Does anyone have knowledge of iPods?? I am looking to purchase one for my hubby for his birthday, however, I am completely in the dark regarding their features, which ones are the best, yadda, yadda, yadda. I would love advice from you techie folks who have them, or have used them, and what you think!!! Also, what is the best for your buck?

Thanks so much!!!

Here's what you've got. Bear in mind, according to Apple, 1 song = 4 minutes.

iPod shuffle: 512 GB or 1 MB ($99/$149), holds 125/250 songs. No screen, which can be cumbersome. It's tiny (it can hang from the headphones without disconnecting).

iPod mini: 4 GB ($249), holds 1,000 songs. It's a better value than the shuffle, but you could do so much better...

iPod: 20/40 GB ($299/$399), holds 5,000/10,000 songs. This is where we start hitting the great value. If you've got lots of CDs or songs, definitely go for the 40-gig; if not, grab a 20-gig, which gives you ample room for any music you may acquire through the years.

U2 iPod: 20 GB ($349), holds 5,000 songs. It's the 20 GB mentioned above, only with a black and red dye job, U2's signatures etched into the back and a $50 off coupon for the U2 box set of CDs. It's a good value if you're going to get the box set, otherwise, skive off.

iPod Photo: 60 GB ($499), holds 15,000 songs plus photo capacity. Color screen, as well as picture-taking ability. However, there are so many other thingys with which pictures can be taken I never really saw the need for it. Use it for the massive music storage, not so much the pictures.

I would personally recommend either the 20 GB (my choice) or the 40 GB (tod's). BUt that's just me.

Hope this helps.

--Lt

My husband has a 40 gig iPod. He has a lot of personal CDs he's uploaded onto it- every CD he owns. Plus he's purchased and won additional iTunes songs.

Then he has it all arranged in categories, too. Very convenient for finding music quickly in the car.

To give you an idea: My husband is a huge fan of an obscure band called "Big Country." You may have heard of their one hit :rolleyes: "In A Big Country". He has so many versions of that song on his iPod that I started with the first one when we left the In N Out in Barstow and kept playing them, one at a time, until we were finished. We were practically home by the time we finished- and home is 90 minutes to 2 hours from Barstow. And this is just a small section of his iPod.

Adrienne

I agree about either the 20 or the 40 gb. Both my little sister and I have 15 gb ipods, which we got about 2 months before the 20 gbs came out (dagnabbit!).
Mine is about 2/3 full, but it is so full of junk I never ever listen to. I have almost every single cd I own (at least the songs I like off each album) plus about 1/2 of each of my best friend's collections. This translates to exactly 2197 songs (I just checked how many songs I have on my ipod the other day), and I'd say at least 3/4 I don't even listen to, but I like knowing it's there just in case one day I'm feeling like a little variety. (And with the ipod's computer like filing, I can create a playlist to only play the same 50 songs I ever listen to, over and over and over again, hah :rolleyes: :) )

I also recommend an FM transmitter, the best thing ever invented. It's a plugin that transmits your ipod connection to a low frequency FM station (similar to how satellite radio works). This way you can use your ipod with your stereo (or at work, like I do). Mine was on sale at Target for 20.00, but the only thing is that it sucks AAA batteries so quickly. In my car, I use a tape converter, those ancient things people used before cars came with CD players in the stereos.

Doc just told me he has about 5300 songs on his 40 gig iPod and about 10 gigs of free space left. That's about 407 CDs worth.

We use the tape adapter thing in the car.

Adrienne

One important point to keep in mind is that there are other music players on the market besides the iPod. Make certain that you carefully consider your husband's habits and needs and look at a variety of brands before making a final purchase. In particular, it is very important to realize that the iPod cannot directly play legally downloaded music from most online stores other than Apple's own iTunes. Music from stores such as Napster, RealOne, MusicMatch, Yahoo Music, MSN, etc. can not be played on an iPod without first burning it to CD and ripping it back to a compatible format (a process that reduces the audio quality). Of course, the converse of this is that music from iTunes can't be played on any other brand of portable music player without the same process. At least so far, Apple is trying to keep a stranglehold on both the portable player and downloadable music market by staying with a propietary format that they refuse to license to anyone else.

The iPod is a nice music player in a lot of ways, but there are also plenty of other very nice models out there, many that offer quite a bit that the iPod does not, often at a better price. It is a good idea to shop around a bit.

-Jeff

I have the 15 gig. We copied our cd's to it and now have about 1,500 songs on it. Unless you plan to run your own radio station with one I don't think you'll need more than 20 Gig. unit Keep in mind it does not replace nor come close to the sound quality of a good home system. It's just a nice portable unit. I use it in the car on long trips, however my car stereo plays mp3 disks containing about 150 songs with better sound that the ipod. My.02 (did that help?)

I have the 15 gig. We copied our cd's to it and now have about 1,500 songs on it. Unless you plan to run your own radio station with one I don't think you'll need more than 20 Gig. unit.

That really depends on how large your music collection is. I have a 60GB Creative Labs Zen Xtra and only have about 10GB left on it. While I could probably gain back a couple gigs by removing some of the Christmas music and other fairly specialized stuff in my collection, I still really couldn't see going with a much smaller unit.

Note that the music on my player is pretty much all encoded as 96kbps WMA files. My experience has been that anything much smaller than that loses too much sound quality. While iPods use AAC files instead of WMA, the file size for comparable quality is very similar.

-Jeff

I myself am pretty impressed with my 20GB RCA LYRA RD2780 JUKEBOX VIDEO MP3/WMA PLAYER w/LCD. Great picture and battery life.

I love it.

I have the 512 MB iPod Shuffle and love it, it rocks(I mean that literally since 99% of the music on it is rockin tunes lol). Right now I have 97 songs on it, which = 7.2 hours worth of music, and is using up 416.1 MB of my 512 MB total.

As was mentioned before it's wicked light, you hardly notice it at all when walking around. You can set it to shuffle position, which plays the songs in random order, or in play in order position, to play the songs in order. I don't need a screen since it's not that many songs, and I have a pretty good memory of what is where on it.

I never use the neck laynard that comes with it, I usually have it tucked into my wallet in my front pocket(so I can stiil acces the control buttons, or in a shirt pocket. I've read the Shuffles have slighty better sound quality than the other iPods, but have no first hand knowledge of it. The earbuds that came with it are fine for me now, although I do plan to get some different ones like the silicone plug types to use with it down the road since I don't always like the feel of the foam in my ears. I also plan on getting a custom decal kit for it soon. They have all kinds of cool little accessories for all the different iPod models these days.

I use it when I go to all 7 of the themeparks here in Orlando, and also when working out.

If you need more info on the iPods I suggest this site. http://ipodlounge.com/

I love my 40 gig (unfortunately, they don't make 40-gigs any more). It holds 1672 songs, and has 37.1 gigs left. I use it to interview people, it sits on the table and goes for hours. I have a little transmitter and listen to it in the car, and it's about the size of a deck of cards.

I paid $400 for mine, if memory serves, and $450 will now get you a 60-gig model that will also store pictures and show them on a small but razor-sharp color screen.

Although there may be better players out there, none has the panache of an iPod. I expect to use mine for many more years.

--t

Music from stores such as Napster, RealOne, MusicMatch, Yahoo Music, MSN, etc. can not be played on an iPod without first burning it to CD and ripping it back to a compatible format (a process that reduces the audio quality).

Doc reports that he has downloaded music from non-iTunes sources and converted them to MP3s for his iPod without having to burning it to CD first. He said there are conversion applications in windows that can do this without having to burn it to a CD and ripping it. He actually intentionally reduced the file so it would fit better onto his iPod but it was still a decent quality.

Just FYI.

Adrienne

I have a 30 gig photo. It's awesome! Color screen, holds pictures, and displays album art.

Another juicy tidbit of info is that you can get a discount on an ipod through the apple website by claiming that you work for a school.(they never check)

Doc reports that he has downloaded music from non-iTunes sources and converted them to MP3s for his iPod without having to burning it to CD first. He said there are conversion applications in windows that can do this without having to burn it to a CD and ripping it. He actually intentionally reduced the file so it would fit better onto his iPod but it was still a decent quality.


Yeah, there are some tools out there that will do that, as well as some that will strip the protection off of iTunes tracks and convert them for use on non-iPod digital music players without burning to CD. Technically, those tools are illegal to sell/distribute (they violate patents), but if you obtain and use them it is much more of a grey area.

There is a loss of quality associated with conversion from one compressed audio format to another (in this case, it would be WMA to AAC), although it probably won't be noticible unless you have a very good ear for it.

-Jeff

Another juicy tidbit of info is that you can get a discount on an ipod through the apple website by claiming that you work for a school.(they never check)

You can get one free if you steal it from somebody.

--t
Firm believer in karmic retribution

One important point to keep in mind is that there are other music players on the market besides the iPod.

My wife uses the Zen Micro and loves it. I use my cell phone as an MP3 player. I know some of you may be thinking I am crazy, lol - I have a Motorola Mpx220 Smartphone with a 512mb mini-sd card (soon to be 1gig) and with my stero headphones that doubles as a hands-free device I am a happy man :geek:

One important point to keep in mind is that there are other music players on the market besides the iPod.

It's also important to keep in mind that the iPod is the best one. And since I Heart asked which iPod was the best, and not which music player...

I have the iPod mini, Janine. It holds much less music than the regular ones, but then again I pretty much only use it at the gym. If your DH is a music freak then you might wanna consider the 20gb. I doubt he would use it for storing pictures, so I wouldn't even mess with iPod Photo. But like little tod said, the 60gig is massive. 15,000 songs!

But if the hubby plans on using it primarily at the gym, the mini is the way to go. It's noticeably lighter. I just strap it to my arm and that's it!

http://homepage.mac.com/stupid_american/photos/players.jpg
The Rio, left, was my first player.
The iPod, right, is my current player.
What would I buy next? iPod Photo.

My opinions aren't based on what I "feel" or what I've read (mostly 3rd person BS).
They're based on my own experience.

To date, not one iPod horror tale I've read has manifested.
It has actually performed beyond my expectations.



In particular, it is very important to realize that the iPod cannot directly play legally downloaded music from most online stores other than Apple's own iTunes. Music from stores such as Napster, RealOne, MusicMatch, Yahoo Music, MSN, etc. can not be played on an iPod without first burning it to CD and ripping it back to a compatible format (a process that reduces the audio quality). Of course, the converse of this is that music from iTunes can't be played on any other brand of portable music player without the same process.
How many files have you downloaded from these sources and put on your iPod?
Conversely, how many iTune files have you downloaded and put on your "RioReal Creative Zenmaster Jukebox XL5 Sports" ?

All the download sites have their little quirks.
Some are a bit more annoying than iTunes Music Store.

iPods use AAC files
Don't have a single AAC file on my disc.

Like it or not, iPod now dominates the HD player market, like PCs have the computer market.
They also have the accessory "advantage" that PCs have always had.

It's kind of ironic.
Apple invents the PC, and Microsoft captures the market.
PC guys developed MP3/HD players, and Apple captures that market.

It's also important to keep in mind that the iPod is the best one.

Well - we will have to disagree on that point;) I will agree they have the best MARKETING out there, and thus are the most sold - giving the impression they are "the best". But take IE for example, they are the most used form of internet browser - but that does not equal them being the best.

All of my co-workers at BB over in the wireless dept own a mp3 player, and not a single one owns a ipod. Also not saying ipods are not any good - obviously they are - but hey, take it for what you want - not trying to change the world here :geek:

It's also important to keep in mind that the iPod is the best one. And since I Heart asked which iPod was the best, and not which music player...

That the iPod is the best is your opinion and one I don't happen to share. Perhaps it was the best choice for you, but it wasn't for me.

As for the original question, the poster also stated that she knew very little about the product. At this point, it isn't uncommon for those that know little about the product line to use the term "iPod" generically rather than as a specific reference to Apple's products or to not even realize that other companies make similar products.

There is no question that Apple dominates the market for digital music players right now. Whether that is due to a better product or better marketing is certainly very open to debate. Regardless, it still is a good idea to research the plusses and minuses of all brands before blindly making a purchase.

-Jeff

SoCalDude and JeffG...


You're incorrect.


:p

SoCalDude and JeffG...


You're incorrect.


:p

Whether JeffG is correct or not, he only made a lame rationalization for the anti-iPod rant.
I wanted to know actual experience.

What someone reads, hears, or feels, and fires off as punditly advice, is of little value.

Okay, you don't like iPods; we get it.
You probably don't like Apple either; fine.
Just don't try to bury them in BS.

I wanted to know actual experience.
I like my iPod (20GB series 4). I don't use it very much, because I'm almost always in range of a computer or car stereo, but it's wonderful on airplanes or linked in to the car stereo on long drives. It plays MP3s just fine, of course. iTunes is not all that great from the perspective of a longtime Windows user--I'm sure the Mac community loves it--but it does the job of managing the files on the iPod.

Whether JeffG is correct or not, he only made a lame rationalization for the anti-iPod rant.
I wanted to know actual experience.

So you actually translate a suggestion that potential buyers research the different products and brands as an "anti-iPod rant"? And some wonder why Apple fans are sometimes accused of having a bizarrely religious devotion...

If someone actually finds the iPod to be the best choice for them, I have no problem with that. It wasn't for me, so I bought something else. I'm simply suggesting that anyone thinking of buying a music player really should look at all the options out there before spending their money.

-Jeff

lol, as I said above - "take it for what you want - not trying to change the world here". If some of you want to get hissy ant the folks who even suggest there MAY be something better out there..... whatever.

I do own a Zen Micro (currently my wife is the main user of it as I said above) - so I am not speaking from "what someone reads, hears, or feels, and fires off as punditly advice" - I AM speaking from "actual experience" - So I hope you do not take what I have to say as "little value" just because it may not be what you want to hear.

When I was at work today I (again) asked my friends that work in the wireless dept, that I trust with everything, about the ipods vs. other players. Well, since you will take their answers as something with "little value" I am not going to waste my time typing it - but I would think people who SELL mp3 players all day long and own mp3 players would at least have some idea of what they speak of.

I guess the bottom line is as long as it plays mp3s and you are happy with it then hey.... thats peachy.

I will not argue that the ipods are the best known name out there - but does that translate into them being the best? Nope... not in any way. And no, I am not saying in any way that ipods suck or are the worst players out there, so do not try to act like I am trying to bury them in any sort of BS or anythng that is not true.

And FYI - I like apple computers just fine - so that reason of yours is out the window :p