Size isn't everything .........

jeez that's a relief............

Mrs_BD won an iPod Shuffle at a recent business trip. She's by no means a techno junkie but she loves it. Colt wrestled with the software a little basically because we are not an Apple family but once loaded this little player was impressive.

I wouldn't say it's great for man hands but it's sturdy, well thought out and the sound quality is great. I comes with a small USB docking station were everything is loaded through the headphone jack. If your interested in a great throw around music player, check it out!

We've got a friend who's husband is an avid jogger. She got him a Shuffle for Christmas as a stocking stuffer. Apparently there is a jogging monitor that can connect to it. It is sold in conjunction with Nike. I think it connects to some models of Nike shoes.

The first time I picked up a Shuffle I was amazed at how light they are. If you slip it into your pocket you don't feel it. And with the built in clip on the back you can easily clip it to your shirt or your waistband and it is light enough that it won't pull off. I know that I feel the 30gig iPod in my shirt pocket and sometimes consider it too big. I used a Nano prior to getting the iPod and also found it light and unobtrusive, but the Shuffle is like a feather in comparison.

Big Dog said:

Colt wrestled with the software a little basically because we are not an Apple family but once loaded this little player was impressive.

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Greg, I came back to this thread to ask one question but now I have another observation too. Since you use a Windows computer you should be using the Windows iTunes software to load the Shuffle!

Now here is my quesiton. Seems to me that I recall that the lovely Mrs BigDog is a fan of Zig Ziglar and I listen to some of the free business podcasts from iTunes. One of those that I auto-download weekly is the podcast from Zig Ziglar. But I've recently heard that the Shuffle will not auto-load podcasts . . . but I heard that from an Apple user.

Has Mrs BigDog tried to download any of the business related podcasts and then load them into her Shuffle? If it has been a problem, then I was told there are ways to load podcasts (manually) into the Shuffle (at least for Apple users).

Can somebody provide a brief (50 word) explanation how to use Windows iTunes software to load the ipod from your own cd's?

Christmas Day I got designated to help a little niece get her tunes into a new Ipod. I must have spent an hour finding iTunes via Google then installing it onto the pc of another relative we were visiting. It went out and started to load every jpeg it could find on that pc, to the kid's dismay. Then all it wanted to do was sell us music that the kid didn't want.

What don't I know?

The kid said the ipod arrived in a simple transparent box unacompanied by any setup cd.

I use iTunes on 2 Apple computers, but I helped set up 2 Windows computers with iTunes so I might be a little bit of help.

Google "iTunes for Windows" and download the software from the Apple site. Once installed, you load a CD into your drive. From iTunes you should find a way to "import" the music, it will ask a source. You then select your CD drive. There may be a way to make this a default action, but I don't know that for sure.

I did not help set up iTunes on my brother's computer. His daughter has 14 songs on her Shuffle. She cannot load anymore. He cannot load anymore. He started working on it and things got worse so I duct taped his disk drive closed and told him to buy an Apple.

B_Skurka said:

... From iTunes you should find a way to "import" the music, it will ask a source. You then select your CD drive.

I did not help set up iTunes on my brother's computer. His daughter has 14 songs on her Shuffle. She cannot load anymore. He cannot load anymore.

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I think that's where we left off with the kid's ipod. It appeared that it had to complete all the loading that was pre-programmed into it before we would be allowed any control over it. The hour was late, we all gave up and went our separate ways. I haven't heard back that I killed her ipod so I suppose somebody figured it out.

He started working on it and things got worse so I duct taped his disk drive closed and told him to buy an Apple.

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Sounds like the tech support staff where I used to work. "If you had only bought an Apple we could help you". "But you won't allow us budget authority to buy anything from Apple". "Tough luck - if you didn't buy an Apple you're on your own. We only support Apple."

Worst case was when they bought a huge central-office sized laser printer then discovered they didn't want it so they shipped it to us in place of the suitably-sized one I had ordered. Then they told us that had eaten our entire IT budget for the year so they wouldn't approve any more purchases. Tell the field auditors to share a laptop when they are visiting different destinations! Your Tax Dollars At Work.

Bob thanks for the comments. I guess I just don't think the Apple Way.

Well for whatever it is worth, the iTunes seems to work well here at my office which is 99% Windows. We now use iPods as training devices and the managers who load them with training information all use Windows OS systems. It can't be that hard!

B_Skurka said:

The first time I picked up a Shuffle I was amazed at how light they are. If you slip it into your pocket you don't feel it.

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Bob ,
A word of advice ....

If they catch you slip it in your pocket without paying for it , you will feel it "Big Time". If you do end up in the "hoose cow" overnight ,because of this ,the best thing to have is "soap on a rope"