Best ipod

[Silver Starfish]

Okay, any techies on the board?

What's your favorite of the apple ipods and why? Can't decide if I want a 40 GB or 60 GB or do I really need a photo one?

Would love to hear your opinions.

Also what are the assessories you use the most? ex. itrip, italk, etc.

[SarahB]

Hey SS! It depends what your needs are. The 20GB is sold the most, but that may change soon since the prices of the Photo iPods just fell big time. If you won't use the photo feature then color screen isn't a big deal and you probably don't need to spend the extra $ for thte 40 or 60. The Minis are cute, but usually bought by people who think they will never fill a 20GB (until a month later when they've already filled it!) and are more concerned with the smaller size and having a cute color (the actual weight difference is very small). The shuffle is nice in that it's the only iPod that you can use with a Mac and PC without reformatting the HD (you can take files to and from machines if you hav a Mac at home and PC at work or vice versa) and they are tiny (!), but they only hold 120 ($99) or 240 ($149) songs and don't have a screen so your options of what order to listen to what song are limited. Kinda depends on what your needs are and what's most important as to which one to get!

Extras are bought in this order: cases, way to play it in car (tape adapter, wireless transmitters), cable to play it on your home stereo, different headphones, and so on.

Hope that helps!

[Silver Starfish]

That was very helpful, didn't know that about the shuffle. I've ruled out the mini and shuffle and can't decide if I'd really use the photo feature. I'm definately going for 40 or 60GB. I just wish they weren't so expensive!

TGIF!

[jtm1631]

SarahB is exactly right in it all depends on what you will use it for. I have a shuffle, a mini and a 15GB. I got the mini a year ago as a present and love it. It holds more songs than I will ever put on it at one time and makes a nice size external drive when I need to transfer files between machines or back up information. The mini is great for plane rides, car trips and sitting on the beach.

I just bought the shuffle because I found that 90% of the time I use my mini when I exercise and it got a little bulky to deal with. The shuffle is perfect for excercising because I would always play all songs on shuffle with the mini anyway.

The 15GB ipod is actually my daughters and I don't like it. I find it considerably larger than the mini and the larger drive means more vibration and noise when the drive is in use. For our purposes (music only) we have absolutely no need for the 15GB drive and find that it is best used when it is sitting in the docking station connected to my duaghters stereo system.

There is an iPod for every need, it all depends on what you need. I will say that the new iPods with longer batter life do intrigue me. The one complaint I have about the mini and the 15GB is the short battery life.

[denisea]

I just bought one of the 1st generation mini's when they introduced the new mini's. I paid $179 for the mini + $37.85 for the dock... or a total of $216.85. It came with the Earbud headphones, belt clip, AC adapter, FireWire cable, USB 2.0 cable.

The new mini has a longer battery life... 18 hours vs 8 hours. However, it only comes with Earbud headphones, belt clip, and USB 2.0 cable. I couldn't justify the additional money ($249 vs $179) just for the extended battery life especially without the AC adapter and FireWire cable.

Also purchased a travel case and a Lili mini waterproof case. Plan to purchase new headphones at some point and possibly speakers.

[SarahB]

I am getting one of the last generation Minis for my sister too b/c $179 is a good deal! They are 4GB and the new 4GBs are $199 (18hr battery life). The model that is $249 is the new 6GB (also 18hr battery life). A lot of stores still have the last generation 4GBs left in stock. So many different models now...it gets confusing!

[james]

I've owned a Rio Nitrus and currently own a mini and a shuffle.

best one to get? ditto the answer of Sarah: depends on what you are going to do with it

The mini sits on the shelf now (it will be used in the baby's room) and I use the shuffle exclusively because, like JT, I use it while I'm on the go.

The normal iPod is just way too big for me and having more than a gig of music with me is completely unimportant.

Why? I have about 200 gigs of music nowadays. That's alot. There's no single player that will carry a full copy of my library, which is fine because it would make it all the more difficult to choose, and I don't like to shuffle a collection that big because I don't want to bounce from 90's synth pop to 70's psychedelic to free form jazz. I need to be in control. When I used to be into my car stereo, I'd carry with me a CDLogic case with 10-20 discs (about what I can put on my Shuffle) and I would swap them out every week or so. Even with that selection, I'd normally end up spinning one or two discs most of the week; I get in music ruts like alot of people.

The little shuffle hangs comfortably around the neck like a pendant. Sound is plenty good and loud enough for me. I'm looking forward to someone hacking a little utility to simplify drag and drop music updates to it. I just cannot stand iTunes (doesn't support all the different music formats like .mpc, .ape, .ogg, and has that "canned," dumbed-down Mac feel to it...) but I think I'm in the minority on that one. I don't like the shuffle's finish (white shiny plastic with sharp edges? How about rubberizing it, or make it out of a billet of aluminum, and that the necklace connects to the easily removable USB cap seems like a total engineering brain fart) but I plan to get an after market rubber bootie for it.

Photo iPod? I don't get it. Why???? Not for me, I guess.

[SarahB]

Originally Posted by james

dumbed-down Mac feel to it...

You mean that clean, easy-to-use feel?!

[james]

I did say I figured I would be in the minority on that.

I should clarify that I'm not anti-mac... I've been using Apples since I learned to program Pascal on a II+, used a Lisa in the university and I occasionally use Ken's iMac.

However iTunes.... it's like iMovie vs. Final Cut Pro, which is good software. I want that type of control for my music too. If only Apple would come out with a full-on software package like FCP for music.

[SarahB]

I get what your sayin, James! What software do you use to organize those 200GBs?!

[roni]

Our 28th anniversary is on 1 April, and I am thinking of buying Kathy a iPod--thinking Mini cause we have a Rev A 17" iMac and it does not have USB 2.x, but she would also like a Shuffle for exercise time. I figure a Mini with a Bose speaker dock oughta be fine, fine, fine

[ryberg]

Just like to comment that while I understand jtm1361 and James (and maybe others) are saying about size, think about that a second: an iPod is too bulky.

We're not in Kansas anymore!

Nor are we in even the 1990s.

And remember those sport yellow walkman cassette things that became popular in the 80s? And an iPod is too bulky now.

Funny.

Steve

[SarahB]

If you guys haven't found this site, here are all the specs in an easy to understand chart: http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html

Roni, I am getting confused these days with all the different models, but I think the Shuffle is the only iPod that can work off of USB 1.0. Those Bose speakers are great!! What a nice gift!!

[roni]

Originally Posted by SarahB

Roni, I am getting confused these days with all the different models, but I think the Shuffle is the only iPod that can work off of USB 1.0. Those Bose speakers are great!! What a nice gift!!

USB 2 is backwardly compatible with USB 1, but USB 1 is not, I beleive, powered to the extent that it can keep the Shuffle charged (but I could be wrong). You can buy a thingie that plugs into an electrical outlet and has a another thingie that you plug the shuffle into and keeps it charged, but with the mini just plugging into the firewire port will charge it, AFAIK.

Kathy and her office are still listening to CDs at work. I figure with a mini and Bose dock, they won't rely on the CD's as much and it Kathy will have more influence in the selection of the music .

Ron

[SarahB]

That Bose speaker set sounds great! They'll LOVE it (and you for buying it!)! What color Mini are ya gonna get?!

Ah, you gotta firewire port on there?! You're good to go (just need the cable now that it doesn't come in the box)! And you're right about the thingy and the thingy! I know exactly whatcha mean! Apple does not support 1.0 and says it doesn't work, but I've heard that some people have gotten it to work (not to charge, just to copy their songs over), but it's extremely slow.