Idiot's Guide to iPod/mp3 players!

[titchy]

dd wants one of the above for her birthday. She suggsted an iPod, but you can only get your downloads from iTunes can't you?

Can you load your iPod with tracks from cds if they're uploaded to the pc?

Can you choose what tracks to have on your iPod/mp3?

Are all speaker systems compatible with all mp3s (don't want her to have ear phones in all the time lol)?

As you can probably tell this is new territory for us - we're quite happy with our 10 year old cd player!!!

TIA

You can load your own cds via iTunes. You have to download the iTunes programme which enables your own cds to then be transferred to iPod stuff. That's as technical as I get. You can also buy more stuff via iTunes.

The trouble with buying another mp3 player is that speaker system things are not always compatible - Apple are taking over. A bit like teh VHS/Betamax split.

You can choose your own 'playlist' after uploading your own CDs by dragging and dropping the tracks into a folder (eg iklboo's IPOD, Mr Iklboo's IPOD etc). 'Tis dead easy

1. You can buy downloads from places other than iTunes as long as those places don't place any copy protection on the music they sell and sell in MP3 format. For example you can buy from both Amazon.co.uk and Play.co.uk.

2. When you connect an iPod you set it up to either Sync your entire iTunes library or choose to manually manage your music. If you sync your entire library every time you connect the iPod it will be refreshed with a complete copy of what's on your computer. If you add something it appears on the iPod, if you delete something it gets deleted from the iPod.

If you manually manage it you can drag whatever music you want onto your iPod and then you could delete it from your computer if you wanted to.

4. It depends how the speaker system connects to the player. Some speaker systems connect via a headphone plug, in which case they'll work fine with an iPod. However other's connect via some other interface and for those you need to make sure they work with an iPod. An iPod has something called a "Dock Adapter" built into it which lets it plug into many things, and you'll get better sound quality than you would through the headphone socket too. However a player that has Dock Adapter won't work with any other type of device.

You can also get gadgets like this:
www.amazon.co.uk/Scoobee-iPod-stereo-retractable-cable/dp/B000927570

That allows you to connect an iPod to the standard input plugs used on many stereos. So if your DD already has her own stereo that will let you plug the iPod straight in to it.

It's not strictly accurate to say a player that has a Dock Adapter won't work with any other type of device - it will if it has an Aux in socket as well, which many do; in fact I often connect my iPhone to my speakers via the 3.5mm jack if I don't want it on the dock adapter - for example, if i'm playing a game on it & want my own music.