Need Help re: iPod

[The Rabbi]

You can tell that I am 1) middle aged, 2) the father of a teenage girl.

My daughter wants an iPod. First thing I asked was what the heck you do with the things. This is a feature obviously of aging. I see electronic stuff advertised and not only do I not know whether it is a good deal or not, I have no idea what you would even do with it. But I digress.

So she wants a full sized one. I have no objection to her having it (and she's offered to pay for it from her own money) but want her to get the best deal she can. Can anyone help here, with recs for models or pricing or whatever?

[molonlabetn]

There are some cell-phones which can perform the same function, and would kill two birds with one stone.

I know nothing about i-pods specifically other than I detest them.

[Guest CrazyLincoln]

Find someone who wants a new one who is willing to sell an older one in good condition or ebay. Other than that apple has pricing agreements with its sellers so prices are pretty much set. There are a couple sites that shave a few dollars off, but we're really talking a few dollars. Due to the popularity, I have rarely seen them go on sale, but you might find an older version on a clearance rack somewhere. The high demand keeps the price steady.

[creeky]

If you are going to buy an iPod I would suggest getting a Refurb one straight from apple. You get the same 1 year warranty, and a less price. Plus if you don't have to have the latest generation, you can really save some bucks on an older model. They are limited, and supply changes. But some people shy away from refurbs, which is fine. I just don't mind them.

Work gave me one of the clip on "shuffles". I love it. I load it up with music

and podcasts when I have to fly. I can fly to Reno and back on a single charge.

My wife has an older model shuffle (the larger one) and loves it. Uses it when she works out. They run $79 bucks new, are 1 gig, but you can't watch videos.

Apple controls pricing. That is why it took so long before you could get them at wal-mart. Wal-Mart wanted to offer it lower than anyone else. Apple said no and walked away. Then Wal-mart came back.

You will get the same price on a new one anywhere you go.

The "iTouch" ipod has very little storage but a lot of eyecandy... but it is the first model. (I tend to stay away from the bleeding edge of tech.)

For me... I would get an "iPod" Classic. Comes in 80gig for $249 new, and 160gig for $329 new. Videos tend to take up a lot more space. The gig to dollar ratio seems the best with it.

The new "Nanos" look neat, and our a cheaper alternative.

($149 for 4gig / $199 for 8gig) She could watch videos, listen to music, and view family photos on there.

They just upgraded the ipod line, so i wouldn't expect any new models till after the first of the year.

Link to apple's refurb section:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=AA9C1546&nclm=Certified

[Guest Fuel]

Find someone who wants a new one who is willing to sell an older one in good condition or ebay.

I'd be cautious here. I bought a used 20 GB model off ebay a year or two ago. Now the click wheel has died on it. After some research apparently this is a fairly common problem. It now stays in the truck plugged into my radio. This is the only way I can use it now.

I personally would by new, or possibly factory refurbished as has been suggested. And there are no price deals. They pretty much cost what they cost.

[Guest c.a.s.]

I have a Sansa e260. 4 gigs, nice screen, physical turning wheel, not touch sensitive. IT has a slot for a MicroSD card to expand the amount fo space you have infinitly, since you can add music to a card, plug it in, remove it, and put in a new card with more music on it. It's okay for videos, but videos can only be stored in the player itself, and are a very large format, Quicktime. They go for $150 at Walmart, you might be able to find a better deal at Circuit City or direct from SanDisk.

Sandisk also has a new version that si WiFi capable, although only with Yahoo Music. Same price, same size. I don;t know about that card slot, though.

[SkWaShDeM]

At best, you'll shave about $3-5 off of what Apple sells them for direct. Apple also offers free laser engraving of 2 lines of text on the back of the player when you order it direct from them.

The price drop from last month is in effect now, and the iPod Classic 80gb is $249 now. Ordering from Apple gets you free shipping, and I don't think you have to pay sales tax on something from Apple direct in TN.

[bteague2]

It all depends on what you want it to do and what you want to do with it. If you want to play videos or tv shows you'll need one of the bigger ones with a larger HD. but if you just want music all of them can do that. if it's going to be something you take everywhere and use for all sorts of things then I'd stick with one of the bigger ones with a larger display screen. If your going to use it to exercise or just like the minimalist functions the shuffles are great. the new or old ones will work fine. the new ones have a clip on them or something while the older one will need a sleeve or put it in the key slot in most athletic shorts. I've got an older shuffle and while i don't use it alot i've never had any problems with it at all.

[Joseg]

I just bought a 30GB Zune off woot.com for $99 + 5 shipping. it's not an ipod, but it okay so far.. you can play movies, music, fm radio, and have pictures..

[Guest canynracer]

I have a shuffle...250 songs...its more than enough...60 bucks...my daughter has the Nano...once again, more than enough...She wants the big daddy that plays vids but I told her no...too much stuff can be downloaded to those....I want to know what my kid is involved with on the internet...(being a computer nerd for a living makes me leary)

JJ

[creeky]

(being a computer nerd for a living makes me leary)

Ain't that the truth!

[Guest Disney]

I'd go with at least a 30GB iPod. Mine has been through hell and back and is still working perfect.

If she is a student then she can buy from teh Apple students website and save some money. As far as I know that is the only way to really save any money on buying a new one.

If buying used just check for wear I guess. Mine looks wore out but works perfectly. I only have about 3GB of empty space left and I have to keep erasing stuff to fill it back up. It also serves as a USB storage device.

[Guest GlocKingTN]

If she is just wanting something for music, videos, etc, then I say buy something besides an Ipod. Like a Zune or something. They perform the same way and are a little cheaper. But if she must have an Ipod, then I say try ebay, but buy from a good reputable seller.

[Guest Boomhower]

Ok Rabbi. It's time to step up for your daughter . Check out the IPOD Touch. It's got everything the IPhone has minus the phone. Or just go all out and get the IPhone. If I was looking for a new music device, i'd have to give the IPod Touch some serious thought.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=3587D039&node=home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_touch

[MexicanDragon]

If you are going to buy an iPod I would suggest getting a Refurb one straight from apple. You get the same 1 year warranty, and a less price. Plus if you don't have to have the latest generation, you can really save some bucks on an older model. They are limited, and supply changes. But some people shy away from refurbs, which is fine. I just don't mind them.

Normally, I would agree with creeky 100% here, but I quickly scanned the refurb 80 gig prices, and they're only 30$ less than the new iPod Classic 80 gig, and the 5.5 gen 30 gig is 199.99$ refurbed, so that's out (value wise. It's what I have, however).

If she's wanting full size, consider budget. 80 gig for 249.99$ is reasonable, 160 for 349.99$ is very tempting.

Here are a few questions that would help us out.

1) How into music/sound quality is she?

2) Does she want to watch videos/movies/tv shows on it?

If 1), there are two options to consider. She should DEFINATELY budget some cash for a good pair of headphones. Depending on her tastes in music and style of headphones, a good to great pair of headphones can be had for 20$ up to 1000$ or so... (my favorite budget headphones run 20-50$). If she's into sound quality (maybe with a good pair of headphones she might find she is, and never knew it... the stock headphones are rubbish, at best).

There is also the quality of the files she rips from the CD's (mp3's or "lossless"). Many people think 128kbps (what a lot of the music you'll buy) is "CD Quality", when in actuality you're missing quite a bit of information, and musicality, at that level.

2), as was previously stated, movies take up a lot of space. I have just one on mine, and it's about 1.5 gigs. All it takes is about 25 movies (or about 50-100 tv episodes) to fill up half of the 80 gig iPod. No big deal if you move 'em around, but I like to carry my entire collection with me music wise, and have a variety of things to watch as well.

FYI, the new iPod classic has supposedly VERY good sound quality. In the portable audio community (from which I have been entrenched for a number of years), it is catching up. There have been some modified versions of previous generations of iPods which would greatly help with sound quality, but the designer of the mods (Vinnie Rossi from Red Wine Audio), after spending a number of hours with the new model (the iPod Classic), decided that it wasn't worth modding, as it was a large step up from the previous stock version, and that it came close to his own modified 5.5 gen (the new one is the 6th generation). This was a big revelation, as it will cost him considerable business.

If I didn't mentioned it, with the refurbs from apple, you WILL be charged sales tax in TN.

For a little light reading, check out http://www.head-fi.org/ There is a wealth of knowledge there in the portable audio section.

For budget headphones, some I recommend are the Koss KSC-75 (clip on style) for 20$, the Koss Porta Pro (50$) or Porta Pro2 (if you can find it) for about 35$ (same drivers, fewer extras), Sennheiser PX-100 (50-60$ list), Grado Labs iGrado (49.99$) (not found in many stores, but can be found through many online dealers. http://www.ttvj.com will carry some of these, and there is a 10$ off coupon for first time buyers), Grado Labs SR-60 69.99$ (same drivers as the iGrado, different enclosure... think "retro". Alessandro MS-1 (99$) http://www.alessandro-products.com/headphones.html . For Ear-buds/canal phones/IEM's. Check out V-Moda headphones (49.99-100$), JVC Marshmellows (19.99-24.99$ at local stores).

I'm sure that's more information than any of you actually read, so I'll stop now.

**BRENT**

[creeky]

On the 1.8 gig movies... mexican Dragon is right. But there are ways to get that down quite a bit. On the mac, you can use the freeware "Handbrake". With it you can rip your own DVD movies down to exact PSP, or iPod size. Or even go in and monkey with it a bit and get it lower. Baiicly your just leaving out things you won't use on such a small format... like Surround sound, subtitles, and changing the image size so that you're only getting enough data fo rthe ipod's little screen. A 700 mb mpeg is possible for a full length movie. (I've shown a friend how to do this.)

I would think there would be a similar type of freeware for the PC... but I don't know. I'm mainly a mac guy.

(Good point on the refurbs Mexican Dragon.)

[MexicanDragon]

On the 1.8 gig movies... mexican Dragon is right. But there are ways to get that down quite a bit. On the mac, you can use the freeware "Handbrake". With it you can rip your own DVD movies down to exact PSP, or iPod size. Or even go in and monkey with it a bit and get it lower. Baiicly your just leaving out things you won't use on such a small format... like Surround sound, subtitles, and changing the image size so that you're only getting enough data fo rthe ipod's little screen. A 700 mb mpeg is possible for a full length movie. (I've shown a friend how to do this.)

I would think there would be a similar type of freeware for the PC... but I don't know. I'm mainly a mac guy.

(Good point on the refurbs Mexican Dragon.)

For PC, there is a program called DVD Shrink that is freeware that seems to be good (I've used it once, but it was to make a high quality rip to fit on a DVD-r). It takes a while (maybe a couple hours?) to do the movies, longer or shorter depending on how powerful the computer is (PC wise, at least... macs idk). For such a small screen, 700 mb (What would fit on a blank CD-r) would be easily possible.

BTW, if you do mail order from a few places ( http://www.macmall.com ), many offer free accessories after mail in rebate, and you can probably avoid taxes ( 25-35$ would get a number of the pairs of headphones I was talking about). I know macmall has a 19.99$ - 19.99$MIR FM Transmitter, which allows you to play the iPod through your car stereo over your FM Radio).

If its something you think she would want to upgrade later, go ahead with the (free) engraving, but if you think she would sell it down the road for a newer one, skip the engraving... it will bring down the resale value.

Also, I would recommend getting a case for it. Personally, I've had tremendous luck with the Speck Products Tough Skin. It's survived multiple tumbles off a 3 foot table at work with my 4th gen 60 gig, (I wanted to do a little torture testing... I got bored). I looked it up, and it's backordered from the website (maybe not even out yet), but they sell this company's warez occassionally at Walmart, Best Buy, and Circuit City. (Being in Nashville, you'd have more choices than we do in rural TN where I'm at... or even 35 miles away in Chattanooga).

http://www.speckproducts.com/products/toughskin/ipod-classic/106

There are companies offering a products such as "Invisible Shield", a high quality clear, unintrusive protective barrier (from scratches, fingerprints, etc, but not drops like the Tough Skin) which is a virtual must have if you want to keep the piece looking pretty. (I've kept my 5th gen 30 gig in great shape for 10 months keeping it in the supplied slip case, but that was only being uber anal about it, not something I may have done as a teen).

Hope this is some more information to mull over...

(Heh... just think of how I am when I'm looking at gun stuff... these toys are going to drive me CRAZY!)

**BRENT**

[Guest Disney]

I use a program called DVD Mobile, it's from the Clone DVD product pack. It rips down DVD's to any size you want. I make mine 672MB for my iPod.

[MexicanDragon]

Dead of the Day: http://www.woot.com has a Microsoft Zune (an iPod competitor) for 99.99$ plus 5$ shipping.

@Rabbi, if your daughter doesn't mind something a little different (or if she embraces diversity), maybe she might be willing to take a look at these.

Real quick, woot.com has a deal a day, and when they're sold out, they're sold out. It's a haven/nightmare for people with a propensity for impulse buys.

Just a heads up...

**BRENT**

[bteague2]

That DVD Shrink program looks awesome. Thanks for the info

[Guest 10secL]

Got a black 30gig video Ipod Id sell ya.

PM if interested

[jgrauman]

http://www.smalldog.com/ i buy everything apple, and i buy it from them. they have the best prices and are apple authorized. they have new deals everyday on everything. check out their refurb stuff.

[Joseg]

You might want to check www.woot.com today, they have the 30Gb Brown Zune for 79.99 + $5 S&H.

Yes it's brown, but for the price and what you are getting, it's an excellent buy..