads - the buttons don’t work if you’re wearing gloves (d’ur) so operating in cold weather is a little inconvenient.
There have been several threads proclaiming the greatness of the iPod a few of which include my high praises, so try a search. Nothing else quite compares.
It is quite easy to convert the CDs you own to an AAC or MP3 file format that be quickly transferred to your iPod (or other mp3 player). The Apple iTunes software handles all of that. The brand new version 4.5 released today is very rich in features and free. You can also purchase and download singles and albums from the iTunes store legally.
I have also digitized many vinyl albums that I own. More technical and time consuming but very achievable.