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I finally caved in...iPod!

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DMczaf

Member
I held off for as long as I could, but I finally ordered one. Used my student discount at the Apple Store and bought the 20gig model. So fellow iPoders, can i get some tips and stuff? Which accessories should I buy? Is iTunes the best iPod software? Help a brotha out!
 

xsarien

daedsiluap
DMczaf said:
I held off for as long as I could, but I finally ordered one. Used my student discount at the Apple Store and bought the 20gig model. So fellow iPoders, can i get some tips and stuff? Which accessories should I buy? Is iTunes the best iPod software? Help a brotha out!

Buy a case, iTunes is fine, make sure your ID3 tags are filled out (iTunes is great at letting you do multiple files at once), and go USB if you're on a Windows machine. Something's not-quite-right with the Firewire implementation.
 

nitewulf

Member
get the contour showcase to protect its look. it'll get a bit bulky, but its really hard and shock proof, plus has a belt-clip.
but if you are really anal about the size, get one of the skins instead.
 

IJoel

Member
I was also assimilated a couple of days ago. I got the 40GB model with an iskin. The iskin r0x, but the connector hole (the one for recharging/uploading music) is too small. Besides that, it protects the ipod really well.

www.iskin.com

It's obviously the evo2 version for the newer ipods.
 

IJoel

Member
xsarien said:
Buy a case, iTunes is fine, make sure your ID3 tags are filled out (iTunes is great at letting you do multiple files at once), and go USB if you're on a Windows machine. Something's not-quite-right with the Firewire implementation.

Actually I'd say otherwise. The USB firmware is crap. I had trouble with it (was trying to use the USB2 interface.) Heck, if you go to Apple's ipod forums, you'll see 90% of the issues being PCs unable to mount the drive with an USB interface. The Firewire interface, on the other hand, has been flawless for me, and it's very fast. I was able to uplink more than 800 songs in less than 15 minutes (and most of them were 320 kbps.)
 
iPoding and iPodhacks are good websites, with good forums you can search for info on useful programs. There are probably others people can recommend you...

I would suggest fucking with your firmware as LITTLE as possible. The official iPod updates are probably okay for most people, I wouldn't toy with the ones where you can change graphics and text though if you're not 100% on what you're doing.

I'd recommend Firewire over PCI based USB2 too... BUT most USB2 folk should be alright.

I wasn't aware my PCI-based USB2 card could have it's latency configured. During a standard iPod update (which updates the thing's firmware), the connection got pretty fucked up and my computer terminated the operation mid-update. Screwed iPod. They're fixing or replacing it for me - but still.. nasty.

If for whatever reason the formatting on the machine becomes corrupt, your PC or Mac is gonna wanna re-format it. Meaning you'll lose songs. So keep as many as you can on your PC/Mac in iTunes. The first time it had happened to me, I'd had no trouble for months... so I assumed it would be safe to take the songs off to save space. It wasn't really a good idea. I had to painstakingly put all my songs back onto the PC.


Warnings aside... you're gonna love it. I've really missed mine while it's been broken. I never realised how much I grew to use it!
 

IJoel

Member
DMczaf said:
Damn I don't have Firewire, I never had anything that needed it. I guess ill have to buy a card.

Well, try first with USB. If it doesn't work, then get a Firewire card.
 

bionic77

Member
If you have a car I highly suggest a Itrip and a power adaptor for the car. Definitely get some sort of soft case (like the iSkin or something similar) as soon as possible. Finally, rip the Kobe cd and your Ipod experience will be complete.
 

xsarien

daedsiluap
IJoel said:
Actually I'd say otherwise. The USB firmware is crap. I had trouble with it (was trying to use the USB2 interface.) Heck, if you go to Apple's ipod forums, you'll see 90% of the issues being PCs unable to mount the drive with an USB interface.

Maybe things have changed with the 4Gs and beyond, but everything I've ever done with and heard about the 3Gs speaks to the exact opposite. Problems mounting and dismounting over Firewire, transfer lockups, etc.
 

bionic77

Member
DMczaf said:
Damn I don't have Firewire, I never had anything that needed it. I guess ill have to buy a card.

It will work fine with usb. I never had a problem with it. Make sure you are using usb2 though, otherwise it will take forever to transfer shit to your Ipod.
 
I second that, it may work just fine with USB. I know two people who can use the things fine over USB.... but my configuration certainly didn't like it.

The latest Apple update is meant to improve USB in some way btw. If it doesn't come with your iPod, iTunes will alert you to it when it starts up.
 

Anthropic

Member
I tnink the USB problems have a lot to do with the chipsets involved. I had a USB2 card using an ALi chipset that blew chunks. I replaced it with a card using the NEC USB2 chipset and it works flawlessly.
 

DMczaf

Member
Alright, I'll wait.

bionic77 said:
If you have a car I highly suggest a Itrip and a power adaptor for the car. Definitely get some sort of soft case (like the iSkin or something similar) as soon as possible. Finally, rip the Kobe cd and your Ipod experience will be complete.

I heard the K.O.B.E. CD formats the iPod and replaces your music with watered down crap.
 
I've not used the iTrip since the first gen, but I could never get a solid signal from it. It's been theorized that the reason was my close proximity to Cincinnati and all the damn radio towers.

Just FYI.
 

bionic77

Member
ArcadeStickMonk said:
I've not used the iTrip since the first gen, but I could never get a solid signal from it. It's been theorized that the reason was my close proximity to Cincinnati and all the damn radio towers.

Just FYI.

It is a pain in the ass to find a clean signal. I live in DC and it took me at least 4 hours to find a good one. The good thing is that once you find one that works you are set. It is obviously easier if you have line in, but my car stereo didn't and I hate the look of aftermarket stereos so I went with Itrip and it has worked flawlessly.
 
Anthropic said:
I tnink the USB problems have a lot to do with the chipsets involved. I had a USB2 card using an ALi chipset that blew chunks. I replaced it with a card using the NEC USB2 chipset and it works flawlessly.

mine was ALi... :(
 

bionic77

Member
DMczaf said:
I just ordered an iTrip, since I'll mostly use my iPod in the car. Thanks guys.

Get an adaptor eventually as well. The iTrip goes through the Ipod's battery pretty quickly. There is a nifty Ipod cup holder I has as well, but you won't need that if you get a skin of some kind.
 

Dilbert

Member
iTunes uber alles as far as software goes.

The iTrip is a pretty nifty device, but you MAY have trouble finding a clear frequency in the spectrum (in Los Angeles, it's pretty much impossible), and it does drain your battery quickly. You may want to consider some kind of permanent mount for your iPod in your car with line-in and power.

I've been using Firewire with my 3G on my last two computers, and have had no problems at all. I also used USB successfully the few times I had to resort to that interface. I agree with the speculation that problems are all probably chipset-based.

Enjoy!
 

yoshifumi

Banned
i've got the iTrip thing and i don't think it's very useful. there's A LOT of distortion on mine, unless it's right next to the antenna, and even then it's not perfect. a tape adapter works much, much better.
 

SteveMeister

Hang out with Steve.
yoshifumi said:
i've got the iTrip thing and i don't think it's very useful. there's A LOT of distortion on mine, unless it's right next to the antenna, and even then it's not perfect. a tape adapter works much, much better.

My experience is exactly the opposite. It depends on what frequencies you have available, the type of car you have & where the antenna is in relation to the iTrip, etc. etc. But I have nothing good to say about using a tape adapter. The sound quality was horrible, and when the weather was cold the tape cassette mechanism would stiffen up, causing my car's tape player to switch "sides" (because it thought the end of tape had been released). And of course the "side B" head doesn't line up with the cassette adapter's emitter, so you get no signal. Ugh, never again.
 

Phoenix

Member
yoshifumi said:
i've got the iTrip thing and i don't think it's very useful. there's A LOT of distortion on mine, unless it's right next to the antenna, and even then it's not perfect. a tape adapter works much, much better.

I've got an iTrip and its only reasonably useful. If you like where there are large strong signals you will get bleed in on any of the iTrip channels guaranteed. My experience is close to yours and my tape adapter does work much better and is more consistent in quality. iTrip especially sucks for road trips because you'll be passing through a wide range of signals and you'll be changing the iTrip channel all the time. My trips from Atlanta to New Orleans are especially painful in that regard.

The best integration point for an iPod is the ICE Link. Nothing else even comes close. You can treat the iPod as one big CD changer and that is excellent. You have full control of it from the head unit.
 

Phoenix

Member
If you local Sears carries them (and it should) I can purchase gift cards at 15% off. PM if interested. Also AMEX owners visit the mylifemycard.com website and check out the 25% off amazon.com purchases offer up to $600 purchase.
 

Dilbert

Member
Phoenix said:
The best integration point for an iPod is the ICE Link. Nothing else even comes close. You can treat the iPod as one big CD changer and that is excellent. You have full control of it from the head unit.
Wow, that's a pretty cool gadget.

If I have a (more or less) OEM CD changer already, and I wanted to install the ice>Link, would it co-exist with the changer, or would I have to give up the ability to play CDs in the car?
 
Case.
To keep it small Lajo or iSkin. To really protect it use a Contour or some other hardcase.

Better Headphones.
Not really needed I guess, depends on the quality of your music. Though white headphones = rob me.
 

Odnetnin

Banned
I'm going to upsize my ipod in 4 days - there's a retail place here that will have a post Xmas sale and my 20 gig will be replaced with a 40gig. Rocking kit. Love the ipod.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
radioheadrule83 said:
mine was ALi... :(

I only have USB1.1 on my laptop and purchased an ALI USB2 notebook adaptor. Don't even bother. Apple's PC USB implementation is totally borked with certain chipsets. I got traded that card in for a Belkin Firewire notebook adaptor and have had NO problems with my iPod since. And it's SO much faster than my notebook's built in USB1.1.

I recently upgraded my clickwheel 40gb model to the 60gb iPod photo, and am loving it. Welcome to the club, dude. iSkin rox, btw. I held off on getting 1 for a year, finally took the plunge, and love it.

Packaged white earbuds suck the f-ck. Go with Senns (my faves), Shures, or really high end Sonys.
 

Phoenix

Member
-jinx- said:
Wow, that's a pretty cool gadget.

If I have a (more or less) OEM CD changer already, and I wanted to install the ice>Link, would it co-exist with the changer, or would I have to give up the ability to play CDs in the car?


Depends on the hardware. Someone of them are multichannel so you can have both. My wifes car is multichannel so she has a CD changer and in a few days she'll find out she has an ICE Link in the car :)
 
All you iTrip users. You all say it goes through the iPod battery "pretty quicky." Can anybody give me a figure of some sort? How long will your iPod and iTrip go on a 4G iPod using equlization?
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Heh, I just got an iTrip as a holiday gift from a coworker. Do they work with the iPod photo?
 

Phoenix

Member
StrikerObi said:
All you iTrip users. You all say it goes through the iPod battery "pretty quicky." Can anybody give me a figure of some sort? How long will your iPod and iTrip go on a 4G iPod using equlization?

Meh. Just get a car adapter to keep it charged. While it will drain off your battery while its in use - the times when it IS in use its sitting next to an available source of power.
 

Anthropic

Member
Mejilan said:
Don't even bother. Apple's PC USB implementation is totally borked with certain chipsets. .

I think Apple is not at fault here. I also had problems with that ALi card and an Archos 20GB. From the research I did at the time, it looked like those ALi chipsets just sucked.
 
Phoenix said:
Meh. Just get a car adapter to keep it charged. While it will drain off your battery while its in use - the times when it IS in use its sitting next to an available source of power.

Yeah, I know. However, I'd rather not have to buy one if I can just charge the iPod at home and then take it on a trip. The longest trip I would probably ever take my iPod on is 4 hours, excluding one trip a year. Most of the time it'll be 2 hour trips. So, do I really need a car charger? As soon as I reach my destination I'd start charging the iPod.
 

DMczaf

Member
Heh, I'm stupid. I did have a firewall port. This thing is pretty damn cool, now to wait for my Iskin which was shipped late :(
 
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