IPOD Users or people who know.....

[The1andOnlyKC]

Looking at getting a couple. Really I want them for the car to play over the radio with out having to keep track of a bunch of CD's on the road. Plus I would plug it into my system at home as well.

Are they worth it?

Do you have to use all of Apple fancy software or can you just use it like a detachable drive and drag and drop your songs into it?

Whats the good and bad on them?

Thanks Guys!

[7idl]

I have a creative zen.

no stupid software if you don't want it

mine is simple.. about 14 hours on a AAA battery
1gig ram

will rip audio internally (import autio from virtually any device)

built in microphone to do the same

fm tuner

std usb interface

you can get external fm transmitters for any device with 3.5(?)mm jacks
if you have line in options on your stereo, you could use that.. I plan on doing that in mine when I get a chance.

[Artyboy]

My wife has a 2gb Ipod nano. I have a Sandisk 2gb generic mp3 player. They have their differances. I think mine is a lot more simple. It was also cheaper. The Ipod looks prettier but you need a bunch of crap that's specially designed for the Ipod to use it.

[The1andOnlyKC]

What about these new Toshiba Gigabeats?

they look kinda nice too.

[sd_norske]

I bought an IPod mini about a year ago. It has gotten a lot of use and doesn’t hold much of a charge anymore. If I get another MP3 player it will have removable batteries, IPods do not.

[robsterclaw]

Ipod batteries are now replaceable due to lawsuits filed by people who (rightly) felt it was rediculous to pay $200 for something they'd have to replace over a battery issue.

Anyway, we have 2 30gb video ipods, 1 20 gb photo ipod, and a 2gb ipod mini. I'm buying a 4gb ipod nano for the youngest kid for Christmas. The ipods work great for us. The Apple software does take a little getting used to, but you can still drag and drop to put it into your Ipod.

You can also drag and drop from any music page you have like windows media, or music match and drop it into your itunes library and it will convert it into the apple format.

If you like to do sweepstakes like I do, most music prizes are for free itunes. (I've won over 200) the bad thing is, if another member of your family has a different kind of mp3 player, and you want to take a song from itunes and put it into their mp3 player, the only way I've figured out how to do that is to burn the song onto a cd, and them put it in the other music software.

I love my video ipod, and have had others before. If you do buy an ipod do it through aplles online store if you or your kids have anything to do with education they give you a 10% discount. It saved me 30 bucks on my ipod.

[robsterclaw]

By the way, to replace the battery, it's $59 and you have to send it to apple. It is a pain in the ass, compared to other types of mp3 players.

[kwando]

ipod users should download a program name podutil...

[car-15]

I've been thinking about getting one of the new xm/mp3 players you can record directly from the xm, or download music from the puter.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsung-XM2go-Helix-1GB-Portable-XM-Radio-MP3-Player-YX-M1Z/sem/rpsm/oid/147406/catOid/-12952/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do