Is An Ipod Right For You?

By Author: Casey Adams
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Should I get an iPod? A lot of people are asking if they should get a portable music player, and if so, they want to know which one they should get. Well, if that's you, then you have a few options.

First of all, the Apple iPod is the most popular digital music player on the market. It does have a lot of great features, sounds great, and is a robust (durable) piece of equipment.

With that said, there are other digital music players from big names like Sony, Samsung, and Roxio that are just as good! One of the major differences between most digital music players is that the Apple iPod is, in fact, not an mp3 player. People often call it that, for lack of a better term, but this is a misnomer.

An mp3 player is a portable digital music player (like the aforementioned offerings from Sony, Samsung, Roxio and others) that plays mp3 music files, like those you can purchase at online stores like emusic, amazon and others. The iPod on the other hand, does not play mp3 files. It will only play the Apple format, mp4 (or m4p) files.

What does that mean to you, from a practical sense? It means that any ...
... music you buy that is not from iTunes will not be as easily loadable into your iPod. It will need to be converted into the Apple format (m4p) before it will play on the iPod. It also means that you cannot play files purchased from iTunes on an mp3 player without converting them first.

Sound confusing? Well, it can be, but there are two ways to simplify this situation. One is this: purchase an iPod (or iPhone) and only purchase your music from the iTunes music store. The other option is this: purchase an mp3 player from a non-Apple brand, and only purchase music from basically everywhere BUT iTunes.

Those are your two best options, if you don't want to have to deal with converting files (which, let's face it - who does?).

Your decision should be based on a couple factors, one of them being whether you are a Mac user already. (If you use a PC, you can still use iTunes and iPods, though! It's just a little more natural on a Mac computer!) Another factor is whether you already have an mp3 collection. If you do, you should shy away from iTunes and iPods so you don't have to convert your files!
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Get an ipod at http://www.electroland.gr/ipod-family.htm