MP3 players???

[shadowkat]

Anyone know anything about MP3 players? My 40th b-day is fast approaching (yes, I know, ugh) and have decided to buy an MP3 player to mark the occassion. But have no clue what kind to get. I can't get an "i-pod" b/c it has to be compatible with my Dell Inspirion 6000 laptop which is PC not Mac. Any advice? Mucho appreciated.

^{PS: figured out the tax issue. A cost basis for a same day exercise of stock in case you are curious is the sale price (not the option price) of the stock plus the commission and SEC fee. The reason is that you are purchasing and selling the stock at the same time, so you suffer a short-term loss. I asked the original broker - Fidelty about it. Fidelity Investments is cool and has decent customer service. E-Trade sucks and you should avoid at all costs. Word to the wise.}

Comments

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

You can get an iPod. iTunes can be run on machines with Windows.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Apple does sell iPod for Windows.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

As people have remarked, iTunes runs under Windows. The thing to bear in mind is that music just eats up space on the hard disk.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

As various people have commented, iTunes is available for Windows and I'm told there are even unofficial iPod management programs for Linux. The main disadvantage of not having an iPod is that you can only buy music from iTunes if you have one. Don't get the MS Zune - I gather that it automatically adds DRM to tracks even if the original files don't have DRM. Creative Zen supposedly have better battery lifetimes than iTunes although they're a bit clunkier. When the Sony ones first came out they would *only* play a proprietary Sony file format and were therefore seriously not recommended - I don't know if that's still true.

[rebekahroxanna.livejournal.com]

I have an iPod. None of the choices is perfect. If you are just ripping CDs I would imagine it's just a style choice. I keep my iTunes library on an external hard drive and manage my iPod manually. (My iTunes library which consists of almost exclusively spoken word stuff and a few songs takes us more space than my little iBook's hard drive has. My iPod is 60 gigs; my aging iBook's hard drive is 30 gigs--huge when I bought it.) I think (but am not sure) that when disaster happens I'll be able to put my stuff on a new iPod. My sort of sense is that iPods with hard drives are a bit fragile. (This comes from hanging out at the Apple Store genius bar waiting for someone to look at my aging iBook or the brand spanking new MacBookPro that I baptized.) Unless I had tons and tons of music, I'd get a little one with a flash drive. Of course, Apple's marketing strategy seems to be to sell you multiple iPods (a big iPod, a shuffle or two to walk around with, perhaps a nano for when you want a little more music but something a little studier). (My son migrated to iPod at Christmas. He has a Windows machine and it actually seems a bit smoother than my mac; of course, that could be cause he's a bit more computer savvy than I am. Last I asked him, he really liked it.)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thanks, this was really helpful! I checked with some tech guys at work and they said it really doesn't matter if you have a Mac or a PC for an ipod and ipod's were the best to have, easiest and simpliest if you aren't techy. Which I'm *really* not.

Counterpoint

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I have read that the iPods with hard drives are more fragile and wear out more quickly than the Nanos with flash memory. However, I've had my hard drive iPod for a year and a half now and its still working fine, although I don't use it continually. The disadvantage of the flash ones, although this may be different in the US, is that in my opinion the smaller capacity they have compared to the hard drive ones is nowhere near proportionately compensated for in lower price.

Re: Counterpoint

[rebekahroxanna.livejournal.com]

I haven't had any problems with mine either, which I've had for a couple of years. I don't run with it, but I do walk with it. I've just heard the others are more reliable.

Re: Counterpoint

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

The tech guy at work suggest an ipod, 4 GB, 2nd Generation (Always 2nd Generation) nano. He said you can go to 8 GB, but that gets a tad pricey. That ipods were the best buy and the easiest to use. Also to get from Amazon.

My two cents (OK, 933 cents)

[kokyu.livejournal.com]

I listen to a lot of material on MP3. Books on cd from the library which I convert to MP3 and podcasts as well as music of course. Also the occasional radio-drama.

Most of this I listen to with my Palm Treo. I put the files onto an SD card and use the PTunes application. It works great, and I always have my Treo with me.

I also have a cd walkman (not an actual "Walkman" - I mean a portable cd player) which plays also MP3s and other formats. I use this for travel or longer periods and it's especially good for those books on cd. I can dump a long book, 15 cds worth onto one disc and play it in here. Music, I don't compress quite so much when I rip it, but for spoken word, who cares?

And then, I recently bought This cool device (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FVY12M?tag2=dancemerengue-20) which integrates nicely into my lifestyle as I can pop either the MP3 Data cd from my cd player, or the SD card from my Treo and listen in the kitchen. Of course it also takes regular cds and plays AM/FM too. Additionally I found there is a USB slot on the front too, so your MP3's could be on a jumpdrive. I'm still working on getting the hang of the interface for this, I've only used it a couple times so far, but at that price I think it's a total steal.

I know Ipods are coolness incarnate, but having played with my sisters for a while, I don't love them. The interface is elegant, but not, imho, intuitive. I'm sure I will be strongly contradicted on this by those who have put in a bit more time with Ipods.

And I really hate i-tunes. After a good five or six months of using it to snag podcasts I switched to Juice. ITunes (or at least the last version of it I ran) required four or five clicks, with content loaded on each just to add an RSS feed whose URL you already know. Juice, it's one click.

Way more than you asked for but you know I loves me the sound of my own voice. In fact, I may save to re-post on my own journal so it looks like I'm posting regularly. Hope it helps.

Re: My two cents (OK, 933 cents)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thanks it did. I'm not techy enough to do anything complicated. So am going to keep it simple and go with the ipod. I've used Limewire to download music, but it takes a while and I'm a little uncertain about it. Will look into Juice. Have been told by people at work that you don't need ITunes for an ipod. Ipods can download off of anything.