iPod versus Sony ?

wolfman

SiMaster wrote:

the bottom line is they are rubbish, your battery will go maybe a year or two down the line if your lucky. while this isn't a problem because you can replace them - BUT apple will charge close to £100 to change it for you. plus it is well known they rarely send your ipod back but someone elses who needed a new battery.

It's £60 if I'm not mistaken. And also it's not just iPods that suffer from that. It's common in Lithium Ion batteries which most mp3 players use. The Apple batteries have also been much improved since the 3rd gen iPod.

SiMaster wrote:

you can change the battery yourself but there is always a risk of frying your hard drive and chips.

It's not that difficult. Have done it myself. You'll find plenty of step by step guides out there with pictures to help you. You just have to be prepared and patient.

SiMaster wrote:

personally i would never own an ipod because of itunes plus i hate being a sheep.

You don't have to use iTunes just because you have an iPod. Also it's not about being a sheep, it's because the iPod is the best all round mp3 players on the market. Everyone has different wants and needs, but it's able to appeal to a very large market. A lot of the time people buy them, just because they aren't aware of the alternatives. Apple have marketed it very well.

sra

I don't think Ipods/Itunes are as good as the fans say or as bad as the haters say.

It's just a matter of preference.

It's the exact same as all the debates about best browser. I could never use IE as a browser now I've tried others, and I often think others are mad to use IE. But at the end of the day if it suits them and the way they browse then that should be the end of it.

I've just been through all the videos tutorials for Itunes over at apple.com and when you take time to look through all the features it is actually a fantastic piece of software - If only it weren't so clucky and bloated.

When this laptop dies on me I'm pretty sure that a large contribution to its demise will be the strain Itunes puts it under!

veruccasalt

Well, I have been reading throught this with much interest, as I am also about to take the plunge and quite fancy an ipod. I have a few questions that I wonder if you can help me with:

is it difficult to get music onto the ipod. I have lots of old CDs that I would like to get on to it. What leads and computer connections do you need, and where do you get the leads from?

Also, any tips on what sort of size, and what are good places to buy from? I expect to use it on a daily basis, probably up to 1 hour a day?

Also, has anyone seen any good bargain prices recently?

Finally, I quite like the idea of downloading radio programmes that I have missed-is that easy to do, and does it cost.

Huge thanks to anyone willing to give me the benefit of their knowledge!

veruccasalt

Oh, sorry I have got one other question: what is the difference between an ipod nano 1GB (approx £109) and the ipod shuffle 1GB (approx £69). Are these a good way to dip my toe in, or would I be better going the whole hog for a ipod video 60GB (£299)?

Aiadi

Hi, you can download iTunes from apple's website now and see how easy it is to use. Just pop your music CDs into the PC and it will rip your music onto the hard drive and organise it in folders for you. Really increadibly easy. When you get your iPod, you'll just need to plug it into the PD using the supplied USB cable that comes with it and it will automatically transfer all your music from the PC onto the iPod in seconds (well depends on how much music you have).
I have personally gone for the 60GB video iPod as you can also store videos on it and watch them either on the tiny screen on the move or buy a cable to plug the iPod to your TV and play them on the big screen. On top of that you can also obviously store all your photos on the iPod and either watch them on the device itself or on TV. The reason I went for the 60GB is that you can also use it as an external hard drive to store your important files and documents or even computer programs so you can have them with you wherever you go. Finally whatever you choose, make sure you get on of the metal cases available on ebay to protect your iPod. Probably the best £299 I've spent.

sra

You can see how to do just about everything with Itunes and Apple from the website where there are video tutorials on everything

Itunes
Ipod

veruccasalt

Alexjohnson
Just hitting the thanks button doesnt seem enough!! Thank you so much!
I really like the sound of the radio programmes (big fan of R4), so that will be fab. I kind of think I am going to love it, and so am inclined to splash out and get the biggest I can now so that I can grow into it.
I'm going to look out for special offers. I looked on the Boots website this morning as they are currently doing double points which would equate to nearly £24 to spend on aftershave or something to keep DH sweet. Unsurprisingly, they have sold out of the £299 one, but I will keep looking. Thanks again so much for taking the time to give me such a detaIled answer!

Omertron

BBC tuturial on downloading can be had here: * Clicky *

The BBC Radio programs available are here: * Clicky *

sarymclary

Hi,
As a very new owner of an ipod nano, and someone who had a very similar dilemma when it came to owning an mp3 player, I thought I'd share my experience:
I got an ipod shuffle for Xmas, but found it very difficult to use, as, without a display, it's not easy to see whether your music has been downloaded, and I simply couldn't fathom how to get my music from Windows Media Player onto the iTunes Library, which is the ipods default music player (you can't use WMP with the ipod). The shuffle uses the colour changes of one little glowing light to designate whether the ipod is 'busy' and not to be disconnected, or if it's charged/needs charging, and I found that it wasn't responding properly, so returned it to Argos unused.

A couple of months later, I decided to take the plunge and have bought an ipod nano. I admit I was wary of the ipod product, having not been happy with the shuffle (the plastics are dreadful on the shuffle, by the way), and had read some bad reviews on the Amazon website about battery life issues. However, when I looked at all the other comparative MP3's, the ipod has to win hands down on size of unit compared to size of memory. The nano is about the size of a credit card holder, very lightweight, and the 2GB, which I bought for £139 from Argos (including free £20 pack of 5 multi-coloured silicone protective sleeves) holds more than 200 songs so far.

The only issue I had was that the instruction booklet with the product is very simplistic, and is totally biased towards you only just starting out at 'ripping' your CD's, or buying music from the itunes music store. I've got more than 2000 songs already stored on my PC, and I get all my new tracks from a free 'shareware' site called Limewire.Com (Bearshare.com also does this), which works on the principal of everyone sharing their music for free.

I got a terrific response on this chat forum to my queries as to how to get my current songs transferred, and if you do it via Windows Explorer for your CD's and I did it via Windows Shared Media for the Limewire tracks, it was quite easy to simply ask it to 'Open in itunes' or to in iTunes select 'File', 'Add File to library' (for a single track) or 'Add Folder to library' (for an entire album file). The basis is that you have to get your songs into the iTunes library in order to 'update' and add them onto your ipod. Once you get your head round that, you're off and away.

The benefit of the nano over the shuffle was that I can see the display to say how many tracks are stored, battery life, selecting playlists, or a particular artist or album. You can even use the ipod itself to make a playlist of your favourites, without it being hooked up to the PC. Handy if you want to put your top favourites onto a separate list (I use it to put my quieter songs to one side for when I read in bed at night). The nano also gives the option of 'shuffling' your music, you can store digital photos on it, there's a contacts list, games and much more. I simply wanted something to put my music on for when I'm on the move, out for a walk, or just doing the housework.

When I compared it to the other makes out there like Sony, Creative, or Zen, which had all had good reviews, the size of them was the main downside. They're bigger than the average mobile phone, which I didn't think was the idea for a lightweight portable music device. I think the young kids like the novelty of the videos features, but I doubted I'd ever really use it. I've got a digital camera, and a mobile phone with a PDA feature for all my organisation needs. I simply wanted a very small, lightweight MP3. You get all the cables, protective screen film, slip case, CD driver for the PC, etc with the unit.

Last of all, make sure you get a protective cover for it. I bought a leather case with detachable carabiner (hooks securely onto your belt loop/handbag,etc) from Currys for £14. The silicone ones with a neckstrap looked a bit flimsy. I've also bought myself another pair of in-ear headphones as I find the standard ones supplied with all MP3's are far too big for my ears. Philips (has split-lead, so you can shorten it) and Sony do ones with 3 different sized rubber ends, and I'm using the smallest supplied. They were about £35 from Currys, but hopefully your ears aren't quite as small as mine!

scheming_gypsy

limewire = you're going to get shouted at.