IPODS... Questions for IPOD users....

[jrallan26]

My wife and kids want IPODS for Christmas. I think its a great idea (I don't have to listen to my son's music). I have a question before I plop down to get a few.

First question... Do I have to use Itunes? My already has a ton of MP3 files, I don't wish to pay for the Itunes service.

I am thinking about getting the new 8g Nano for my wife and 2 sons. Should this be sufficient???

Where is the best place to get one? I am thinking about going to apple.com

[calrockx]

I'm pretty sure you have to use iTunes to get the music from the computer to the iPod. But that doesn't mean you're spending any money.

itunes is the program on your computer you can use to play music on your computer, or transfer songs to your ipod. Also, it has a store section, which links up to the itunes website/store where you can buy songs online, but you don't ever have to use that feature. The program itself is a free download and easy to use and friendly to navigate.

Is 8gb enough? Well, how much music have ya got? 8gb will store around 2000 songs. Consider the future, the MP3 collections will grow.

I don't think you get much price break anywhere, apple.com works.

[jrallan26]

I think maybe I should think about a bigger one... Good to know thanks...

[paddlenbike]

The iPod is designed to sync with iTunes and it does a good job. The software is pretty user friendly in terms of managing playlists for multiple iPods, even from the same computer/album collection.

iTunes will recognize your existing mp3s and add them to your library. This is how I intially started, then I began to download songs through iTunes. The only real bummer I have seen so far is related to the digital rights management (DRM), which limits what can be done with PURCHASED music through iTunes. For example, purchased music goes right on the iPod without any issues. But if you monkey around and decide to put those same purchased songs on a Windows Mobile PDA, you have to tell iTunes to burn the purchased music to a CD in mp3 format, then copy the files back to your harddrive, then onto the PDA. Of course, you lose some sound quality through the compression/recompression routine. Now iTunes has DRM free music for extra cost.

8 GB seems like plenty if you don't have a massive music collection. I bought a 30GB iPod because I thought I needed the space, but even after ripping all my existing music CDs to digital format using iTunes, merging my existing mp3s and downloading iTunes music, I still have something like 27 GB free.

[MTL_4runner]

My wife and kids want IPODS for Christmas. I think its a great idea (I don't have to listen to my son's music). I have a question before I plop down to get a few.

First question... Do I have to use Itunes? My already has a ton of MP3 files, I don't wish to pay for the Itunes service.

iTunes is free software you install on your computer that manages all the MP3 files for you and keeps your iPods in sync every time you connect them via the USB. The ONLY time you pay with iTunes would be if you bought a song online for download.

I am thinking about getting the new 8g Nano for my wife and 2 sons. Should this be sufficient???

My wife who likes music has an 8G and she really likes the slim form factor. I'd say usually the Nano is better for adults since they tend not to have the music collection that kids do nowadays. So most younger folks go for the larger hard drive size of a standard iPod so for them they may prefer 20 or 30GB versions. It really depends on if they'd give up some drive space for the slimmer ergonomics of the Nano. I know I would and 2000 songs is still a lot of music to go though. If they are into watching TV clips and stuff on there then buy them the biggest iPod you can afford because nothing eats up HD space faster than video. I don't know your wife or sons so you'll have to decide based on what they'd use it for most.

Where is the best place to get one? I am thinking about going to apple.com

Apple.com is probably not the best place to get one (unless you buy refurbished). Ebay is always good but if it is for Christmas you don't want to risk not having it arrive. Believe it or not Amazon.com is a good place to get them at a good price, they usually have free shipping and no tax.


Responses in red above.

[Henrythewound]

I Agree with all the responses above. I had an ipod mini that crapped out on me just after the year warranty was up. Apple would do nothing to help. I got pissed and sold it on ebay and bought a creative player. I now have another ipod (bought used) because I did not like the navigation on the creative player nor using windows media player to manage my files. For my uses, itunes does the trick although I dislike many features it has (always wanting you to download a ~50+ Mb new version, any songs purchased through iTunes forgetting they are authorized to play, etc). Get the ipod for ease of use and use itunes to sync. I do not recommend the itunes store but I may be biased based on my experience.

[Cebby]

I bought a 4gb iPod Mini for my wife a few years ago. It actually sat in a drawer until I went and DL'd iTunes and uploaded all the CD's we wanted on it. We quickly found that 4gb wasn't enough. So we change up playlists from time to time to manage this storage shortcoming. I probably had about 500 CD's that I uploaded, but some of those had only a song or two that we liked. I didn't just mass upload everything.

At a buck a song for iTunes songs, it's really easy to start chewing up capacity in 20 song chunks. I really like the iTunes interface and the iTunes store. What's nice is that it just plain works - no monkeying around like I've experienced with other MP3 packages that use WMP.

My kids are too young for iPods right now, but they've already expressed interest so I know it's coming.

The 8gb for the wife and larger HDD style for the kids sounds like good advice.

[surf4runner]

Fry's electronics has em on sale occasionally (dunno the equivalent for you)

i thought the 30gb (w/ video) was sufficient, in less than 1 year i only have 4 gb empty :smokin:

[Markduce]

Its after xmas but ol well

iTunes has the largest library of DRM free music in Plus section. Also does a really nice job with its smart playlists.

Mine also come in handy to take movies into work to watch on slow days. Using the video cable to connect to the plasma on the wall.
My 30gb Ipod
Songs -1586
Videos -9 all full feature films.
11.7gb free.