What's the difference between an Ipod and a MP3 player

[John Bannon]

Going on holiday shortly, going to ditch the CD player, its been good to me for many years, the problem is packing all the CD's you hope to listen to, need to lighten the load.
I don't want anything to fancy, just something that plays music and keeps me amused. I haven't got a clue of the latest technology. I have computer files of music, just need some way of downloading these to something I can plug into my ears. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Don't make the jargon connected to these products to difficult...I'm a simple soul...or maybe just simple.

[Allan Heron]

Going on holiday shortly, going to ditch the CD player, its been good to me for many years, the problem is packing all the CD's you hope to listen to, need to lighten the load.
I don't want anything to fancy, just something that plays music and keeps me amused. I haven't got a clue of the latest technology. I have computer files of music, just need some way of downloading these to something I can plug into my ears. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Don't make the jargon connected to these products to difficult...I'm a simple soul...or maybe just simple.

Basically the same thing, John, but an iPod is a fashion item as much as an MP3 players.  You'd be able to get a perfectly servicable MP3 player to meet your needs without paying the premium prices that attach to iPods.

[paul s reilly]

Creative Zen give you the best sound. Easy to download music and manage without the costs and restrictions of Ipod

[Mark Davies]

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2009/12/top-5-mp3-players-of-2009.php

Following a tortuous train journey without music, I bought a SanDisk Sansa Clip+ a few weeks back. 8Gb on board, and will also take an external microSD card. Plays .flac as well as .mp3. Just music, no video.

After charging, I downloaded the SansaUpdater from the website, and updated it with the latest firmware (as several sites recommend).

It all works great. It syncs up to Windows Media Player, and you just build a playlist of files from your PC which gets copied across automatically. I'm sure you could also do it all manually if you wished.

Sounds good to me - possibly a little quiet, but that may well be down to my current earwax issues.

I got it for under ?40 at Amazon, but it seems to be ?46 at the moment.

[John Bannon]

Many Thanks everybody, purchased an MP3 player today, busy uploading music to it as we speak. Has photo, video, radio and recording facilities although I doubt if I will get around to using these, the music is the important thing for me.....might use the radio to catch up on the world cup....or maybe I might just go to a taverna with a television and cold beer.