iPod help?

[venusdatura]

I've just gotten a new job where I have to make a long commute into the city and I want to invest in an iPod. I know a lot of you in this community have iPods and I just want to know if it's difficult to download songs? Do I just plug the thing into the USB port to start downloading or do I need other accessories? Any help would be really appreciated. I apologise if someone has already posted about this.

#87#

[ƒabio]

Hi,
A friend of mine have a Ipod shuffle (by the way, this one is incredible) and I see her putting songs into the Ipod with the USB cable and using the Itunes, a Apple's software specially designed for Ipods.
Usually with others MP3 players, when you connect the player in pc, you see a new Drive in "My Computer", so it's easy to put songs there. But how i could see, it doesn't happen with Ipods, then, you need to install Itunes in your PC for that... At apple's web site, there's a link to download it..There are versions for Mac, Windows, etc.

www.apple.com/itunes/sync/

Any question, just call
Hugs from this brazilian ewf

[Aims]

It's actually all pretty simple to use.
You load all the songs you want on your ipod, onto itunes - either by burning the tracks straight from your cds to itunes, or obviously putting mp3s off your computer into your itunes library.
Then yeah, you just connect the ipod to your computer to load the songs onto it.

I didn't have any idea how it worked before I got mine, but found the instructions really simple to follow. You shouldn't have any problems at all

[♪Carly♪]

I know nothing about ipods, but I love your avatar!

[venusdatura]

Thanks everyone for your help. It sounds pretty simple so I'm gonna go ahead and get one. I downloaded iTunes last night. Yay, music in the morning! Thanks all!

[Koalapupu]

I just got myself my very first mp3-player: a SanDisk Sansa. Not as cool as iPod but really easy to use and much cheaper, also tiny so I just have it in my pocket. Came with a really geeky armband in case I don't have any pockets for it, heheh. I also have some experience with iRiver, which is simply awesome and easy to use, and even the one with 20 gigs isn't terribly expensive. Maybe this is too late a recommendation and you have already bought your player, in which case Happy Listenings!

I got mine basically for jogging (I hate the sound of my own panting) and the long flights I have ahead of me in the summer. How did I ever survive without such a handy little friend?

Let us know how you're liking your tunes during your commute

[Aims]

Yeah, if I'd known about iRiver before I bought my iPod I probably would've got that instead!
My friend got one, same memory size but way cheaper and it came with all the little accessories (you have to buy ipod stuff seperately).
But, 2.5 years on and my iPod's still going strong so will wait till it dies before I replace it.

[Koalapupu]

Aims, yeah that is why iRiver is real handy too--you get everything with it. I don't know about iPods much, but do they record? Because K. has used his iRiver to actually record mp3s of not only our band practices back in the day (fairly low quality, of course) but has also recorded nature sounds with it that are really crisp. Also, he has had the player now for 3-4 years and as far as I know, it has had absolutely no problems.

Speaking of recording, even my cheap, 1 gig Sansa has a recorder, so maybe it's something mp3 players come with these days. I'll some day record my grandmother talking about her childhood

[Aims]

I don't know about fancier ipods, but mine certainly doesn't record... lol apple = rip off, indeed.

[Koalapupu]

Awww hehe.

I think Apple managed to somehow convince people that mp3-player = iPod, because those two are almost synonomous (eh?) today. But there are a bunch of really good players out there that are not iPods. I myself probably wouldn't have looked at any other players had K. not had an iRiver. Of course what's cool with the iPod is the whole library thing. And iPods look cute.

Sorry venusdatura for all the iPod trash talk! Hope you found a player you are happy with, and that's all that matters, really With my Sansa player I just connect it with a USB cable to the computer, and drag any mp3 files I want into the player. It organizes the music according to the albums and performers by itself. I could use some kind of mp3 software for maintaining the player, but so far this has worked really well, too. Incredibly quick to do. iPod is probably the same.

[thianna]

The joy of the ipod is its simplicity of use. It is made to be a player, music photos, video etc., as well as a hard drive for documents if you want (it takes a format change, but is very useful). For new users the key to remember is there are actually two different 'itunes', the free one that holds your personal library and lets you make play lists and smartplaylists (love those!!!), and the online itunes store where you can purchase and download music.

Also, because ipods are so pervasive there are a lot of accessories you can get easily, though not always cheaply!

[Koalapupu]

Ah, I did not know that it takes video, too. I mean, iRiver can store any kind of data as well (I think I had a copy of some written work there once and movies) but it can't display it by itself--only if it's transferred back to a computer. We have for example taken some tv shows to friends with the player. But yeah, it would be cool if it actually displayed video like an iPod

And that's a good point about the accessories.

[Aims]

koalapupu said:

With my Sansa player I just connect it with a USB cable to the computer, and drag any mp3 files I want into the player. It organizes the music according to the albums and performers by itself. I could use some kind of mp3 software for maintaining the player, but so far this has worked really well, too. Incredibly quick to do. iPod is probably the same.

The thing I like about itunes is making little playlists.. they're also really handy for burning cds - you just throw all the files you want into that playlist, pop in the blank cd, and click a button. I'm such a lazy arse

The only prob is that currently I have too many playlists... it's annoying having to scroll down them all

[Koalapupu]

That's cool! I have only an option for "favorites" playlist--well, the whole thing cost only 30 euros so I can't really expect wonders ;D

If I'll ever get a player with a larger capacity, I'd then want something that is easy to organize. The iRiver lets you just organize things as you want--create files for movie music or Random crap, whatever. I unfortunately can't (as far as I know) make folders of my own design to the player. Or, I think I can, but I'm not sure if the player then recognizes the different songs and it might not display the titles? That doesn't make sense... I think I have to fiddle around with it a bit more ;D