iPod questions

I am going to be buying an iPod soon so I can have tunes on my travels. I have decided to go with the iPod over the less expensive brands on good advice about warranty support, and after market accessory availability. My options seem to be down to choosing between the 3rd gen Nano and the 6th gen classic.

My first question is about capacity. the Nano has 8gig while for 50 bucks more the Classic has 80 gig. How much music do you have loaded today on your iPod? Is 8 gig enough long term? My first inclination is to go with the 80 gig, but it seems like over kill. I mean, my laptop has 80 gig of disk to use for Winblows, all apps, pictures etc, and it is only half full.

Is the smaller size of the Nano and advantage or disadvantage, and how so?

If either unit is in the map window of my tank bag can the controls be used through the clear plastic?

I've had a 3rd Gen Ipod, (still works but battery won't hold a charge overnight anymore), a 30gig 5th gen, and I now have a 16g touch. I've never used more than 3gig for music, and thats a lot of music. On the last 2 I've used more space for videos, but never more than 8gig. One of my daughters has the new smaller nano and I kinda wish I had that for trips and the gym.
I have a armband case for my touch that has plastic over the screen. The touch screen works through the plastic on that.

I have the 80G classic and would recommend it over the Nano. Don't worry about not having very many MP3s right now. Come over to my place and you will soon have enough to fill your entire hard drive twice over. Then not to mention that you can load movies, TV shows, and more on it so when you're on the road you can bring a little bit of home with you if you so desire.

Right now, my Ipod has a little over 30gig of just music loaded on it.

And yes, I can work the controls through the plastic, it just takes getting used to getting the right "feel" for it.

Ed, you'll probably get lots of answers and opinions on this. I would personally recommend spending a little more and getting the 8Gb iPod Touch. With it, you can listen to music, surf the internet at wifi hotspots, play games, use almost any iPhone app, and you can even make voip calls off of it (with the addition of a microphone and software already available). Apple is getting ready to make an announcement of some new hot product in the next couple of months (supposedly a newly designed touch) if you can hold out. BTW, I have an 80Gb classic, 1 Gb shuffle, and 512mb shuffle currently. I'm holding out to see what Apple comes out with.

tomf16 said:

Ed, you'll probably get lots of answers and opinions on this. I would personally recommend spending a little more and getting the 8Gb iPod Touch. With it, you can listen to music, surf the internet at wifi hotspots, play games, use almost any iPhone app, and you can even make voip calls off of it (with the addition of a microphone and software already available). Apple is getting ready to make an announcement of some new hot product in the next couple of months (supposedly a newly designed touch) if you can hold out. BTW, I have an 80Gb classic, 1 Gb shuffle, and 512mb shuffle currently. I'm holding out to see what Apple comes out with.

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+1 on the touch, but I would go for the 16G or even the 32G. You may be thinking all you want is to listen to music. I was thinking the same thing when I was looking at them. I decided, since I was going to have this for a while, to spend a few extra $$ and get touch. Have not regretted it one second. I have really come to like all the extras the Touch includes.

8G holds all the audio I could listen to in at least a week. The 16G and 32G models provide the memeory for all the other features I have come to use.

Podcasts. I probably listen to poscasts more than music now. Name your subject, and someone is podcasting about it. There are a lot of crappy ones out there, but there are some real jewels as well. Side Stand up is a pretty good motorcycle show, and they are available as a podcast.

Movies - I've got movies I shot with my camcorder on my iPod, and one or two I got from iTunes. I'll probably copy some from my DVD collection in the near future. The touch has a great screen for watching video.

Picture - I have tons of pictures on there. The software puts on all the music, podcasts, etc. you want on there. If there is any space left, it loads what pictures it can. Now I don't have to trick friends into coming to my house so that I can torture them with photos from my latest adventures.

WWW - If you are in a WiFi hotspot, you can surf the web. No not as easily as with a laptop, but if you are out and about, and need some bit of info, it sure comes in handy. The new software update has added maps, mail, weather, and a few other goodies. Have not had a chance to play with these, though.

The controls do work through the plastic even with gloves on. I like all the ipods but the smalller nano won't slide around so much (I stuff with tissue) and doesn't sling off the bike in case it takes a nap...hehe.

I would recommend a Creative Labs series over the iPod, just because they have FM radio's in most of them. Nice in the Morning on the way to work listening to you favorite talk station and traffic reports.

It should be said that iPod touch screen won't work through the plastic and it won't work with gloves on. That would make a difference to me. The click wheels do work but not perfectly, not always. Still worth it.

The advantage of the Nano is the size. It fits nicely in a shirt or jacket pocket without having the feeling of carrying around half a brick. That said, I have a 2GB Nano, and it's not big enough. Maybe an 8GB would be, maybe not. Nature abhors a vacuum.

I've got the 80g classic and wouldn't have anything else. I looked at the others but selected the 80g. Right now I've got 19g of music on it but that was after I removed a bunch of duplicates. I'll be adding more in the next few days when I charge it again.

If you have the space, buy bigger. You'll discover Handbrake and VisualHub and all your excess capacity will disappear...

Hemibee said:

...but that was after I removed a bunch of duplicates.

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Good point - I have an off-brand 2G MP3 player, but found that when I started creating my own playlists, many had duplicated songs that gobbled up more space. I don't like listening to one artist, one genre, or a shuffle of everything - I make compilations of songs that fit a mood or a scenario and for that, I need more space than if I just loaded all of my songs once.

YMMV.

Squeaky said:

Good point - I have an off-brand 2G MP3 player, but found that when I started creating my own playlists, many had duplicated songs that gobbled up more space. I don't like listening to one artist, one genre, or a shuffle of everything - I make compilations of songs that fit a mood or a scenario and for that, I need more space than if I just loaded all of my songs once.

YMMV.

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And what's great about the Ipod and Itunes is you can have multiple playlists using the same song and it won't create duplicates of that song on the device. It just links up the song already on file and puts it into the playlist for ya.

Older eyes like the larger screens.

Great job guys. Now y'all have me wanting an iPod.

Ipods are great for music, but ...

Itunes is the spawn of the Diablo, you will be cursing Jobs under the same breath as Gates shortly

what started out as a simple music player has morphed into movies, TV shows, Pod casts, ring tones, etc, anything to make money, with lousy Windows support

want a single library for all users? might as well search for the holy grail; sure you can now set a path to a library (external drive), but be warned you will be editing XML files or consolidating libraries and losing all your album covers and metadata, song gaps, etc

what I can't download a song until I upgrade to the latest version

protected files wont play on my zumo

I can upgrade (some) of my files to DRM free and higher bit rates

you will lose a bunch (10%?) to formating and album covers (one for each song); but you dont need your entire library on the Ipod

unless you are downloading Desperate Houswives

James we do agree on that at least... Itunes is truly a love/HATE relationship.

It does some really awesome things, but other things have me beating my head against the computer screen.

I have a 60GB IPod with video and have about 55GB of music in my entire collection. It's pretty cool to be able to take all my CD's with me anywhere I go. I use it:
-in my alarm clock to wake up to well anything I own.
-on my rides to listen to well anything I own.
-on vacation and during back and forth travel to listen to anything I own.
-etc you get the point.

It's not that it's an IPod per say as any large capacity player would offer the same advantage. Go on Apple or another manufacturers website and buy from their refurb outlet...doesn't matter but go LARGE you won't regret it.

Noah

I like to download Podcasts, there are some good show out there
several are moto related. I usually listen to music on the bike
on long rides but during the workday its nice to listen to a good
show about bikes to let the miles roll away

Jbay said:

Ipods are great for music, but ...

Itunes is the spawn of the Diablo, you will be cursing Jobs under the same breath as Gates shortly

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I agree. You can flash the ipod for additional formats like OGG, plus free yourself of itunes making a nice player without the baggage.

I like my nano, but seldom use it other than for bicycle rides. iTunes is the cause of that. Now I just buy my music in MP3 format from Amazon and play them over my zumo. As an added bonus, I can add them to my nano, but it sure doesn't work the other way around without jumping through a bunch of hoops.

kurt said:

Now I just buy my music in MP3 format from Amazon and play them over my zumo.

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What is this "buy" you speak of?

I have an older 40gb iPod and newer 160gb iPod Classic, they are the only Apple products that I own. I really wanted a Creative Zen before I got the 40gb iPod, every display that I looked at had the metal front popping off and most had the headphone jack broken. The main reason that I went with the iPod was the available accessories, power cords, remotes and cases are easy to find due to the aftermarket. The best thing is the available RF remotes, I can have the control on the handlebar and it works with the iPod in the tankbag or in a jacket.

I don't have much of a problem with iTunes, in fact I have grown to prefer it as a music player over the others. I rarely buy digital music, I still prefer to buy the CD and rip my own in the bitrate that I want and without DRM. That way I also ALWAYS have a backup in case anything happened. I scour the used CD stores and have found many for a good price and it is just one more to go into a 600 disc collection.

See now that makes sense. I loaded iTunes on my laptop and already ripped all of my CDs to MP3 instead of the Apple proprietary format. As I understand it the MP3 will work in the iPod, as well as any other device I may choose later.

A slight hitch in my cash flow this week keeps me from running down right now today and getting one. After considering the advice here it looks like the 80 gig classic is going to get the nod. I checked the refurb site, and the savings is significant, but the reduced warranty is concerning. 90 days on a refurb, one year on a new one. The longer warranty along with the knowledge that the refurb has already broken once while in service take the shine off of the lower price for me.

Maybe if my garage sale Saturday is a huge success I can go and get one that evening. Anybody need a 7.5 horse outboard motor?

ed29 said:

As I understand it the MP3 will work in the iPod, as well as any other device I may choose later.

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You would be correct.