Getting dragged into the 21st century, and finally buying an iPod

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
20,039
Well, I have finally gotten tired of lugging cd's around any time I want to hear some music. I have an MP3 player, it looks more like a stick radio than anything else. I took a look at some iPods tonight, at Best Buy and Walmart, I can afford either a Nano, or an 8GB Touch. I'd like to go for the Touch, but also checked out the Kindle. The Touch is a little easier to transport, costs about the same at Walmart. The price difference isn't that much at Best Buy either. Warranty is 20 bucks at Walmart, 55 at Best Buy. On top of that, what do you think about refurbished iPods? I try to take care of my stuff, but how easy is it to break these screens? I got an LG Enlighten for Christmas, would it be stupid to have an iPod, and a smartphone? Should I just take the LG back and upgrade to an iPhone?
 
Well, I'm pretty sure you can upload music directly to your LG - two birds, 1 stone..... (Iphones are overrated, your LG does all the same things)
 
Buy the iPod Touch directly from Apple online. My youngest daughter has one, and uses the thing for music, texting, web browsing, and movies.

You can have it shipped to your door for free, and they will also engrave the case with whatever you want for free.

I use an iPod Classic 30GB that I bought from my daughter just before my open heart surgery. I don't even have 4GB of music on it, and that is over 600 individual songs. You can also download podcasts for a whole pile of different things. I'll replace it with a Touch when it dies.

I also suggest keeping your phone and music player seperate. Main reason is battery life. My iPod lasts about a week before needing a charge, and I use it about 2 hours a day. I tried that with my phone (HTC Desire), and my phone was dead in about 6 hours.
 
iPod Touch is great; that's what I would get.

And don't buy extended warranties in general. They are always a ripoff.
 
I've had my iPod touch for a couple of years now. I pretty much have my whole music collection in it...plugs into the car stereo with a cheap cable...Very handy. You can use them for lots of other things, but the iPad makes a better platform for most all the apps.
 
I bought an iPod Touch 4 (32 GB) last year while deployed. I used it a lot, even as a phone to call the States for free when in Europe (when I had wifi coverage). It sold me on a lot more than I've got from my old (3-4 years) phone. I really liked the map applications. Next phone will probably be an iPhone, but I really was hoping the latest version would have 4G (it doesn't).

Now I don't use the iPod outside of my car; it's just replaced the radio and CD player. 32 GB of music means I can travel for weeks without hearing the same song, and no commercials. I have about 1 TB of music, so I change the playlists every couple months. One of these days I'll take the time to get the controls voice activated for the convienience, but I'm not in a rush. If you have a recent model car you don't even need to hardwire the iPod; it can do everything with bluetooth.
 
I honestly can't see the purpose of getting an iPod Touch, particularly one with only 8gb, especially if you also have a smart phone. Your Enlighten has minimal built-in memory, but a 32gb card is only about $35 these days. With that you can hold thousands upon thousands of songs, even at higher bitrates. The iPod Touch is the size of a phone, so you'll probably be unwilling to carry both your phone and your iPod. If you don't mind carrying something that large, I'd instead recommend getting an iPod Classic. 160gb is a bit more than 8gb.

But does it have to be an iPod? iPods are cool; they look and feel nice. But there's plenty of other options, and all of them give you more options and storage for less money, except for the 160gb Classic. Myself I'm about to get a Sandisk Clip Zip, a very small 4/8gb player that has a micro SD slot, which can give you 40 gigs of total storage for about $100. It's not fancy, and there's no touch screen or wifi or anything like that, but for storing a ton of music in a small size, it can't be beat.

All things considered, just get 32gb card for your new phone. If you feel you need more, look more into a separate mp3 player, but do this first. You'll probably find that your phone will be more than adequate. If you find the built-in player on your phone lacking you can download any number of player apps to use instead (all are free or have a free trial and are ~$5 for the full version).
 
I wouldn't but an extended warranty. I have a second generation iPod that I got in '04 or '05 and it still works fine. I have an iPod Touch from '07 that I use almost every day. I have dropped it and even gotten it wet. I hear that the newer models are more fragile, though.
 
The LG Enlighten is an Android phone. The Android is a Google product. Download Google Music to your phone and PC and upload your music. Once you upload your tunes through Google Music on your PC your music syncs with the Google Music app on your phone. Your music will be with everywhere. No need for anything extra.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
I try to take care of my stuff, but how easy is it to break these screens?
Click to expand...

I have three kids that have ipods. They all have abused the heck out of those things. Plus, I have a two year old that beats the ipods to death when he can get his hands on them. Ipods must be tough given the torture that I have witnessed first hand and all three Ipods work like they are new.
 
I have both the 16 GB and 64GB i-pod touch. Both have served me well and are a pleasure to use.

The 16GB unit is one of the first generation models and it lives in my car with around 1600 songs on it. It is 5 years old and has never given a days problem.

The 64 GB touch is a later generation model which I purchased from Apple in LA in 2009. It has all my music and photos on it and it goes everywhere with me. It has made numerous overseas flights, car trips, walks etc....... Although not abused it has worked hard and never given me a days trouble. I would like a slightly longer battery life but perhaps that has been addressed in the newer models.

The joy of being able to carry all my music with me is fantastic. I pair mine with a set of Sennheiser CX300 in ear headphones and the sound is great.

Good luck with your choice and let us know how you go.......:)

Steven
 
And I still drag wallets of CDs around, but can't figure out how to process CDs into playlists etc etc until somebody comes out with straightforward simplified software for those born back in the vaccum tube age:(:
 
Bufford said:
And I still drag wallets of CDs around, but can't figure out how to process CDs into playlists etc etc until somebody comes out with straightforward simplified software for those born back in the vaccum tube age:(:
Click to expand...

Assuming you have a PC, you just put a CD in and load Media Player (if it doesn't load up automatically). It should automatically connect to the internet and ID what CD it is, along with all the pertinent information: Artist/Album/Date/Genre/etc. You can then rip it into .mp3 format, and all the information will be "tagged", so when you load it onto an mp3 player, all you have to do is find the artist or album you're looking for, and you're good to go. You might have to fiddle with some settings (bitrate, output folder), but that's not difficult at all.

There are of course more involved and complicated ways to do things for the "experienced" user, but using WMP gets the job done well enough.

If you have a Mac, I'm sure there's an equally simply way to rip your CDs into digital, but I don't know what that would be (other than iTunes).
 
As far as toughness, I wouldn't know. I have my iPod 8 gb touch gen4 in a Pelican 1010 microcase, with a pair of Skullcandy Dubs IEMs. It has been dropped, kicked, dropkicked, stepped on, dunked in water, and survived the famous black sand beaches of the Big Island of Hawai'i. Oh, and the pressure valve worked great on the flight there. Friends were struggling to get their ipods out of the wallyworld special drycases, I just popped mine out.
 
I have an Otter Box "Defender" case for my ipod touch. Without the case the ipod seemed naked and very fragile not to mention smudgy, the case makes it something that I can actually use without worrying about it.
 
iPhone and Otter Box Defender
Music whenever you want it, get a call and you are already ready to answer, just hit the button. End the call and music resumes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top