finally getting an iPod - what features do *you* use?

[Masouma]

I'm finally entering the 21st century and I'm getting an iPod (hey, I got DSL last week, so I'm progressing by leaps and bounds ..g.: ). I'm trying to decide which Ipod to get. I'm stuck between the Ipod Classic or the Ipod Nano, and the size (how many gigabytes?). I have about 3100 songs in my current iTunes (conversions from my CD collection). I'm anticipating that I will have more uses for the iPod as I use it more. I would love to hear from other dancers regarding features they like and other features/uses they didn't anticipate they would use but they really enjoy. I would love to hear your input.

Cheers, and thanks,

Rose

[*Shira*]

Hi Rose! My husband uses his iPod to listen to audio books when he bicycles, drives his car, or walks downtown. He is dyslexic, and has obtained software that lets him convert text to audio, so he also moves articles from web sites onto his iPod.

So far, I've resisted getting an iPod of my own, but I'll be watching this thread with interest to see what other people have to say in answer to your questions. I've been tempted to get one, but like you, I'm not sure just what I would use it for and therefore I'm not sure which features I would need.

I bought a Palm Pilot over a year ago, and I'm using only a tiny fraction of what it's capable of doing. Makes me wonder if I spent too much by buying a feature-rich model. I don't want to make the same mistake when buying an MP3 player.

[Taj]

Oooh! Not an iPod (too expensive for the features) but I am getting an MP3 player for my birthday in a few days--will let you know what kind and all the deets when I get it! All I know so far is that it'll have video capability and probably around 4 gb capacity. The rest is a surprise!

[steffib]

I use my iPod all the time - I have the Classic with video (160 GB, I am considering using the free space to back up data), after the old 20GB 3rd gen I had. I wouldn't have replaced the old one if it had been a good idea to fix it - I am bummed out that I had a disk failure, but I used that iPod a lot. I have all my music on the new one, and whenever I go out in public, I like to listen. Especially around Christmas, it is a blessing not to have to listen to the stores' horrible seasonal noise. Today, I had to get the car fixed and get groceries, which was a major nuissance. But, with some new dance music and the iPod, I actually had fun standing in line and walking around town with heavy bags.

I have now a considerable collection of Sitcom episodes on my iPod as well: If I wake up at night, I can watch those and fall back asleep within minutes, it never fails. Since my husband wakes up when I read at night, I can't read in those moments; the iPod has been the best thing ever for us: we both get a lot more sleep than we would do without. I don't go to bed without my iPod anymore.

We have a cable that connects the iPod to the stereo, and for me, playing CDs is a thing of the past. My husband isn't quite in agreement when it comes to his music, though. In my studio, I have a good portable speaker that can run on batteries and from the outlet, which is great.

It can also serve as a small photo screen - I have some photos on it, but haven't had the chance yet to use it. Still, I appreciate that I can have photos of our house on the iPod.

I had some aggrevation in trying to get it to work, and the sales personnel at the Apple store deserves the 3AM zill brigade with a bad zurna player in tow. Still, I love my iPod.

[Magidah]

I teach four days a week, and I have put together playlists for Warm-ups and Cool-downs, Shimmies, different rhythms, fun pop songs for drills, etc. It's great to organize your songs by whatever you want -- you can group by type of rhythm, overall song tempo, how you might use that group of song, etc. It takes a bit of time up front to organize, but it makes a huge difference in the way I run my classes and workshops. No more searching through 50 CDs to find a veil song; I can go to the "Veil" playlist and I know that I have 8-10 tried and true songs appropriate for that part of class.

[JeanneLF]

My name is Jeanne and I'm an iPod addict ...

I have a nano and I like it because it holds a lot but is small. Like Magidah, I'm a big advocate of playlists. I've collected all kinds of things into playlists -- I did one with Dahlal's "15 songs every bellydancer should know," collections of music for some of my other pursuits (swing dance, tango), and things I like to group into topics just for fun. I've also compiled music for fund-raising theme lunches we've had at my office (e.g. international selections for "lunch-around-the-world") and hooked up the iPod to a dock to serve as a simple sound system.

A dock for your pod, BTW, is a handy thing to have so you can listen to music around the house or wherever without ear(phones)(buds). I also looked into getting a hookup for my car, but since my car is kind of old I found that wiring up any new stereo equipment will cost more than I wanted to spend at the time.

Oh yes, don't forget podcasts -- you can find podcasts on just about any topic you can think of. I like to study foreign languages, so I find them useful to get a daily dose (I've found one in Arabic, for you Arabic learners out there). There are bellydance-related podcasts, too.

[shimarella]

I use my ipod mainly for music listening, podcasts, and also to teach classes. I also bought some lil speakers so it could be a wee little sound system. In a pinch I've taken it to gigs.

I get nervous with the nano because it seems so delicate ( although I hear the new ones are pretty tough). So I went the extra mile to seek out an Ipod mini. If I were to upgrade I;d go for a video Ipod so I could download instrcutional/workout DVDs onto it.

[catwomyn]

I have a 30 GB Creative Zen Vision M which I love. The playlists are a great feature. With a Zen you can create playlists on the fly. I'm not sure if Ipod can do that.

The screen in a Zen is better than Ipod. I have Keti Sharif's A-Z and a couple other things to watch if I get bored. About 3000 songs and 6 or 8 movies. Still not quite full :-)

The Zen also has a recorder which I use a lot at work for back-up. And it has a radio.

This sounds kinda silly but the case I got for it has a neck lanyard and I often just wear the darn thing to practice. No complaints about the trippy Egyptian music, lol! I second having a dock of some sort to play out loud.

Another really useful accessory is a wall charger. This is quicker than charging via USB cable and handy if you don't have your computer available.

[SamarDahab]

My name is Jeanne and I'm an iPod addict ...

I have a nano and I like it because it holds a lot but is small. Like Magidah, I'm a big advocate of playlists. I've collected all kinds of things into playlists -- I did one with Dahlal's "15 songs every bellydancer should know," collections of music for some of my other pursuits (swing dance, tango), and things I like to group into topics just for fun. I've also compiled music for fund-raising theme lunches we've had at my office (e.g. international selections for "lunch-around-the-world") and hooked up the iPod to a dock to serve as a simple sound system.

A dock for your pod, BTW, is a handy thing to have so you can listen to music around the house or wherever without ear(phones)(buds). I also looked into getting a hookup for my car, but since my car is kind of old I found that wiring up any new stereo equipment will cost more than I wanted to spend at the time.

Oh yes, don't forget podcasts -- you can find podcasts on just about any topic you can think of. I like to study foreign languages, so I find them useful to get a daily dose (I've found one in Arabic, for you Arabic learners out there). There are bellydance-related podcasts, too.

if you have a tape player in your car and a nano, the old tape to cd converter works for this. i listen to my ipod in my mom's car all the time with that.

[Adishakti]

I teach four days a week, and I have put together playlists for Warm-ups and Cool-downs, Shimmies, different rhythms, fun pop songs for drills, etc. It's great to organize your songs by whatever you want -- you can group by type of rhythm, overall song tempo, how you might use that group of song, etc. It takes a bit of time up front to organize, but it makes a huge difference in the way I run my classes and workshops. No more searching through 50 CDs to find a veil song; I can go to the "Veil" playlist and I know that I have 8-10 tried and true songs appropriate for that part of class.

Ditto! Plus it's a LOT lighter than carrying 50 CD's, and you don't have to worry about damaging your original copies!

Love, love, love my iPod. It, and my foldable Logitech speakers are always in my dance bag. They're great to carry along to gigs for backup, too!

[JeanneLF]

if you have a tape player in your car and a nano, the old tape to cd converter works for this. i listen to my ipod in my mom's car all the time with that.

Alas, all I have in the car is the radio...cr.:

[Masouma]

wow! Lots of good ideas. I know about the songs and playlists, but I am intrigued about the use of video. I didn't see Keti Sharif's A to Z video in the itunes store. How did you get it portable? did you copy your own copy? That would be a plus, I mean if I could make my DVD collection somewhat portable, that would be wonderful (while acknowleging all license agreements, etc). or am I misunderstanding?

I played with the apple iPod Touch at the store and I have to say that the larger screen looked very tempting. I'm back to wavering now-- I carry this around daily: blackberry (work), cellphone (razr, mine) laptop (windows - work), and a laptop (apple - play). I use the apple laptop primarily to play music at work, so it's the one that I want to stop carrying around. It makes sense to replace it with an ipod (or mp3 player). Now I'm wondering if I should combine the mp3 player with my phone.

Please do keep the suggestions/observations coming.... :)

Rose

[phillyraqs]

Alas, all I have in the car is the radio...cr.:

I use the Kensington ipod fm transmitter in the car - all you need is a working radio. You find a station on the radio that is dead - no music, no noise, set the Kensington to that station, and music from your ipod is broadcast through the car's speakers. It charges your ipod too, which is nice.

Here's a link - Digital FM Transmitter/Auto Charger for iPod®

[shimarella]

You can download stuff from itunes, yes, but there's also software that will help you convert DVDs to Quicktime movies that you can then put on your video Ipod.

[JeanneLF]

I use the Kensington ipod fm transmitter in the car - all you need is a working radio. You find a station on the radio that is dead - no music, no noise, set the Kensington to that station, and music from your ipod is broadcast through the car's speakers. It charges your ipod too, which is nice.

Here's a link - Digital FM Transmitter/Auto Charger for iPod®

Oooooh, now that's exciting. Gotta try this -- thanks!

[steffib]

Ah, movies on an iPod. They don't make that easy. First - Apple doesn't want you to rip your own DVDs, and their jackass sales personnel treats you as if you're a criminal when you do that. Yeah, there's some unprocessed anger here ;-) You're supposed to buy from the iTunes store only, you know ... :-(

Anyways, one can ignore that. I use Handbrake to rip my DVDs into mp4 files, I googled and found a tutorial that gave the proper settings. I then import these files into iTunes, and from there on my iPod. Ripping takes FOREVER and makes the computer slow down, so I usually do that overnight.

It's a bit more work than using CDs, but it works just fine.

I didn't want the iPod touch - it's too expensive for the little disk that comes with it. 8GB - that fills up way too quickly. And, I don't need to browse youtube from my iPod, I'd rather have more space than I think I will ever fill with music - experience shows that there is no such thing as too much storage.

[azahara]

love mine 60 gig video , use it to store videos of me dancing to show res owners so i do not need to audition for free, also photos and has all my music over 30 gigs of belly dance music . love books on ipod and all my podcast i do not know what i would do without it. it keeps me sane at work and keeps all my dance music in order. i love watching you tube videos to inspire me to be a better dancer. it has all my favs on it.

[mekyria]

I have an ipod video and use it all the time. Mainly for going through my music library, checking out new cd's, creating playlist for class, or to learn the music for a new choreography by heart.

I use the video option on train rides. Converting a dvd to ipod format takes a long time, so now I convert dvd's that I might want to watch in a couple of weeks, so they'll be ready when I'm on my way out and decide to add it to the video library.

I definetly need to buy a speaker set, but sofar haven't made up my mind. I like to go for quality, but those sets are really expensive. The small ones look so tiny, I 'm afraid that the music quality will be low too.

[ejaghana]

Wow, this is all great info. I'll be buying my ipod soon!

[tamrahennatx]

OOh, I've resisted getting an iPod up until now, but I know now what I'm asking for for Christmas!

[steffib]

As for speakers: I used to have a battery-powered set from Radio Shack, and wasn't too happy. Sound and volume weren't great. I found a set of JBL On Tour at our local Goodwill (good things come to those who donate ;-), and I am very happy with those for indoors. We have also used them for outdoors practice, and I found that they did the job well. They plug in the wall, and use batteries. I would have liked something slightly bigger with a remote, but for $20, I can't complain.

[Anjela]

Another iPod addict here! I had a 20 gig for three years, and when it got all filled up last year I had to upgrade to an 80 gig. The kind of music I want to listen to varies a lot with my mood, so I have a ton of playlists. Examples of some of my playlists: classical Egyptian, Arabic pop, music for yoga, music to soothe me to get ready to bed, totally rockin' tunes to get me psyched for a party, music that was popular when I was in high school, comedy music, all my drum solos, sappy love songs, songs I think I might like to perform to sometime, tango songs, songs for a romantic evening, workout music, etc. Lots of playlists. Beats the hell out of making a ton of mixed CDs.

I have a Nissan that came standard with an AUX input, so I just plug my iPod in wherever I drive and I'm in good music heaven. I haven't touched my radio since I figured that feature out!

My iPod is my constant companion on the "L" every day. I think I'd go postal if I had to ride the train without it! I have a few podcasts that I like to listen to during the commute. iTunes has something called "iTunes U", where you can download lectures from a ton of different universities, including several ivy league schools. It's fun to pick out a few lectures from topics that interest me.

I like to download TV shows for airplane trips and long bus rides. It really helps pass the time.

[Gia al Qamar]

This is a VERY timely post for me!!!
I just gave myself an early ChristmahanukkaKwanzEid present and purchased my 2nd iPod, the 3rd generation.
My 1st (4 Gig) nano is just for work. I have files for class (warm ups, taqsims, drum solos, chiftitellis etc), I have troupe rehearsal music and also my own sets for shows that I can use in most stereo hook-ups that have audio 'ins'. So no more malfunctioning CDs!
The new 3rd generation Nano is just for pleasure music and, hopefully videos.
I am TOTALLY in the dark about how to rip my DVDs to Quicktime...
We bought a program last night, "DVD Decrypter" (also a Video iPod converter) and it seemed to work, but only grabbed one episode from a 6-episode DVD. WTF?
I REALLY want to put compliation CDs on there, like "Belly Dance on Fire"...which has several chapters...
Can someone help me figure out what ta do here???
Any OTHER program I should have...

[Safiyah]

I've had a black & white basic 20G ipod for a while. I LOVE it - most of the time.

First off, I recommend buying the Apple care plan. I've gone through 5 ipods; after a few months the hard drive got corrupted each time. And I always keep it in a case, in my purse or other place where it won't get jostled around. I had really bad luck at first, but the one I have now seems to work just fine *knocks on wood* but be careful not to drop them or anything

I have all my music on itunes. I create playlists for practice or performance - that's super easy. I even have a "potential dances" playlist where I can quickly go through songs I've tagged as dance-able if I need new material. I have a speaker thing with a docking station that works really well. And I don't like the FM transmitters - I use the auxiliary input in my car stereo. If you don't have one, you can get a new CD head unit for a fairly reasonable price and plug it into their aux input. The sound quality is soo worth it, esp. if you have long commutes each day like I do. I did the sound system myself - including speakers and subwoofer - so if you need advice, let me know. Of course, i did get help with the wiring from a friend...

I don't use the clock unless I'm on a flight (I don't wear a watch and when phone is off I don't have a clock!) which brings me to the fact that an ipod on a long flight is a godsend. I can't imagine life without it!

It has a calendar, contacts, etc. but I don't use that either. There are better ways to keep track of that stuff.

[*Shira*]

Can an iPod be used as a travel alarm? I didn't know until i read Safiyah's message that they have clocks built into them. Now I'm wondering about whether they could suit that need...

[Gia al Qamar]

Can an iPod be used as a travel alarm? I didn't know until i read Safiyah's message that they have clocks built into them. Now I'm wondering about whether they could suit that need...

For sure my new one does...a clock with an alarm, a spot for notes (which you can type on the computer and upload to the Nano) too!
Gia

[Lisa Michelle]

and has obtained software that lets him convert text to audio, so he also moves articles from web sites onto his iPod.

Shira,

Not to hijack this thread, but may I ask what is the name of this software? I have not heard of this before...at least not software that worked very well.

Thanks,

Lisa

[severina]

For sure my new one does...a clock with an alarm, a spot for notes (which you can type on the computer and upload to the Nano) too!
Gia

The alarm feature....does the iPod need to be plugged into a speaker dock for this to work? Or do you need to be wearing headphones?

[steffib]

Much to my shame, I have not been able to make my new iPod (Classic) work as an alarm (may be my fault) - I am only able to get a visual alarm, which doesn't wake me up ;-) The 4th Gen was great in that respect, it worked like a wakeup radio that starts playing at a certain time. It worked with headphones, indeed.

After a bit of back-and-forth with different program versions, I am happily ripping chaptered and multi-episode sitcoms with Handbrake, to then upload the mp4s onto the iPod.

[shimarella]

I think your alarm feature will work without being plugged into speakers...

For ripping DVDs to Quicktime, look for a shareware called Handbrake.

Ipod hard drives do tend to crap out so I am looking for a new ipod and this time I will not be "cheap" and buy it used! I was really craving a specific ipod mini which isn't carried anymore though. This time I want a video ipod so I can d/l my work-out DVDs that I need to train on for work and my fave BSG episodes! Plus using my ipod for teaching classes. Oddly my ancient 1st gen. shuffle is surviving nicely so even though I'm charmed by the teeny new shuffles I can't justify buying one.