I bought a mac product!?! ipod shuffle

I've never really seen the fuss about ipods because I've never really had a need for one and I'd rather buy a creative or something which costs much less. But my old old creative 128mb player is on the fritz (the one that you wear on your arm for working out) so I started to look for a new mp3 player. Well a buddy of mine bought an ipod shuffle and I was shocked at how small it really was. I mean it's the size of my first thumb segment and less than a half an inch tall and half of that is the clip. So I ebayed it and managed to get one for 60 shipped (used...I'm cheap like that) and I got it the other day.
I thought it was like my old mp3 player and I just dropped in the songs I wanted via windows explorer and erased the music folder that was there...well when I was at the gym and I fired it up I was greeted with basicly japans greatest dance dance revolution hits. None of my songs were on it! After getting back home and plugging it back in I found the hidden ipod folder which housed "randy's greatest hits" and figured out I needed to download itunes and whipe it clean and import my new songs. Lol, well I finaly got it done and it's working now...without DDR.

But I'm curious as to others thoughts on the shuffle and any other small mp3 players?

I hate iTunes, hence why I've never bought any of Apple's Mp3 players. If it can't be plugged in anywhere and accessed as a portable drive, then I don't want it. I've gone through SO many MP3 players since 2001 that I've become pretty picky about which ones I recommend.

Worst MP3 player brand I've ever tried: RCA. They're almost completely unusable right out of the package due to crappy software or buggy firmware and I have never had one last more than a few months.
Favorite MP3 player storage format: SD Card
Most Annoying feature: Non-standard or non-replaceable battery

You can get REALLY cheap mp3 players on eBay, then just stick a card capacity of your choice in it. They almost always work better than the players I've purchased from retail outlets. I bought a gaggle of the $10 mp3 players last year when they were posted in the cyber deals section and gave them to many relatives who (except those that lost theirs) are still very happy with it.

Captain Slug said:

I hate iTunes, hence why I've never bought any of Apple's Mp3 players. If it can't be plugged in anywhere and accessed as a portable drive, then I don't want it.

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Why do you hate iTunes? I think it is fine.

As for being used as a portable drive, my iPod can be accessed as a portable drive. I am pretty sure they all can.

Here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61131

Those are the directions to allow your ipod to be used as a storage drive. You just have to set the amount of space to be used for storage.

ok. #1 you can enable harddrive managment on your ipod (have to do it through itunes in the first place) and then your ipod shows up as a drive as well. #2 Use a program called ephpod. It transferres all your songs (regardless of what computer's itunes library it is synced with) at 8mb/s or so. Not bad for free software.

The small size of the new Shuffles is great, you can get one of those beanies with the built-in headphones and clip the shuffle to the underside of the brim, wear the beanie backwords and it's really inconspicuous. Wear it at work, while driving, noone can tell.

I dont like the small size of em.. their just.. TOO SMALL.. Its so easy to be stolen now.. or lost.. I mean.. if you lost it in a bowl of cereal some how unknowingly you will eventually eat it probably.. I mean.. I like pocket sized Ipods.. not.. nano probe sized.

I would like to point out that I haven't been happy with ANY of the hard drive MP3 players I've tried, regardless of make/model. I'm kinda picky, but it's mostly battery life and durability that are the features I care about.

Quailane said:

Why do you hate iTunes?

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It's buggy, awkward, a resource hog, and installs services.

i don't like itunes either, i use winamp to manage the songs on my ipod.

Yeah iTunes is the worst, from the get go it wants you to use their dumb store. Nevar! I have a Nano which is pretty nice, I can't stand the Shuffle since it doesn't have an LCD. I've had mp3 players since the Creative Nomad II and Jukebox and all of them had screens. Sure it's nice and small, but I wouldn't consider buying one.

IMO the iPod brand is only superior to other mp3 players because the scroll wheel makes it so easy to navigate the menus.

Ever since I got my shuffle (1 1/2 years ago) I've had problems transferring songs to it. I've tried other computers, had it replaced for a second gen, but it still fails and the bestbuy guys never have problems with it. So I'm getting rid of it and I'm looking to buy one of the newer Sansas when I have the money available.

Sony just announced the new Walkman in Japan so we'll probably be hearing about it soon. More competion might make for some better MP3 players soon. I'm kind of interested in either this or Zune.

The 2nd gen shuffle is nice for working out or running. I just wanted to comment because it is really small. My brother put his into washing machine and dryer without realizing it He was just going to toss it, but his girlfriend charged it up and could you believe the thing works just fine

I have an ipod video, and I dont get itunes. Basically, it can convert videos to mp4, but seems to work only with .mpg files. Then, when I put it on my ipod, it doesnt get sound, even the first video had it. had to download a seperate program, which can convert anything to .mp4.

Captain Slug said:

It's buggy, awkward, a resource hog, and installs services.

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I'll say to you what I tell everyone who uses iTunes on Windows. "Developing software for Windows is NOT Apple's main priority." Not to be (overly) condescending, but it works fine on my Mac.

Good for you.

I find them quite toy like for my uses though.

There are alternatives to iTunes. Ephpod is one that has been mentioned, Anapod is another.

Linux users can install the KDE IPod IOSlave and navigate to ipod:/

Personally I love iTunes. I have had many mp3 players being a total audio nut. The software aside, iPods are great because there is absolutely nothing you cant find aftermarket for them, this includes anything from gps modules to tube amps and doc's to make them remote controlable through your high end stereo. I cant see how iTunes is any more or less anoying than other software, and you can always play back the music on your pc through other software anyway. Just point itunes to the folder you store your music and its happy.

Captain Newbie said:

I'll say to you what I tell everyone who uses iTunes on Windows. "Developing software for Windows is NOT Apple's main priority." Not to be (overly) condescending, but it works fine on my Mac.

Click to expand...

Plus linux has native support, it can be used as a storage drive,

AND

you dont need to use itunes.

Ephpod is one great program and even allows you to take music OFF.

I'm sure theres many more, but ephpod, itunes and amarok have soothed any need I have

I can't stand iPods, mainly due to iTunes. I don't like the interface that much either, everything Apple is just "too simple". I find it absolutely retarded.

And anyone ready to tell me that the click wheel is easier to use than Creative's vertical touchpad must be crazy. I personally like Creative's interface much more. On my Zen Vision: M, instead of scrolling like on the iPods (keep spinning fast until the letters show up then keep spinning to jump letter to letter), you can select letters on the right (press the right button on the touchpad), then just move back and select a song. It's much less effort than going in circles until you get to the song you want, just leave your finger at the bottom or top of the touchpad.

Plus, I do not like that you can't move your music to other computers, unless you get other software. I personally think that's just a hassle. Creatives, just plug it in and you have access to everything on the player, you can set your own folder structure. And the screen is better than the iPod videos to boot. It's just a little bulkier. But it's much sturdier IMO.

I will give the iPods this though; they're getting pretty cheap. $350 for an 80GB, that's pretty good. My player is 60GB, and it retails for $300, I got it off the egg with a pair of Sennheiser headphones for $300. But then again I can easily replace the hard drive with a larger capacity 1.5" drive, probably will cost a bit though. The batteries can be changed out to higher capacity ones too. Just gotta have a little experience opening stuff up

iTunes killed it for me. I am used to being able to just dump my MP3 on the player and go... I dont want thier propritary crapware taking over all media formats. I have used WinAmp since 2000 and plan on continuing to. Luckly there is a plug-in that lets me dump files from winamp to my iPod.

For a long time I used my PSP as a MP3 player. I could get 14-16 hours of music play off one battery charge. I get 3-4 off my iPod if I am lucky.