I'm looking to get a 15 or 20 gig Ipod. I only have 150 CDs which should take up about 10 gig. Is it worth spending the extra $100 for the 5 gig?

How do you transfer music on to the ipod? I have heard that all music must be on the hard drive and must be transferred all together everytime it is hooked up to the computer. For example, if you download 10 CDs to the ipod, then delete the music off the computer, then you want to put 2 more CDs on to the pod, only those 2 CDs will be transferred--the previous 10 albums will be deleted. Is this true?

Can the Ipod be used on more than one computer?

I have a PC.

Click here before you even think of buying an IPod

I already know about the battery issue. All rechargeable batteries will eventually go bad.

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Does the Ipod record music in alphabetical order or album order?

There's nothing Apple loves more than dicking over its brainwashed cult.

Should I buy a PC for $400 or a G-class Apple for 7x as much?

Quoted: I already know about the battery issue. All rechargeable batteries will eventually go bad. ---- Does the Ipod record music in alphabetical order or album order?

Ok... if spending hundreds of dollars on something that is only supposed to last a year sounds like a good deal to you, by all means, waste your money.

Quoted: Click here before you even think of buying an IPod

sigh...

At least post the whole story?

ALL rechargeable batteries will go bad, and here's a $40-$50 dollar fix for it (depending on the model).  Even *gasp* LAPTOP BATTERIES (and amazingly enough, not just APPLE'S laptop batteries!) go bad, and you have to spend $70-$150 bucks replaceing them.

I bought an iPod a few weeks ago, and Ｉ have to say it is some of the best money I've spent.  Period.  Simply having ALL of your music and room for three times as much left over is worth the price alone.  Definately go with the 20gb over the 15, thats what I did.  The 20gb has a four year protection plan, whereas the 15 has only a two year that costs the same as the 4 year plan for the 20.  Apple has also released a new software version for the iPods that has a much better battery managment system.  My iPod has totally replaced my CD collection, I got the $30 FM transmitter for it so I can listen to all my music in the car and not have to lug around and flip through a massive CD wallet.  I really have nothing but good things to say, so to answer your question, no, I have no horror stories.

Brian

Edited to add:

Quoted: I already know about the battery issue. All rechargeable batteries will eventually go bad. ---- Does the Ipod record music in alphabetical order or album order?

You can browse the music in any many ways, sort by Artist, album, song, genre, composer, etc.  It lists everything, including the albums, in alphabetical order, but it lists the song in each album by track number of course.  

Also, under the protection plan, should the battery go bad, it'll be replaced for free.

I have the 20GB Napster/Samsung MP3 player and absolutely love it.  I've had it about 7 months now and never had any problems at all with it.  Addressing some of your questions and how they work with mine....you tranfer music via USB or USB 2.0 if you have it.  Via 2.0 it takes about 3 seconds per song.  You can transfer whatever music you have on your HD and it won't affect what's already on the player.  It uses the new Napster software instead of iTunes (obviously).  I don't have any experience with iTunes, but the new Napster software is nice.  It's got an integrated music store and everything with $0.99 tracks and $10 albums.  This is where you run into the only limitation on music that I know of.  Songs you rip from a CD you can have on as many computers as you want, but songs you buy you can only have on 3 computers.

As for the player itself, I think it looks better than the iPod, but that's just a personal preference.  It sounds very nice and clean and comes with lots of options.  It's got a little EQ in the software, it's a radio receiver AND transmitter.  So you can actually just transmit the music you're listening to in the car and tune into whatever frequency you're transmitting on and listen without an extra FM modulator!  You can also record songs from radio stations you're listening to.  Lots of other stuff that is escaping me right now.  If you want more info or pics feel free to IM or email me!

This is a pic of it sitting in my car on my XM cradle.  I put the cord from my XM cradle into the MP3 player when I'm not listening to XM and it just happens to sit neatly in the cradle!
http://webpages.charter.net/brandonw/mp3.jpg

get a creative labs nomad juke box it can use WMA which is much beter then MP3

I got an Archos Jukebox about a year ago. Still works fine.

Ive got 2 Gen1 Ipods. They both work very well. Batteries can be found on Ebay for 20 bucks. I like it because you can store all types of data on them as well. But I must remind you, all of those CD's you have will need to be converted to get the maximum storage out of your Ipod. I think Itunes will do this automatically.

Rob

I have a first generation iPod, I've had it for nearly 2 years now, it still runs fine. Im well aware of the battery issue. I guess I'll have to decide when the time comes if I want to pay to get it fixed or just junk it.  Also, I dont know about the other MP3 players, but the iPods double as a portable hard drive. I keep work stuff on it as well as any personal stuff I would be too afraid to get caught with on the work computer.  Very convenient device. Its served me well so far.

F*ck, it never fails, I think Arfcom is the only place I can never post a comment before someone always beats me to the same comment. lol

You won't need to delete whats on there to add to the iPod.. I've done that dozens of times. In fact, the BIG problem was that, using Apple's software (or the third party bundled stuff) you could not copy the mp3's back off the iPod.. It was a one-way transfer.  I fould a neat freeware program (for the Mac) called iPod Browser 1.5 which will allow backups, I'm sure something similar exists for PC's.  As to the price vs. space issue, when I got my 20gb iPod, the big difference was that the 20 included the dock, iPod case, and a few more extras.  Once you figure out the price on them, it was worth it.

 As for Apple's track record on batteries, their new laptops are the BEST on battery usage I've ever seen on a machine.  Life cycle (even when using wireless network, DVD drive, etc) is great.  I've repaired PC's for about 8 years.  Worked on PC's since MS DOS 3.x, and was a confirmed Mac hater.  Job market sucked, and an opening appeared on a Mac network in a school system.  Now through the job I've got a nice Gateway laptop with all the extras, and a more basic iBook G4.  The G4 is what comes home with me, it does a better job of seamlessly and quickly hopping networks.  Arfcomm's new look doesn't quite work on the Safari browser however.

 Oh yea, if you're going to run the iPod on a PC, you should get yourself a cheap firewire card at the same time as the iPod, and realize that if you keep the thing in the dock forever and a day, every time you cycle the power on the machine it's a life cycle on the battery.  

 As a previous poster mentioned, there is a software update for them that does address battery issues, but IIRC it's more extending the time between charges than extending the overall battery life.  They did the same for the iBooks, and it made a huge difference.  Apply the update before you get to transferring music.  Should the battery die down the line, you can replace it yourself with available instructions and a $20-40 part, or pay Apple $99 and they will replace it or send you a new iPod (usually the new iPod unless you've had it etched on the back).  Screw the applecare policy.

My major beef with the iPod is not the battery dying in a year or two. It has to do with the crappy time between charging. I fly cross-country and intercontinental a lot for work, and four to six hours of battery life is just pitiful. Several times I have been sitting next to people whose iPods ran out of juice mid-flight. But it was a COOL looking piece of worthless ballast for the rest of their flight. Too bad, so sad.

After doing a bunch of research, I bought a 20 GB iRiver and get about 15-16 hours on a charge. It has a built in FM tuner, digital recording, and works flawlessly as an external drive for Windows based PCs. And it also sounds better than an iPod. Heck, it even has optical inputs and outputs for connection to your sound system if you are so inclined.

But, if you have your heart set on spending more for a machine with less capability, go right ahead. Some people are more interested in looking cool than in anything else.

I have an iPod and I love it.  However, I also have a Mac so the iPod is the best for me.  If I were you, I would look at the Napster one.  If you get the iPod, definitely get a firewire card.

As for how the music is copied - Your iTunes library is what will be on your iPod.  If you delete from iTunes, it will take it off your iPod and if you add to iTunes, it will add it to your iPod.  Same for playlists, etc.

I've had my 20gb first-generation iPod for about 2 years now. Never had a problem with it. Battery is still about a week's worth (about an hour and a half each day; 45 minutes coming to work, 45 minutes back home; sometimes more, sometimes less). I use it on a PC, using ephPod, which I cannot recommend enough. It's an awesome free iPod program for the pc. It syncs, it downloads news and other stuff to the iPod if you want it to, etc. I highly recommend ephpod if you have a pc and an iPod.

It's configurable to do what you want it to do, and it won't delete music off of your iPod without telling you first if you configure it to do so.

Someone mentioned an iRiver...time to investigate those. I don't like the fact that the new iPods require some kind of stupid dock and can't use a normal firewire cable anymore. (The original ones used a normal firewire cable, so you could charge up anywhere without having to bring your dock and cable along with you...) not to mention the new iPod's battery life of 4-6 hours. The first gen's lasted longer than that and I think, are easier to use, especially if you have big hands/fingers (like I).