I am looking to buy my first I Pod. I really do not know much about them. I want to use it as I do my hourly walks each day. Any suggestions for a good one that will not cost me a arm and leg! Thanks TBB

Do you mean you want an Apple iPod or are you asking about MP3 players in general? The way you worded your question leads me to think you're interested in MP3 players in general.

If you want to use it for an activity, such as walking or excercise, you need a flash based player (as opposed to a hard-disk based player).

I strongly suggest an iPod Shuffle if you don't care about being able to choose songs (or podcasts) and just want to let them play as you walk. A 512mb iPod Shuffle goes for around $99 and will hold around 120 songs.

If you want more songs and the ability to pick songs/podcasts, you should look at the iPod Nano. It is also flash based, but it is more expensive. (Starting at $149).

You can buy them from Apple online or at an Apple retail store (if there is one in your area). Many other retail stores also sell iPods, for example, Best Buy and Target.

An advantage to iPods is that the iTunes software (free) makes it very easy to load songs to your player. It's also very easy to rip your own CDs to iTunes and then load them. You can purchase music from the iTunes store, and also have access to hundreds of podcasts (think of podcasts as on demand radio) that you can find through an iTunes search/browse feature.

Here's where you can find out more about iPods.

Some folks on BOL swear by other MP3 players, but for ease of use, dependability, and coolness, nothing even comes close to an iPod (in my humble opinion).

By the way, I own an iPod Shuffle that I use for walks and for listening to in the car and at work. When I get tired of my 120 songs, I just switch them out for a different set of songs.

+1 for Homestar's response. A co-worker of mine walks to work, and has a huge iTunes library on his home PC. He's been really happy with the Shuffle, and simply 'reloads' it every couple of weeks. For the money, it's the best option.

iPod Nanos ignite my "oooh shiny" reflex, but until my current iPod dies, I can't justify the expense.

Just be careful with the Nano, the finish on the front will scratch if you look at it wrong. That is the only knock on this otherwise awesome piece of technology. Nearly every single review I have read on the nano has this one concern, everything else is great about it.

I think you get more for your money with other brands of MP3 players. I bought mine a couple years ago when they were still kinda pricey. It's an iRiver iHP-120 -- big and clunky (looks kinda like an old transistor radio) but holds 6000 songs and works great.

Got my daughter a Creative Zen Micro for xmas. 5g and it only cost $179. It's been working great for her.

The best thing about the Ipod is Itunes. No other company I have seen has made software that works as seemlessly with the MP3 player as Itunes. I have had several different MP3 players of different types, and every single one came with software that was buggy, didn't load the songs into the player correctly, or would just plain crash my computer.

The nice thing about the iRiver is that your pc just recognizes it as another drive. You drag and drop your files onto the player right in Windows Explorer. Then you run a program that's on the player's drive that organizes its database by genre, artist, etc.

For playing on the pc, I keep my songs in a library in MusicMatch. My daughter also uses MusicMatch for syncing her player. A little non-intuitive at first, but worked fine after she got the hang of it.

Check out this beauty . I checked this out over at Sharper Image and it is a good looking player. I like that it has Mpeg-4 capabilities and can record from cable. Very cool.

Thanks everyone! I think the IPod Shuffle or Nano may be just what I need. I appreciate the info!

Ipod Nano 4 gig is on my wish list...

Gonna try Apple.com and see if they have a student discount or something...(I'm cheap)...

I was very tempted by the ipod nano when I got my player last month. I went for the 30gb ipod video player though. It was only fifty bucks more than the 6gb nano. I like having a lot more music on it and though it is hard drive based it loads the songs into flash memory before it plays, so I haven't had an issue with skipping.

Does anyone know if songs purchased on i-Tunes can only be copied to an i-Pod or cd a limited number of times? I didn’t bother to read the fine print.

Why would you pay for music anyway? Just use BearShare or Limewire. That's the way to go. Then your I.tunes will automatically transfer them over to it's format.

Thanks for the info. I like free music.

I’m so naïve, what else can I get free?

Movies...games...pretty much everything.

I got a lot of my music free just by going to the library and checking out CDs and ripping the songs to MP3s.

I agree with everything that has been said about the Ipods. I have a 40 gb Ipod, and love it, but no way is it practical for use while working out. In the past I used a smaller MP3 player that I strapped to my arm while working out, but it had the most uncomfortable ear buds and a small memory.

Something else to check out would be the Oakley Thump, if you are looking for something to use primarily for exercising. The Oakley Thump is a pair of Oakley shades with a built-in MP3 player, and telescoping ear buds attached to arms of the glasses. My wife bought me a pair for xmas and alove them, I never have to worry about the ear buds falling out. It also is recognized as a USB storage device, so all you have to do is drag and drop the songs.

Yes, get the Nano - I purchased one a few months ago - very impressive. comes with software that directly connects with the Ipod music store - get your favorite songs for 99 cents. Such a deal. Easy to download to the Ipod and sort for different uses.