OT: iPod Help

[Stina]

Because I'm suppose to be the family techo expert (meaing I look up everthing on the web for everyone in the family). I got a call from my cousin who wants to buy an iPod because his other MP3 player died.

He goes to electronics store A finds out they don't carry iPods. Salesman at store A says that he would be better off with brand X because he can't load his existing MP3 collection on to an iPod all music must be purchased from iTunes.

He now goes to electronics store B which does carry iPods along with MP3 player brand X suggested by store A salesman. There he is told he can put his existing collection on iPod but since it is more expesive than the other MP3 player he is now unsure if salesman only wants to sell more expensive product to him.

The idea of buying it and trying to see if it works is out he has to go out of town for work and want to purchase it before he leaves if possible.

I know this is way off topic for here but I am hoping someone here has an iPod or is familar with a place I could get info to tell him one way or the other. So far I haven't had any luck finding out on my own.

Thanks in advance
Christina

[Jacqui]

I love my iPod and don't know anything about other brands. You can get information about the iPod (granted it's info from Apple) at store.apple.com, it comes in different types (nano, regular, shuffle) and colors. Here is the Apple news page that has different articles to read. http://www.apple.com/startpage/

I do know that what Salesman at Store A told him, "he can't load his existing MP3 collection on to an iPod all music must be purchased from iTunes" is completely untrue. If you can get the song onto your computer, you can get it on to your iPod. I also love that my iPod can be a hard drive, a feature that I use often use to get my images from one computer to another.

Good luck!

[Stina]

Thanks Jacqui for the link and the info about using existing MP3s on the iPod. That was his biggest concern he has a couple of thousand MP3 files and the iPod would be useless to him if he had to start his collection over.

[paulnj]

Now if he just wants a MP3 player..... a few of my friends have this one.

http://www.iomega.com/direct/product...=1129041045291

IPOD products are more expensive and do more than play music

[another view]

I had an IRiver for about two weeks and never got the thing to work right. Best Buy had a 30-day return policy, so back it went. I tried re-recording songs, re-installing the software, formatting the player - everything - and it just wouldn't work right. Songs that played just fine on the PC would either skip (how can it do that?) or not play the full length on the IRiver mp3 player. Too much hassle!

You can download i-tunes software free from Apple. The first thing it will do is ask you if it should look for all audio files on your computer and convert them to that format (can't remember what the format is called). It's true that i-pods won't read MP3's, but those files are not useless. It's very easy (heck, I even did it).

From there, you can hook up to an i-pod (which I don't have yet). You can also put CD's you've already got into the drive and import those songs to i-tunes. So yeah, guy at Store A is wrong... I've heard of very few problems with i-pods, and there are so many out there that it's probably the best choice IMO. The new 4gb Nano is pretty cool, but for $50 more you can get the original 20gb i-pod which is probably what I'll end up with.

[Stina]

Thanks so much for all the help everyone. My cousin will be happy to know he can still use his MP3 collection with an iPod. He has had several other MP3 players and has not been very happy with any of them. When the last one died I think it made him ready to bite the bullet and buy and iPod.

[Sebastian]

iPods will, without any sort of conversion, play MP3s. Just import them into iTunes and sync up your iPod and you're set.

iTunes will even convert WMA files into the iPod format. WMAs are Microshaft's Mediqa Player format. MP3s will play fine though without any hassles.

[paulnj]

Microshaft

[Asylum Steve]

Seb, didya get my travel intinerary for Chicago? Sent it to you in an email a week or so ago

Go SOX!

[another view]

Microshaft

Ya mean the guys who make Windoze?

[masdog]

IPODs are nice. I've had mine for over two years now, and I wouldn't trade it for anything besides a newer one. I ended up replacing the battery last summer because it was cheaper to do it myself.

Your cousin will do well to get one.

[tink]

Probably a bit late for this but, My son has an iPod and he loves it. Dont know anything about the MP3 or if you can tfr all of the music from one to another but I'm sure there would be a way somehow! Son did download all of his music from websites. I'm not going to ask how or where he got them but I do know it's not legal unless it's paid for. I have to say, that the iPod can do some prtty good things with the music files. I do believe however that the iPod shuffle was next to useless. Saw somethign on the news about that the other night. His is a 15 gig and he uses it non stop!

[opus]

My son and I have owned several iPods. Basically we own so many because we've upgraded. Son has sold his old ones to friends who still have them. They are wonderful and I've never had any problems loading music onto it in any common format.

We've heard a few problems with the Nano, though ... that because it's so thin it can get broken in half (same thing happened with my son's Razor phone -- someone jumped on it and it snapped in half).

But did you SEE what just came out TODAY?????????? The iPod that plays VIDEO?????

... DROOL ...