Have you been considering the purchase of an MP3 player? If I were you, I would not get an iPod unless you are willing to sacrifice functionality for trend following. The iPod has some limitations, despite the extreme popularity of them.
They do look cool. The click wheel is nice. I received the 8GB iPod Nano as a gift as it is extremely small in light of its capabilities. The video screen looks great. Aside from this, there are some problems.
You can only put songs on the iPod from one computer. If you are at someone’s house and wanted to put one of their songs on your iPod to complete a playlist or even a song from another one of your own computers, you must erase the contents of the iPod.
You can not dump music from your iPod onto another computer.
The necessary file conversion software and media player, iTunes, is not as great as people claim. People used to tell me to download it even before I had an iPod. I never did, and I am glad. The media player is extremely weak when compared to other players like MediaMonkey, Winamp, or even Windows Media Player. Music can also be purchased through iTunes, which seems to be Apple’s main concern with the design of the iPod and necessity of iTunes.
If you want to charge your iPod through a home or car outlet, you will need to purchase extra cables.
One big claim by Apple and its supporters is its compatibility prowess. This seems somewhat paradoxical to me because I hear the same Apple users say they do not trust third-party accessories because they might “mess up” the iPod. Instead, they opt for Apple’s extremely expensive accessories (for example, a power adapter is $29).
And of course, iPods are more expensive than MP3 players.
Nevertheless, I got mine for free, and I am going to use it. I have purchased third-party accessories, however.
Some of these were things that initally bothered me too. But-
“You can only put songs on the iPod from one computer.” – Not true. if you set your itunes options to manually update (which I recommend instead of the default which is automatically update) you can plug in different ipods and add the songs you want to the ipods you want or add songs to your ipod from different computers.
“You can not dump music from your iPod onto another computer.” Not really true either. You can’t do this in itunes, but there are many programs out there that you can download that allow you to take music off of your (or someone else’s) ipod. One that I have used is Eph Pod, but there are many others.
I’ll have to try the settings thing. It didn’t seem like you could do that with mine.
I do know there are hacks and programs to make iPods more usable. But ultimately, they are an expensive front to make money through iTunes. They did revolutionize the way people to listen to music, but I think a non-iPod MP3 player is a better choice. I might have to check out Eph Pod. Thanks for the tips! I am enjoying playing my iPod in my car. I did just order a remote control for it so I can keep my eyes on the road while flipping through music. We will see how that works out!
My feeling on iPods is although they may force you to do/ buy some things you don’t want to and you might be labeled as a “follower”, it’s worth it to have the device that most people have because you can exchange music and files easier.
I’ve seen people brag about the good deal they got on an mp3 player that’s “better than an iPod” only to see them frustrated when it breaks, they can’t find accessories, functionality is horrible, or they can’t share music with anyone else, etc. I’ve never really had a problem with my ipod in over 3 years and I’ve dropped it, left it in the cold, gotten it wet, etc. The thing that irratates me the most is apple is always coming out with improvements and better versions!
I’ve never had a problem mixing and matching 3rd party accessories. All I have is a car charger and a tape adapter, which both cost $10 each. Besides, You would have to buy an additional car charger for almost any electronic device you’d buy.
God no, don’t buy songs from itunes! Public library, man!
I have never bought a song from iTunes. I have downloaded some free podcasts from it. I agree the library is a good place, a very underutilized resource! They have most of the CD’s and DVD’s you want!
I’m not too worried about being a follower with the iPod. If something is a good product, it’s a good product. I don’t get people who are into something but then are no longer into it because it becomes popular. None of that applies to you, I’m just making a side point.
I don’t know about accessories for other MP3 players, but I have bought both a wall and car charger on eBay for about $6-8 I think. I already had an FM radio transmitter that plugs in through a headphone jack. The best is to just have a plug in your car where you just need a male-to-male 1/8″ wire. One thing that bugs me about some iPods is specific and useless accessories like iPod docking stations. All you need is a wall charger and a basic wire to hook into speakers and you get better results. There are products like that for any popular gadget, though. I have also heard that they are difficult to fix and when the battery dies, it has to be shipped to Apple. I have not investigated that too much, though.