Dumb question about Ipods

So I'm thinking of buying an ipod. I'm sick of my cheap little MP3 player which is barely functional and I just don't use anymore.
But I'm worried about uploading music to the ipod. Most of my music is in MP3 format on my computer and I just want to download that onto the device.
Will that work or do I have to buy songs from specifically from itunes? The Apple website says you need iTunes so I'm confused. :slant:
Can someone please help this techno-challenged Mac noob? :lol3:

I had the same concern and recently bought my first Ipod. You will need to download Itunes. Most of my old music has transferred to Itunes. Not all of it though and not all of it automatically. I am still going through and manually transferring some song by song.

Here is Pam's thread about it:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/267003/put-my-ipod-through-the-washer

Yep, just download iTunes and import your music into that and it will sync it with your iPod in the correct format.

Just don't delete your MP3 files from your computer because you can't easily go back the other way!  Apple doesn't make it easy to recover your music back to your PC once it's on their equipment!  It's possible, but they tell you it isn't.  After my computer crash when I lost all of my MP3's, I had to Google search to find out how to do it.

Ipods will only work through Itunes. That being said, however, you can add pretty much all of your MP3 music to your Ipod, but you'll have to use Itunes to do it. Itunes will change it over to what Apple uses and you'll be able to take it from there. It shouldn't give you a lot of grief, but Itunes can be a royal PITB sometimes to work with.

I'm having trouble with my computer's CD/DVD drive and most of the time it's not recognizing any music CDs. So I have to do what I want through Rick's computer and then sync the music to my computer. You can set your Itunes up for home sharing, meaning that whatever is on one computer can be shared with the others in the house using your router. It makes it nicer sometimes.

You need to keep in mind that you can ONLY charge your Ipod through your computer and Itunes, unless you have an Apple charging base. And when I'm charging my Ipod, I need to turn all screen savers off and avoid hibernation....going into hibernation will stop the charging. At least it does on my computer. My old Ipod was a fifth generation nano and it could use the Ipod dock that came with my JVC flat screen tv in the bedroom. This nano is a 7th gen and now, of course, I need a connector so this will connect to the tv. I like charging my Ipod on the tv because I don't have to deal with the computer's screen saver/hibernation problem. Plus, with the connector, I can start using the new Ipod in my car again.

You won't be sorry if you get an Ipod. (Just keep it away from your washer and you'll be fine!  )  If you have any questions, we can help you out.

I did get my lightning connector for my iPod today at Best Buy. The iPod is charging on the ipod dock of the tv, so I'm back to that. It takes half as long to charge on the tv's dock than it does on the computer.

While we were at BB, Rick looked at the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch. He asked me why I got the Nano instead of the touch. My answer is that I'm only using my iPod for music. And as a pedometer. That's it. The Touch is more for video and pictures. I'm not even remotely interested in going there. He asked me if I thought I'd use a Touch. I said I'd use it....for music. For me, it didn't make sense to get a Touch.

That's the biggest reason I won't by an iPOD.  My songs are mp3 and very easy to download onto my mp3 player.

I have an iPod Touch and an iPad. I find iTunes absolutely frustrating. Every time I need to upload music to my iPod I spend 2-3 hours doing it because iTunes will decide it wants to do its own thing. I don't want the music on my iPad, and I tell it not to import it, but somehow it always decides it needs to be there. Then it will rearrange the order of my songs, decide to upload songs I specifically tell it not to, etc., etc. When I bought the iPod I thought it would be great and I could carry all my music around on it. What actually happened is that I avoid putting music on my iPod because it's a gigantic hassle. When it comes time to replace my MP3 player I am going to take a serious look at non-Apple brands.

I have a horrible time getting iTunes to load on my iPad. It takes forever to open the app, and that is if the site is actually working and not down at the time.

The thing that gets me is why are digital or downloaded versions of books and music just as expensive as hard copies? I understand that they need to make money and all that, I just expected it would be a bit cheaper to purchase digital media. Without the production of plastic CD cases, all the paper, etc, one would think the cost would be reduced a bit. But to buy an album on iTunes costs the same as purchasing a CD in a record store :/ The same with books.

Winchester said:

 
I did get my lightning connector for my iPod today at Best Buy. The iPod is charging on the ipod dock of the tv, so I'm back to that. It takes half as long to charge on the tv's dock than it does on the computer.

While we were at BB, Rick looked at the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch. He asked me why I got the Nano instead of the touch. My answer is that I'm only using my iPod for music. And as a pedometer. That's it. The Touch is more for video and pictures. I'm not even remotely interested in going there. He asked me if I thought I'd use a Touch. I said I'd use it....for music. For me, it didn't make sense to get a Touch.

Click to expand...

Got the Lightning connector to work in the car, too! Life is good. I can save my CDs and just use my Ipod. 

I have a Coby 8G MP3 player that my brother got me a couple of years ago from where he works. It uses the drag-and-drop method and I can fill it in about 30 minutes. That gives me 100 hours of music. I really don't like Apple products. Everything they use is proprietary programming. I can put my music on my Coby, both Nooks, and any of my cell phones.

The best way to archive MP3 music is to buy a large external drive and put a copy of all music on there. You can get a Toshiba 1TB for about $70. That will give you 16,667 hours of music at the 128kbps that most recordings are made at.

Well in the end I decided to buy an Apple Shuffle on sale for $38. It's the smallest and cheapest ipod, and all I wanted was to be able to listen to 3 or 4 playlists when I'm exercising. I don't need anything fancy, or to connect to the internet and do a hundred other things.

Raintyger said:

I have an iPod Touch and an iPad. I find iTunes absolutely frustrating. Every time I need to upload music to my iPod I spend 2-3 hours doing it because iTunes will decide it wants to do its own thing. I don't want the music on my iPad, and I tell it not to import it, but somehow it always decides it needs to be there. Then it will rearrange the order of my songs, decide to upload songs I specifically tell it not to, etc., etc. When I bought the iPod I thought it would be great and I could carry all my music around on it. What actually happened is that I avoid putting music on my iPod because it's a gigantic hassle. When it comes time to replace my MP3 player I am going to take a serious look at non-Apple brands.

Click to expand...

I have to say I find iTunes really irritating and have not become overly enamored with Apple! It's not intuitive at all and they make every so darn difficult. After years of using PC and having everything drag-and-drop, just plug something in and have it work fairly quickly, the Apple product has been a real PITA. Not what I was expecting at all. However, once I got some music uploaded to the shuffle, I have been able to use it without difficulty, so it's fine.
I would have to think long and hard before buying another Apple product in the future though.

Congrats on your Shuffle! I looked at the Shuffle, the Nano, and the Touch. And ultimately went with the Nano....I use mine in the car all the time, so it's worth the Nano for me.

I know what you mean about iTunes; there are times when I could seriously give Apple a good smack. Honestly, that software drives me to the tequila bottle sometimes.   It can take forever to do add even one song, but with me, it's because I have to go from my computer to Rick's computer and then back to mine again, especially if I'm taking a song off a CD (my DVD/CD player on my computer only works when it wants to). It can be frustrating.

pushylady said:

Well in the end I decided to buy an Apple Shuffle on sale for $38. It's the smallest and cheapest ipod, and all I wanted was to be able to listen to 3 or 4 playlists when I'm exercising. I don't need anything fancy, or to connect to the internet and do a hundred other things.
I have to say I find iTunes really irritating and have not become overly enamored with Apple! It's not intuitive at all and they make every so darn difficult. After years of using PC and having everything drag-and-drop, just plug something in and have it work fairly quickly, the Apple product has been a real PITA. Not what I was expecting at all. However, once I got some music uploaded to the shuffle, I have been able to use it without difficulty, so it's fine.
I would have to think long and hard before buying another Apple product in the future though.

Click to expand...

Haha, you should've bought mine...

After my rant here guess what somebody went and gave me for Christmas! I wound up selling it on eBay.

I've got about $45 worth of iTunes gift cards that I don't use because it takes me too long to find anything to buy at the iTunes store. It's not that they don't have the apps/music...I just can't find them.

We gave the girls iPhones for Christmas.  It was the ONLY thing my 16 year old wanted.  Both girls have iPod touches as well.  My 19 year old sync'd all of her music onto her iPhone, and then she gave me her iPod.  Dh got the iPod I had- a 2nd generation Nano that's from 2007   16 year old has music on her iPod that she can't put on her iPhone.  It's on my account and she said she can't transfer it.  Whatever- I don't care, she can have both.

That's what frustrates me the most- is that you can only sync your iPod to one account.  Guess I understand- it's so that you won't pirate music.  But- most of the stuff dd wants- "I" paid for or she paid for in iTunes money.

And I guess I like the touch.  It does everything my android phone does though.  I could put music on it- but everything we have is iTunes and I'd have to convert it to mp3 format.

Cheryl