*Official* iPod thread - all iPod discussion in here

[Len]

Just plug 'em in, should work fine. I've got my Nano and my g/f's 1st gen 20Gb ipod both running off the same machine with different sets of music on each.

No problem...

[112]

hmm.........

thanks guys, ill give it a try!

112

[capcom_suicide]

Hi guys, I just got an Ipod Nano 4GB from my nice wife, and I have 2 noob questions.

Can I use USB to charge the Nano WITHOUT installing drivers?

If I plug it into an XP machine, will it show as a standard Flash Disk, and give juice to charge?

I am going on holiday and want to use my mates laptop to charge and transfer photos to take home.

Anyone know? I don't have the Ipod with me to test!

[MonkeyWrench]

Ended up destroying my iPod in a fit of rage after it locked up on me the umpteenth time. ****ing hated the thing. From reading discussions around the net and friends own stories I was lucky my iPod even lasted the 2 years I had it. I'm surprised there hasn't been a bigger backlash against Apple. There's so many horror stories and bad press, yet people still buy them in droves. Is it style over substance? There are so many better players out there now, yet people still pay for over priced inferior players.

[Kotatsu Neko]

If there is a better player though, what is it? What could do what my 5G iPod Video does in as small and pretty a form factor?

[MonkeyWrench]

Creative, iRiver, Sony...they all have a pretty strong line of players now, most of which are cheaper and have the same functionality.

I'm not really arsed how a player looks as long as it's a decent size and has all the functionality that I need. I want something that plays music, not a fashion accessory.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I try to keep up to date with the competition but I've never seen anything as compelling as the 60gb iPod video yet. The Creative offerings are much chunkier (about twice the thickness of an iPod), pretty ugly, and are only 30gb.

iRiver don't seem to do anything above 20gb...

And Sony's efforts lack a colour screen and have no video playback. Damn ugly things too and I hear their PC management software is dire.

There are plenty of cute flash MP3 players around, but when it comes to the HDD stuff I haven't seen anything to touch the 5G iPod. To me this looks like one of those rare cases when the most popular product is actually the best, not just the most hyped.

[MonkeyWrench]

Well it's purely subjective I guess. I don't really need anything above 20gb (I still had 5gb free on my old 2nd gen 20gb iPod) or the need to play videos. All the things I want from an MP3 player Apple couldn't offer me, well not with the older version of the iPod anyway, it might be different with the newer generation but looking at the specs it's still missing a few things I want from a player.

[Kotatsu Neko]

If you don't need much storage then you'll have plenty of choice. The market is flooded.

I find video playback quite handy for plane journeys though, so now I have it on my 5G iPod I wouldn't want to give it up. Plus I have a *lot* of MP3s and like having most of them on my iPod as much as a portable backup device as anything else. iTunes too I depend on, it's great management software, it handles videos, and it has the big Apple podcast directory and iTMS. (which I rarely use, but it has come in handy on a few ocassions)

I'm also something of a design junky and I love the iPod stylings. So far ahead of anything else it isn't funny. Even players which are, should I say heavily 'inspired' by the iPod, such as some of Creative's players are still ugly looking.

Maybe you should have a look at an iPod Nano? Or hold off a bit for the 10gb Nano to come out later this year. They're so impossibly tiny, truly marvellous pieces of engineering.

[MonkeyWrench]

I probably won't be going near another Apple product for as long as I live, so a Nano is out of the question Plus the 10gb one wouldn't be big enough. On top of that I also hated iTunes and the way it would screw with my folder structures. I'm looking for a player that allows drag and drop and the ability to drag the files back off the player, which Apple doesn't allow you to do. Although, there is third-party software out there that will allow you to do that but that's not the point, I don't want to take up space on my PC with tracks that are already on my player.

I'll admit the iPod range does look pretty swish, but it's the design that caused me most headaches, specifically the touch sensitive buttons and the lack of a hard reset function. The buttons are probably a lot more responsive in later models but I don't think Apple has ever included a hard reset function (well not judging by what I've seen of them anyway). The problem I had was the buttons and the wheel would cease functioning. What was Apple's solution for this? To reboot the machine by holding down all 4 buttons I used to have to leave it playing until it ran out of power. Just a simple hard reset would have solved this...

[Dogg Thang]

It's unfortunate that you've had so many problems with it. My 4th Gen 60bg iPod hasn't once given me trouble. But you're right that not being able to drag files off the device is a pain in the ass - I had to get one of those third party programmes to be able to do that and I really shouldn't have had to.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I've had two iPods (a 4G 20gb and now a 5G 60gb) and I could count on the fingers of one hand how many times they've locked up. Come to think of it, I don't think my 5G has ever locked up.

To reset an iPod you hold Select and Menu for a few seconds.

With iTunes you do have to let it organise your music it's own way, and it's vital to have correct ID3 tags. But once you have that sorted it works very well, or at least it always has done for me.

BTW there are growing rumours that Microsoft will be releasing their own 'iPod killer' at the end of this year. It will have a bigger screen, play video, and will have built in wi-fi. Plus MS say they will scan your iTunes library for any copy protected fairplay music, then buy the same tracks for you in DRM windows media for free. I'll certainly take a look at it when it comes out, especially as it's apparently being developed in conjunction with the Xbox guys, who as we all know did a fine job on the 360...

[MonkeyWrench]

It didn't lock up, the controls just stopped responding. Although it had crashed a few times on me too My missus' brother has had 4 iPods and they've all experienced similar problems.

Yeah iTunes would be fine if I was just using an iPod, but when you have 2nd mp3 player it screws it up. The missus has a Creative Zen player and when iTunes fragments various artist albums into individual artists it's a nightmare trying to find all the tracks again. I've had to go in and change the ID3 tags for all the tracks so it lumps them all back together in one folder.

[marcus]

My first Gen Ipid finally died yesterday - a folder icon appeared. Numerous attempts to restore it back to factory settings have failed, it would appear to initially of restored itself, but upon another reset it would folder icon again.

So, time to get a new one, liking the look of the 2gb Black nano. Cant see that nano tubes come in black though, so may get the white one..

[marcus]

Bought a black nano today, love the design, its so much smaller than my 1st gen Ipod.

One thing - I want to buy a protective case for it, but want a tight-fitting silicone one, in black to match the colour - apple dont seem to make nano-tubes in black so far as I can see, are the 3rd party ones by Gear4 any good?