Ipod Shuffle

[Wingnut]

So...Having limited experience with Apple products (and not caring for how locked down they are), I bought an iPod Shuffle this evening for the girlfriend. It wasn't my choice, it's what she wanted. I could figure out how to do most of this on my own and make it work (extensions for Winamp, etc), but my primary concern here is ease of use for her. She's not somebody who will want to fiddle with it (and I don't want to have to be at her beck and call every time she wants a song added). She wants to plug it in and have it work.But like I said...I'm not up to speed with the iPod stuff...And I have a couple of questions.

 

1. In order to load it with some songs before giving it to her, do I HAVE TO HAVE iTunes?

 

2. Will that slave the Shuffle to MY iTunes, and wipe the songs out if she starts using HER iTunes once she puts it on her 'puter?

 

3. Do you find lolcats funny?

 

4. I'm assuming that they have to be in MP3 format?

[2000DV4.8]

1. Yup, pretty sure ya do.

2. Don't know

3. Yup

4. I think iTunes converts them to MPEG 4 or something

[BigJayDogg3]

So...Having limited experience with Apple products (and not caring for how locked down they are), I bought an iPod Shuffle this evening for the girlfriend. It wasn't my choice, it's what she wanted. I could figure out how to do most of this on my own and make it work (extensions for Winamp, etc), but my primary concern here is ease of use for her. She's not somebody who will want to fiddle with it (and I don't want to have to be at her beck and call every time she wants a song added). She wants to plug it in and have it work.But like I said...I'm not up to speed with the iPod stuff...And I have a couple of questions.

 

1. In order to load it with some songs before giving it to her, do I HAVE TO HAVE iTunes? I know you do with the iPhone.

 

2. Will that slave the Shuffle to MY iTunes, and wipe the songs out if she starts using HER iTunes once she puts it on her 'puter? Not sure, but I think so. I know it does lock the iPhone to only one computer.

 

 

3. Do you find lolcats funny? Mildly.

 

 

 

 

4. I'm assuming that they have to be in MP3 format? With my cousin's small iPod, (can't remember the name of the small one's right now) you can drag and drop, but with the iPhone you have to do it all through iTunes, so I'm thinking it has to be in a certain propriatary format.

 

I put your answers in your quote, and I'm going to give my opinion here, and if you don't want it, don't read it. With that said:

 

I hate Apple. I personally would have suggested something else that was simple to use, and even if you did HAVE to go Apple, get one with a screen. I personally don't like the idea of being at the player's beck and call as to what I'm listening.

[Wingnut]

Oh I'm with you...I HATE Apple. It's all so locked down and anti-consumer it's unreal. They really make Microsoft look like bastions of personal freedom. But because of their small market share, nobody sues them or hates them like M$.

 

But it's what SHE wants. So it's what she gets. She didn't want the video iPod, she didn't want the Nano, she doesn't want an iPhone...She wants the Shuffle. I shouldn't complain...It was like $50 or something.

[svensk]

Apple does not use mp3 format. It's too archaic for the elitist apple snobs. They use a proprietary format.

 

Almost forgot, it still can play your old .mp3 files sitting on the hard drive.

[Darkanion]

I loaded iTunes on my machine and just drag & drop my MP3s to the iPod in iTunes.

 

I've never had a second iPod hooked-up to my machine. So, I'm not sure about the syncing problems. I seem to remember hearing (a year or two back) that you could maintain "one" library on a machine and every iPod connected to that machine would get that "one" library. I'm not sure if that was actually true, since I never had a 2nd iPod to test it with... I would think they would've fixed a problem like that before now. But, I don't know...

 

Best of luck!

[Wingnut]

I loaded iTunes on my machine and just drag & drop my MP3s to the iPod in iTunes.

 

I've never had a second iPod hooked-up to my machine. So, I'm not sure about the syncing problems. I seem to remember hearing (a year or two back) that you could maintain "one" library on a machine and every iPod connected to that machine would get that "one" library. I'm not sure if that was actually true, since I never had a 2nd iPod to test it with... I would think they would've fixed a problem like that before now. But, I don't know...

 

Best of luck!

 

I'm more worried about one iPod and two machines.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

[Wingnut]

Apple does not use mp3 format. It's too archaic for the elitist apple snobs. They use a proprietary format.

 

Good to know...Does it convert them to whatever format it uses when you drop them into iTunes?

[Black02Silverado]

Apple does not use mp3 format. It's too archaic for the elitist apple snobs. They use a proprietary format.

 

Good to know...Does it convert them to whatever format it uses when you drop them into iTunes?

 

 

Yes, I tried to get all my mp3's to have the same volume level by using MP3 Gain but couldn't access the ITune songs, so now when I listen to my IPOD some have a higher volume then others, it is annoying as heck. I'm not an ITunes person either but I got it for Christmas and I mainly use it to listen to while I mow my yard and the father-in-laws, takes me about 4 hours to do both.

 

My daughter has the shuffle and goes through all the songs on it constantly. I have to say she has not worn out the buttons yet and has had it since Christmas as well. It is one tough player and the battery seems to hold out pretty long.

[Wingnut]

Cool. That means she'll be able to use it.

 

I guess I'll sneak over to her house and install iTunes on her computer when she's not home and move a bunch of music onto it.

[SoCalChris]

1. In order to load it with some songs before giving it to her, do I HAVE TO HAVE iTunes?

 

You might be able to use a program like yamiPod to load music onto it first without installing itunes. When she first hooks it up though, since that ipod isn't associated with her copy of itunes, it will ask to erase the ipod, and sync with her itunes, losing all of the music that you already loaded for her. Itunes will NOT allow you to copy the music from the ipod to her computer.

 

2. Will that slave the Shuffle to MY iTunes, and wipe the songs out if she starts using HER iTunes once she puts it on her 'puter?

 

Yes, it will ask to do that.

 

3. Do you find lolcats funny?

 

Hilarious. Fail pics are also great.

 

4. I'm assuming that they have to be in MP3 format?

The ipod accepts MP3, AA (Audible audiobooks), and their proprietary formats. MP3s are NOT converted before being copied to the ipod, it can play them directly. Itunes will offer to convert WMA files to their proprietary format though. CDs that you import are converted to their format by default, although you can change it to convert them to mp3.

 

Apple does not use mp3 format. It's too archaic for the elitist apple snobs. They use a proprietary format.

 

The ipod is perfectly capable of playing MP3s. Anything that you buy from itunes, or import is stored in their format though.

 

I'm more worried about one iPod and two machines.

 

1 ipod on two machines won't work with itunes. You'll have to figure something else out. 2 ipods on one machine is also pretty crappy, if you want both ipods to have separate libraries.

 

I guess I'll sneak over to her house and install iTunes on her computer when she's not home and move a bunch of music onto it.

That will probably be your best bet, and will be easiest for both of you.

 

Apple makes decent hardware, but I also hate how locked down they make everything. They treat their users as if they're too stupid to do anything on their own, and shouldn't do anything with their products that Apple doesn't approve of. I've heard that OSX is a great operating system, but I refuse to buy it because of my experiences with my ipod and itunes.

[Darkanion]

Apple makes decent hardware, but I also hate how locked down they make everything. They treat their users as if they're too stupid to do anything on their own, and shouldn't do anything with their products that Apple doesn't approve of.

Yeah... I don't like the "well, this is what we designed it to do - you shouldn't want to do anything else" attitude, either.

[svensk]

Apple makes decent hardware, but I also hate how locked down they make everything. They treat their users as if they're too stupid to do anything on their own, and shouldn't do anything with their products that Apple doesn't approve of.

Yeah... I don't like the "well, this is what we designed it to do - you shouldn't want to do anything else" attitude, either.

 

+1 rep

[Wingnut]

Thanks for the inputs guys. I'll just go over there and set it up.

 

There are probably several hacks for it that I'd use if it were mine, but I play with computers for a living...So it wouldn't be difficult for me. But she's not very technical and (unfortunately) she's Apple's demographic in that regard. It's got to be painless to do it or she won't use the thing.

 

I'll just build a remote connection to her computer from my house so I can just drop whatever music she wants directly from my server to her PC.