Shuffle or Nano (or similar)?

Norman-B

I'm about to venture into the world of mp3 players for the first time. I want to listen to talking books (90%) of the time and the remainder to music. Am I correct in thinking that if I buy a shuffle or similar, I will only be able to go to the start of a book at any given time? ie, say I listen to 50% of a book and leave it for another day, will I have to go back and start all over again or can I go back to where I left the book?

My pal seems to think that for my needs, books, I will need to buy a Nano. Advice welcomed.

ps, I have seen a Creative Zen plus for £75. Is this worth looking at?

mostly

worth looking at the zen stone plus 35.50 at amazon.

isofa

You can set-up the correct playlists on your computer for the nano, but you only have play, and buttons to skip each track, back, forward and so forth. So jumping to another book wouldn't be so straight forward.
Each track could be a chapter, and it will remember where you are, so that isn't a problem. But if you put several books on the Shuffle it'll be harder to navigate through them. BUt if you are popping back to a computer all the time, it's easy to upload a different "playlist", book(s) or set of chapters in the order you want.

The Nano will handle everything you can throw at it and more, we have had loads of different players in our family from various brands, but have found the Apple models to be the best.
We now have a Shuffle and Nano, and both work flawlessly, I love the Nano, as I like to switch between tracks, search, I much prefer to have a display to choose and select though.

I think it'd be better to get one with more functions if you intend to listen to books, providing you can stretch your budget.

Hope that helps.

pulliptears

Argos had the 2nd gen nano (the one without the video) in store behind the collect points, £59.99 for a 4gb. Its ideal for a starter ipod

Im a big fan of nano, just upgraded to the Nano video

Norman-B

Thank you for the helpful replies! Looks like the Shuffle is off the shopping list.

Is the Creative Stone similar to Nano?

mostly

its more similar to the shuffle apart from its got a display & more storage.

unrich

With the recent release of a new range of iPods and impending xmas saturnalian indulgences you should be able to get deals on the older ipods.

Ipod mini's in mint condition go for about £45 4GB/6GB. You get a small screen which may help in organizing what you listen to.

Prices may drop further as the days begin to lengthen.

isofa

pulliptears wrote: »

Argos had the 2nd gen nano (the one without the video) in store behind the collect points, £59.99 for a 4gb. Its ideal for a starter ipod

Im a big fan of nano, just upgraded to the Nano video

Second that, the "just replaced" 2nd generation Nano's are a bargain price, Martin even added a few links to a weekly moneysaving email about snapping them up too.

(No such thing as an iPod Mini btw, I assume unrich meant a Nano.)

For full details and specs visit: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

ckerrd

isofa wrote: »

Second that, the "just replaced" 2nd generation Nano's are a bargain price, Martin even added a few links to a weekly moneysaving email about snapping them up too.

(No such thing as an iPod Mini btw, I assume unrich meant a Nano.)

For full details and specs visit: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Ipod mini was out long before the nano. You can only get them second hand now. My OH loves it (bought a few years ago)

isofa

Yes of course it was, you are right ckerrd and unrich, how technology moves on (especially since I purchased several belkin leather cases for minis as presents a few years ago!). Worth pointing out that the old Minis have greyscale rather than colour screens.

Red_Rose_Exile

Why not get a "chipod" like this one. They look like an ipod, do everything an ipod does and a lot more, with a vastly cheaper price