Hey everyone, My old Creative 30GB mp3 player appears to have kicked the bucket. It started taking forever to load songs, skip songs and stuff, so today I formatted it, scanned the disk, and did some other things the creative support page suggested, now it isn't letting me copy anything to it at all. So needless to say, I'm in the market for a new mp3 player, and well I thought maybe i'll join the kool kids and buy an iPod this time around. However, im doing a little reading up on them tonight and I have some concerns. So if anyone can help me out here and address these few concerns for me, or maybe even recommend a completely different mp3 player for me that would be great. I'm thinking I'd like at least 16GB of storage. So, here we go: 1. Can i copy mp3's to and from the ipod without using itunes. I really don't want it on my PC. I'm running a PC w/Vista, and I really like to be able to just plug my mp3 player into my USB port, open up Windows File manager and just copy and past songs to the player. Can I still do that even with an ipod, not having to use itunes or any other goofy software? 2. I presently have a 30gb harddrive built into my car, which the lease is up on. I dont plan on upgrading the radio in the new car to have the hard drive in it this time. So I need something that I can hook directly up into the car. I'm guessing I can do that with almost any mp3 player now by plugging a cable into the headphone jack, and into the auxillary jack on my stereo correct? Same goes for a regular indoor/outdoor stereo system too correct? So I can listen to mp3's outside, just louder. 3. All my music is in mp3 format, I doubt that is a problem, but I guess I should check. None of which came from any sort of online store/purchase. I have all kinds of cd's, over 500 probably. And when i want to listen to one walking, or in the car, i just rip it to mp3's. So, this is a must for me. 4. Video capabilities are not an issue. My creative plays it now, but, I dont need it. I think that about sums it up for now, any help would be awesome! Also, that being said, if there's an alternative to the ipod that someone has, and could suggest, I'd be open to that as well. I'd like to avoid apple all together really, dont ask why, I dont have an answer. I think its because their commercials annoy me So yeah, answers to the above are great, and any suggestions on a certain ipod model, or any alternatives would be appreciated! Thanks!
Not that I'm aware of. You'll have to use some sort of software to have the iPod accept the songs. If you don't want to use iTunes (which is strange, IMO: if you'd only be using it for purposes of syncing, makes no sense NOT to use iTunes) then you can try Winamp, which has iPod support built in. I think foobar can do it as well, but neither will be as elegant or simple as iTunes. Almost all cars have AUX jacks, and you can just run a cable from that to the headphone jack on your MP3 player, any brand. A lesser amount have support for Bluetooth streaming: any Ford equipped with the Sync system can do it, for example, and this will work with any MP3 player that has Bluetooth, like an iPod Touch. Lastly, a few cars (like Sync-equipped vehicles) have a USB slot. MP3 is pretty much a universal format, so you're fine. Note that if you use Bluetooth to stream, then the format doesn't matter: the car will only play whatever data your device is sending it, so you could change formats at will and still maintain compatibility. There's a reason why Apple's products sell: they work better than the competition. If you're really dead set on avoiding Apple at all costs--silly, IMO, but if you're determined--then look at the Zune HD line.
