Shakey iPod

[Barakka]

My g/f is looking for an MP3 player for use in the gym and was wondering if an iPod mini would be suitable. I mean obviously it's suitable from the point of view of holding lots of tracks and playing them back. But being a HDD based device will it skip or even shorten the HDD life when on a running machine. One of our friends has an old-ish Archos HDD player and that does skip when running. Is the iPod good enough for this use or would she be better getting a lower capacity solid-state device ?

Also, I know iPod's are all iTunes based, but I take it you can copy standard MP3 files to it ?

(Sorry if they're noob questions but my last portable music device was a tape Walkman about 8 years ago)

TIA

[menthel]

My Ipod nevers skips whilst at the gym and yes it can play mp3's!

[silent ben]

Latest ipods have 30 mins of skip protection, long as she stops running before then it should be ok

[scottyman]

lol... can still damage the HDD if she's flicking through tracks. For gym and running I think flash based MP3 is safer. It all depends on how she's using it. One of the little bum bag ipod cases is quite good, as it places the ipod in the small of your back - meaning less vertical and lateral travel. still waiting on mine to be delivered.

I use iTunes to rip all my CD's as MP3 - quality is very good, but it's easier to use winamp library manager to cleanup mis-spelt tags and track names. also - if you've got alot of compilations - don't allow it to automatically organise your music collection (i had to re-rip most of my cd's because of that) i.e. 12 differnt folders for chili peppers depending on the number of incorrect spellings!

[Spud1]

an iPod would be fine - tho a full sized one is only £30 more expensive and holds loads more tracks.....

I use my ipod @ the gym, but i put it in the little cup holder thing on the machines so mine doesnt jump.

tho if she cant do that then a cheap flash based player would be better, can still get a few hrs of music on a 128meg player

[Barakka]

Cheers for the replies... I shall relay it back to her..

She's currently using a 5cm CD based MP3 player (about £25 iirc) but even in the cup holder it jumps when running. Was just worried about effectively shaking a Hard Drive... but all sounds good...

[alexander]

I dont think you should get an iPod for the gym personally. Get a 1GB flash memory stick (they are smaller and they have less things that can go wrong) I have a 40GB iPod and my family has around 6 iPods including minis and the constant shaking is eventually going to knock something out of place.