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I have i-pods and love them
you could download i-tunes and look around
look in the store
most songs are 99 cents you can buy videos
you can get free podcasts and now you can get free lectures from over 40 universities and colleges
you can buy things to hook your i-pod up to so it plays without using earphones like a radio
read about the different i-pods and pick the one you like the most
you can also put music from your cd collection on them

I've had an iPod for a couple of years and I haven't bought anything from iTunes yet. You can put music from your own CDs on them or put free podcasts on them. My husband and my son watch some video podcasts. My Husband has an iPod Nano and my son has a Zune (made by Microsoft). I'm not that interested in video, so I have a hand-me-down Nano that used to be my husband's (the early ones couldn't do video) and a Shuffle. There are other companies that make MP3 and video players too.

Recently, I won an iPod Touch in a contest. It's like an iPhone but without the phone and the camera. I have mainly been using it to access the web, though I can't always get a wi-fi connection when I want to use it. I haven't decided yet whether I will keep it or let my son or husband have it. I would like it better if it had a camera.

An iPOD is like a huge jukebox on steroids!

Just ask your kids to load it with music, tell them what you want either by artist or song title. They know how to do it and enjoy doing it and they would love to do it for you. Then you can load all of your digital pictures or start taking digital pictures and load them on the iPOD, too.

Your kids are right! But to fully appreciate your iPod, be sure to get a docking station for home and a connector so you can listen to your iPod via your car stereo. Enjoy!

My daughter got an IPOD two years ago from her mother in law for Christmas. It cost close to three hundred dollars. I believe that was because it had a few extras with it and it also has the capacity to hold a huge amount of mp3's. I think she said a thousand or more...sorry I can't remember.

An IPOD looks like a flatter version of a cell phone. Only it has a small screen that comes on and buttons that you can twist and turn to organize and access your music.

The one Crystal got uses ear jacks to listen. Has a stand with a rechargeable battery inside that you set the IPOD in for recharging it. You can also plug it in to your computer USB port to recharge it.

Her charge seems to last about a day. But I'm not sure how much of that she actuallly has it powered up. I just know she sets it on the charger beside her cell phone on its charger every night.

There is an adaptor that looks kind of like a cassette with a little wire that hooks up to the IPOD while your in the car. It plugs in to the cassette player. It connects the music from the IPOD directly to the car speakers and plays it. You can access any of the songs just like you would say the computer music on your Media Player. Choosing a playlist if you like to play continously or dialing in to the song you want manually.

The quality sound of MP3's is like being in a live concert. Much better than CDS. The wonderful thing about it is that you can download any cd you have on to your computer and then transfer them to the IPOD.

Or you can find music, free at limeware or other places on the net that you love and personalize your IPOD anytime you want. Load and unload whatever you enjoy most.

Last but not least, the IPOD is small, compact, travels well. You can take it with you jogging, or evne to the library while your studying and listen unobtrusively to your favorite tunes.

IPODS are expensive but durable, worth every penny in the end and not that hard to operate once you have the basics down. It beats carrying around a box of cds to get the same music at the touch of a dial.

Hope that helps a little... :)
Genteelsbelle

There are actually a few services out there that will do all of that for you, that way you don't have to hassle with all the tech stuff. :)

www.downloadvalet.com

There are many portable players that offer the same thing the iPods and Zunes offer without the problems that Apple imposes about who owns your music. I have several players from Sansa and Nokia. I even bought my wife an RCA Lyric. All of them allow me to freely move music from CDs *that I have purchased* to the player without worrying about how many times I moved it, or which computer it is on right now. We have about 8 computers and 5 players. The song I want may be on any one of them. Apple limits me to only having the song on a few devices at a time. If I want the Lemon Song on every Sansa device, no problem with the Sansa/RCA/Nokia players. I believe that once I pay for a CD, I should be able to listen to that music anywhere, as long as only one device at a time is playing it. With over 5000 songs on the various devices, there's a reasonable chance that the 2 of us would never do that.

Veering just a little off topic, if you like live performances, you might also want to check out the Live Music Archive at www.archive.org. Over 53000 concerts are available, so when you just GOTTA have the version of "Smell the Mitten" by Umphreys McGee at the Mishawaka Brewing Company back in August 2003, you know where to find it.