I was going to buy an Mp3 player and then changed my mind, deciding to buy an Ipod. I was told that if you have a Ipod the rechargable battery dies after a certain period of time and you can't buy a new one. If you have it still under warranty Apple will send you a new battery. If not you have to buy a new Ipod. I was wondering if anybody on this site who either had an Ipod or Mp3 player or knew anything about them could help me.

I don't have either, however we bought a MP3 player for our adult daughter for Christmas. The biggest difference between the two is how many songs you can put on them. The bigger IPOD's have a disk drive and can hold thousands of songs. The smaller ones like the shuffle can hold several hours. MP3 players normally don't have disks in them but chips built in or disk like the kind for digital cameras. There are no moving parts, therefore no skipping if they're bumped so they are good for runners etc. MP3's are usually smaller, lighter and easier on batteries. My daughter's runs on two AAA batteries and lasts a couple of weeks if she uses it everyday. It has 128 MB of memory and is expandable to 256 MB. Using the software she got with the player she can get 3 or 4 hours of music on it.

Apple makes a great product so if storage space is what your looking for then I would go with the IPOD.IPOD's also come with many add ons like external speakers,and plug ins which allow you to play it through your FM car radio. If not then an MP3 player is the way to go, it's cheaper, usually easier on batteries, and come in many makes and models.

My brother has the same problem, he doesn't now what to get. I suggested that because he has very few albums, doesn't own a computer or use one every day he would be better off with a small MP3 player because the Ipod has a capacity that he will never need.

I have Dell's version of the Ipod and I love it. I opted for the Dell model with a 20 gig hard drive because it was $200 less than the Ipod and it's essentially the same thing.

One thing that bothers me about the Ipod is, you have to use Itunes for all of your music. At 99 cents a song, it costs roughly $10,000 to fill up a 20 gig Ipod. I'm not kidding, it holds 10,000 songs. With my Dell model, I can use Napster and pay a monthly fee for unlimited songs. I can also rip my CD's on to my Digital Jukebox.

I'd examine what you want your MP3 player to do. If you need one with mega storage, explore Dell and other makers. If you want one with smaller storage, try a shuffle or one of the lower priced models. They're just as good without the huge price tag.

With the Dell version of Ipod can you put songs from your cd's as wma files on it?

Yes. You can use WMA, MP3 and several other file types. The only one I haven't been able to use is the Itunes format.

The iPod IS an Mp3 player. Mp3 players come in many brands, iPod is just one. There are two types of Mp3 players. One is hard drive based, the other is flashed bases. The iPods and Dell DJs are hard drive based ones, and can hold thousands of songs. The shuffle is flash. The flash ones can hold a few hundred songs, depending on the size. Flash ones usually range from 32 mb to 1 gigabyte. Hard drive ones range from 1 gigabyte to 60gigabtes around.

Yes, you can only use iTunes to buy songs for the iPod, but you can also put songs from cds you already have on.

I use the Dell DJ, 20gigabyte model. I have been extremely happy with it, and my sister just bought one also because she likes mine so much. We have both been very happy.

If you have any questions, just let me know.

Thank you everybody for being so helpful. I had never heard of the Dell Dj before but I'm going to look into it.

If you do end up with the iPod.

I have used napster and other pay by the month services to download music. Once it is on my computer i can play the song in itunes, and save it there. Since you have to use iTunes to put songs on the iPod, but you can use other services to get the music.

Thankyou for the infomation. Does any one here know how reputable the brand Creative is? I have been looking in the various shops' catalouges and I like one of the creative Mp3 players. The reason I ask is because most people know that brands like Sony and Philips are pretty reputable, but I had never heard of Creative before.

Creative is very reputible in the Mp3 field. That is pretty much all they make, which is why many people have never heard of them. I believe they make the Dell DJs also. All my techy friends recommend Creative. Check out epinions.com.

I've got a question for you, loveoflearning. Is there a way to play the Dell DJ in shuffle mode? I can't seem to figure that one out.

I take it you've replaced yours after that unfortunate swim it took.

Yes, the unfortunate swim did necessate a replacement, but I was able to replace it with the same model and everything.

To put it in shuffle mode press the house button to get to the home screen. The third menu item down should be play mode. Using the scroll wheel, click on that. The options for play modes are Normal, Repeat Track, Repeat All, Shuffle, and Shuffle Repeat, and Track Once. Mine spends most of the time in "Play all tracks: Shuffle Repeat."

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how reputable the brand Creative

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Creative makes amazing 'sound' systems. They are very good.


Anyways I liked a new gadget out in the market -

An MP3 player on a flash (/pen drive) and voice recorder and plays almost all formats and pretty cheap.

I am not sure of the 1 GB prices but 256 Mb costs Rs 3000 (approx $ 72)

This is very useful for storing non-music files (just like ipod) but since it is based on USB, it can be used on almost all computers

Ace Sodium-

Are you referring to the Sandisk Micro Cruzer with Mp3 add-on? I have a 512 Cruzer, but never got the availible Mp3 player add on. I got the drive for $19 after two rebates.

I am not mentioning any specific model but they are made by many companies.

Thank you every body for being so helpful. I'm thinking of purchasing the "creative Zen Micro" does anyone here have one. If so how good are they.

I'd go with an iRiver if I were you. Expensive ones are amazingly low-quality.

My DellDJ has 20 gigs space, but if you want to listen to the radio or record audio, you have to buy a whole seperate system for $50, and then pay 1 dollar a month. It's not fun, I'll assure you that.

So are you saying not to buy the Dell Dj?

P.S. Thank you everyone for the help.

Thank you every one for your help. I bought the creative Zen Micro.