I am inquiring from complete ignorance here so please excuse the noobness of my questions. Are iPods limited to downloading from iTunes? Or can you download from other sites? Is the iTunes limititation not a propriatory act by Apple? You are able to rip a CD and download are you not? Do they work with Windows Media Player?

I am in no way denegrating iPods, just curious as to their set-up and workings but it seems to me that its iTunes or the highway.

My wife is the ipod expert. But I am sure that you can D/L from other sites. I know for sure you can rip a disk to your computer and get it onto your ipod. ;)

According to Apple, iTunes is the only interface between your Mac/PC and your iPod, but I think there are a few apps around that allow you to copy to the iPod.
With iTunes, you can convert most media to a format that can be run on the iPod, and yes, you can rip CD's with it too ;)

iPod's are not my MP3 player of choice, but they are still pretty damn good (and popular)
And iTunes has come along way since it started out ont he Mac and is a pretty good music player, in fact, I hardly use my iPod anymore, yet I keep iTunes around becuase it's a pretty good program (even though it's sometimes slow to start)

The file's that are converted through iTunes are not compatible with Windows media player (as far as I know)

If you have no specific requirements of your MP3 player, an iPod qould be a good choice, Pod casts and being "Trendy" are just two of the cool things that come along with them ;)

EDIT: Oh, and the iTunes store is a great place to purchase music for your iPod.

[ 02-09-2007, 11:14 PM: Message edited by: Hivetyrant ]

Actually come to think about it. My wife does have songs on the ipod that we did acuire from other sites.

But I have found out from a friend that Cosco. Sells I-tunes crdit cards. You can 50$ cards. And use it instead of your credit card. Next time at cosco I may pick one up. 1$ a song is fair. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks guys. I do have MP3 players: iAudio G3 (love iAudio's quality of sound) and a Creative MuVu V100 which is a decent little player.

The reason I was asking was because I ran into an iPod fanboi and according to him the sun rises and falls on iPods -- all else is dirt. Since I just got into MP3s I didn't have enough experience and information to make a sound rebuttle (no, I'm not looking for a fight!). Again, I have nothing against iPods but the fanboism was blowing strong I tell ya. ;)

By the way, a great site for any and every imaginable MP3 player out there is www.Anythingbutipod.com -- except iPods. :D

<font color=8fbc8f>This does not compute. You call for easiness on your technical aspect of the iPod, then you follow up with a Michael Robertson link? This is a whole new slinky slink concept eh? [img]graemlins/wink10.gif[/img]

Don't try any fancy posting here and say you found this letter link after you made the first post. Somebody isn't going to buy that one! :D

As Hive said, you can do whatever you want with iTunes/iPod, Except use it native on Linux! Go figure! :mad: Your link would make for the best of best rebuttal to any iPod fanboi on the planet. If not, then they have missed the entire reasoning, and are only inflating the niche position of Apple as a whole.</font>

Yeah it's harder to make iPod MP3's into WM files than it is the reverse. So, once you have iTunes you can convert anything to the standard iPod format, but doing changing it back again is harder (although yes, there are programs on the web that do this). I rip from Cd's directly to my PC, then run those songs through iTunes and it converts 'em and adds them onto my iPod with no problems and little downtime.

I'd stay away from an iPod just for the iTunes thing, it's such a terribly inefficient and badly made program.

Aside from a fancy casing they don't have anything which makes them more special than other MP3 players.

Well, the popularity does have it's pluses. Replacement parts are easy to come by in local stores now, aswell as electronic addons. For example, I recently got one of those speaker bays for mine, it looks sleek.

It is just a ring of speakers and the iPod sits in the center. It has an alarm clock built into it also, so I have songs go off to wake me up in the morning or even a whole playlist of songs if I wish. You can listen to it when you're in the shower, or just doing something around the house. I also use it when I have barbeques or people friends over as a radio. It may be small and sleek but the sound capability is amazingly high and crisp. I even use it in my car since CD's only have 15 songs I figure why bother when I have tons on this little thing. The iPod slides in and out of it easily, and the thing charges it while it remains plugged in! Not a bad purchase at all IMO.

This is the 100% truth, everything you need to know shall be written below:

My iPod contains CDs which I bought from the store and converted into MP3s via iTunes (in the settings you can change the convert settings to Mp3 format with Low compression for good quality) And I imported those Mp3s into my iTunes playlist, then onto my iPod. I also have a few Mp3s from the Napster era, which also can go into my iTunes playlist and right onto my iPod. I have also bought CDs and Songs on iTUnes which are all in Apple's protected format, and those, too, can go onto my iPod.

If I burn the iTunes songs onto a CD (which is an available option, they aren't locked) I can then convert that CD in iTunes, again, into MP3s and those can either go on my iPod or any general Mp3 player.

SO, let's review: iPods don't just play iTunes music. iTunes music can be burned and converted into ordinary audio CDs, iTUnes can turn any ordinary audio CD (including one made from iTunes purchased music) into Mp3s and a bunch of other files. I don't know if WMA is on the list or not.

NOW: Warning! A RAW iTUnes song file might not play in Windows Media Player (I never tried since i just use iTunes to play my music). BUT If you burn the song onto a CD you can play the CD in windows media player or youcan convert the CD into MP3s and play the Mp3s or whatever other non-itunes fileinto WIndowsMedia Player.

Any questions?