how idiot proof are i pods and which should i buy?!

[kathrynw]

simply - do i need internet access to load music to an ipod. have asked in a shop and they said yes, but an IT friend says no, just a decent computer.

also to have about 50 cd's worth of music which type should i get?

and, am going to japan and usa soon, if i got one cheeper from there would they work in uk?

thanks

[crispynugget]

I bought myself a Creative Zen Micro. It stores a few thousand songs and is small and dinky. It didnt cost too much either.

An Ipod needs I-tunes which costs to download but Creatives and other mp3 players do not require apples or anyone elses authority to download music. Plus mp3 and wma files are beter quality than aac( apple music format). Just thought I'd say.

By the way the new Creative Zen Vision is meant to better than the video i-pod and its cheaper with a bigger screen and more memory. What else could you want?

[Ethel]

If you want to download the music on your own cds you do not need internet access.

As already stated, Creative Zen gets excellent reviews and is far better value for money than the ipod.

Get a big a hard drive as you can afford.

[Gef]

i-tunes comes free with all decent computers both macs and pcs. It only costs moneys if you wish to buy from the itunes music store. As for quality, you can choose which format to use with itunes.

If you have internet access then when you are connected an put a CD into your computer you will not have to type in the track names etc as these will be found automatically.

[blueeyes]

No, you don't need access to the internet - although it is always good to not have extra typing to do! Itunes is user friendly and I use it rather than media player these days.

My mini ipod's brilliant! I thoroughly recomend ipods based on this. The zens are good also, but I have heard of far more problems coming from them than from the ipods.

I wouldn't go for an ipod shuffle. Most people prefer to be able to browse/select albums etc.

I believe 4GBs is generally considered to be about 1,000 songs of aprox 4 mins.

Hope this helps! I'm afraid mostly it's just my own opinions. I personally love my mini ipod and reccomend going with the ipod, as long as you take care of the batteries!

[kendo2]

mp3's cost �17.50 each holds 40 songs.lasts 2hours (8hrs use on 1 battery.) Buy 6 fill them with the music you feel like listening to at the time i.e. Rock,classical,blues.or a mix etc. Far better than a very expensive ipod that you might well loose or damage. They sound great and if you loose one. So what! It was very reasonably priced.Currys sell one that I recomend called Lodgik.Also do one 80 songs �23.I recomend the performance from this unit.

maplins sell a battery rechager unit @ �12.

[Mattk]

mp3's cost �17.50 ?

mp3 is file format

why would you want to buy 6 crap players when you could have one decent one for the same money ?

[fo3nix]

Let's clear some things up.

kathrynw: the iPod is (imho) the easiest player to use you could buy, and also the best. As blueeyes says, 4GB is about 1000 songs. The 4GB iPod nano would thus store 1000 songs. Based on there being about 14 songs per CD, that's over 70 CDs. The cheapest "proper" iPod (the full size one) stores more, and isn't that much more expensive. So investment-wise it's a better deal, but of course it's larger so not as nice to carry around on your travels (though still small!). Oh, and if you're a student or know someone else that is a student, get them to buy it for you from Apple. They do some good student rates for most things, and the iPod might be included in that (though to be honest I'm not totally hopeful).

iTunes doesn't need internet access to be used, and as Gef says, it comes with the iPod itself. However, if you do have internet access then iTunes can connect to the internet and grab the names and titles of your CDs' music. Without internet access, you're gonna have to enter the names in yourself. This is the same for every music player under the sun though. Note that the iPod either requires an Apple Mac, or a Windows machine running 2000 or XP. It won't work with 98 or ME. Personally I'd advise to get it from the UK. That way if anything goes wrong, you're covered by their guarantee. I doubt they'll want to know if you bought it from Japan.

crispynugget: what were you drinking yesterday? Actually, AAC is (for same bitrate comparison) high quality than both mp3 and WMA. Oh, and AAC is an ISO standard -- just like mp3, infact it's the successor to mp3 -- not the "apple music format".

[crispynugget]

okay smartpants. feel free to state me wrong but dont rub it in.

[kathrynw]

thanks everyone.

[fo3nix]

I wasn't trying to rub it in. Just saying that it's incorrect. No point in having a question and answer site like this one if the answers are incorrect. Sorry if it seemed a little harsh, wasn't meant to.

[sponge12]

i did have a lot of trouble setting up my iPod. it put me off them at first to be honest. after speaking to other people who have them, it seems that it is my computer, although we had the same problem with my brothers Zen photo. The best mp3 player i ever bought was an Archos. 20gb hard drive for an amazing price of �100. only snag is, no colour screen, so pointless if you want to watch anything.

iTunes and the iPod open up new worlds of technology. the podcast is an amazing little invention, and im so pleased that my iPod can use them, an added extra to consider when buying a mp3 player.

As for storage....by as much as you can afford. There is very good advice in the answers already given, but this is just my opinion. I have a 60gb iPod. i need it for the videos and everything iv got on there, but the more storage you have, the less pressure you feel to select just your favourites. you arent going to have just 50 albums forever :)

also, watch channel 5's the gadget show. its brilliant with reviewing mp3 players, and everything else to do with technology. hope this helps!

[curiosity]

Personally I think the iRiver Color 6GB is a nifty cool thing, and dead easy and has colour screen and radio. Won an award in PC Pro mag. My son has had his since Christmas, has managed to do everything without asking for help at all.