Ipod

[Guest Yediyd]

I work with guys who make their living selling these things and each and everyone has an ipod. Think I'm the only person in the store with a plain ol' mp3 player. I'm taking my raise this week and looking at ipods, not sure about a nano or a shuffle though, thankfully i have the guys in the dept to give me a hand. I'm really starting to love working at best buy lol.

Ok...now I'm really exposing my ignorance of electronics...but what is the differance between Ipods and mp3 players? And I wouldn't have the first clue how to put music on them! Pathetic...I know!

[CrimsonKairos]

An mp3 is merely a method of compressing audio so that the quality of the sound stays high but the size of the audio files is reduced as much as possible. Raw audio files can be huge.

iPods can play mp3's, but Apple also has their own proprietary codec called AAC (which is slightly better compression than mp3). Anyway, most mp3 players that are not iPods can't play AAC files, only mp3 files.

iPods play both, and iTunes can convert AAC to mp3. Most songs you download will be in mp3 format.

[FrankJL]

an Ipod is apple's brand of mp3 player. Its just a brand name. Mp3 player is a generic name for any of the like 30 companies that make mp3 players. Though the term ipod has become kinds synonymous with mp3 player now, even if your not referring specifically to an ipod.

As far as putting music on them its pretty simple, install the software that came with your mp3 player, or if your using windows xp or vista, you can use media player to send music to it.

[Guest Yediyd]

An mp3 is merely a method of compressing audio so that the quality of the sound stays high but the size of the audio files is reduced as much as possible. Raw audio files can be huge.

iPods can play mp3's, but Apple also has their own proprietary codec called AAC (which is slightly better compression than mp3). Anyway, most mp3 players that are not iPods can't play AAC files, only mp3 files.

iPods play both, and iTunes can convert AAC to mp3. Most songs you download will be in mp3 format.

Ok...I understood very little of that...but thank you for attempting to break through my ignorance!

an Ipod is apple's brand of mp3 player. Its just a brand name. Mp3 player is a generic name for any of the like 30 companies that make mp3 players. Though the term ipod has become kinds synonymous with mp3 player now, even if your not referring specifically to an ipod.

As far as putting music on them its pretty simple, install the software that came with your mp3 player, or if your using windows xp or vista, you can use media player to send music to it.

I have widows vista...so, if I get an mp3 player...will it come with some sort of cord or something to connect to my computer...or will I have to buy that seperate? And what is the going price of these gagets, and which one do you recommend that I get? (Totally new to this electronic stuff)

Yediyd

[FrankJL]

Yes, almost everyone will come with the USB cord for it to connect to your comp.

How much will it cost....

That depends on how much you want to put on it.

You could get a small flash player (stores the songs on memory chips, no hard drive) for around $50 for a 1GB player, that will hold around 250 songs.

Best-buy has a SanDisk Sansa 1gb mp3 player for $50, or 2gb for $75 and it has no cords at all. It plugs right into your usb port just like a thumb drive.

Getting more expensive...

HardDrive based players...don't use flash memory, they use tiny (and I mean tiny) hard drives inside to store music. This is where it can start getting expensive, though they can hold lots and lots of mp3s. A smaller hard drive mp3 (like the ipod nano) will run around $200 for the 4gb (around 1000 songs) all the way up to around $375 the huge 80gb ipod (around 20,000 songs), plus they can both play videos, store pictures, and other neat little things.

If you are just starting out, and just want to get one to try, I would recommend the 2gb sandisk sansa, its only $20 more then the 1gb one, and is a good balance of price and capacity.

If want to something that will hold A LOT, and want a hard-drive based player, I would recommend an ipod for a beginning user, though personally I don't care for them. They are little bit more expensive compared to other brands, but they are a lot easier to use because of how integrated they are with itunes, and their itunes store for getting music.

[Guest Yediyd]

Yes, almost everyone will come with the USB cord for it to connect to your comp.

How much will it cost....

That depends on how much you want to put on it.

You could get a small flash player (stores the songs on memory chips, no hard drive) for around $50 for a 1GB player, that will hold around 250 songs.

Best-buy has a SanDisk Sansa 1gb mp3 player for $50, or 2gb for $75 and it has no cords at all. It plugs right into your usb port just like a thumb drive.

Getting more expensive...

HardDrive based players...don't use flash memory, they use tiny (and I mean tiny) hard drives inside to store music. This is where it can start getting expensive, though they can hold lots and lots of mp3s. A smaller hard drive mp3 (like the ipod nano) will run around $200 for the 4gb (around 1000 songs) all the way up to around $375 the huge 80gb ipod (around 20,000 songs), plus they can both play videos, store pictures, and other neat little things.

If you are just starting out, and just want to get one to try, I would recommend the 2gb sandisk sansa, its only $20 more then the 1gb one, and is a good balance of price and capacity.

If want to something that will hold A LOT, and want a hard-drive based player, I would recommend an ipod for a beginning user, though personally I don't care for them. They are little bit more expensive compared to other brands, but they are a lot easier to use because of how integrated they are with itunes, and their itunes store for getting music.

Thank you,

I'm intimidated by all this new technology...but I love music!!! Thanks for the advise!