iPod (and other Apple devices)

[Heidi]

Not a question just a comment. Every time I add a WMA audiobook to my Ipod Touch (which of course means you have to use Itunes) it makes me really appreciate the simplicity of my little sansa clip! Why is it so much easier to transfer WMA books onto a device that is nearly $175 less???

[Tomerobber]

Probably because you have to remember that the iTouch can do so many other things than just play music or audiobooks . . .

[Scott S.]

I have such an endless list of problems with Apple and Itunes. The biggest technical problems being that their proprietary format does nothing to stop piracy, but does plenty to irritate legitimate customers. Granted, that can be said of most companies' DRM. Itunes is a bloated cow that hogs resources and installs much more than is actually needed.

I can say nothing good of Apple. Yet, being the household geek I am forced to deal with them for the sake of maintaining ipods & iphones.

[Tomerobber]

Well, you are allowed your opinion . . . I just don't happen to agree with it.

[Kristie]

I've used both Apple and Sansa products for our family's audiobook listening. I am not invested in the Apple v. others arguments (other than my "IT guy," AKA my husband, is not a fan of Apple), but I will say that my son's Sansa Clip+ crapped out within a month, and I've never, ever had a problem with the Nanos I've owned that a hard reset didn't fix.

I've moved on from MP3 players to using apps on my Android phone for listening to audiobooks (Audible and Smart AudioBook). Love it!

[Heidi]

I listen to most of my books through Overdrive and they are almost all WMA format so my apps don't work with them :(

[Heidi]

Tomerobber wrote: "Probably because you have to remember that the iTouch can do so many other things than just play music or audiobooks . . ."

Yes true but itunes is soooooooooooooooooooooo slow importing things and really need not be when the actual touch is lightening fast in general

[Mirkat]

I'm afraid I probably already know the answer to my question, but I am hoping to be wrong. I don't own any Apple devices, but I was given an iTunes gift card. I successfully created an account and credited the gift card to it. I have the iTunes player installed on my PC (running Windows 7). But without having an iPod or an iAnything, am I tethered to my computer for anything that I download from iTunes? Or is there a way to format their audio files to work on a plain-vanilla mp3 player?

[Scott S.]

It's a hassle, but you could burn your songs to disc from itunes and then rip them to .mp3 format.

There is software that could convert them, but I wouldn't buy it for this particular problem, unless you foresee it being a regular occurrence.

[Mirkat]

Okay, thanks, J.--good to know! :)

[Shannon]

OK, I know this has been asked in different ways but I have an iphone4 and I use overdrive to get audiobooks from my library. I load them onto overdrive on my computer. Hook the iphone to the computer and transfer but only a portion of the book transfers. If often skips 2 or 3 parts and not necessarily in a row. If I then go back and reload just those parts they show up in my iphone in a different folder and I suspect that I won't be able to listen to the book straight through. What can I do? Thanks (was happening even when everything (overdrive and iphone and itunes) were up to date)

[Leslie]

Shannon wrote: "OK, I know this has been asked in different ways but I have an iphone4 and I use overdrive to get audiobooks from my library. I load them onto overdrive on my computer. Hook the iphone to the compu..."

Can you just download directly into the Overdrive app on your phone rather than going through the computer?

[[deleted user]]

You don't want to use the OD app? Because that would be my suggestion. Otherwise, I'm clueless *blushes*

[[deleted user]]

Great minds think alike :)

[Shannon]

I will give the app a go. I am not very app oriented. I had thought earlier that the computer was the easier route but perhaps whatever was the issue before has been cleared up. Thanks you guys.

[Ann]

I downloaded an Overdrive library audio of Dark Places directly to my iPhone this weekend and am finding the app pretty easy to use. I was a little nervous about losing my place when I take a break from listening on the commute, but so far it is holding my place right where I left off and the controls are easy to use. I didn't go through my computer with the download.

[Shannon]

Thanks for the reminder. I will have to give the app a try. (Or get my son to figure it out for me - I am now of that age where I cannot keep up with technology - didn't see it coming).

[Lisa]

I need help!! I have always downloaded WMA format audiobooks from my library using Overdrive to my Iphone 5. For some reason in the past couple weeks I can't seem to download all the part of a WMA formatted audiobook. However, MP3 format works fine. I have download about 4 books and I can't get all parts. I re-transfer the parts after deleting. Nothing is working. I've also been emailing with the library and they don't seem know either. Does anyone have any ideas what the problem could be?

[[deleted user]]

Audiobook Builder is a great app that I use. I get the book from the library, rip the tracks(joined) to my Mac and build the book, it bookmarks it and everything :)

[Dorie - Cats&Books :)]

I use Overdrive all of the time, I usually listen on my ipod or sansa fuze. I just got an i phone, does Overdrive work with that? I thought you could only download things from i tunes on Mac devices?

[Lisa]

Dorie wrote: "I use Overdrive all of the time, I usually listen on my ipod or sansa fuze. I just got an i phone, does Overdrive work with that? I thought you could only download things from i tunes on Mac devices?"

I have always been able to download from my PC to my Iphone 5 and get WMA formatted audiobooks on my phone up until recently. For some reason I can't get all parts downloaded these days. I wish someone could help me figure this out.

If the audiobook is an MP3 format and you download from a Mac or PC you can download without a problem to your Iphone.

[Susan]

I have an iPod classic, have had it for years and years and love it. Of my many toys this is the one that I use for hours every day and that throws me into a state of total panic if it's not working right. My question is this: is it worth upgrading to an iPod Touch? I'm quite attracted to the bluetooth function, so I don't have to have wired headphones, but aside from this, does the Touch offer anything else unmissable? I use the iPod principally for listening to audiobooks. Thoughts and advice please. Thank you.

[Kristie]

Susan wrote: "I have an iPod classic, have had it for years and years and love it. Of my many toys this is the one that I use for hours every day and that throws me into a state of total panic if it's not worki..."

I used iPod nanos for awhile. My husband has a classic, but neither of us has had a touch. In other words, others might have more up-to-date insight than I do. :)

From my limited research (having considered a similar move as you a couple years ago), what you'd gain from a touch is the bluetooth function, the "smart phone" functions where you can have games and apps (including Audible or other audiobook apps), wi-fi which will give you wireless connection to iTunes and use of Audible and other apps, and a smaller, lighter device to carry around. If you already have a smartphone, a touch might be pretty redundant, as you could have all those things on a smart phone.

What you'd lose in the move to a touch is storage capacity, as the classic has way more than a touch would. My husband loves his classic. He loves to carry around every CD we have. I myself don't need to have with me the Jock Jams CD he stole from his brother in high school. :)

I decided when I was looking that it wouldn't be worth moving to a touch or a classic from the nano I was using. I now have a smartphone (Android), and I use the Audible app and the SmartAudiobook app for non-Audible books. I no longer use my iPod at all.

Hope this helps.

[Robin P]

I am very happy with a basic iPod, I have the tiny square nano, and my only complaint is it's so small I keep losing track of it. (I have partially solved this problem by knitting a hot pink "sock" for it). I use this for audiobooks and music and there's plenty of storage for my needs. It's possible that there's some way to arrange wireless listening even on the older models, maybe some other kind of interface is needed.

The touch models would make sense if you want to use them for internet, video, pictures, etc. Or if it's important for you to see nice visuals of the albums, for me they are all too small to see anyway with my aging eyes!

[David]

What do people think of the audio quality of Apple products? (Please only answer if you have done direct comparisons with non-Apple players.)

[Kristie]

David wrote: "What do people think of the audio quality of Apple products? (Please only answer if you have done direct comparisons with non-Apple players.)"

Here has been my experience with Apple players, David.
- My husband has the first "classic" iPod (from 2005, before they were called classic). Still works great with daily use, though the battery isn't quite what it used to be.
- I had one of the first colored iPod minis. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but well over 8 years.
- I had a 3rd generation nano (2007) and a 5th generation nano (2009). Both still work perfectly with fairly regular use. Only reason I bought the 5th gen is I wanted the built-in pedometer and increased memory.

I can't speak to the durability of the touch or nanos with touch screens, but the quality of the click wheel technology is top-notch. By comparison, I bought my son an inexpensive Sansa Clip a few years ago, and it lasted about two months. (I know that others have had a good experience with theirs.) He now uses my 3rd gen nano.

The only reason I switched to using my phone is to just have one device with me, plus I love the ability to use bluetooth headphones. The other downside of Apple products is the need to use the iTunes interface.

Hope this helps.

[David]

Kristie,
What about the audio quality? The iPod Touch and iPhone 4S that I've listened to have a low-quality, distorted sound, compared to the several mp3 players that I have used (including the Sansa Clip plus). But this is only my anecdotal experience. Other people may have had other experiences. Do you have opinions on that?
--David

[Kristie]

David wrote: "Kristie,
What about the audio quality? The iPod Touch and iPhone 4S that I've listened to have a low-quality, distorted sound, compared to the several mp3 players that I have used (including the Sa..."

I guess I don't have much opinion on the sound quality. With audiobooks I tend to listen on faster playback speed, so don't pay much attention to the sound itself. None will be as good as CD, I'm guessing. Sorry...

[Susan]

Thanks to Kristie and Robin, who helped me make my mind up - and saved me money too! Decided to stick with my much loved Classic.

[Maureen]

Lisa wrote: "Dorie wrote: "I use Overdrive all of the time, I usually listen on my ipod or sansa fuze. I just got an i phone, does Overdrive work with that? I thought you could only download things from i tunes..."

Lisa - I had this happen to me and I believe it has to so with the remaining storage on your phone. When I was close to using all my storage this began to happen. I tried to delete unwanted items on my phone but I could never make a big enough dent to alleviate the problem. So I download each part separately and that seems to work best. Hope that helps.

[Lisa]

Maureen wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Dorie wrote: "I use Overdrive all of the time, I usually listen on my ipod or sansa fuze. I just got an i phone, does Overdrive work with that? I thought you could only download things..."

I will try to download 1 part at a time next time. I don't think it's the storage at this point. I could be wrong though.

[Sandy]

I'm putting in a good word for ipod nanos (full size versions, not mini versions that I always thought I would lose immediately). I have a 4th generation with a click wheel that I have owned and used 5-10 hours daily since the 5th gen came out - love it, any problems have always been solved by a reset, takes WMA format from Overdrive (using a pc). I use it almost exclusively for audiobooks and podcasts so don't know about sound quality. As long as the audiobooks are filed as audiobooks (physical CD versions end up in music) I can listen at the faster speed. And has the sleep/timer feature. I also have a 7th generation nano with touch screen control that I use less often - I find touch screen harder to use. It has an FM radio that I wanted and someday I have hopes of moving to Bluetooth.

[Cherie]

David wrote: "Kristie,
What about the audio quality? The iPod Touch and iPhone 4S that I've listened to have a low-quality, distorted sound, compared to the several mp3 players that I have used (including the Sa..."

David,
I bought my daughter an iPod touch and I also have one. We were talking about the sound one day, and I let her listen to a clip on mine. She was so amazed at the difference in the sound. Hers was NOT good and we had the same iPod. She took hers into the store and they told her something was wrong with the speaker and replaced the iPod. Just like that.

I listen to mine using the blue tooth speaker when I am at home, because it is louder than just the iPod and if I'm doing chores and moving from room to room, it is SO convient to just walk around with the speaker and leave the iPod in the kitchen (which is central in my house). If I am going to be pretty stationary, I listen with the speaker plugged in vs blue tooth, because it saves me from having to charge the speaker as much. In my car, I listen via the car speakers, and when I am walking outside, I listen to my iPod with ear buds. At night, when I am in bed, I use my iPod - no external speakers, just the iPod speaker to listen to music or an old familiar audio book as white noise to help me get to sleep because I can set the timer for how long I want to listen.

[Briar Rose]

Mirkat wrote: "I'm afraid I probably already know the answer to my question, but I am hoping to be wrong. I don't own any Apple devices, but I was given an iTunes gift card. I successfully created an account an..."

It depends what you buy. Music is DRM-free, so you can easily convert the m4a files to mp3. You can even do this in iTunes (just right-click on the song/s you want to convert and choose "Create mp3 version"). Video is protected, so it can only be watched on a device that has your iTunes account on it (your computer or an apple device). Audiobooks I'm not sure about because I've never bought audiobooks from them.

[Briar Rose]

Heidi *Listen. I'll just keep talking anyway. * wrote: "Not a question just a comment. Every time I add a WMA audiobook to my Ipod Touch (which of course means you have to use Itunes) it makes me really appreciate the simplicity of my little sansa clip..."

Because WMA is a proprietary format that belongs to Microsoft. They don't let Apple use it, generally. Blame Overdrive for using a proprietary format instead instead of a free one like mp3 or FLAC.

[Briar Rose]

Susan wrote: "I have an iPod classic, have had it for years and years and love it. Of my many toys this is the one that I use for hours every day and that throws me into a state of total panic if it's not worki..."

I have an iPod Touch 4th gen and it's really useful for audiobooks. I use the Overdrive and the OneClickDigital apps which make it easy to download audiobooks straight to the device without going through the computer. I use a podcast app to download podcasts straight to my device.

Its Bluetooth function is excellent - it just works with no problems, unlike the Android devices I've tried.

It has some little annoyances. You can't set the bluetooth function to sleep which means my speaker stays on all night. You can't easily turn wi-fi on and off - although this is fixed in iOS 7. You can't use any web browser except Safari. I've jailbroken my device to get around these restrictions.

As for audio quality - on headphones it's really good. But the little loudspeaker sucks compared to my old Creative Zen X-Fi, which could fill a room with crystal clear sound and a decent amount of bass. So I use a bluetooth speaker or headphones most of the time.

[Leslie]

Yesterday my iPod Touch (2nd gen) suddenly lost all my audio content -- all my music as well as all my audiobooks. I was just starting up a podcast when suddenly, poof! All gone. I tried powering down and restarting but that didn't help. I have a lot of albums on there that have since been lost or given away so I am really hoping that someone will have some idea about how to get my content back...

[Leslie]

Julie wrote: "don't they have a backup online in your account at the apple site, or isn't there some sort of cloud type thing on it ? Mine has a cloud, but I am clueless how to use it . ..."

Worth checking out -- thanks Julie! I think the iCloud idea is newer than my device but maybe there is some similar online backup.

[Marilee]

Did you load your iPod via iTunes? If so, everything should be there for re-loading, or at least on your computer in a downloads file, if you loaded material there to transfer to your iPod.

While some people don't like to use iTunes, I find it's a convenient and easy pathway to feed my iPod… and everything is archived there should my gadget go missing or is on the fritz or I've obtained a new one.

[Frances]

I have also just had problems with my ipod touch ( 3rd Gen I think) but only the audible app, as it cannot be updated to the new audible app . I accidently logged out and lost all my current audible library , now I can not log in anymore . It just says that the email or code is wrong , which it is not . Anyone else had these problems with the older devices ?

[Leslie]

Marilee wrote: "Did you load your iPod via iTunes? If so, everything should be there for re-loading, or at least on your computer in a downloads file, if you loaded material there to transfer to your iPod.

While..."

I did load via iTunes, but I didn't have the storage capacity to keep ~30 Gb of music & audiobooks on my computer so the files aren't all there. And sadly, as I mentioned earlier, some of my CDs have been lost since then so I can't reload them :(

Most I can reload but it took me several weeks to load all that music and I don't have the energy right now to do it again...

[Marilee]

Leslie… so sorry! But I have one other suggestion… if you have an Apple store anywhere near you, take your device in and see if they can somehow recover your content. There's a slim possibility the memory is not empty… that there are problems with accessing. Also, sometimes, the Apple Cloud [you may not even know it's there] has kept your stuff stored via iTunes…

I'm just guessing on some of this, but at the very least, contact Apple Customer service and tell them what happened to your iPod. It's worth a try, at least.

… obviously it's a good idea to back up all your content periodically onto a portable memory device, thumb drive or into a Cloud service, especially if you're not going to keep the books and music on your computer. They're not expensive.

[Robin P]

Julie wrote: "This may have been answered previously in all the oats in this area , but I was talking to the sales guy at the store the other day about iPods.
The way it sounds , they release a new one about ev..."

If you just listen to music or audiobooks it doesn't matter. I have a 5th gen nano that they don't make anymore, it's the little tiny square. It never asks me to update anything,the way my iPad and IPhone do (yes, I'm all Apple, my son is even a "Genius" at an Apple store). It works perfectly, and my only issue is that it's so tiny that it's easy to lose. But if you use apps, it could be an issue. You should be able to google any question you have about Apple products and find information.

[Hunchback Jack]

Agree with Robin's answer. I have an old 4th gen nano from 2008 (!) that I still listen to audiobooks on. Apple have retained the ability to download music and audiobooks to all these old devices from new versions of iTunes.

Third party apps are a different story though. If you use non-Apple apps to listen to audiobooks, eventually the app developer may deprecate support for the version you're running, and your device may not support a newer version of the app.

This was a problem with the audible app a while ago, I think. Old versions of that app connected to a different service to access your account, and that service no longer exists. If your device didn't run a recent version of iOS, you couldn't upgrade to a working app.

(Note that you can still listen to audible books on old devices using iTunes and the standard Apple music app. It's just old audible apps that don't allow download from your library).

[Heidi]

I googled a work around for the 4th generation issue with the apps awhile back and didn't find much I could do unless I was super technically inclined (which I am not). To be honest I don't think I'll ever by another Touch after this app issue and also due to the fact that Apple doesn't allow you to replace the batteries like I can on my android phone to get a longer lasting battery (my touch battery is not the best). Oh well. I'll use this one until it dies!

[Robin P]

I never use the Audible app, I download everything to my computer and then I plug in my little iPod and put a few books on. When I'm done with those, I plug it in again and change books. It takes basically no time and I always know what I have. Even on my IPad or phone I do it the same way. I don't see any benefit to streaming or accessing them some other way. I guess I figure that since I bought the books (rather than borrowing from the library), I want to know they are in my possession! I don't usually have battery issues with the iPod because my car player charges it and it goes long enough for me when not in the car.

[Mara]

Glad to know I am not only one who.has issues with Apple.

My biggest issue with Apple once your iPod is about 2 1/2 yrs old it doesn't want to up date. Well, I can't afford a new iPod/iPad every 2 1/2 yrs.

[Heidi]

Mara wrote: "Glad to know I am not only one who.has issues with Apple.

My biggest issue with Apple once your iPod is about 2 1/2 yrs old it doesn't want to up date. Well, I can't afford a new iPod/iPad every 2..."

Yup. Agreed.

[Heidi]

Robin wrote: "I never use the Audible app, I download everything to my computer and then I plug in my little iPod and put a few books on. When I'm done with those, I plug it in again and change books. It takes b..."

You can download them onto your device via the app. I detest Itunes and prefer not to use it unless I have to be cause it is not very user friendly compared to things like windows media player IMO.

[tubemonkey]

Mara wrote: "Glad to know I am not only one who.has issues with Apple.

My biggest issue with Apple once your iPod is about 2 1/2 yrs old it doesn't want to up date. Well, I can't afford a new iPod/iPad every 2 1/2 yrs."

I used to have an iPod touch 4, but got rid of it over a year ago because of app compatibility. I never used iTunes and only downloaded free apps, so I wasn't wedded to iOS. That made to switch to Android very easy.

In place of the touch, I went with a no-contract Android phone. My current one is the LG Volt. I paid $30 for it last Black Friday and only use it for audiobooks and music. I never activated the phone part. It's essentially an Android version of the iPod touch, only far more functional. The OS will never upgrade with this phone and I really don't care. If I can get 2-3 years out of it before the old OS becomes a problem with newer apps, I'll be quite pleased. After all, I only paid $30 for it. Upgrading to a newer phone at those prices makes it quite painless to toss the old phone.

Just something to consider. I'm not trying to get anyone to switch to Android. But at $200, upgrading to a newer iPod isn't easy for most people to do. With Apple, there are no low cost options for a streaming device.