More iPod questions

[Butter]

So, let me tell you my dilemma:

I got an unexpected bonus from my work this week... just sort of a "you're awesome, thanks for everything" kinda thing, which was very nice. So, I decide to finally splurge on an mp3 player.

The Mrs. and I buy a nice mp3 player, a 2 GB flash player (a SanDisk) on Tuesday night. It's $159, a bit cheaper than the iPod nano, and it comes with an FM tuner on it, which I like, but frankly will not use... and The Mrs. claims she may use at some point, but may not. She can use it at the gym to listen to TV if she wants. I like that I only spent $150 on it, and can use the other $150 that would've gone toward a 30 GB regular iPod toward something else. I prefer a flash player, so the most I probably would've bought was a 4 GB nano anyway.

It's got a nice color screen and everything, and it is about as small as a pack of gum, but here's my problem: it essentially does not hold playlists. Sure, you can play an album by going to the album menu and selecting it from the list, but when you upload a playlist from Winamp or Musicmatch, it basically mixes the music you load in with the other music already loaded. What it does is it lists all of the tunes in alphabetical order by artist. Odd, in my opinion.

I guess this is not a HUGE deal to most, but it is to me. I may want to load playlists on it for myself or The Mrs. to listen to that I want her or I to listen to in order. I can't do it with this player. It says it supports playlists, but it really doesn't. You have to create a playlist by putting each track on a "Go List", which it promptly erases every time you sync it. It did hold a playlist from Musicmatch, but it didn't list it by name... and it was easily inadvertently erased.

So, here are my questions:

1. Does anyone have an iPod nano? Does the iPod nano come with a USB cable? I have heard it doesn't, and you have to buy one separately, which is BS for $250 if you ask me. Also, does it charge via the USB cable or does it even use rechargeable batteries? Or is it some kind of proprietary battery thing... I like that the one I bought just uses AAA. How long is the battery life, on average?

2. Does the playlist feature work fairly well? I mean, does it keep the list you load from iTunes in the same order that you load it in as... and also, can you load multiple playlists onto it? If so, how many?

3. Does the scroll wheel thing work fairly well? It seemed fairly slick when I tried it out, but it seemed like the buttons could be fairly easily worn out because they're not really buttons at all, but rather a slightly raised or touch sensitive area. Anyone have any problems with the buttons?

4. How long does it take to load music onto it?

I just want something that's going to work like I think it should, and I think the one I got doesn't work as I had pictured in my mind. The controls and the loading of songs just seems like more work than it should.

I just need to totally make sure that if I'm going to fork out the extra money, that it's going to be worth it to me... because otherwise I'll just keep what I have and work through the poor interface. $100 is a lot of money to me, so that's why I'm analyzing it to death, because this is a big decision for me.

As Dora would say: Thanks for helping!

[WSUCougar]

I predict cthomer5000 will magically appear in this thread.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

So, let me tell you my dilemma:

I got an unexpected bonus from my work this week... just sort of a "you're awesome, thanks for everything" kinda thing, which was very nice. So, I decide to finally splurge on an mp3 player.

The Mrs. and I buy a nice mp3 player, a 2 GB flash player (a SanDisk) on Tuesday night. It's $159, a bit cheaper than the iPod nano, and it comes with an FM tuner on it, which I like, but frankly will not use... and The Mrs. claims she may use at some point, but may not. She can use it at the gym to listen to TV if she wants. I like that I only spent $150 on it, and can use the other $150 that would've gone toward a 30 GB regular iPod toward something else. I prefer a flash player, so the most I probably would've bought was a 4 GB nano anyway.

It's got a nice color screen and everything, and it is about as small as a pack of gum, but here's my problem: it essentially does not hold playlists. Sure, you can play an album by going to the album menu and selecting it from the list, but when you upload a playlist from Winamp or Musicmatch, it basically mixes the music you load in with the other music already loaded. What it does is it lists all of the tunes in alphabetical order by artist. Odd, in my opinion.

I guess this is not a HUGE deal to most, but it is to me. I may want to load playlists on it for myself or The Mrs. to listen to that I want her or I to listen to in order. I can't do it with this player. It says it supports playlists, but it really doesn't. You have to create a playlist by putting each track on a "Go List", which it promptly erases every time you sync it. It did hold a playlist from Musicmatch, but it didn't list it by name... and it was easily inadvertently erased.

So, here are my questions:

1. Does anyone have an iPod nano? Does the iPod nano come with a USB cable? I have heard it doesn't, and you have to buy one separately, which is BS for $250 if you ask me. Also, does it charge via the USB cable or does it even use rechargeable batteries? Or is it some kind of proprietary battery thing... I like that the one I bought just uses AAA. How long is the battery life, on average?

2. Does the playlist feature work fairly well? I mean, does it keep the list you load from iTunes in the same order that you load it in as... and also, can you load multiple playlists onto it? If so, how many?

3. Does the scroll wheel thing work fairly well? It seemed fairly slick when I tried it out, but it seemed like the buttons could be fairly easily worn out because they're not really buttons at all, but rather a slightly raised or touch sensitive area. Anyone have any problems with the buttons?

4. How long does it take to load music onto it?

I just want something that's going to work like I think it should, and I think the one I got doesn't work as I had pictured in my mind. The controls and the loading of songs just seems like more work than it should.

I just need to totally make sure that if I'm going to fork out the extra money, that it's going to be worth it to me... because otherwise I'll just keep what I have and work through the poor interface. $100 is a lot of money to me, so that's why I'm analyzing it to death, because this is a big decision for me.

As Dora would say: Thanks for helping!

I have a nano.

To answer your questions:

1. I forget. I bought an old ipod and had to buy a USB cable for it. I don't recall if the nano came with one or if I just used the one I already had. I think it's the former.

2. The playlist feature functions flawlessly. I don't think there is any limit to the number of playlists other than the amount of songs the ipod has. The playlists copy directly over from itunes. I have never experienced playlists not working or merging the way you described above. You can also pick and choose which playlists you want on your ipod. For example, when I sync my nano to itunes, I only download certain playlists because it can't carry everything we have on itunes. We have a lot of audio books.

3. I've only had the nano for less than 6 months and I have had no problem with the buttons. The volume control is a bit odd, because any time you turn it up it always goes back down just a bit. So you have to learn to auto-correct to get the volume where you want. The nano keys seem to be a step above the older ipod.

4. This depends on how much music you want to load. It's fast. Even if you are downloading a ton of songs, it wont take longer than a few minutes tops. Speed is not an issue.

I'd recommend the purchase. I love the nano. I felt the ipod was just a bit too large to carry around. The nano fits in the front pocket of your shirt and it's easy to carry around with you because it's pretty much weightless. I carry it in my pocket while I workout and never even feel it.

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

1. Does anyone have an iPod nano? Does the iPod nano come with a USB cable? I have heard it doesn't, and you have to buy one separately, which is BS for $250 if you ask me. Also, does it charge via the USB cable or does it even use rechargeable batteries? Or is it some kind of proprietary battery thing... I like that the one I bought just uses AAA. How long is the battery life, on average?

We don't have a nano, my wife got a mini (pre-nano). It came with a USB cable, and I'm certain the nano does as well. Specifically, it's a cable with the USB connector on one end, and the "dock" connector (that plugs into the nano) on the other. That's how songs are transferred from the computer, as well as how it is charged by default.

There is a separate power adapter available as an accessory that allows you to charge it from a wall socket rather than the computer.

Apple has info on iPod batteries here: http://www.apple.com/batteries/. The nano is supposed to last around 12-14 hours on a single charge.

Speaking at the rest of this from the mini perspective:

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

2. Does the playlist feature work fairly well? I mean, does it keep the list you load from iTunes in the same order that you load it in as... and also, can you load multiple playlists onto it? If so, how many?

Absolutely. Keeps it in the order, or can be played shuffled. We haven't pushed it, but haven't found any sort of limit for the number of playlists.

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

3. Does the scroll wheel thing work fairly well? It seemed fairly slick when I tried it out, but it seemed like the buttons could be fairly easily worn out because they're not really buttons at all, but rather a slightly raised or touch sensitive area. Anyone have any problems with the buttons?

Skipping this, because the nano clickwheel is different than the nano.

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

4. How long does it take to load music onto it?

Not very. Syncs of huge amounts of songs will take a while, but loading on a full CD takes only a couple minutes.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

I predict cthomer5000 will magically appear in this thread.

If you hadn't posted this, I wouldn't have posted in this one. I'm wholly unfamiliar with the nano.

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by Celeval

We don't have a nano, my wife got a mini (pre-nano). It came with a USB cable, and I'm certain the nano does as well.

From the apple store, nano:

In the box

• iPod nano
• • Earbud headphones
• • USB 2.0 cable
• • Dock adapter
• • Case
• • QuickStart guide
• • CD with iTunes for Mac and Windows and features guide

[stevew]

Check this link out. It might be of some help. Apparently you may need to switch the mode up on the drive settings, perhaps.

http://crichton007.blogspot.com/2006...p3-player.html

[Butter]

I appreciate the link, stevew (I actually came across it yesterday) and I noticed that it said 2 things that I didn't like or didn't find to be true.

1. It says playlists should transfer from Musicmatch. They don't, at least not on this model. Or, rather, they are transferring, but without a name attached.

2. If I want to transfer a regular .m3u playlist, I have to open it in notepad and edit out text that it can't recognize. Um, no thanks. I think that's way more hassle than it's worth.

But again, thanks for digging that up.