I know that there are various posts about which iPod is best, who sells the cheapest iPods etc etc. I am a complete novice when it comes to iPods - don't know for sure what they are. I initially thought that an iPod is something small that you can carry around with you, that you can download lots and lots and lots of tunes onto, and play them back to your hearts content. Having read an article in a weekend newspaper (by Roisin Ingle) it seems (yes/no?) that an iPod can actually replace, in the home, your stereo/DVD player, AND all your CDs. What she seems to be saying is that she bought this little iPod, which was sitting in a large speaker, and then recorded all the music she would ever want to hear onto it. This would seem to indicate that one could then throw out all ones CDs, saving lots of space and trouble. Is this right, or am I misinterpreting what she said? I have 2 CD players in the house (one upstairs and one downstairs) and millions of CDs. Would an iPod be the answer to my dreams? Is the sound good? Can I record from my CDs onto an iPod 'machine', as well as downloading music onto it? Any advice at all would be appreciated.
iPod Virgin
- Thread starter Audrey
- Start date
Being an iPod virgin is an enviable thing to be because you have something life-enhancing to look forward to. Everyone deserves to own an iPod. A little of how it works and what you would need. Yes, you'll be effectively doing away with the need for those boxes of CDs. I have three large document boxes full of hundreds of CDs but carry all of them around in my pocket. I have the 60 gigger iPod photo, which is the largest capacity model, but even with nearly 8000 tracks (remember that your average CD might have just 15 tracks) it actually has only used less than 25 gigs of space. The iPod photo, as the name implies, can also hold 15,000 photos.
Using a computer (we're an iMac house but PC's fine too) you upload your music onto iTunes- freely available- which is effectively a categorisation system and music store, and then download to your iPod. Doing this, depending on how many CDs you have, will take some time- you could allow 3 minutes for each but it depends on your processor etc. There is at least one company in Dublin who will do it all for you, charging I believe about a euro per CD. Rich and reckless people just buy all their CDs again from the iTunes store and this way the original cover art can appear on your iPod screen when a CD plays.
Sound quality through headphones is indistinguishable from the original CD and the speakers you buy determine the quality of the 'room' sound. Altec Lansing- just one brand of several- are fine; a little trebly but very neatly portable. This is one of the joys of iPod- rent a cottage for the weekend/get on a plane/climb a mountain and bring all your music with you (or audio books or podcasts or The Goon show etc.,) as easily as carrying a washbag. The acknowledged Daddy of iPod speakers as described in the Irish Times (great that they've caught up: you might have read an article like this in a London paper two or three years ago, indeed a London journalist has had time to write and publish a book of the same title as Roisin Ingle's article) is the Bose Soundock. Bose themselves are hopeless to deal with (at last an opportunity to tell someone- I told them in a letter but got no reply, so at least they're consistent) but this is a superb accompaniment to the iPod, if pretty much the same price as the iPod itself or more. If you have two sets of speakers, one upstairs and one down you can carry the iPod between the two and use it where you want; or buy two iPods and load each. The iPod reacquaints you with your collection and lets you have music everywhere. It is simply brilliant- and though primarily designed for personal use is easily capable of replacing your audio system, although purists and anoraks will no doubt rush to disagree, while bemoaning the loss of covers. The Apple Ireland shop online is a good place to buy- not surprisingly they sell their own stuff as cheaply as anyone- and I've found them efficient and prompt. Once you have an iPod then getting everything else is easy; there are good sites in the US and UK - iPodworld is one- who are good to deal with. Pretty soon you too will be evangelising. By the way, nearly everyone around me knows more about techstuff than I do, so don't for a moment think there's anything forbiddingly complicated here- Apple, as they originally said, are for the rest of us. Enjoy the ride.
Using a computer (we're an iMac house but PC's fine too) you upload your music onto iTunes- freely available- which is effectively a categorisation system and music store, and then download to your iPod. Doing this, depending on how many CDs you have, will take some time- you could allow 3 minutes for each but it depends on your processor etc. There is at least one company in Dublin who will do it all for you, charging I believe about a euro per CD. Rich and reckless people just buy all their CDs again from the iTunes store and this way the original cover art can appear on your iPod screen when a CD plays.
Sound quality through headphones is indistinguishable from the original CD and the speakers you buy determine the quality of the 'room' sound. Altec Lansing- just one brand of several- are fine; a little trebly but very neatly portable. This is one of the joys of iPod- rent a cottage for the weekend/get on a plane/climb a mountain and bring all your music with you (or audio books or podcasts or The Goon show etc.,) as easily as carrying a washbag. The acknowledged Daddy of iPod speakers as described in the Irish Times (great that they've caught up: you might have read an article like this in a London paper two or three years ago, indeed a London journalist has had time to write and publish a book of the same title as Roisin Ingle's article) is the Bose Soundock. Bose themselves are hopeless to deal with (at last an opportunity to tell someone- I told them in a letter but got no reply, so at least they're consistent) but this is a superb accompaniment to the iPod, if pretty much the same price as the iPod itself or more. If you have two sets of speakers, one upstairs and one down you can carry the iPod between the two and use it where you want; or buy two iPods and load each. The iPod reacquaints you with your collection and lets you have music everywhere. It is simply brilliant- and though primarily designed for personal use is easily capable of replacing your audio system, although purists and anoraks will no doubt rush to disagree, while bemoaning the loss of covers. The Apple Ireland shop online is a good place to buy- not surprisingly they sell their own stuff as cheaply as anyone- and I've found them efficient and prompt. Once you have an iPod then getting everything else is easy; there are good sites in the US and UK - iPodworld is one- who are good to deal with. Pretty soon you too will be evangelising. By the way, nearly everyone around me knows more about techstuff than I do, so don't for a moment think there's anything forbiddingly complicated here- Apple, as they originally said, are for the rest of us. Enjoy the ride.
An iPod is only one brand of MP3 player in much the same way that a Hoover is only one brand of vacuum cleaner.
Don't get caught into the 'must get an iPod' frenzy without checking out some of the other, and frankly better value, alternatives made by Creative, iRiver, Sony, etc.
Don't get caught into the 'must get an iPod' frenzy without checking out some of the other, and frankly better value, alternatives made by Creative, iRiver, Sony, etc.
I have an ipod mini, great device. Echo what both posters above say:
- you won't need your CDs, but should keep them somewhere safe.
- you will need a PC or Mac. "ripping" the CDs is an easy but time consuming task (about 5-10 mins per CD if I remember).
- iPod is only one brand. There are other models out there which are technically better.
- Part of what the article referred to, buying an album online in 5mins, also requires broadband. You could do this over dialup, but it would take about an hour, not so convenient.
- you can buy docking stations with speakers, turning it into a mini hifi. However some of these cost as much as the ipod itself. If your stereo has a mic or Aux in, a cable is cheaper. And of course an [broken link removed] for the car! (not available to purchase in Ireland).
- you won't need your CDs, but should keep them somewhere safe.
- you will need a PC or Mac. "ripping" the CDs is an easy but time consuming task (about 5-10 mins per CD if I remember).
- iPod is only one brand. There are other models out there which are technically better.
- Part of what the article referred to, buying an album online in 5mins, also requires broadband. You could do this over dialup, but it would take about an hour, not so convenient.
- you can buy docking stations with speakers, turning it into a mini hifi. However some of these cost as much as the ipod itself. If your stereo has a mic or Aux in, a cable is cheaper. And of course an [broken link removed] for the car! (not available to purchase in Ireland).
I have owned an MP3 player for about 3 years and am now on my second unit - neither are iPods. I have usually been sniffy about iPods and would normally suggest other brands. My wife recently received an iPod and now I wish to recant my iAgnosticism.
I ordered it on the apple website last Thursday, received an email on Friday that it was despatched and would take 2/3 business days to arrive. It arrived on Monday. A good start.
In everything about it, design principles have been upheld. The packaging, the look and feel of the unit - all are top-class.
My wife has never been that enthusiastic about portable music, but now all that is changed. She has ripped all (10
) her CDs and has bought individual tracks from the iTunes Music Store. She took it to the gym on Tuesday and stayed on the cross-trainer twice as long cos it was no hardship once she was wired for sound.
It has changed her attitude to music and she is absolutely thrilled to have it.
And in response to an earlier reference .. I too read the Roisin Ingle article at the weekend and was caught up by her evangelical zeal. I also agree that you should never rely on the Irish Times to be surfing on the crest of the Zeitgeist. I regularly find articles proclaiming the next and greatest, a couple of months after I have seen the same story in the UK press. The What's Hot/What's Not section in the weekend magazine is usually of comedic value cos it's so dated and obviously copied from previous Sunday Times equivalent.
I ordered it on the apple website last Thursday, received an email on Friday that it was despatched and would take 2/3 business days to arrive. It arrived on Monday. A good start.
In everything about it, design principles have been upheld. The packaging, the look and feel of the unit - all are top-class.
My wife has never been that enthusiastic about portable music, but now all that is changed. She has ripped all (10
) her CDs and has bought individual tracks from the iTunes Music Store. She took it to the gym on Tuesday and stayed on the cross-trainer twice as long cos it was no hardship once she was wired for sound.It has changed her attitude to music and she is absolutely thrilled to have it.
And in response to an earlier reference .. I too read the Roisin Ingle article at the weekend and was caught up by her evangelical zeal. I also agree that you should never rely on the Irish Times to be surfing on the crest of the Zeitgeist. I regularly find articles proclaiming the next and greatest, a couple of months after I have seen the same story in the UK press. The What's Hot/What's Not section in the weekend magazine is usually of comedic value cos it's so dated and obviously copied from previous Sunday Times equivalent.
G
Gadgetmad
Guest
Can anyone help. I have to change laptops (not mac) and the old one contains my ipod library. Is there a simple and easy way to transfer the songs and will the new ipod respond to the ipod without inserting the disk to re-register which I fear will wipe out what is already on the ipod?
Ah, another marketing victim!
The iAudio X5 from Cowon beats the iPod hands down imo. Better support for pretty much all types of music formats (including ogg), built in radio and microphone for recording voice as standard. Option to record radio or any input over line in. Photos and video pretty decent aswell, though this is the one area where the ipod may recently have gained a slight advantage (though ask yourself when will you ever actually use this feature, in 6 months I haven't used it since the initial bout of showing off!) You can get the 20GB version for $250 in the US at the moment which is a great price, and imo the gun metal finish on this both looks better and is more resilient than the ipod. An extra few quid gets you the X5L version which has a 30 hour battery for those travellers out there.
The iAudio X5 from Cowon beats the iPod hands down imo. Better support for pretty much all types of music formats (including ogg), built in radio and microphone for recording voice as standard. Option to record radio or any input over line in. Photos and video pretty decent aswell, though this is the one area where the ipod may recently have gained a slight advantage (though ask yourself when will you ever actually use this feature, in 6 months I haven't used it since the initial bout of showing off!) You can get the 20GB version for $250 in the US at the moment which is a great price, and imo the gun metal finish on this both looks better and is more resilient than the ipod. An extra few quid gets you the X5L version which has a 30 hour battery for those travellers out there.
G
Gadgetmad
Guest
Kramer
Where do I get the free software 'copypod'. I don't have the luxury of changing players now that I have invested the time and bought a Bose dock which I have to say is simple but gives great sound. I need to change laptops this w/e if anyone can help.
Where do I get the free software 'copypod'. I don't have the luxury of changing players now that I have invested the time and bought a Bose dock which I have to say is simple but gives great sound. I need to change laptops this w/e if anyone can help.
C
Cleary
Guest
Looking everywhere (after reading the Roisin Ingle article) for the ultimate in solutions - how to use your IPOD without owning a PC! R Ingle referred to nice people who, if you pay them enough, will upload all your cds to the blasted IPOD. Anyone any ideas on where these wonderful people hang out???