the missus wants an i pod - advice please

[Damian]

I've got one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-YP-U2R- ... 636&sr=8-1

Depends how much you're worried about aesthetics. It more than does the job and I'm well happy with mine! And they've come down in price. I paid £45 for a 1GB model, now it's £20 less for a 2GB. And no need to buy batteries unlike some USB players - it charges off a PC.... 2.5 hours in a USB port amounts to about 20 hours of playback. And you just drag/drop files in using Windows Explorer - much easier than using the bundled software.

2GB allows you to have about 40 albums on at once and you can rotate them at will.

Depends how much she'll use it. If there's lots of commuting and it could sometimes be used at length, perhaps splash out on a bit more but this works for me.

[Ean]

Not these days it doesn't (check out 'What's In The Box'), you have to download it yourself. You don't even get an AC adaptor included any more.

What a bunch of bastards!!!!

I didn't actually know that!!!

It's not a particularly terrible idea really. It means that stuff like the Nano can come in packaging that's not much bigger than a couple of fag packets.

Plus even with my less than lightspeed broadband connection it only takes about five minutes to download it, and you won't have the bother of buying an ipod and finding that as soon as you've installed itunes it's an outdated version and it goes off and downloads the new one anyway.

i would never buy an i-pod..
what do you do when the battery's run it's life ????

Ah, that old argument. Ipod batteries are no better or worse than in any other player if you look after them and recharge them in the right way - the one in my third gen ipod is still good for about 80% of the original life after around five years. And if they do go, they're still pretty easy to change yourself using the little plastic tool that comes with the replacement battery.

currently have a 40g Creative Zen and it has around 11000 tracks on it and it is nowhere near as sniffy as the ipod on what it will allow in.

What do you mean by this?

I'm with you on the headphones though. The ipod ones have always been shite. I got myself some Sennheiser CX-300s, and they're fantastic once you get used to them.

It's dead easy to use and not fragile like the cheaper iPods

Even the cheaper ipods are all metal now, and they look very nice. My mate got a 6th Gen just before christmas and it's a lot prettier than the 5th gen I have as they're gone back to the curvy edged top.

Yours,
Steve Jobs.

[Stuart Brackpool]

Is there a consensus that the Creative is easier to use than the ipod? I find ipods much easier to find my way around. Horses for courses, eh?

[Keith Richard]

iPod's have pretty much been a "growth" on me since first gen. I recently lost my 80GB pod at some airport *hic*, and I replaced with a 16GB iPod Touch which I absolutely freakin love. The screen technology is awesome. I have heard people complain about iTunes, but I've never had a problem. Have no idea about the Zen or the Zune, but most comparisons I read have the iPod coming way out on top for sound quality.......and that's really all that I'm bothered about other than capacity.

[Dark Lord of Barnet]

One thing to remember with them all is that they usually come with crap earphones - no matter what make. That said I am now using an upgrade earphone from Creative which is a lot better than the ridiculously fragile Sony ones I used before

Yes, I think virtually all brands of player come with crap earphones as standard. I personaly favour the little black Sony in-ear ones - never found them fragile, although the wire inner goes in all makes in the end. The Sony ones I use seem to last well are are cheap too so I stick with them as I've yet to find any others that sound as good.