Alternative to iPod

[Jaynnus]

with a docking station, player station thingy?

I hate iPod and all the propriety crap with the music...

Is there something that also has an in-home dock that you can play the music in your home?

Why do my kids want expensive crap for Christmas??

[The Snowman]

Most of the docked items are made solely for the iPod family.

[Honclfibr]

My girlfriend and I have Zunes, she has the 8G mini and I have the 30G big one. Other than the general feeling that everything we own will eventually be purchased from either Microsoft or Walmart (or possibly, from Microsoft at Walmart) we like them better than iPods. There are accessories for the zune like docking stations though not as many as they ipod.

[Jaynnus]

i have a samsung mp3 player and i love it. it's the 4gig one and it was like $60 at bestbuy. pretty sleek looking and comes with games, rhapsody channels, pics, video, FM radio, and maybe some other stuff. I have only used it for mp3s though so far though. don't get any of those crappy docking station players. get an AUX stereo cable (now branded as an ipod cable for some reason) and just plug the handset into your home stereo. the cable is like 8 bucks at radioshack.

Thanks....but we are talking about a 12 year old kid that wants to play music in her room.

[ThisBitch]

I'm loyal to Creative Labs Zen products. They work like external hard drives, so they are drag and drop for easily loading music and being able to transfer from one PC to the other. As far as a docking station, just get a set of powered speakers. All of the ipod docking stations I've heard, save for the super expensive Bose one, have terrible sound quality. You're better off with a good set of powered speakers, which have a 1/8 plug and just plug into the headphone jack.

[Sheppo]

I'm loyal to Creative Labs Zen products. They work like external hard drives, so they are drag and drop for easily loading music and being able to transfer from one PC to the other. As far as a docking station, just get a set of powered speakers. All of the ipod docking stations I've heard, save for the super expensive Bose one, have terrible sound quality. You're better off with a good set of powered speakers, which have a 1/8 plug and just plug into the headphone jack.

+1

[TimmyB]

Walmart sells a 25$ "cd/digi fm/boombox" with an axillary input for mp3 players and such. My zune is playing through one right now.

[kamikaze]

My girlfriend and I have Zunes, she has the 8G mini and I have the 30G big one. Other than the general feeling that everything we own will eventually be purchased from either Microsoft or Walmart (or possibly, from Microsoft at Walmart) we like them better than iPods. There are accessories for the zune like docking stations though not as many as they ipod.

Isn't the propeireity stuff more difficult on Zune. I think you have to like hook it up to the net every 15 days or so.

[BCT748]

Isn't the propeireity stuff more difficult on Zune. I think you have to like hook it up to the net every 15 days or so.

I haven't had any problems with mine and every song on it came from limewire. It does connect itself every time I charge it on the computer but I haven't had any problems with it yet. The only thing that sucks about it is the crappy headset it comes with, I blew out the right speaker in the first couple days.

[Jaynnus]

I have an ipod but don't use any of the proprietary crap that they try to get you on. I get all of the benefits (accessories, integration, etc) and none of the bs. It's great!

Whats the secret?

I lost over 4k songs when my computer crashed and my iPod said..."Nope sorry bitch, this iPod don't match your computer..your fucked and you can't recover your music". Now I am a bitter ole' hag and I don't want to buy another apple product.

[BCT748]

I have an ipod but don't use any of the proprietary crap that they try to get you on. I get all of the benefits (accessories, integration, etc) and none of the bs. It's great!

But at the end of the day you still have a crappy Apple product :

[BCT748]

Whats the secret?

I lost over 4k songs when my computer crashed and my iPod said..."Nope sorry bitch, this iPod don't match your computer..your fucked and you can't recover your music". Now I am a bitter ole' hag and I don't want to buy another apple product.

By a Zune and you won't have that problem Everything on it is click and drag. After you DL the software you can hook up any Zune to your computer and take music off it or put it on it. Oh and the Zune can DL songs wireless from another Zune in the same room.

[The Snowman]

I still don't understand why everyone is so afraid of the iTunes software. I don't have a single issue with any of the 3 different models we have. The software is awesome.

Maybe it's Apple-envy you Microsoft-brainwashed people have.

[BCT748]

#1 don't use iTunes, the files are encrypted and license protected. Buy the cds and rip them to mp3, or find a legal mp3 download service to get open file formats without license protection that could tie it to your device.

#2 get something like Anapod Explorer from www.redchairsoftware.com (allows bi-directional sync so you can get stuff back off your ipod when you need to) or dopisp from http://www.mgtek.com/dopisp/. Both allow you to sync without iTunes. I prefer the second one because it fully integrates with WMP which as far as I'm concerned has the best library manager ever. Neither of these are free but to me it was well worth the investment.

I resisted the Apple marketing machine for a long time, but finally gave in because they were the only ones (at the time) that had a 60G mp3 player and I had about 50G of music back then. The fit and function are top notch and if you can get around iTunes it's a pretty good experience, imo.

What's the point of stealing music if you have to pay to put it on a MP3 player

[The Snowman]

I don't like that it doesn't have the 'monitor folders' feature that WMP has. I put music into the folder, and WMP finds it, catalogs it, and organizes it by folder/subfolder/filename based on artist/album/name format I specified. I'm a spaz for consistency.

I am too. I don't buy music from the iTunes store, so I don't have to worry about the AAC encryption for my music.

I also use Google to find the music that I don't buy and rip myself. That may be why I have a good time w/ iTunes. All of the music I have is either ripped CDs into 160kbps MP3 format (you have that option) or downloaded form a source other than the iTunes store.

Oh, there is another way to find music. Use Google:
-inurl: (htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "<BANDNAME/SONG>"

The only think I do not like abot iTunes is that sometimes, it puts CDs into the Compilations directory, instead of creating a new artist directory.

[The Snowman]

256k+ or die.

I really don't notice a difference and most people won't either in those POS ear buds you get w/ mp3 players.

[drop]

Whats the secret?

I lost over 4k songs when my computer crashed and my iPod said..."Nope sorry bitch, this iPod don't match your computer..your fucked and you can't recover your music". Now I am a bitter ole' hag and I don't want to buy another apple product.

there's a "transfer purchases from ipod" option that allows you to transfer your purchases back. this is useful in situations like yours, and also can be used to move purchased music from home to work or whatever.

here's how to get your purchased music onto a new installation of itunes:

launch itunes
sign into the itunes store using your existing user/pass combo
authorize the new installation of itunes (store menu -> authorize computer...)
connect ipod/iphone
select "transfer purchases from ipod" from the file menu.

on a side note...my brother had a drive failure & lost all his purchased music. he emailed apple & apple allowed him to re-download his entire purchase history for free. worth a shot!

[13]

I love my Zune 30. Also if your hard drive ever craps and you lose your music collection from you computer, you can recover it from the unit without any different programs. Legally downloaded on not.

AND! You can get a cool music playlist thing in your forum signatures for others to listen to your music if they'd like!

[The Snowman]

Also if your hard drive ever craps and you lose your music collection from you computer, you can recover it from the unit without any different programs. Legally downloaded on not.

I don't worry about this either. I just back everything up to a 500GB external.

[Manny]

I didnt read the whole thread, but how about an IPOD?

[The Snowman]

I didnt read the whole thread, but how about an IPOD?

Now you got it.

[OreoGaborio]

Now I am a bitter ole' hag

"NOW"?

[Punjistick]

http://tech.msn.com/guides/multimedi...4982&GT1=44010

[Brian675]

Did anyone mention Zune?

[Honclfibr]

Nope, you're the first