I reckon the ipod is best portable music player ever created (I know many will disagree with me on this). Recently they have become a fashion accessory like those nike wristbands or Dan Brown books, yet the slick little device still soars at the top of the portable music player list. The mini ipod holds about 1000 songs and is really targeted at people who aren't crazy about music, same with the new ipod shuffle, but who like to pass the time on bus etc listening to certain tunes. The better ipods are the 20GB & 40GB one's which hold way more (the 40GB can hold over 8000 songs, depending on length of songs that is) and of course it would be more expensive. Although defintely worth forking out for. The ipod is a simple device to use. Bascially you scroll the wheel and click the buttons with very basic options that don't confuse you. The playlist option is great, as is 'On The Go' and party shuffle. To upload songs onto the ipod, you will need itunes installed on your computer - this is just a program to store all of your songs, transfer them over, upload new albums or songs, download from apple music store. When you upload a cd into itunes, you then click and drag the songs over to the ipod symbol and within seconds the album is on there. Although the battery isn't as great as it could be and there is no radio, the ipod is still better than the others out there on the market. Get more info over at www.apple.com/itunes

just in case Gar didnt make it clear, iTunes runs on any operating system, doesnt have to be an apple, it also does a good job of tidying up your files

hey thanks for the info, was asking a few guys in work tonight too, everything i've heard is good anyway. Thanks again

Elle, I am not an iPod devotee, I get my digital music fixes via iRiver who create excellent MP3 players, many of which are clearly superior to the iPod in terms of bang per buck (they pack in WAY more functionality than for an iPod of comparable price) however the iRivers are less sexy looking than the iPod (although I think an iPod is losing its original must-have allure now that almost every Tom, Richard and Harriet seems to have one). I originally got a 40GB iRiver H140 last year which worked a dream until I recently had a technical problem with it and returned it to the vendor who replaced it - for free under the guarantee - with iRiver's next-generation H300 player (this baby has a colour screen, can play movies / videos on its 2in screen, FM radio from which you can record direct to disk, an internal microphone, 40GB of HD space, etc, etc). More info here: www.iriver.com Anybody who just assumes iPod is the way to go without considering some of the excellent alternatives out there - including iRiver of course - are IMHO not doing themselves a favour. Hate to say it but the iPod – fine product and all as it is - is actually not the Holy Grail it is all cracked up to be by many. Anyway, some are even now saying should iPods carry health warnings?! Check out this article about iPods and, er, social isolation: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/27/ipod_health_warnings/ Also let's not ignore the fact that this iTunes software has recently seen functionality removed from it in so-called "upgrades" released by Apple. For example last year Apple cut the number of times users could burn a playlist from ten to seven. More recently they have chosen to cripple one of the iPods coolest and most socially beneficial technologies - Rendezvous ("Rendezvous" allows users on the same subnet to share their music - although this is limited to streaming only). The most recent version of iTunes, 4.7.1, restricts that streaming capability to only permit five listeners a day, when previously it used to support five simultaneous listeners. More info on this tendency to sneakily cripple iTunes via “upgrades” here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/15/social_music/ Apple for all its cool-as-flock kudos is at the end of the day a corporate megamoth like any other. One that might giveth with one hand but - alas - taketh with the other. I don't have a problem with that per-se, it is the nature of our world, but let's not lose sight of the fact that massively praised corporate products - such as those of Apple - are not always as glorious as the hype tries hard to make you believe. That's all. eoghan

four normal studio albums managed to fill 2G of my 20G Ipod. thats approx 50 songs, taking up 10% of my space. at this rate i'll only be able to get 500 songs on. no the 50 squillion advertised. *god* i'm such a technophobe sometimes...

the most interesting thing about the iPod is how it has focussed attention on Apple and Macs. I have always used Macs and have been proud to be in that 0.5 percent (1990) to 5 percent (pre-ipod) part of the population who didnt use PCs. For the record, I find Macs to be a cinch to use, have way more user-friendly functionality and are not privy to the same sort of bugs, viruses and worms which PCs seem to welcome with open arms. What the IPod and ITunes have done is showed first of all the tech industry, then the music industry and then the population at large a very cool, easy way to utilise digital music. Apple were not the first into that space but they were the best (IMHO and sales seem to back me up). sure, theres a trillion things wrong with itunes and the ipod which were outlined above, but, as a complete and utter technical eejit, i love the plug and play ability of every Apple product i have ever used since the Mac Classic. i am not alone as the numbers buying and using ipods and iShuffles and iMinis are showing. What will interesting to see is what effect the Ipod etc will have on Apple's core business - will those people who have started using IPods now switch to Mac computers? I dont think they will in huge numbers - most people seem to sheep-like in their adherence to PCs. Some of course will and it will spread slowly as they find out the Mac software is also a cinch to use for digital pics (plug your camera in and whoopsadaisy, iPhoto will go to work immediately). No matter what effect on its big bottom line, it's now the case that the iPod is the single most recognisable music digital player and has become to it what the Walkman was to the portable tape players. People may end up with an iRiver but they'll still call it an Ipod type yoke. Now thats something that no-one, be it Microsoft or the music industry, can do anything about. After all, elle asked about getting an ipod not a digital music player.

Was the recent Beatles vs Apple Computers ever finalised ? Basically, back in the day, The Beatles allowed Apple (a ickle computer company) to use the name (also the name of their label) on the agreement that they would never step into the music business.

Pilchard, as an apple devotee perhaps you'll be interested in this ... http://pictures.my-xanadu.net/albums/userpics/10001/iProduct.JPG

ok thanks for all that...i got myself a sexy little pink ipod today, only took me three hours of strolling up and down grafton street to finally have the balls to go in and hand over the visa card but glad i did!

ok anyone have any problem with copying from cd to itunes?Mine won't import ! ! !

what kind of problems are you having ? Are you getting an error ?

Elle, I strongly suggest you get a MP3 convertor rather than depending on iTunes to do the compression. I use audiograbber which I find excellent in every way. http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html You need to download the application, install it and then download the lame.dll and put it in the same directory into which you installed audiograbber. You simply pop in the cd, grab the tracklisting from the web (one of the buttons on the top) and then fire it off. It produces your MP3s which you then add to your library on iTunes.

cheers, gonna try that cdgrabber, nothing at all happening when i try it with itunes...actually itunes not even opening today, should i install it again or will i lose stuff if i do that?

I didn't realise Dan Brown novels were a fashion accessory. Can a book be that?!