iPODs
 

Christmas is coming and Daysleeper is after an iPOD. Anyone got any good or bad comments on the 4th Gen iPOD. Probably the 20gig model but I might be able to stretch to the 40gig. :D

Pocket PC's come with a limited memory for MP3 compared to the 20/40 gig iPods, so it depends on what you want. The 20 gig model is enough unless you have a music collection that exceeds most - and some of the add-ons are fantastic.

However if you want one for Christmas you should have ordered it last month, you'll struggle to find anywhere that can deliver now in time. Looks like its going to be the number one present again!!

On a side note to the original question does anyone know how compatable iPods are to Windows XP? I have all my music stored with Real Player as .ra files and don't want to change them all to MP3 and downgrade the original quality. Is it easy to download into the iPod from the .ra files and convert as you do so or do I need to change all the existing files?

Hope this helps and thanks in advance :ok:

Any particular reason for an Ipod? They just seem so overpriced to my mind and don't even include a case in the price. The battery life is also pretty poor when compared to the competition. I have a 2 year old creative zen which has a 20gb hdd and haven't had any problems with it. The latest Zen Touch offering from Creative is saying there is battery life of over 20 hours. Since I use mine when flying long haul or commuting then battery life is a top priority but I can see that it is not the be all and end all to necessarily everyone.

Check out this site for reviews and information on what is available out there.

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/...=4a&filter_id=

A word of note: if you buy the 20GB iPod and then the remote control headphones and black case, you end up spending almost as much as if you'd bought the 40GB version, which comes with both in the box anyway.

Neither of them have a remote in the uk these days.
The only difference other than the size of hard drive is the 40G comes with a dock (£29 by itself) so its still an extra £80 for 20gigs of memory I will probably never use and a £30 dock I dont need.
Hmm useless extras, tempting.

As for the zen creations, well there is a certain something about the iPOD, which explains why it has over 90% of the hdd mp3 player market. Besides I dont have USB2 on my powerbook!


Should point out my entire cd music collection moved over on to the powerbook is 9 gigs. Its only taken me 10 years to collect it all.

I have a 10Gb ipod, which is more than enough - I've got a fairly sizable music collection, but 10 gigs is enough for all the stuff that I listen to regularly. If you could fill a 40Gb ipod then i'd bet that you'd almost never listen to most of it.

The ipod itself is great, and it's simplicity itself with a Mac. I remember the PC as being a bit more of a pain to use, but I didn't really try that hard.

One gotcha if you're using old hardware - the firewire port on my old Sony Vaio didn't work with the ipod, so something has changed at some point.

I have a 20 GB Ipod. Its the business. Also very very easy to use. I have borrowed loads of CDs to put on it and and all my Downloads. Try as I can, I can only get 7 or 8 gb on it. At that there is some music I would hardly listen to. Apart from back up for your computer, I don't know what one would do with a 40 gb model.

Speaking from the point of view of a complete novice when it comes to mp3 players, I assume that when you've got a squillion songs on your Ipod, there is some sort of cataloguing system so you know where to find something. How complex is it? Unlimited playlists? Folders? How does it work?

Yes, I tried the Ipod FAQ. but it starts a couple of rungs above my knowledge level, so be gentle with me here. :uhoh:

Sony have just brought out there own version of the iPod for £299. Looks a lot nicer and technically seems better as well (3000 more songs, double battery life on a charge, etc).

Binocs, Am not a computer expert like most of the bods in here seem to be. I found the Ipod software very straightforward. You can import your music folder into Ipods and it will be labeled the same way it is in that Folder. Also when you put a music CD into your computer that you want to transfer onto your Ipod, if you are connected to the Net, it will look up the CD content and label it all for you, which saves loads of typing. It really is pretty slick and easy to use.

Well its ordered. And despite an apple store note saying up to 5 days to build then up to 5 days for laser engraving I got an email today saying Dispatched. Hopefully here by the end of the week.

Cheers for the advice folks.

My 4th generation iPod works great under WinXP. There shouldn't be many differences to using one on the Mac, escept that you will probably need to install iTunes, which comes installed on all new Macs.

Realplayer also works with iPods, but it will convert all files to MP3 or AAC. Apple isn't too happy about this though. There are other programs that work with iPods too, like Ephpod and Xplay.

Just a note as this is a common misconception, AAC is not an Apple propriatary format but the planned replacement for MP3. The Fairplay DRM used for iTunes Music Store files is an Apple propratary format though. The Fiarplay is just wrapped around the AAC file.

As for the difference between the iPod and other hard drive players, for me it was the simplicity of the iPod. Others may be cheaper or have more features, but very few, if any, have as clean an interface. This includes both iTunes to organise your music and the interface on the iPod. The difference in price and battery life aren't that big anymore either.

Sony's new music players look good, however, based on my experience with their Minidisc players, I will wait a while until I see the limitations they place on them. They also have a habit of using their own music software that is far more complicated to use than necessary when compared to either iTunes or Windows Media Player 10.

My iPod does what it was designed to do very well, that is play music. It also performs very well as an external hard drive.

goates

I don't know if anybody has seen or heard this about iPod batteries

I'm also thinking of an iPod... just to clear it up... you get one, plug it in, and move all your mp3s onto...which you can then listen to as you move?

Corr, technology eh.

Have you seen the new iPod Photo? iPod Photo

Yeah the early generation batteries were a pile of pants. The 4gen (12 hours) , mini (8 hours) and Photo (15 hours) ones are good though.
There is a replacement programme for the early models, a guarantee in the new ones and a load of third party support now. Its an old issue.
Besides which for me if I go anywhere far away I take my firewire equiped laptop with me to charge from. Its mianly for long car trips (car charger)


As for the Photo , Its just too expensive at the moment for my pocket.:{


I'm getting very excited, though I'm not allowed to open it till christmas. Which as I'm scheduled to be downroute all day could be a bit of a bummer.

I'd love an iPod to be able to use the i-trip, but disappointed that there is no Fm radio built in, or am I wrong, please say Im wrong, please... :(

Don't drop it- it's like dropping your computer!

I have the 20Gb ipod and it is fantastic, I also purchased the i-trip with it which transmits onto any radio freq you require on car/house music systems. Nothing better than tuning the radios around the house to the freq and having your choice of music pumped around the whole house, from something the size of a mobile. Likewise in the car it has made my CD-Multichanger redundant. The fact is you put a CD inti your PC and the Itunes software will automatically open and ask if you want it imported into your library, easy as that. It is one of the most user friendly interfaces around today, none of the other MP3 players can match this. I have used the Zen and looked at the Sony and they can match ipod in Gb/hours etc but lack the ease of use.

Query
 

Just a question for those that have them. I was told that you can only use an ipod with one computer, that if you try and use an ipod with multiple pcs, for example yours, and then go and collect music collections from all your friends, it wipes them out, and only allows one pc to send to the ipod. Is this true?

Sort of, as with everything in life its a bit more complex.

In an attempt to stop music piracy Apple set up the iPod so that when you plug it in to a computer it synchronises the iPod with what is on THAT computer. So if there are tracks on the iPod that are not in the computer they will be deleted. However.
The iPod is so popular there is a large userbase of very clever people who have written little software tricks to allow you to do just about anything with it. So with a little knowledge easily obtained from the internet you can transfer songs back and forwards to your hearts content.

Good website for this sort of stuff

www.ipodlounge.com

Your not wrong. There was one under development along the same lines as the iTrip (ie a plug on) however it was stopped when the 4G iPOD was released (not compatible? perhaps, they aint saying) the manufacturer (think it was griffin) refuse to comment on whether one is back in development but its got to be a must have add on so surely one will be along soon.

I took the plunge and ordered not an ipod but a Creative Zen touch, 20Gb, £50 cheaper than a 20Gb ipod. Perhaps it was a moment of weakness, but the CC escaped and it should now be enroute to me :)

:E

Hi Daysleeper, great song that was, the cd single is in the drawer (somewhere!)

I'm a bit confused. So if you had a song on your ipod, and after plugging it into your PC (from which you deleted the song to save cluttering your h/d) when it AutoSyncs it see it isn't there and so deletes the song from the ipod?
So that would mean having 30gb of music on your ipod and still having to have it on the PC?

Is it the same with Creative, as I'm already nursing my 40gb hard drive from the dark ages, IDE

:E

Kestrel_909, I too went with Creative.

I was after an iPod mini (there is no point to having 40GB or so of space, you won't use it all for music, and even if you did fill it you'd never listen to it!), but went with the Creative Zen Micro.

Was meant to be an Xmas prezzie but charged it up and put a few tracks on (to make sure it worked avoid disappointment on the 25th of course), and I think it's so much better than an iPod.

COmes with 2 batteries for 24 hrs of music, holder, case, stand, headphones, and a software which is superb for organising your music. It also doesnt delete files like the iPod when you xfer from another comp.

Very swish, very small, and I am very very impressed.

Cheers Joe,

My only gripe then is how long it will take me to transfer all this to it on USB1.1 to begin with. The odd album or single every week or so doesn't bother me, it's getting the bulk onto it at first, so time to look for friends with USB2 :sad:

Thanks for the help, Merry Christmas :ouch:

I did about 53 mp3s files (i think) in well under half a minute...

... just to give you some sort of idea!

I much prefer the MP3 Cd players. Ok, you can't put 5000 songs on a CD, but, you can simply change CD's. I guess what I like is that I listened to it from LHR to MKY and back again, with a 12hr stop over in SIN. Still listened to it at work. Life of the batteries was over 130hrs. Only cost £80 as well, but of course cheaper in SIN.

I guess over time the battery life of the MP3 iPod types will improve, as we have already seen in mobile phones. Anyone remember carting around a brick phone!

My Creative Zen Touch arrived yesterday and after careful planning, a chainsaw and a few hours I managed to release it from it's bomb proof plastic wrapping.

First impressions so far are good. It feels very solid and well built, fits well into my hand and pocket. Preloaded with plenty of classical tracks already (the ones you know the tune but can never find out the name) which was a pleasant surprise.

Excellent sound quality and very reputable volume. Only took four hours to fully charge from dead.
I'm listening to it at the minute through the hi-fi on the other side of the room with a line, and sounds great apart from having to use twice as high as normal volume on the hi-fi but same with every device I do it with.

£50 cheaper than an ipod and longer abttery life, Im Happy :ok:

Wheras unwrapping the iPOD is a delight. Even the box is a work of art and is likely to live on the shelf for quite a while in its own right.

First impressions are good. took 4 hours to charge. about 5 mins to upload 1900 songs over firewire.
Played it about 9 hours and battery still going strong. Plugged in the iTrip FM transmitter and got clear signal driving around.

Only drawbacks. Looks very easy to scratch. The silver metal back is probably easy to brasso but the front acrylic will need careful handling. Glad I bought a large armour case to take it to work in.

Sound quality is excellent to my ears but I'll run it passed my classicly trained pro musician friend later and see what he thinks.

Got about 9gigs free to use a hard drive for backing up some critical files and adding more music.


Oh and the laser engraving of a message from my wife on the back is pretty cool.:ok:

I'm thinking about one of them. Any good there Daysleeper?

The iTrips work very well for an FM transmitter. As long as there is an available frequency in your area, you shouldn't have any trouble. Apparently some larger cities aren't so good for them, but Winterpeg should be fine.

My only problem with the iTrip are all of the small files it needs to load onto the iPod to set the frequency. If you use the Party Shuffle in iTunes, or shuffle all of the songs on your iPod, these will be played too. I know you can set up a smart playlist with everything except these, but it is still annoying.

goates

The iTrip is doing well so far (apart from being ilegal in the UK :E)

I've only used one frequency and driven about 50 miles. There s a little bit of crackle in the same place when i drive through town only lasts about half a mile (come to think of it its the bit next to the fire brigades radio tower, oops)
got a longer run tonight as I go to work so will see how it goes then.

Jer,

I'd recommend one for sure. I have no problems with sound quality in the car, but then that's because the car's so noisy anyway! It's great for holidays/hotels etc, just tune the clock radio in your room to your iTrip freq and away you go!

Goates, once you've set the freq and if you're not going to change it for a while, then you could delete those files.....

That's the problem. If I head out of town, I quickly run into problems with conflicting frequencies. I guess I could still remove all except the few I need, but then you are limited for the longer road trips. Just easier to leave them all on, and create a playlist that excludes them.

goates

Well, looks like I'll just have to invest in one of them. Thanks folks :ok:

Hello folks,

I dont usually hang out in this corner of pprune, but I have a question that I cannot expect any serious replies to in Jetblast !!

ipod mini has arrived over christmas to transform my listening life.

trouble is I run windows ME on both my puters .. thus the cd gets spat out and I am invited to upgrade to XP ... any tips/ tricks/inside info before I head down the complex and expensive route of either installing XP .. or buying a new system !! ??

HFH

I'm sure you'll find the answer here... www.ipodlounge.com

Hostie,
Winamps new version has Ipod support, and you dont need usb2 either,
here,
www.winamp.com

Has anyone tried Sony's new portable hard drive? I am not talking about the NH1 but the NH3 which I believe you can just use like an external hard drive?

I am thinking of buying either that or the i-pod 20 gig.

Any thoughts?

Be careful with Sony music players. Until very recently, the only format the players supported was Sony's own ATRAC format. While they advertised MP3 compatibility, they made you convert the MP3 files to ATRAC. As both are lossless, the quality dropped during conversion, as well as leaving you with two copies of everything.

Some of Sony's new players do support MP3 files natively, you just have to watch out.

goates