Help re: Ipod....or ???

[slick]

For $20 in 2006, I purchased an old fashioned portable CD player. It's round and bulky and doesn't work well anymore. I want an Ipod or something similar.

I don't want games, I don't want internet access, I don't want email or phone. I just want a simple device that can plug into my USB port so I can drag and drop music that I've already downloaded. Then I play it back when I'm on the treadmill.

Does anyone know of such a device? I'm so behind the times when it comes to this type of technology. Many thanks.

[DJFyrewolf36]

With MP3 players in my opinion the cheaper the better. Things like IPods or Zunes require you to be subscribed to their service and sometimes regular ol MP3s don't work right. Quite annoying if you ask me!

http://tech.yahoo.com/rc/mp3-players/107 This site is a good start while browsing for an mp3 player, especially if you aren't too familiar with them. Good luck on your search! I usually end up using my phone as a portible mp3 player and my car stereo has a usb port so I can use a thumb drive so I haven't looked at just mp3 players in a long time. It seems like the technology has gotten way better!

[Queen of Poop]

I love my purple IPOD Nano. Nothing special, plays great music, easy to download itunes music. I also have an IPOD touch which is cool, but the battery lasts about half as long as that of the Nano.

[Alysser]

I have the Ipod touch, older version, but I love it. Great music, Internet, Stores my favorite photos and has games. I thought all that add-on stuff was stupid to but I really love it all now. It all comes in handy.

I see you don't really want that though. I still suggests Apple products because they are so easy to use. Some are very basic like the shuffle. If you wanted you could even buy the older models off ebay for REAL cheap or the like if music is all you want. As for other products and companies, I can't give you an opinion. I have never really had any kind of MP3 player up until my Ipod mini and then updated to the Touch in 2008.

[Prairie Purrs]

I'd go with an iPod Shuffle. It's really small, and you can clip it to your shirt. I've got a full-size iPod, but I've also got a Shuffle that I use when I'm at the laundromat or doing outside chores.

[ChrisH]

No i-pod for me. Wanting an upgrade from the Creative Zen Stone I put the money I had for Christmas towards it and treated myself to a Creative Zen x-fi. And I love it!

The first one, the zen stone was my first mp3 player which I've had for a few years now and is really good. Holds 500 songs and plays for 10 hours from the rechargeable battery. As a stand alone player it's hard to beat, especially at the price. I only upgraded because I wanted the extras that came with the Zen x-fi, video, radio etc.

[*LabLoverKEB*]

I have a pink 2nd generation iPod nano, and I really like it! It holds up to 1,000 songs, but that depends on how long each song is. The battery lasts quite a while, and is very reliable.
And like Alyssa, I also have the 1st generation iPod Touch. I like this one too, but the battery lasts half as long as my nano!
The iPod touch is pretty much the iPhone, but without the phone, texting, and camera portion.
Good luck with your decision!

[RICHARD]

Duct tape....3.99 a roll.

You have to make sure you can tape your CD player to somewhere you don't have a lot of hair?

I got nuthin'

[Hellow]

I would get a Creative Zen or Muvo. Don't get an iPod unless you want to:

1. Deal with a ton of breakage
2. Deal with the wonderful world of DRM-locked devices

[caseysmom]

My kids have had both creative zen's and apple ipods...they both work great, no problems with either.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

We're an iPod family. We have 3 iPods and an iPhone. We got our first two in April 2004 and we've never had any problems with them. We got a third iPod a couple years ago to keep in our bird room, and like the first 2 they've been very hardy and we've never had any trouble with them.

iTunes does put DRM restrictions on their songs so we never buy from them. Amazon is both cheeper and DRM free so we always buy our music from them when we buy MP3s.

[Catlady711]

I'm sorta anit-mainstream, I refused to buy an Ipod. My hubby and I both have Sansa MP3 players. It doesn't do much for fancy stuff (although you can put pictures on it, although we don't). It just plays music which is what we bought it for.

http://www.sandisk.com/products/sans...3-players.aspx

That one is probably the closest thing they currently make, to what we bought. Ours are only 4gb with expansion micro SD slot to add an additional gb. We only paid $60 each for ours, but we got them when they were changing models so they were on sale.

[Catty1]

Just had to pop this in from graphjam.com - it underscores what Slick is looking for, I think.

[slick]

Thanks for you replies. I really appreciate your feedback.

I was speaking to my colleague and he doesn't recommend an iPod either so that's out. I'm just looking for a simple mp3 flash drive player that I can plug in and move music to.

Was looking at the Sandisk Sansa clip but it requires USB 2.0 port and I only have USB 1.1 port. My PC is a Dell GX240 - about 6 years old. I refuse to purchase a laptop or other desktop because this one works like a charm and I've just upgraded the RAM to it's full capacity (1 GB ). One website that I checked for this said that a USB 1.1 port would probably not be sufficient to properly charge it, but I do like the drag and drop feature for this model.

On my external hard drive I have my music saved and they are all .mp3 files. I did not use itunes - just downloaded through Limewire.

I like the Zen because of the big screen on the front. I really don't want to have to use itunes and I don't want to have to install separate software. I'm not sure if there is a device that's right for me. I really am limited because of my older desktop.

[Bengalz]

Hi Slick,

I had an early iPod Nano (4GB) and it was convenient as far as size goes but I found the battery did not last very long. My birthday present this year was an iPhone and I now have all my music, photos, etc. loaded on the iPhone - so much more efficient and lasts a lot longer between charges and it works beautifully with earphones and in my car.

Sure you don't want to consider an iPhone?