both my son and daughter have requested an IPOD for their birthday. OK - I am never been much into downloading or music (other than my CD and DVD players). Can you copy your music CD's directly to this device or are you forced to download songs from Apple's site? Do you think I ought to buy the iPOD mini or the shuffle? Can you sync using USB 1.1 or do you have to use 2.0?
You can in fact copy music CDs to an Apple iPod once you "rip" the CD into mp3 files or whatever format the iPod understands. Trust me there are students in your kids classes who are already doing it. If your kids ever buy music from Apple's iTunes Store be sure they get a program to remove the copy protection.
You should be able to convert the CD's to MP3's or what ever the format is for the IPod. An alternative to the IPod is the m:robe . The m:robe 500i does music and photos.
I've used various MP3 players over the years, and I recently got the 4 GB iPOD mini. By far it is the slickest and hassle free player I've ever used (and probably the most expensive.) Transfering files from CD to your iPOD is super easy. Put the CD in, press import, and that's it. Downloading songs from iTunes is easy too. You can also use the iPOD as an external HD to store documents and so forth. Looking back, I should have gotten the 40GB version because I had a lot of CDs I would like to transfer to it. I would recommend the mini over the shuffle. You need a USB 2.0 or Firewire port. The book to my mini doesn't say USB 1.1 won't work but "is not supported and is significantly slower."
Mr. Engineer, There has a been a few misleading posts here, but Edowave has it right. Copying CD's is direct and easy. Use the import function, and the Apple software 'iTunes' will automatically convert the CD contents into its own AAC format. Just as useful, it works the other way. Songs downloaded from the Apple iTunes store are in AAC format, but can be burnt onto a CD in MP3 or into a standard CD format to play in your car/home stereo. A useful function of buying music from the Apple iTunes store is that you can listen to the first 30 seconds of the song before purchasing, ensuring you don't make a mistake. It also allows you to pick and chose songs from an album, so you can just download the ones you like. My advice is don't get the shuffle. It has a small capacity and you cannot create 'playlists' whereby you group your songs into 'lists', which you can select and play depending on your particular mood. I have the 20GB regular iPod. This holds 5000 songs approx, and I am nowhere near that, and won't be for a long time. If your children are young/ish they would probably prefer the smaller coloured iPod mini. It has the exact same functionality as the regular iPod, but with a slightly smaller capacity. If your kids are the 'cool' type (aren't they all?) don't compromise with any other MP3 player, as they will not get the same playground kudos, critical for youngsters! Buy a good set of headphones with it, the standard ones are awful. Your kids may want to stay with white ones, but there are now higher quality white ones available, from Apple themselves and others. The remote control is also a nice accessory, although you get another set of the rubbish headphones with it for some reason! The iPod has literally been my best investment this decade. I would recommend it to anyone! PM me if you have more Q's. All the best, Dave C.
I have the 99 dollar IPOD shuffle. I love it. I have a limit of 120 songs, but only have 72 on there right now. My only complaint is when you put on the shuffle, it will shuffle the songs, but shuffle will remain the same order as before. I hope that made sense. The IPOD Shuffle is lightweight and is very totable.
Ohgod... here we go again. Why PM? What... you don't want us to learn from your answers, too? It's just my opinion, mind you... but it's maddening to me how many people have it all wrong about the purpose of forums; and who try to go private with discussions for no apparent reason. Forums are more than just places where the questions get asked. In fact, the questions aren't even the most important part. It's the answers that matter. When we take them private, we circumvent the whole purpose of places like this. But I digress. Back to the topic: My partner won an iPod in a raffle at a company picnic this summer. We've never even taken it out of the box. It's an Apple product, after all... so I'm afraid to unpack it without a clove of garlic hanging from around my neck. (kidding!)
Not iPod My husband got me the Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra for Christmas. It is an MP3/wma player. With 40GB it holds all the music I can hope to put on it. My kids have iPods but I like being "different." I believe this is the second highest selling brand of MP3 player even though a lot of people have never even heard of it. I even burned my 70's LPs to CDs and then ripped those to my Creative Zen! I bought a new stereo for my car so I don't have to use one of those FM transmitters; I can directly plug my player into my car's stereo system. Cool stuff!
