Starting from a Walkman...

[Burgs]

Righto all you techo guru's.
Next step, what's the best options when it comes to buying walkabout music?
Having not had anything since a '90 Walkman (cassette that is ) I'm just a whisker out of touch with the latest stuff and totally bamboozled as to where to start.
I want music.
I've seen some that play through the car radio, that would be good.
I believe some can hold photo's, I believe some can hold Power Point Presentations, both would be handy.
Not too sure of other features except I've seen one that plugs into its own speaker stand.
I'm open to suggestion and anyone how opens with (or includes) those fckn words "well it depends how much you want to spend" will get severe reputation arse kicking!
Give me some options and I'll see if I can justify it or not!

[Bunji]

So your in the dinasour category as me

I pod my dear friend..
All the go with great sound and all the connection you need.
Quicker ff and rr then the old casset..

range from $50 to $200 for a top shelf..
You will rock and roll all night and be carfull if your like me not to get carried away...

the neighbours will give you strang looks

[jargan83]

80 gig ipod for about $350-$360 and that bastard holds alot of stuff. Ive got 1300 songs and a couple of episodes of south park and family guy on mine

[travelling_gerry]

Real Estate Agent: "How much do you want to spend on a house?"

Me: " $199.95 but I am pretty sure I might go over budget"

[Thequeerone]

Mp3 player - from shop $50-$300 Ebay $23 also radio also voice recorder - remember Happy in the pub the other night etc...
Mp4 player - 2GB memory - plays music - plays DVDs/video whatever they call it now - touch screen etc.. voice record - memory slots for more memory - USB connection for quicker file transfer - Ebay $40-$60
Apple Ipod 80GB Ebay $320 plus in the shops $500

[.X.]

Definately go the Apple iPod 80Gig (20,000 songs) or the big Apple iPod 160Gig (40,000 songs)

This will allow you to play a bucketload of music, movies and store other items - with some secondry programs downloaded (99% of which are free).

the versatility and the ease of use of both the iPod and the iTunes program is something that I can't help but rave about.

Some will say that there are other "mp3" players that have better features or cheaper then the iPod, and in some cases they are right. but there is a reason why Apple has the lions share of the market.

for someone that might not have a lot of confidence in how to work a product, you need something that is easy to use, that's the iPod.

The good (some might say bad) thing about Apple products is that once the price is set if you buy from an Apple dealer that is the price - there is no discount or premium price somewhere

so - if the Tom Price corner store is an Authorised Apple Dealer - then its the same price as the main store in Sydney/Brisbane/Perth etc.

[GIGS20]

I agree with Exile on every point but one....the reason iPod is the market leader has nothing to do with it's ease of use or versatility or any other crap like that, it's all about them having a cool ad which makes 13 year olds think this is the only thing to have.

I'm not saying an iPod is bad, but I don't use one, I hate iTunes and I hate the proprietary .AAC format that it uses. If'n you're thinking iPod, do yourself a favour and download iTunes first, Rip a couple of cds using it, Troll around the iTunes Music store, seriously, if you don't like the way this software works, save your hard earned and get a basic everyday mp3 player with whatever features you want. The method for getting music and putting it on your machine is the real difference between an iPod and any decent mp3 player.

Oh and before anyone talks sound quality, don't bother, upgrade the headphones, they're usually 99.9% of the issue (unless of course it isn't loud enough)

ps the reason I don't like apple's music format is the pain I have to go to to import it into Flash, Premiere and other multimedia apps.

[Burgs]

ooh, techo nerds at forty paces

Just downloading iTunes now so will be able to get a bit of a look before heading down on Thursday.

[LarryNJ]

What happened to your psp?

You don't mention how much music/pictures you want to carry. If it's not 20,000 you may want to stay way from the hard drive models. They are more likely to break because of moving parts. The smaller flash drive 2,4 or 8G models will take more of a beating and keep on workIng.

If you get an ipod get the newest generation. My daughter has a 80g ipod, my son has a 8g ipod nano, it's much smaller & less expensive. They both like them. My wife has a 30g Microsoft Zune and she loves it. I'm not as big of a music fan so I simply carry a few albums on my phone.

[Em-Forcer]

I have a Creative Zen MP3 player. Mostly cos it has good sound quality and the battery is replaceable. With the ipods, the battery's built in so when it's reached the end of its lifetime, so has your player. (S'pose as long as you also have all your songs stored elsewhere, you can buy a new model and re-download...?)

It all moves so quickly, the Creatives are already smaller and have more memory than when I bought... (but I don't know if the battery is still removable...).

[jazza93]

well it depends on how cool you want to be.

ipods and anything with a stupid amount of space seem to be the thing to have. if you can fit 10 000s of songs on it then you should be happy.

i just use a creative mp3 and its qucik and easy to use. i am going to get an mp4 next they look good.

[Burgs]

I can assure you that I am the coolest kid within a 50km radius....

Thanks everyone, once again I think I may be more confused than before I asked but at least some of the lingo is starting to make sense now.
Keep firing away.

[Darren]

take your walkman

[Burgs]

The Walkman is long dead, as are most of those funky tapes of the era!

[Em-Forcer]

Aaaw - that's a shame... nothing like a few 80s compilations to take you back!
I've resurrected my tapes lately, and loving them. Now I just need to get a USB tape deck so I can upload them all...
Soooo time-consuming...
Started scanning in some old photos yesterday - man, that's going to take ages! Worth it, though. Not least because it will transform some of the best ammo I have on my brother into electronic form. So he'd better watch out the next time he calls me 'old lady'!