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Having a bit of trouble ...................


Gardian

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............. with some of the new technology.  Well, not exactly new technology, more things that have been around for years that we had no knowledge of. The world has completely passed us by since we came out here 7 yrs ago.

We just wanted a simple music system to replace our obselete and knackered CD player: something that would be portable (as in outside) and provide halfway decent quality (no padded cell / headphone stuff needed).

When in the UK over the hols, we bought an iPod and dock - the former is one of those nano things that's about the size of a square golfball.

I spent an hour or two downloading some CD's on to the nano thingy and put it on to the dock - that's when my blood pressure went up. My clumsy fingers wouldn't allow me to get past 'go'. Kept getting an automatic female voice talking about my weight & height (I was in the fitness icon it would appear) when all I wanted to do was play a few numbers off some old CD's. The fitness icon was the last place I wanted to be. Halfway there now - we're getting 'random play' of all the loaded CD's, but no selectivity. Will probably be back on fitness again if I fiddle with the bloody golfball again tomorrow.

In their less charitable moments, I'm described as one of the army of 'old grinners' by our sons. Sadly, they're probably right.

 

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This page just might get you started.

http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/design.html

If you scroll down a tad to 'song controls' on the LHS there is a brief explanation to get you going.

Then there is this:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/ipod_nano_2nd_gen_features_guide.pdf  if your nano  is 2nd generation.

Apparently you shake this ipod to shuffle the music ... whatever will they think of next ?

Good luck.

Sue [:)]

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Ooh, I hate I-Pods.  I did loads of research before getting mine (it was a Christmas present when I was in rehab' so was meant to be something special.)  In the end I got one because  of all the add-ons you could get - for example a far wider range of docks than was apparently available for MP3s, plus the Classic would take my hundreds of CDs so I wouldn''t be parted from my music as well as my home.  In common with so much stuff now, it doesn't come with much of an instruction book - I couldn't even work out how to turn the ruddy thing on and off and had to ask a Mac user in the end.  The software (I-Tunes) was horrific and doesn't allow you to sync the silly thing on more than one computer, so having loaded all the music at home on my PC, I couldn't update it on my laptop in the hospital without wiping the thing completely and starting again.   It won't read mp3 or wma files, so you have to duplicate all your existing files and convert them in order to be able to play stuff. 

Still, I had spent a lot of money on the silly thing so I persisted.  I was very happy with the Klipsch dock which I bought, but the thing itself I found impenetrable without the manual I spent a tank of black ink on and printed out in the end in sheer frustration.  Because I have a proper HiFi system at home though, I rarely used it once I was back home except for holidays until eventually I had another long stay in hospital last July.  When I dug the thing out again, its battery was dead.  I ordered another one from Amazon via my netbook in hospital, but when it was delivered, even with the specialist tool the battery came with, Mr C couldn't change it properly and in an effort to do so, completely destroyed the display so it went where I should have put it in the first place - in the dustbin.

I spent a tenth of the money I'd spent on the I-Pod on a Sony MP3 player (a quarter the size and weight of the classic), and £2 on a little lead which means I can use the Klipsch dock as a speaker system for the MP3 player.  This Christmas, three years later, I got an Android phone and a 16g memory card  - the two combined cost about the same as the I-Pod and I can phone people, have a built in GPS system, can write e-mails, take pictures and videos etc etc - the possibilities are endless.  Farewell I-Pod - I miss you not one bit.  And I will never buy an Apple product ever again.

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Well Coops I couldn't agree more about getting music on and off an IPod. I played around with my BIL a year ago, tried to give him some music and it was not possible. This is the main reason I dislike them because I am told by them what I can and cannot do. I was thinking about that other thread to do with Linux and somebody said they didn't like Windows because it controlled you and not you it. Well try an IPod if you want to know about being controlled then think about the loads of money extra you pay for the pleasure as well. Like you I have an MP3 player. Mine is quite old it's a Creative Labs one and has 30GB of storage. It's about ten years old, still works fine and I bought a Belkin transmitter for it so I can use it in the car. Just in case you wondering what that is you plug it in to the headset socket of the MP3 player then tune the car radio (or any radio) into it and you can hear your music through the car radio. Great for very long journeys.
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Oddly, as a total (well, almost) technophobe, I love my ipod. It's an ipod touch, which (for the non-initiated) is basically an iphone without the phone.

We are a 5 ipod family here, which might make things a bit easier. I can share all the stuff I have on my ipod with Mr Betty with no bother, and link up to 5 computers to my itunes stuff, and I've got the whole kit and caboodle on an external HD anyway. Did that when I changed computers and reloaded my itunes stuff as it was onto the new laptop with fairly little faffing.

We've had Creative MP3 players and other brands in this house, but (OK, mainly due to a source of cheap ipods) we're all long term ipod users and quite happy to be so. The one thing I am particularly content with on mine is the wifi, which means if we're away somewhere on hols, I can check my e-mails periodically without having to cart a laptop or netbook or mobile phone around.

Apples (the electronic kind) are, I guess, a bit like Marmite.

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[quote user="Gardian"]

[quote user="Quillan"]Have you tried RTFM'ing it yet?[/quote]

If I knew what you were talking about, I might.[blink]

The mind boggles over the possibilities.

[/quote]

Read the fxxxing Manual. If you anyting like me it's the last thing I do and then only when it doesn't work. [;-)] Came form the military, bit like SNAFU. [:D]

 

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[quote user="You can call me Betty"]Yeah, and possibly Dieter Rams might get a quid or so for designing the look...
[/quote]

The person attributed with the design for the Ipod is Apples' Jonathon Ive, however close inspection of Kane's original drawings clearly show the Ipod design was his.

No German was involved as far as I am aware.

 

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[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8555503/Dieter-Rams-Apple-has-achieved-something-I-never-did.html[/url]

I've been aware of DR for a long while because one of my sons worked at Vitsoe for a couple of years. I was going to post a photo of his Braun radio, but then came across this much more recent Telegraph article.

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When we had our devastating fire in 2010 and lost everything, my OH researched to try and find a Kenwood stereo system, the same as he had bought some 20 odd years before. They just don't make them like that anymore we found.

So to update what we had we bought an IPOD Classic, and a Bose docking system. I must say this piece of equipment is absolutely amazing, it already holds more music than we possessed before and still has loads of space (MB) to use.

The sound is stunning, from a tiny machine you can get a sound that almost (with a bit of dreaming) sounds like a musical concert/opera/pop gig - depending on what music you play.

I do agree that it was quite complicated to understand to begin with and you do have to be careful that you don't delete stuff that you don't want to when transferring music files across.

I've downloaded all our music (lost every CD we possessed in the fire) and now find it just brilliant. Technology eh!
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I still struggle to find the advantage of one over the much cheaper MP3 players, having now had both.  I resent having find a get-around for their awful software (not to mention being forced to travel many ks to find somebody just to replace its ruddy battery.)  Long may the thing rot.
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