THE COMPLETE IPOD BUYERS GUIDE

" For beginner up to the most experienced ipod buyer! "

This guide is designed to help you make the correct decision when buying an ipod.
There are so many choices and different combinations of memory, screen size and styles, that
its easy to get confused.

I have owned and purchased many ipods; 3 through ebay. I have owned 5 Ipod video's alone!
I'll explain why a bit later :)

First of all the question you always need to ask yourself before you buy anything is
- "will it add value to me?"
This is an important question to take seriously, simply because if the ipod won't add significant value to you
then it should ring warning bells, this has become an impulse/emotional purchase.
If you don't have much expendable income then its not wise to purchase under these conditions.

However if you think it will add value to your life, then read on.
Now its important to understand "what will i use the ipod for?"
Typically ipods have less features than other mp3 players on the market
They do not include an FM radio or a voice recorder.
These features are availiable however for the ipod, as accessories that plug into the
ipod unit, and can cost from $AU15 - $AU50 depending on the brand ( ie: apple accessories = $$$ )

The primary uses for ipods are as follows

Listening during everyday life
Using while in transit air/bike/car/walk
Using while excersising gym/jogging etc.
Listening to it at home through a home entertainement system. (speakers)
Using to listen to free podcasts, audiobooks and lectures.
Using as a mass storage device
To centralise a large mp3 collection

quick fact : Ipods will not make you exercise more often, it will just make it more enjoyable.


Not all ipods are made the same!

If you want to use the ipod to keep you motivated during excersise just keep in mind
that many ipods have moving parts in them, known as hardrives. This is the spinning disc where all
the songs are stored. If you are jogging or similar, you run a risk of corrupting if not killing the ipod.

The way to combat this problem is to narrow your search to the "flash memory" ipods, such as the
Ipod Nano, and Ipod shuffle range. Flash memory is the same as those memory cards you use in
digital cameras, there are no moving parts and therefore no risk of track skipping or corrupt memory!

what have we learnt :  flash memory = good for exercise, and takes less space / no moving parts.
                                  Hard drive memory = good for large mp3 library's

Ipod batteries last about 1 year!

Ipod internal batteries tend to reduce by up to 60% of its full capacity after about a year
the chemicals in the battery tend to break down quite quickly after a year. Ironically the
apple ipod warranty only lasts 1 year.

This is a relatively well known fact of past users of ipods. Its an inescapable fact with high performance
batteries, the harder the battery works - bright screens, random length charge cycles, and high intensity use of mp3/video listening.

There are many ways to combat this problem, first way is to ensure you charge the ipod for the full 3 hours
to achieve 100% capacity charge every time you charge it, and then let it drain to 0% with your usage.
The full dead to full charge pattern tends to keep the battery life to its maximum. This method is recommended for all rechargeable types of batteries.

Another way is to simply sell and upgrade/replace your ipod after the 1 year period.
This is a novel way to get the most out of your ipod experience for many reasons.
The ipod can generally maintain its value for 1 year with minimal depreciation since it is
a high demand item. 1 year of use will generally leave the ipod in an excellent condition if it
has been used in a silicone case or with a scratch protection film over the screen.
You can possibly get upto 80% of the value of your ipod after 1 year on ebay, this is generally enough
to purchase another ipod, and is the cheapest way to upgrade. Its the same principle as trading in your
car to offset the value of the new one!

Apple service centre ( apple shops ) have a service to replace the battery for a fee of around $AU80
This is a reliable service however the product turn around time is slow.
There are several independent business' which do the same service but instead of an official battery, you
can actually get a cheaper third party battery which containts 120% of the life of the original battery.
Im not sure of the cost, but i know its cheaper than the apple service. This will void your warranty -
however it takes generally a year to kill the battery so this is not normally a problem.

What have we learnt :
                                ipod service centre = expensive, reliable, slow
                                Battery replacement = large capacity, cheap, voids 1 year warranty
                                Improve your charge cycles = free to do, easy, may be annoying for some users.\
                                Car trade in method  = involves selling, cheapest way to upgrade, avoids battery issue.

Now which ipod do i want ?

Basically the decision is based upon whats is most important to you.

In my experience reliability is the number one issue! nobody wants to pay for an item
which will die in their hands! Ipods have been clouded with speculation of their break down rate.
This is easily explained however and is mostly nothing to worry about. The ipod takes up a MASSIVE
60% of all the market share of ipods in the worldwide mp3 player market. This is nothing short of massive.
Naturally with such a large amount of ipods, the reported cases for errors and problems will be much larger
than any other mp3 player. This is expected. it also means there is plenty of advice and help for any issue you may come across. A quick google search can answer almost any problem you have with your ipod!

ipods which harbour the best reliability are the flash based players to begin with, since there are no moving
parts. This eliminates hard drive corrupt problems.

Most reliable ipod selection

These all have flash memory, and are in price order.
the higher the price the larger the memory and better features
such as no screen / colour screen
and the whether it can/can't play videos.

The ipod shuffle  - generation 1     512mb /1gb / 2gb
The ipod shuffle  - generation 2                 /1gb / 2gb
The Ipod Nano   - generation 1                 /1gb / 2gb / 4gb / 8gb
The Ipod Nano   - generation 2                                   4gb / 8gb

A closer look at Ipod Capacity

The next aspect of importance when buying an ipod is
capacity, this simply means - how much memory the ipod has.
Memory allows the ipod to store more MP3's.

Ipods come in capacity from 512mb - 160gb
just to show you how critical this is

512mb = 120 songs
160gb = 40,000 songs
Typically 1gigabyte of memory can store 240 mp3's
at an average of 4mins per song.

Of course there are many options within these ranges,
however its important to note the comparison.

Which size is for you?

well a quick way to answer this, is to get the total amount of mp3's you have and get the closest or next size
up. so if you have 1500 songs, look for an ipod with space for 1500+ songs, ( eg an 8gb ipod Nano 3gen )
Think into the future, how many more many more mp3's do you intend to add to your collection within the next year? this will help you decide. A dj with a 30gb collection may choose an 80gb ipod video since they may intend to dramatically increase their music library within the foreseeable future, this will avoid disappointment the dj tries to add more songs and gets the "i pod is at full capacity" error message.

Something many people overlook is their capacity to get more music! for example, if you home computer
can only hold 40gb of space, then it makes no sense to get an ipod with anything higher since you run the risk of losing all your music that exceeds 40gb if you were to lose, drop or get your ipod stolen.

Another factor is the speed of your computer downloads, if you can download at 1.5mbps then you
may choose for a medium size ipod 8gb - 60gb. Whereas if you have dialup you may choose for a
low capacity ipod such with 512mb - 8gb memory. If you have 1.5mbps+ or cable/adsl2+ you may
choose anything above 30gb since you could likely fill this space up within a short period of time,
assuming you download music regularly.

Older ipods and second hand ipods ?

This is an area that i don't reccomend for first time ipod buyers!
since you can make mistakes that previous ipod users will not.
Buying second hand electronic goods is always a problem area since
you have little idea of how the ipod was treated, and what damage has
really been done - especially internally!
If your lucky you will know how old the ipod is with a docket of proof,
and maybe it is still under warranty, however in most cases ipods will
be much older than 1 year and therefore have no ipod warranty cover.

A positive note about buying second hand is that you may pick up an amazing
deal! for example, i purchased an ipod video through ebay for $300 in early 2007
when the average selling rate was on average $380 for second hand ipod video's
This ipod lasted well, and i eventually sold it to upgrade.

Ipods have been around for a long time - technologically speaking. and therefore the
array of ipods is vast, be sure to check the model you are thinking about buying and
find out how old it is. The first generation ipods which came out some 5-6 years ago
may still work, however are likely to not last much longer, as hardware naturally will
not last forever and hi tech electronics typically have short life spans of 1-5 years.

Make sure you are prepared to take upon all of the risk before
 buying second hand ipods.


To be continued...

    i will add further sections soon, just send me a kind email about what you would like
    more information on and i will add it as quickly as possible