A ny I-Tunes/I-Pod experts?

[Bret]

Ok I admit it - I'm at a loss here.

So my niece is getting a Zune MP3 player for Christmas. But we where told that she was going to get an I-pod earlier by my sister so several of us went ahead and purchased some I-tunes gift cards for her.

Now I'd never heard of a "Zone" MP3 player before this so the question is - can she still use the Itunes gift cards with her Zune MP3 player or is it a waste of money.

Thanks,
Bret

 

[William]

The answer to you question "can I-tunes gift cards be used with a Zune" is no. Things that are downloaded into Itunes can only be used on Ipods, not other MP3 players. Unfortunately, gift cards are generally non-returnable items, so you are stuck with them.

Now, the good news. You can still download Itunes from the Apple website (for free, I believe), and use it as an MP3 player on your computer. My sister did that for months on her laptop, even before she got an Ipod. She did it mostly to be able to access the Itunes store, which is probably the easiest download service I've used. You can also rip CDs with Itunes, but I use a program called Musicmatch Jukebox (which came with a non-Ipod MP3 player of mine), mostly because music ripped solely with Itunes is also only playable in Itunes or on an Ipod. (personally, I think this whole "Itunes/Ipod only" stuff is annoying, but Itunes does work very well for downloading and listening to MP3 files)

So, don't toss the Itunes gift cards, as they can still be used for a collection of music on one's computer.

-William

 

[William]

And....

I've never heard of a "Zone" player, so if that's what she's getting I don't know how it works. A "Zune" is Microsoft's entry into the portable MP3 player market (a bit late, in my opinion). The Zune is supposed to out-Ipod the Ipod, by offering video (with a bigger screen than the Ipod has) as well as some sort of wireless connectivity feature that allows you to send messages to ther Zune users, as well as sharing music files (I think?) and playlists. However, the Zune seems to be bigger than the current full sized Ipod, and less likely to fit in, say, a shirtfront pocket, which is where my Ipod sits a lot of the time. I also doubt there's going to be the enormous number of accessories and other gadgets for the Zune than there are for the Ipod (but Ipod gadgets is an industry unto itself). Heck, that's probably the appeal of the Ipod-the stuff you can buy to go along with it!


-Wm.

 

[drooartz]

William is correct, iTunes music store downloads only work in iTunes or on iPods. Microsoft's Zune player has it's own downloadable music, which probably only works on the Zune (stupid manufacturers). Only way to get iTunes store downloads to work on another player (legally, at least) is to burn the downloaded music to an audio CD, and then rip the CD to an unprotected MP3 file. You lose a little bit of audio quality doing this, but probably not enough for most folks to notice.

 

[Banjo]

To momentarily hijack the thread, I'm going to get my wife a portable MP3 player for christmas. Looking at the under $200 range. Is the iPod the reccomended unit? and will it play regular MP3s or do they have to be iTunes? Thanks.

 

[drooartz]

The iPod will play normal MP3 files as well as quite a few other types. I've had my iPod now for about 3 years (just replaced the battery for $25) and I still like it. In fact, It's playing right now through my computer speakers at work.

I'm a big fan of Apple's industrial design, the iPod is a nicely done device. The 4 gig nano is going for about $200, that's plenty big for most normal folks. Apple also sells refurbished units which are a pretty good deal. 4 gig nano (previous model) for $149 with 1 year warranty.

https://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/We...;nclm=Certified

 

[lawguy]

I gotta say, I love my iPod. It is so easy to use and the design is so elegant (read simple control of complicated function). I have the 30gig Video iPod.

I have 300 songs, 200 vintage radio programs (about 80 Dragnet, about 120 assorted Christmas programs from Fibber, Gildersleeve, Jack Benny, etc.), and 1 movie- Tombstone...and I have about 25 gigs of the 30 left. Currently, you can get what I have for about $250.

 

[Bret]

I got my son an IPod last year and he’s seems pretty happy with it. Goes through ear buds like crazy though. I can’t recall how many songs his can hold but he’s starting to complain about wanting the newest one that can do videos and says it’ll hold something like 2500 songs. But the last time I checked these where running about $300 at Costco.

Anyway I got out of it by telling him that to think about how much money it’d cost to fill that dang thing? His answer was typical teenager and aloof when he rolled his eyes & said; “But Dad there are websites where you can download songs for about a buck a song or less.” /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif

That’s when I gave him my all knowing look & simply asked him to think about what he just said – because at a dollar a song (multiplied by 2500) means that if I’m buying’em, it’ll be that much that much longer before he gets his car next year. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Hard to believe I was a teenager once upon a time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonod.gif

 

[Stewart]

You can convert Itunes songs to mp3's but it somewhat of a pain in the butt. To convert the files to mp3 I have to first burn off the files I want as a cd then use a seperate program that can read the apple format and rip them as mp3's.

 

[lawguy]

[ QUOTE ]
I got my son an IPod last year and he’s seems pretty happy with it. Goes through ear buds like crazy though. I can’t recall how many songs his can hold but he’s starting to complain about wanting the newest one that can do videos and says it’ll hold something like 2500 songs. But the last time I checked these where running about $300 at Costco.

Anyway I got out of it by telling him that to think about how much money it’d cost to fill that dang thing? His answer was typical teenager and aloof when he rolled his eyes & said; “But Dad there are websites where you can download songs for about a buck a song or less.” /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif

That’s when I gave him my all knowing look & simply asked him to think about what he just said – because at a dollar a song (multiplied by 2500) means that if I’m buying’em, it’ll be that much that much longer before he gets his car next year. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Hard to believe I was a teenager once upon a time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonod.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I have the video one...but as a non-teenager (since 1991) most of my music existed on CDs and therefore I did not have to spend hundreds to get the hundreds of songs I have.

I may be a codger, but while I greatly enjoy different styles of music...I don't have 1000 songs I really care enough about to listen to. I didn't even load the entire album (for an anachronistic term) because there are songs I never cared about when I played the CDs- why store them someplace else where they will never be used?

I down load a few songs every couple of weeks, but only the ones I really want and I never download an entire album. For instance- I saw "20 Greatest Southern Rock Songs" on CMT the other day and promptly added songs I always likes, but had forgotten about- like stuff from The Marshall Tucker Band (Heard it in a Love Song), .38 Special (Caught up in You, Hold on Loosely) and Charlie Daniels (Devil went down to Georgia- but I'm sure everyone assumed that).

Now, I don't go anywhere without my iPod. I use it to keep my litigation calender on. I don't need a PDA really, all I need is a calender when I go to court to show when I already have stuff scheduled. It syncs automatically with Outlook (which I use in my office to keep my calender), so it is extremely easy to use.

I jog with mine as well. A Nano (smaller, lighter) would be better for that, but mine works fine. A couple episodes of Dragnet (Jack Webb rocks...er...rocked) and before you know it, I've done 5 or 6 miles.

In case you can't tell, I'm an iPod partisan. I have 2 sets of earbuds because I thought that the original set was going bad. I turned out that the way I had the iPod in my pocket was dislodging the plug and the plug was fine. I just needed to put the iPod in a different pocket.