This is the ONLY thing my 11 y.o. son wants for Christmas.
Do they only come in one size and memory? Are they all 200.00? Jeez!
Where and how do you download the music?
Does anyone have one and are they durable enough for an 11 y.o.?
Any recommendations will help? Where to buy, etc?
Thanks so much,
Shelly

By Ginny~moderator on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 12:01 pm:

If you type IPOD in Google, and open the first site - the official Apple store - you will get information on sizes and price ranges.

Is anything durable enough for an 11 year old boy?

It is my understanding that you download the music off the internet, and it is generally not both free and legal. Can your ds pay for the music he wants to download?

By Luvn29 on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 12:11 pm:

Wal-mart has a smaller version that is cheaper. You can get the music free and "illegal" or for a small fee and "legal". You can join sites to do either. And you can either pay a small fee per song, or a monthly fee to download as much as you'd like.

By Debbie on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 12:36 pm:

I have an ipod shuffle. It was $100.00 at Target. It holds lots of songs. I want to say it holds 120 songs. It is very small, like the size of a pack of gum. It seems to be very durable. I would suggest getting him the sports case, I think it was about $20.00. It is a plastic case that it fits into which will protect it. You can either download music off of cd's or you can download it from sites like itunes. It is .99 a song at itunes. If you go onto the Apple website they have all the information on the different kinds.

By Kaye on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 01:45 pm:

I would consider buying an 11 year old a shuffle.

An Ipod is an electronic music player. Instead of playing CDs you play mp3. You can take all your current cds and load them to the computer and then play then on the ipod. They come in a variety of sizes. The smallest, for about 100 dollars is a shuffle, it has half a gig. It stores about 100=120 songs. It is small, has headphones, no screen, so you have to "thumb through" songs or let it random play "shuffle" the songs. They make a bigger memory shuffle , which is a full gig for about 130 dollars. The next ipod is the full screen ipods. The smallest, newest version of these is the Nano, it cost about 250 and has 3-4 gig. It has a screen so you can scroll through to play what you want. Next up is the full ipod, which is now ipod video. You can watch movies, tv shows and play music, it has 30-50 gig. It runs about 300 dollars.

Two ipods have been discontinued, the mini, which is comparable to the the Nano, but is larger in size (not memory). You can probably find one of these at a good price since they aren't making them anymore. Also they have regular ipods, which don't play the videos, black and white screen, etc.

The screens on these ipods are similar to a palm pilot, they are easy to break and expensive to repair (i broke my palm by having it in my purse). If you choose one of those ipods a CASE is a must, it helps some.

As far as cost, my dd takes her cd player and several cd's with her everywhere. We paid about 30 for her player, then 15 bucks each for about 4 cd's. So that is 90 dollars if she loses it or it gets stolen. That is about the cost of the shuffle, it is one thing to lose (and it is small), but it has a lanyard she can wear, or an armband can be purchased. We have one and love it, we have a playlist for each family member and we change it and all use the same one.

Hope this helps some.

By Karen~moderator on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 02:25 pm:

I bought Jen a 20 GB Ipod for Christmas at ABT Electronics online. I had it within a week. It was also about $80 cheaper than we could find it anywhere else and came with the charger, earphones and one other thing, can't remember offhand....

By Eve on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 02:29 pm:

I believe they will be discontinuing the shuffle, so I would get it soon. I love Itunes--I think it would be a great gift! Although, my mp3 player is not an Ipod. I think I paid $99 at Walmart and it holds several albums or audio books. I know mine is pretty durable. Happy Shopping.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 03:07 pm:

We have the newest iPod, that plays videos, songs and shows photos. DH bought the 30GB version of it. We are still looking for a case. He wanted that one, for having lots of tunes, for when we go on vacation next year, and for a place to download photos, so we can keep our memory cards more empty on our digital cameras. He already bought a cassette thingie, for listening to music in the car. I never realized that once you bought an iPod, that you would go crazy buying accessories for it.

You have some good ideas for an 11yo, though. I wish I had my own, but don't know if that will happen.

By Kaye on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 05:46 pm:

Eve, where did you hear about them discontinuing the shuffle? It is relatively new, that would suprise me!

By Annie2 on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 07:14 pm:

My dd got the ipod mini last Christmas. thank goodness I shelled out the $30. for a "replacement of product" certificate. We had to return it last month because the battery was not staying charged. Best Buy sent her a voucher worth the price that we paid for the store. Like a store credit. It took many times on the phone however to finally get the voucher in our hands.
They have since discontinued the ipod mini. She lost all of her downloaded music, too. About $60. worth!
She is going to get a digital camera instead, this time.

By Shellyg on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 12:32 pm:

Whoa, you guys are good! I think I am going to try to find the shuffle today. Price is much better. I also will be buying him the case.
Kaye, you are so right about the cd player. After you buy the cd's etc., you are shelling out more than the cost of the ipod. I really appreciate all the info!

By Eve on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 01:24 pm:

Kaye-I have no idea how new it is. (I don't own an Ipod) I just know I read something online, which could just be a rumor, that said they were possibly coming out with a new version of the shuffle which would be even smaller. So, they would discontinue the current shuffle. I also read somewhere that sales were not good on the shuffle as well. I read it on some Website. I think there is a macdailynew.com or something. Just something I ran across. HTH

By Kaye on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 05:35 pm:

I did some searching yesterday too eve. The shuffle is actually less that year old, but they came out with the nano, which is a shuffle with a screen. I guess the thoughts are the price on those will go down and people won't buy shuffles. I personally love it for my kids, it is nearly indestructable, I am sad to hear they may do away with it.

Annie sorry your dd lost her music. I keep all my on my comp, so unless my comp crashes I will be okay.