Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Ipod

Page: (1)2

All Acting Regiment

17:42 / 29.12.06

Sorry if there is already a thread for this, but I guess this might be of use to other people.

Hello.

I have had a CD player and a PC most of my life, I've got a chunk- nay, a wodge- of MP3s on my PC which I've downloaded from blogs and other nice and legal sources. Recently I've been living somewhere with no internet connection and using my library account to donwload MP3s to a memory stick and take them home and put them on my PC.

My CD player is broken. It being christmas, I thought I might replace it. My pal reccomended getting some decent speakers for my PC: these ones.

That way I could use my PC as a CD player. However...it's a bit clunky for that. I can't put it near my bed to listen to at night. So, should I in fact just put all my CDs onto my computer as MP3s, and then onto an Ipod?

Can you even put non-Itunes MP3s on to an Ipod?

Is there something better than an Ipod and cheaper?

Is there more than one kind of Ipod?

17:53 / 29.12.06

Well, I have one - a 20 gig iPod Photo - and I sort of love it, but I'm not sure I'll be getting another, not unless Apple buck their ideas up, at any rate.

The problem, spelt out in the Guardian a few of months ago, is that Apple have a policy that says that iPods should only last a year. This flies in the face of electronic industry guidelines (it's 5 years in the UK, if I recall correctly) and means that getting your iPod fixed is likely to cost you an arm and a leg. Now, that wouldn't be so bad if iPods were known for their reliability, but as I understand it they're really, really not. Add to that problems with battery life, the impossibility of downloading the contents of your iPod, and the clunkiness of iTunes and things they not look so hot.

Apparently Apple are poised to release the newest version. A clickwheel free, full length touchscreen device.

I'm sure lots of other folk have more to say on this subject than me so I'm going to bow out now.

18:04 / 29.12.06

Wait two weeks.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

18:17 / 29.12.06

Um. Well, I have a second-hand 30GB iPod, and it's changed the way I listen to music, sort of, inasmuch as I now listen to stuff all the time when I'm out and about, and when away from home it certainly beats taking a containerload of CDs along. It's fantastic to be able to take it along to a DJing gig and be able to have loads of stuff to hand beyond said bagful of CDs too, just in case - though I doubt I'd use it for DJing on its own too often, though it can be done as long as there are other sound sources available from other people, for example.

You can put any MP3s you like on an iPod - and you can also take them off again - at least, using Amarok on Linux (and Mac, apparently), you can. There's other software on Windows which lets you do the same. When I bought the iPod it had a load of stuff I wanted to keep, but I needed to reformat it to FAT32 for it to work with Linux. I cannot now recall which software I used. Media Monkey* on Windows might do it - not sure about Mac software which will do so though.

I'm a tad worried about my iPod conking out though, as it's quite old. I'm not sure if I'd replace it with a new one, but I'd definitely get a music player again as and when it joins the choir eternal.

*Thanks to whoever it was on Barbelith who alerted me to this programme a while back. It's great, at least on Windows.

18:22 / 29.12.06

There's Windows software that can get MP3's off an iPod? Brill!

I bet it isn't made by Apple, however.

18:27 / 29.12.06

I have a 2gen ipod still in use from, must have been '02 or something...looks like a bar of soap. The battery is toast in it but I plug it into an outlet and use it as a stereo connected to speakers just fine or in the car attached to the lighter jack. Is firewire.

Got a new shiny ishuffle for xmas. Is supa inexpensive without the screen, 79$? One of my friends commented it is like having the best radio station playing ever. Is about 1" and clips onto my bag strap quite nicely. I dig the on/off and the shuffle/straight buttons. So far it is kickass in the amount of music and length of battery life. Mine has 17 hours of music packed onto it currently wih more room remaining.

You can buy ipods used on ebay for cheap and the battery replacement thing has gotten a lot better as so many people kicked up a ruckus with apple. AFAIK they are itunes bound for mp3 use BUT for data storage it is easy enough to crawl into them from the OS and plop stuff down. I bought one of my pals a nano off ebay in October for cheap and it has been working sweet. I suggest if you want one with a screen going for the one gen older models that will be showing up every where for cheap.

I've used non apple mp3 players like the Rio and some of them are very nice but the new ishuffle is perfect for me. Plus I'm very happy it was a reasonable amount for my family to spend on a gift for me.

All Acting Regiment

19:19 / 29.12.06

Thanks for all your advice so far. XK- you have to use Itunes to put MP3s on your shuffle (which might be the one I get if I do)- do these have to MP3s you've downloaded via Itunes, or could you also put them on the Ipod if you had them from before you had Itunes?

19:39 / 29.12.06

I've plopped non itunes generated mp3's on it by dropping them in through itunes.
So in case that's confusing I put mp3's into my itunes from other sources all the time.

the autofill feature in the new ipods is a bit freaky to me as I want to be able to select what I'm loading onto it so I've disabled it. I suppose I just have a lot of crap music hanging about for no reason.....

Seriously the ishuffle is great if you like making playlists. You just dump big lists on it and then who needs a screen? Mine's already a bit scratched 'cause I'm a brut though...

I like how the area you hold to clip/unclip it is wide enough not to hit the buttons with your thumb. Might be a problem if you have very large thumbs though.

All Acting Regiment

19:58 / 29.12.06

I have dainty thumbs- that's what the turkey baster was all about. Anyway, the shuffle seems like a good idea, especially as you can charge it through the USB. Thankyou, all.

Kirin? Who the heck?

22:40 / 29.12.06

Just so's you know, all but the very earliest, and certainly all new iPods charge over USB. But the Shuffle is a marvellous beast (I have the earlier, USB-keydrive-like one) and nigh indestructible. I can only imagine it being more so in its new aluminium casing.

All Acting Regiment

00:34 / 30.12.06

Decided. Shuffle shuffling it's way towards me now, free postage and money off 'cause of the season. Like the idea of it physically clipping to my shirts and so on.

01:00 / 30.12.06

gourami (Fred) is right. Please please wait until the Jan sales.

01:30 / 30.12.06

I bought my monster 80gig iPod video last month and I love it. I get askance looks when I mention the size, but the way I see it, I have 40gigs of music right now and I need room for futureproofing.

iTunes is ridiculously easy to set up and use. Literally all I did was drag and drop my My Music folder into the program, it did the rest. Took about an hour for my 20 gigs of mp3s - some of which are very old, from the glory days of Napster and before (and a it took a lot lot longer to rip all my cds), but it did it with the id3 tags intact and even downloaded artwork, which was nice.

One thing I do like about iTunes (and I never thought I'd say this) is the music store. It's ace, I've found a lot of pretty obscure b-sides and the like for very reasonable prices. It's also got me listening to these newfangled podcast thingies. They download automatically! Truly, we live in the future!

So yes, iPod good. Worrying about when it's going to conk out, not so good, but I hold out hopes for my baby. Hopefully Apple have fixed the badness by the 5th gen.

All Acting Regiment

02:31 / 30.12.06

My supplier had it reduced to sale price already, Trips. Thanks for the Janvice anyhoo.

ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!

04:36 / 30.12.06

here in auswegia, ipods pretty much never go on sale, because the margin in them is tiny, tiny. We only make money on them because we sell thousands, which I find a bit irritating, because I like iRivers better, but we don't stock them because we don't sell as many, though we'd make as much money selling 1/5th of the stock...

And they're cheaper, usually, than ipods, also.

Anyway. The new shuffles and nanos are really good, for ipod products. The only issue I have with the shuffle is that it has no radio and no radio can be attached to it (thus far). Which seems a bit slack, pretty much everyone else in the 1gb size and at the same price range includes a radio (the sony walkman mp3 player/thumbdrives, for instance).

04:53 / 30.12.06

I've actually owned three iPods over the last few years, I was one of those people who rushed to buy one within days of them being introduced to the world. A paltry 5GB and as thick as two of the current 30GB models. It died because I really didn't take care of it, I went jogging with it (which, in those early days, Apple advised against) and dropped it a few times. I then bought one of the 20GB models which lasted for a while before inexplicably conking out on me. By that time the video iPods had been released and I decided to buy one of those, the 30GB is what I currently have. I love it, I've used it to watch downloaded tv shows in bed or on long flights (propped up on the tray table).

Yes, they do have their problems, yes, they do have an apparent built-in obsolescence to keep suckers like me upgrading, but at the risk of sounding like an Apple zombie, I don't care. Screw those iRivers, Zunes, Creatives, and the rest of the clunky, ugly wannabees - I heart iPod. MacWorld is on January 8th and its likely the new iPod will be unveiled, and I'll start that terrible process of rationalizing to myself why I need to replace my old one.

Right across the street from my studio there is a repair shop specializing solely in iPods. If that's not a sign of the times....

22:48 / 30.12.06

Ooh, i do like the shapings of the shuffle. Where did you get yours from, allecto?

I have had an ipod mini for the past year and a half, which served me well with its aluminium casing and 4 gig memory. I replaced the battery myself when it died, which was remarkably easy, and i loved that thing. But then it did the Big Death and, having looked at it, not even a hard drive replacement will work (broken connectors). This makes me a little sad, as i really like the styles of the mini. Minis are still selling for around £80, which puts them out of my current price range, which sucks.

So i figured it was time to try something other than Apple. iriver are really tempting with their funky-tilt-screen S10, but it still costs too much for me, especially as we're on import prices at the moment in the UK. So i opted fo the Creative Zen Nano, which i found on eBay for £20. Reviews of it have been good, and it features handy stuff like radio, voice recording, and line-in recording. It should (hopefully) be pretty good once it arrives.

It's still no ipod though. *sigh*

I don't really understand the ipod thing - they're renowned for their poor build, for their expensiveness and for their limiting design (can't download songs from ipod without special software, can't do many audio formats, pretty basic interface) but they still seem to rock.

I must say though, when (if) i have the funds and desire to opt for a large mp3 player (10+ gig), i'm not sure if i'll go Apple. Tho the mini, shuffle and nano all have kickass styling and seem sturdy as a bolt, i just don't like the looks of the straight-up ipod. It seems too large, with too much unused space. You can't (really) use them without a cover, and then you lose any looks you had to start with. I also have little desire to pay an extra £50+ for a video screen i will never use.

But as has been said, MacWorld is soon. Rumour has it OS X Leopard will have built-in support for the flac music format (this is a Good Thing), %and maybe Apple will step up their game now they are faced with the might of the Zune%.

05:50 / 31.12.06

The "might" of the Zune? That thing has been largely met with disinterest.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:24 / 31.12.06

Hence the sarcasm %s, I think. Although Microsoft are not entirely alien to the idea of releasing a poor opening shot: the first Zune might not be very good, but the second could be an Xbox 360 rather than an XBox. Since the Zune at present appears to be a Toshiba Gigabeat with a wireless function that is broken, I can't see a huge amount of people going for "The Social" - especially given that, without critical mass, what little benefit is conferred by the wifi ceases to function, so you just get a bulkier iPod with an FM tuner. I've heard nice things about the OS, mind.

13:54 / 04.01.07

anyone have any ipod portable headphone suggestions? the ones they came with are kind of shitty.

14:11 / 04.01.07

Hah! My specialist subject! Now, I totally swear by the ear-bud design headphones - that is, small, in-canal headphones that pop into your ear with a little rubber bud. You better better, warmer sound quality and much much less sound leakage (the white iPod 'phones being the aural equivalent of Thames Water's pipes).

Now, I used to use the Sony versions. They cost about £35 and were pretty much perfect other than the fact that two pairs broke within 3 months of purchase in exactly the same way (the left 'phone died). So last month I bough a pair of Seinheisser CX300's for £20 from Amazon. They're almost the exact same design, except they're lighter, smaller, louder and cheaper. The only downside that I can find is that the cable is too short to make it to my pocket, but too long to use an extension cable (the Sonys were very short by default, and came with a very handy extension cable). It's most annoying until you find a happy neck-wrap solution. One small issue I have with the CX300s is that they seem to be a teeny tiny bit bigger on the rubber-bud size (like, less than a millimetre, but enough to feel), meaning they feel a little too snug at times, like your ears are popping. And they're hard to eat with them in or laugh or run, becuase of the air seal in your ear. Take one ut and it's fine though, and it may just be my ears.

They're great phones, and best of all, they're not white, so I feel a lot less paranoid on the streets with my expensive toys.

Tabitha Tickletooth

14:38 / 04.01.07

I've got Sennheiser's too, but over the ear and band around the back of the neck ones - I find them much more comfortable and I don't have to listen to things as loud (if I don't want to) because they block out more ambient noise. Oddly, though, I have the opposite cord problem to John - I cycle in them and the cord is really dangerously long. I suspect this is because they are designed for home rather than portable use. They are brilliant headphones, though.

Help please iGeniuses: I have a lot of music on my iPod that is not on my iBook (downloaded through other PCs, etc). Is it possible for me to upload everything from my iPod into my iTunes library? I don't want to just synchronise them because I fear that the iTunes library might overwrite my iPod memory and I would lose a bunch of stuff. How do I get my library to match my pod?

15:02 / 04.01.07

ooh thanks!

Tabs, there might be a nicer way to do this...

1. go to your 'pod playlist select a song,
2. right click (ctrl click),
3. select show file in finder,
4. select file,
5. copy then paste it to a folder on your desktop.

how's that?

Tabitha Tickletooth

15:17 / 04.01.07

Thanks back at ya, xk. Just out of interest, what would happen then if I say, selected all on my iPod, saved them all to my desktop and then imported them all into iTunes, would this overwrite my existing iTunes library and therefore mean the two were the same, or would I end up with multiple copies of the tracks that were already on there?

It would be very time consuming to go through and work out which tracks were not already on both...

15:32 / 04.01.07

I'd suggest trying it with 1 track you know is on both and see what happens. My itunes used to ask me if I wanted to replace a file....

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:49 / 04.01.07

I don't think this will work, actually, although I could be wrong, because iTunes stores music files randomly and with odd titles...

If it doesn't... Are you using Windows or Mac, Tabitha.

18:49 / 04.01.07

I think Tabitha is on OS X, unless there is a way to run Windows on an iBook.

As Haus says, the iPod organises its file in an intentionally muddled way (i assume it is intentional - the only 'advantage' i can see to the way the ipod stores its music is the difficulty of filesharing).

I think Tabitha's fears of song-wiping may be well-founded - i have memories of a friend getting much of their music collection wiped because they forgot to turn auto-sync off.

Apple obviously want to make it pretty difficult for people to use the ipod as a handy filesharing device. I guess it saves them from flack from the music industry.

But fear not, Senuti is an OS X program that lets you download your ipod stuff in a damned easy way. It also seems to let you download it straight into iTunes (i'm going from the on-site screenshots here; my ipod being dead, i cannot test the current version, but previous versions have worked flawlessley for me).

As for adding music that you already have into iTunes, the program will just create duplicate files on your system. This is annoying as hell if you're ever trying to import a large number of folders containing a mixture of mp3s and playlists (you end up with 2 copies of albums, etc..), but i suppose it makes sense - you may have 2 different versions (live, studio...) of the same song that you want to keep.

But not to worry; if, once you have imported your music, you want to get rid of any dupes, you can select 'Show Duplicates' in the 'View' menu, and you will get a nice list of all the songs that have the same name (surprise, surprise!). A few simple clicks and a tap on 'delete', and you are tidy.

Does that help?

Mon Oncle Ignatius

12:35 / 05.01.07

but i suppose it makes sense - you may have 2 different versions (live, studio...) of the same song that you want to keep.

Hopefully the ID3 tags (on MP3s at least) will show them as being different versions of the same song in this instance.

Tabitha Tickletooth

12:54 / 05.01.07

Thanks everybody - I'll give Senuti a try over the weekend and give you an update on what happens. I am running on OS X but, and I have no idea if this creates a problem, half the stuff which is now on the iPod but not in the iBook iTunes library came from a Windows run version of iTunes. Initially, I saved the library files from the Windows iTunes onto a CD and transferred them to my iBook. I then tried to import them into iTunes but it kept claiming there were corrupted files (or similar, from memory). I realise that Apple needs to protect its products and music industry rights but its just a bit frustrating as I would hazard that 99.9999%, if not all, of the music on my iPod is there 'legally'.

13:49 / 05.01.07

Hopefully the ID3 tags (on MP3s at least) will show them as being different versions of the same song in this instance.

Hmm... there is that. I've had songs which are different versions, with different lengths, show up on the 'duplicates' list. So i just don't know.

As for win/mac compatibility, there won't be an issue. At a guess, the cd files may not have worked due to a corrupt cd. But it should be fine with your ipod. Mps aren't platform-dependent and itunes doesn't make a fuss about loading mps from unknown sources (yet...)

13:08 / 06.01.07

>>>because iTunes stores music files randomly and with odd titles<<<

>>>As Haus says, the iPod organises its file in an intentionally muddled way<<<

Huh? What are you guys talking about? I've never experienced this.

I usually spend time, when adding music to my iTunes library, to review the ID3 tags and make sure they are all correct and uniform, and when I export them to my iPod it's always organized cleanly and properly.

14:33 / 06.01.07

Any ipod i've used has stored the 'physical' files (i.e. the files as you would see them in windows explorer, or finder on OS X) in a random manner.

For example: on my Love's ipod, the music is kept in /ipod_control/Music (this is a hidden folder). In this folder there are folders named 'F00' to 'F49'. In the 'F00' folder, there are a bunch of mp3s named 'AALQ', 'AAOU', 'BKAC' etc...

Unless you listen to a lot of Aphex twin, i think this can be considered pretty 'random', 'odd' or 'muddled'. This is the way the ipod has been designed; to make things difficult for people who want to just use their computer's file browser or something other than iTunes to move their (or other people's) music around.

Obviously, this will look neat and clean inside iTunes, but that is because it is reading the ID3 tags, rather than the 'physical' filenames.

20:08 / 06.01.07

Ah, I see.

17:23 / 09.01.07

Fresh from Macworld Expo, the spanking new iPhone.

omigodomigodomigod

17:48 / 09.01.07

man, that has been obvious since the ipod came out and phone's started adding memory to compete.
i can't believe it took apple so long to get their arse in gear, and i wonder if i was perhaps hasty in assuming i wouldnt be able to get a job with their concept development team.

fuck, man.
i've known iphone would be the thing to truly assert apple's dominance(if they pull it off, natch. if not it could be the death of them) for over two years now, and i cannot be alone.

still, looks pretty.
i bet it snaps like a twig if you sit down with it in the wrong pocket, though.

Page: (1)2