Advice required from those who know about i-things

[timwilky]

OK It is not for me but the daughter wants an i-thing for christmas.

Do they do anything useful apart from play music?

Can she put her existing collection of MP3 music on it?

We only have Linux computers. The windows ones are works and no software loads allowed, does she have to install any software to work with an i-thing or will it simply be seen as a USB storage device?

My current MP3 player has a 32Gb card, can I put that in the i-thing to play my music on it?

Why do they cost so much I bought my MP3 player for 20 quid?

The wife was going to buy her docking gadget for it in her room, do they all have the same connectivity or do you have to buy specific docking stations to suit the i-thing?

[lily]

To be able to get an I-thing to work you need Itunes, which I believe won't run on a Linux system. All ipod's won't accept any memory cards, and will only have music loaded on them from itunes.

The ipod touch is the only one that you can also download apps and facebook etc, but only while in wifi areas.

In terms of cost you are paying for the brand, and the brand alone.

Docking stations, they all have the same connection.

[the_lone_wolf]

Do they do anything useful apart from play music?They have things like games and notes but the short answer is no

Can she put her existing collection of MP3 music on it?Yes

We only have Linux computers. The windows ones are works and no software loads allowed, does she have to install any software to work with an i-thing or will it simply be seen as a USB storage device?Apparently they work on linux (ubuntu anyway) (http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9266) - no personal experience

My current MP3 player has a 32Gb card, can I put that in the i-thing to play my music on it?AFAIK no, ipods don't have expandable memory - an ipod touch might? but Apple aren't renowned for such useful features

Why do they cost so much I bought my MP3 player for 20 quid?Steve Jobs has expensive rent boy tastes...;) - or in reality because they can, and they are pretty good

The wife was going to buy her docking gadget for it in her room, do they all have the same connectivity or do you have to buy specific docking stations to suit the i-thing?Depending on the hardware generation so things are hit and miss but the basic connector is the same, vendors should tell you what generation their accessories will work with

Comments in red...

[minimorecambe]

But be aware if yu get an Ipod touch then a lot of the docking stations will not charge it aswell.

[fizzwheel]

If yuo get her an ipod touch, you can rip DVD's to it so you can watch films / dvds etc etc.

[SoulKiss]

It will *work* with Linux, but not to its full ability as far as I know.

Find out WHY she wants an iThing, and then look for options that do the things she wants and try and steer away from iThings - in your environment the next thing you will be doing is buying and administering a Windows laptop just to talk to the iThing.

As always, I'd say go Cowon, although the latest Android based Archos kit looks ok.

[metalangel]

iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without the phone parts in, so while it can do 'useful' things like apps, you need a wifi connection.

The thing is, iPods get all their info by 'syncing' with iTunes, and copying everything you have in your iTunes library (music, movies, etc) onto the iPod. Whether there's a substitute program for teh lunix to let you do this, I don't know. That's your biggest issues, you need a way of doing this as that's the only real way to get the music on there. iTunes will happily import your existing MP3 collection for it to use.

They cost a lot partly because of the name, and partly because they can do more than just a little USB MP3 player. Even my 'old' iPod Classic plays games, shows photos, plays movies. The Touch will do almost everything an iPhone does. She might have a whale of a time with a Touch sitting around the house Facebooking or playing Angry Birds or something. But yes, find out WHAT she wants to do with it.

EDIT: And how big her MP3 collection is!

[tigersaw]

I bought an i-thing touch yesterday, see separate thread. If you want lousy battery life and poor mp3 playback, its your doozie. However, it does other stuff, as I'm slowly discovering, so as everyone says, find out what its to be used for.

[timwilky]

She probably has in the region of 70Gb of mp3. She simply wants to be able to listen to her music without having to turn on her PC.

If she wants the internet there are 4 PCs in the house plus mine and her latops. What other stuff does an i-thing do? She is not at all interested in games. So apart from maybe a diary I cannot see what she would want of an electronic device.

I cannot really ask her what she wants of an i-thing as it is supposed to be a surprise. Music yes, maybe if it had a decent camera, but certainly not as an internet device, unless it can sync her mail imap and an x509 certificate required for that. But I guess she then needs some sort of public wifi (Is there such a thing, especially out here where we don't even get ADSL?)

[metalangel]

A Touch is probably out as the largest capacity one is 64Gb, and some of that will be taken up with the operating system. In fact, she pretty much has to have a Classic as that's the only iPod model with a capacity large enough for all that music!

I have a Classic and there's not much in the way of Apps for it... I have bought one game for it and that's just about it, there's only so much you can do with the clickwheel. But then I only wanted it for music so it's fine.

[kaivalagi]

I've never seen the need for any music playing device as I have always gotten away with using a smart phone...most smart phones these days have a 3.5mm jack and expandable memory via memory cards

If she is in need of a phone upgrade too why not think about getting an all encompassing phone with a decent(ish) camera, music player software and varying other software abilities and the phone obviously...

I use Linux too (only a windows xp laptop and 7 VM for work) and won't go near i-thingies because of the lack of decent Linux software support and the itunes "lock-in" needed to shift music around. I use an Android phone with a decent set of sennheiser in the ear headphones and just shift mp3's around as required by plugging in via USB and sharing the devices card as a drive. I have an 8GB card in my phone which gives me a great deal of music choice based on what I am into at the time...

[thulfi]

Does she have a phone or a contract?

Ipod touches are pointless. You can just kill two birds with one stone if you have an iphone. Does all the same things, but as you can access the internet via 3G you have much more options on the go, and makes it a far better gadget.

It will save her having to carry a phone and an mp3 player. The 4th gen iphones are costly, but the last 3rd gen iphone does loads and shouldn't cost too much now.

[kaivalagi]

It will save her having to carry a phone and an mp3 player. The 4th gen iphones are costly, but the last 3rd gen iphone does loads and shouldn't cost too much now.

Trouble is that having only linux at home means that itunes is an issue, hence suggesting something other than an i-thingy...

[Bluefish]

i concur, that's why i got the iphone so you don't have to carry two devices around with you, maybe one of then androidy phones tim, as they seem to be ok, so peeps say.

[kaivalagi]

I think the HTC Wildfire is going fairly cheaply right now, an Android phone with decent screen size etc. Better to get something on a contract if you can though but I am guessing that would involve your daughter somewhat at a guess...

Spec of the wildfire here: http://www.htc.com/uk/product/wildfire/specification.html
Vodafone have it "free" for min £20/month contracts, I can only assume other carriers have similar or better offerings...you can also get the phone sim free outright for around £200 or cheaper "locked" in to a network's own pay as you go option (although I suspect this could be worked around easily)

Obviously there are a lot more choices but this gives a good example of the sort of thing I'm on about

Hope that helps

[SoulKiss]

I wouldn't listen to the Smartphone crowd.

Sure you only carry one device, but then you are only carrying one battery...

So you listen to music all day and on your way home you break down - doh not enough battery to make a call...

Go for a separate device, its NOT like either a phone or an MP3 player weighs a ton..

Check out http://anythingbutipod.com/ for your options, and when you decide on a Cowon player (had an S9 for nearly 2 years, still very happy with) check these guys out to get it. http://advancedmp3players.co.uk/

[Bluefish]

what i do soulkiss when that happens is plug the charger in £1.50 off ebay.

[fizzwheel]

i concur, that's why i got the iphone so you don't have to carry two devices around with you, maybe one of then androidy phones tim, as they seem to be ok, so peeps say.

Thats fine as long as your music collection isnt bigger than the capacity of the iphone...

[SoulKiss]

Thats fine as long as your music collection isnt bigger than the capacity of the iphone...

Why do you need to carry an entire collection with you anyways?

Never ran out of space on a 16GB player - in fact rarely have more than about 4GB on it.

Is it SOOO hard to pick the music you feel like listening to today and spend 5 mins transferring it - is iTunes THAT bad to use?

[kaivalagi]

is iTunes THAT bad to use?
Try using it on a Linux OS...that fact keeps getting forgotten here it seems, unless there is a easy way to hook up to i-thingies with iTunes or without on Linux? I've not checked for quite some time now...

Fair point on battery life. The battery on my HTC Hero (old Android phone) lasts a 4-5hr train journey when continuously listening to music and reading a book / emailing over 3G the whole time...It will charge using mini USB too via a plug socket or PC so I plug it in at the other end...not bad IMO although not as good as a dedicated music player I would expect...

edit: what is the battery life of an ipod / ipod touch / cowon player etc for continuous use anyway? Just curious...I would hope it lasts a good 8 hours or so?

[barwel1992]

she needs the new apple gadget ;) i-Ron

http://www.sweeneyssweepers.co.uk/images/steam_iron.jpg

[timwilky]

Only a few orgers have met her, for good reasons. she is seriously scary. If I went down that direction she would ask me to try out the ear phones as she applied it to my head.

[BigBaddad]

I love my iPod but hate iTunes. I cooked the HDD on my PC a year ago and had to open a new account on iTunes. No way of transfering music back from your iPod to iTunes.

[SoulKiss]

edit: what is the battery life of an ipod / ipod touch / cowon player etc for continuous use anyway? Just curious...I would hope it lasts a good 8 hours or so?

Cowon S9, about 50ish hours for MP3 playback - or in other words an entire AR, from the ride there, on the rideout and the ride back.

[fizzwheel]

Is it SOOO hard to pick the music you feel like listening to today and spend 5 mins transferring it - is iTunes THAT bad to use?

For me it is yes, I never really know what I will feel like listening to, so its just more conveniant and gives me more flexability to have it all on my ipod. Also I have a stack load of audio books and a good chunk of my DVD collection on there as well.

[metalangel]

I like having my entire collection (4000 songs) on shuffle as it means I'll hear stuff I haven't heard in ages/stuff I might not normally say 'daaamn I gotta listen to this song'.

Trust me, this is the truth. I have about 300 songs on my Xbox HDD for use during games, except Mrs Metal took to playing them all the time while puttering around the house and you get SO SICK of them with so a small amount of variety.