Should I Buy a New iPod or an Old One?

It's that time of year. Just in time for the holiday season, Apple has released new iPods. A new iPod Touch, iPod Nano and even a new iPod Shuffle have been announced, so inevitably the question comes up: Should I buy a new iPod or and older one? It honestly depends on several factors, but the main points we'll be looking at are changes, availability and price.

The new iPod family (from left to right) the Shuffle, Nano and Touch. Shiny, aren't they?

First of all, changes. Are the changes they've made really that big? For the Shuffle, no, but the Shuffle is so wonderfully simple that drastic changes to it are rare. For the Nano, yes, there are some major differences. For one thing, it's only 5.4 mm thick (or "5.4 mm thin" as Apple says) which is about .2 of an inch. That in addition to a larger touch screen and new colors make it a notable upgrade, but one I'd place in the "if you were already looking for a new MP3 player category." (Click here if you're not familiar with the difference between an MP3 player and an iPod.) Lastly, the new iPod Touch. Larger touch screen, colors, better camera and larger capacity make this a very tempting product indeed. As usual, the iPod Touch is Apple's "iPhone without the phone" and so it follows in the footsteps of the new iPhone 5 fairly closely.

Availability. Around the holidays many people consider getting MP3 players for their friends and family, and iPods are the most popular kind to get. That being said, Apple's timing for iPod releases is ingenious in that the new iPods will have high demand when they're released (as of today the Apple online store is estimating a 2 week waiting period) and once the new product rush is over the holiday rush begins. Unfortunately for us, that means that getting a new iPod in the color and capacity you want may be a bit challenging, especially if you pick a common combination like the 32GB silver iPod Touch. (If "32 GB" and "capacity" are confusing you, read this short article for a quick primer.) On the other hand, there are lots of people who have the previous version of the iPod who are itching to have the latest-and-greatest and so auction and sales websites like eBay and Craigslist will be flooded with iPods that are less than a year old and only one version behind.

The other nice thing about buying the previous generation iPod is that the price is much lower. Apple traditionally sells its older iPods online for a discount, but if you don't have your heart set on a brand-new device, buying a used one from the aforementioned sites can prove even cheaper and is a popular place to get an iPod for as little money as possible. (Buyer beware as always though when purchasing used electronics, especially from online sources.) Currently, Apple is advertising a $50 difference between two iPod Touches of the same capacity. That means that Apple thinks its upgrades are worth about $50. Do you agree? Have you ever purchased a previous generation iPod? Let me know in the comments section below what your experiences have been and if you plan on getting or skipping these new iPods.

(Don't forget to check us out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TechKNOWLEDGEyToday and Twitter at http://twitter.com/techKnowToday )

What is Syncing?

Let's say you have a computer and an MP3 player. (Click here if you don't know what an MP3 player is.) How do you get the songs you want from your computer onto the player? You sync them! What in the world does that mean? "Syncing" is short for "synchronizing," and it does just that; it synchronizes the information from two devices.

If two people are doing synchronized swimming, they're swimming in the exact same way. If two devices are synchronized, they have the same information on them. Lots of different devices can be synchronized: MP3 players, computers, smartphones and even more obscure concepts like "the cloud" can be synchronized with your information. If you're syncing something like a smartphone, you're often connecting it to your computer- either physically or wirelessly- and software on the computer walks you through the process of picking which things you'd like to sync. Here's an example of iTunes (a computer program) syncing an iPod (an MP3 player):

On the more obscure end, things like your bookmarks can be synced between devices using various methods. Bookmarks are website address you've saved so you can easily go back to the website without having to search or remember the address. It's like speed-dial for the Internet. Using a service like Google, you can have a bookmark created on your work computer appear on your home computer by syncing the two computers. See how this can be very handy? On the downside, if something gets messed up, you could also end up with doubles or triples of your items or worse yet, end up loosing the synced information entirely.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Before starting to sync information, make sure you have a backup of your information just in case one of those worse-case-scenarios happens. That way, if you botched syncing your address book from your phone to your computer and loose them all, you can go back to your backup and get them all over again.

What are Podcasts?

When people first get an MP3 player, (click here if you don't know what that is) they first ask the inevitable question "So now what?" I usually advise people to start with the music they already own, and after that they can buy music, audio books, movies, TV shows... but is there anything in this digital world you can listen to for free?

One of my favorite things to show people is the vast and eclectic world of podcasts. One reason is that podcasts are free! Yay, free stuff! The second is that you can find podcasts about just about any subject you're interested in. Gardening? Check. Cars? Check. Politics, games, parenting, nutrition, news, money. Check to all of those! Just looking for some light entertainment on your morning walk? Many radio shows like NPR also have their radio episodes available as free podcasts as well.

The third reason I enjoy showing people podcasts is because, once they become well versed with using their computer, they can make their own podcasts. Podcasts are not only free to make, but they can also be fairly inexpensive to distribute. There are a decent number of options for getting your podcast out to the world, more than I have time to list here, but they can range for free to expensive based on what you're looking to do.

Practical Tip of the Day:
In addition to all the types of podcasts I listed above, many colleges and universities are now recording their lectures or parts of their lectures and releasing them for free in podcast form. Ever wondered what economics at Yale was like? You can download either a video or audio version of that class to listen to whenever you'd like. Podcasts are a great way to spend long commutes or vacation travel time!

What's the Difference Between MP3 Players and iPods?

There is none! I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say "I couldn't afford an iPod so I bought an MP3 player." That's like someone saying "I couldn't afford a Corvette, so I bought a car." So, what exactly are MP3 players?

MP3s are a type of file on your computer that is music. Remember when we talked about how computers remember things and how they only actually use ones and zeros? Well, computers can remember lots of things. You're probably already familiar with some of them. If you've ever kept a picture or a letter on your computer those are examples of "files" on your computer. Music is just another kind of thing a computer can remember.

A lot of people get overwhelmed at the idea of digital music and MP3 players, but it's really just another step in the evolution of music. There were vinyl records, then 8track tapes, then cassette tapes, then CDs, and now MP3s. With each step we fit more, higher quality, music into more portable forms. The modern MP3 player can fit hundreds of songs into something as small as a Tic-Tac container. How does the music get in it? From your computer usually. (I won't go into the exceptions here. You can message me if you want to know.)

People often say iPod when they speak of MP3 players. I call this the "Kleenex Effect". Kleenex is a brand name of facial tissue that's so popular and ubiquitous that people often ask for it by name, even if they don't mean to. Apple Inc. (Formerly Apple Computers Inc.) is the maker of the iPod, and they're the ones that really made digital music players popular.

Practical Tip of the Day:
One of the most common questions I'm asked when someone first gets an MP3 player is "Do I have to buy all my songs over again?" For someone who's sunk lots of money and time into a CD collection, the idea of having to buy their music over again in digital form is quite daunting, but fear not! As I said earlier, MP3 players get their music from you computer. There is usually a program that helps the MP3 player and the computer "talk" with each other (think of it as a translator). These programs almost always have the ability to copy music from a CD into the computer in a digital form. This is called "importing". I usually will help people learn how to import their CDs before showing them how to buy new digital music.

P.S.- We're getting social! TechKNOWLEDGEy Today now has it's own Facebook page, Twitter account, and Google+ page. Check them out, and subscribe/like/follow to get notifications of blog updates and related news articles as they come out.