“… needed a $300 fix.”
JohnT I’d say most of the fascination holds for those of us who don’t drive. I love mine, because I am often stuck standing on a bus to and from work, which discounts reading and knitting. If you drive, you’ve got a jukebox on wheels (which is why my brother doesn’t have an ipod). It’s a way to tune out the others on the bus, and have something of interest (I’ve been downloading old radio shows lately to sync and listen to, as well as books and a couple of knitting podcasts) rather than stare out the window and day dream, though I do that too.
Otherwise, I don’t get much use out of it. A battery charge lasts me most, if not all, the work week. But it’s something for the almost 3 hour’s a day I’m on transit.
I much prefer it to a walkman or cd player, because it’s less bulky than carrying the player plus all the cd’s/tapes that make up the same amount of music/books that are on my player. I can change my mind and not be stuck listening to something becasue I forgot what I was in the mood for at home.
Yes but even if you drive you have to carry tapes or CDs. I am sick unto death of CDs - I don’t have a burner on my computer. I used to make mixes myself all the time anyway.
I never ever listen to music in the order it comes. I constantly make mixes. My iPod as I said before is all in playlists, and probably not playlists other people would like either! iPod is the best thing that ever happened to me for music…also since my tastes vary widely from indian to American music.
A ~$30 accessory will let it play in cars through a FM radio (although a stereo designed to play MP3 players is even better). Better for working out than any CD player. Less need to carry or change CDs. And for a subway rider like myself, coupled with good, noise-isolating headphones, it is a joy. But, too each his own…you don’t have to like it. Hate it - go ahead, I give you permission. 
[hijack]Bastards at the Epson, HP, Lexmark, Canon, Brother, et al printer divisions already do this[/hijack]
I LOVE mine.
I loaded it up with pretty much every piece of music I own, ripping from CDs. It’s also got some TV shows, cartoons, comedy CDs, photos, and contacts loaded onto it. I take it with me on long walks with my dog, listening to whatever my heart desires. Right now I’m totally hooked on podcasts, which I subscribe to via iTunes, which downloads new episodes whenever they’re released.
I take mine with me in the car, plugging it into an adapter I bought (here’s where we get into accessories), so I take my entire music library and podcasts with me when I drive. So I can be listening to a particular podcast or comedy routine on my walk with my dog, then the next morning plug the iPod into my car and start right where I left off.
I’ve got a cheap iPod compatible clock-radio in my bathroom, so I can also listen to my music library in the shower, getting ready for work.
I take it with me, so I have my iCal synced calendar wherever I go. If I suddenly want to show my friend a picture I took, I can find it on my iPhoto synced photo library.
There’s also cables available to plug your iPod into your TV, watch your movies or shows on a regular set. Or listen to your iPod on a better sounding stereo.
Yep, I love my iPod.
I don’t have an iPod, so this for iTunes, but the same concept applies.
None of my songs get any ratings or genres.
it sounds like the OP could have been written about me. My harddrive is extremely disorganized (I think I had a IMHO thread about this last year), but I am extremely anal about keeping my ipod organized.
Here are my rules:
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NO singles. Albums only. If I don’t like the band enough to put their album on there, their crappy single doesn’t belong either.
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no greatest hits albums unless your band is Journey or you’ve released 10+ albums and I just don’t like you that much, and even then I try to do box sets or collections rather than a single greatest hits album (Rolling Stones 40 Licks, for example).
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Always include the complete data before adding it to my ipod. That includes artist, album, genre (which is often wrong upon arrival), artwork, year, track & disc #, and that crappy warez group stuff in the comment field removed.
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For artists who use their real name (Lisa Loeb, Billy Joel, etc) it always goes into the LAST NAME, FIRST NAME format. For bands that have a first name, last name form, but aren’t the actual artists names (Franz Ferdinard, Richard Cheese, etc), they keep the FIRST NAME LAST NAME format.
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For classical music, it gets put into the appropiate time period genre (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Contemporary), artist is the composer, the opus is the album, and the track titles are the movement titles. Single tracks, such as a collection of overtures by Rossini, get put into one album called Overtures and get numbered chronologically.
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The star ratings serve two purposes. Songs start off with no rating. When I listen to a song that I like, I give it 3, 4, or 5 stars - 3 meaning it’s a cool song, 4 means it’s a great song, and 5 means it’s one of my favorites. This is for my 3-5 Star, 4-5 Star and 5 Star smart playlists. I also give a song 1 star if I decided the song/album sucks and want to delete it, and 2 stars if some of the data (artwork, etc) is missing or wrong and needs to be checked.
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I manual sync my ipod, and do NOT keep my entire collection in itunes library. Once I sync it over, it gets deleted from my harddrive. Yes, I do DVD backups of my ipod every couple months.
-If I listen to at least 2 minutes of a song, I ALWAYS FF it to the end before changing tracks, so that it will register on my # of Times Played count.
So someone gave you a portable audio and video player for your birthday but since you don’t need a portable audio & video player you’re wondering what to do with it, and why a portable device would only come with headphones? Can I give you my home address? I’ll pay shipping.
Seriously though, if you can’t use it, then you can’t use it. But I’d love a new video iPod. As others have mentioned, it’s pretty easy to get the wires to plug it right into your home entertainment system. The ability to carry all my music, pictures and even video around with me is awesome.
At home I have my laptop plugged into the stereo & TV, so I can play music and watch videos. The iPod would basically be like my laptop, but a heck of a lot smaller & lighter.
A lot of your rules are alien to me but this one really got me. The whole point of the iPod to me is so I never have to listen to their stupid crappy album again! Just goes to show ya I guess. 
Oh yeah. I totally forgot. I also have my favorite stand-up comedy on my iPod so on really long trips where even the music is making me sleepy I can put on Lewis Black or whatever.
Besides, how else could I listen to Bach’s Concierto for Two Violins one minute and then immediately follow it up by “Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy?
I’m this way myself. The majority of CDs I buy are compilations and movie soundtracks because there is maybe 5 bands that I enjoy most of their songs. This way I can get more of the ones I like instead of wading through a half dozen songs for the 3 I like.
You have four extra words at the end of your sentence there…
Get a headphone jack >> cassette adapter and play it through your car’s stereo system. That’s what I do. And it’s one thing, the size of a deck of cards, with all of my music on it. No need to go digging around for cds or tapes to take with me or search through, etc. And the cassette adapter (generic) only cost like $3 on ebay, brand new, so it’s not exactly a big expense.
Oh also: AUDIOBOOKS!
Well, it seems that you are very limited as to where you can listen to music - only while jogging? Many of the reasons people buy an iPod won’t apply to you. I agree that in your case you might have spent your money unwisely, and a small portable radio could have been sufficient.
I use it at work. I used to carry CDs back and forth from work, and I was often dropping and breaking the CD cases. Now I carry one small portable music device. This music device can also be used to store radio shows, podcasts, audio books, etc.
I can use it it to easily bring photos to grandma’s house to show her a slideshow of her grandson’s trip to Disneyland on her television. I can take a movie shot on my home movie camera and transfer it to the iPod to show on a TV at someone else’s house.
When I hook it up to my home stereo, I have access to hundreds of songs at the touch of a button, instead of having to open the tray and change CDs.
You could use it as a personal organizer - your address book and your personal calendar stored on the iPod, automatically synchronized every time you hook up the iPod to the computer.
I also use it as a portable hard drive to transfer files back and forth from work - much more capacity than a typical thumb drive.
Of course, once you start buying attachments, you can have it do a plethora of other things - use it as a boombox, use it in the car, use it as a recording device, etc.
This is one of my more maddening complaints: Why can’t I have both a Composer field and a Performer field. And why can’t I have the year it was composed, as well as the year it was performed? I actually do list the year of composition since that’s more relevant, and it’s interesting to hear a random mix from a given year.
Everything must have album art. Even if I can’t get album art because it’s a live bootleg track or something, I’ll just find a neat picture of the artist and stick it on.
Also, I use the rating system all the time. 1 star = deleted next time I dock; 2 stars = song belongs in a playlist haven’t created yet; 3 = the tags need changing in some way (like song is missing album title etc…); 4 = songs I have heard from listening to the iPod on shuffle that I didn’t know I liked (mass imports from friends and things) and have decided I like; and 5 = my top rated, timeless classics I can play over and over again and will never get sick of.
I’m obsessive over playlists. I have:
One for any songs added in the last 2 days.
One for any songs added in the last 14 days.
One for the last 25 songs played.
One for the last 100 played.
One for my top 100 played.
One for my top 25 played.
One for songs that have never been played.
One for any song containing the words Tori Amos or Imogen Heap.
Plus a playlist for each of the star ratings.
I’m not that fussy about genres and composers, things like that though. I don’t tend to use them so much. I’m sure I have more crazy rules, but they’re so ingrained after just over 3 years of ipodding (and 6 ipods) that I can’t even think of them right now.
“Year” is crucial. Always refers to year of first release. Unless it was left unreleased for a while, then it refers to year of recording.
“Album” field always refers to first release. If that release was a single or EP instead of an album, then it gets a [Single] tag. If the song was associated with a movie, TV show or play, it gets those designations.
All songs must have correct album art. If it’s a single, I seek out the 45 sleeve art. If it’s a show, I get a screen cap from that show.
All songs must have composer credit.
All songs get sound checked by iVolume.
I use the “Grouping” field in a different way than it was intended — I use it as a field to collect certain artists who have performed under different names so I can create a Smart Playlist for them. For example:
- Eric Clapton (Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominoes, Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith)
- Beatles (Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Wings, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, etc.)
Articles and short prepositions are un-capitalized.
I’ve just started playing with the new “Sort” fields so I can, for instance, put “A Tribe Called Quest” is filed under “T” rather than “A.”
All songs are rated. Songs with a rating less than 3 stars get deleted.
I have a car stereo with an audio input jack so I just use a cheap headphone cord that goes from my ipod to my stereo. Voila, my entire cd collection available to me on any car journey I take.
The first rule of iPod is…
Nah, that would be too easy.
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One thing I try to do is to list all the personnel (musicians only, not engineers or producers) in the comments section so I can make smart playlists of all the songs with, e.g., Adrian Belew on guitar. This is mostly when I know there is some overlap on several albums.
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I try to note songs that are covers, for a “covers” smart playlist
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If I imported it as an mp3, I try to remember to convert it to m4a for size reasons.
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If it’s world music, the genre should say "world/[geographic location]/[country]/style
e.g., World/South Pacific/Bali/Gamelan or World/South America/Argentina/Latin/Tango -
I will leave 2 identical recordings of the same song if they came from the original album and a compilation.
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I try to be as exact as possible in assigning genre. The “slash” genre is legion.
- I disagree with this completely; when I think about the song instead of about the artist, it makes it easier to hear the song for what it is. Listen to Physical Grafitti and tell me it’s all hard rock/heavy rock. “Boogie with Stu” is obviously boogie woogie.