Category: accessible Devices
I'm honestly not trying to be a smart-aleck or raise a fuss or anything. I ask this because I'm genuinely ignorant. I'm curious what is so wonderful and special about an iPod, any kind of iPod? What do they do that any other brand or type of MP3 player doesn't do? To me, they seem overpriced, plus from waht I'm told. they are dependent upon the iTunes software for even transferring files, and I also thought it actually doesn't play MP3 files at all, but Apple's own M4A format. I suppose part of it is the coolness factor, as in having a known and popular brand of something. I've mainly used the Creative Zen Stone and some budget-priced players by Coby. So can somebody clue me in?
Nothing special. They play music like all the other mp3 players out there.
I have no problems playing mp3's on mine. I buy my music from amazon.
They do play mp3 and other formats. nothing special just very easy to use. everything is done with one wheel and a button. not lots to remember.
One more thing, and I suppose to some blind folks, it might not matter, but to me, it does. Design and form factor are better than any other. It's not big and tacky. It's small and elegant. Just go to the store, and handle all the other players, and handle the iPod. Unless you've never put your hands on it, or seen it, you can't appreciate it. As far as the guts, it's just like anything else. It plays music and videos.
I've seen one, but I wasn't impressed. It's small, but so is my Zen Stone, which I'll continue enjoying, because copy-and-paste is all I need to do to get mp3's onto it.
I like the ipod simply because of the spoken menus that generation for ipod nano now has. Its the first mp3 player to my knowledge to even offer speech output for the visually impaired. Other then the spoken menus I didn't really care for ipods before that I used Creative Zen Vision M.
What IPod, more than anything, was the combination of sleak looks and Apple's hype machine that pushed the mp3 player onto the fashion scene. For that I am thankful realy, it took someone like Apple to make mp3 player the gadget of the year when it was launched, and it, in turn, helpedother tiny form factor players gain popularity, paving the way for things like portable Daisy and mp3 players with possible appeal to the wider public. If we can justify and popularize these technologies to people who are not blind it creates significantly larger demands and thus helps both pricepoint and encourages innovations. So I am very happy that Applenot only launched the IPod and made it a must-have accessory, it's also really cool that they've been the first to make an effort to make it accessible. I still don't like the interface, i.e. ITunes, and their propriatry approach, so I still enjoy my Creative more, but, at the end of the day,I think it was a great thing and that's what's special about the IPod.
I like the simplisity of the ipod nano and the design. I use anipod to transfer my files and create playlists. Playlists are the only way I organize my music on my ipod. With some initial assistance, I modified the front main screen to display the minimum amount of content. Now, it is scroll down once to my playlist folder, then my playlists are nicely alphibatized.
So far, I don't like itunes at all! Maybe I'll put more effort into it, if I get this 4th gen nano.
if you use xplay, you don't have to mess with i tunes and you can copy and paste. I use rock box and it talks and makes it so you can copy and paste also. mmm,
I personally do not like the ipod. I tried it once and it is very unblind-friendly. I know they came out with the nano one but being that my computer is messed up, I dont think I'll be using that. As far as itunes goes, dont have a lot of trouble using the program, though I usually just use it to play music on, and I like the party shuffle feature on there. But other than that, I dont really use it. I myself would rather copy and paste, that's much easier.
I had no clue you could copy and paste, guess you learn something new everyday. as for the eye pod, I don't care for it much. I have an Mp3 player that goes everywhere with me, and yes I have used an eye pod, my neece has one, but I find it hard to use with the touch screen, Etc. also I could never figure out eye tunes, so I don't think I could use it anyway. I like the idea they have one that offers speech, but I will enjoy my Mp3 player till it breaks, wares out, whatever, then who knows, I may go to an eye pod in the future.
I'll tell you exactly why I love the Ipod. 80 gigs is amazing better than those silly 2 gig things. Rediculous really! I'm totally blind, and I have no problems using it. I do not use Itunes although I believe jaws version 10 is supposed to be compatible with Itunes. I use a program called Xplay which all you do with it is copy and paste. I don't even use rockbox. To me, it isn't necessary.
Sure, its not necessary until your ipod breaks. Some one told me that if your ipod breaks you had better remove rockbox from it, or applies not gonna give you any help whatsoever, because rockbox is open source and they don't like it. But, I don;t know, I've used itunes since version 6 and loved it even before it started working with jaws. Its not your jaws version that will make itunes work, its the version of itunes. Make sure you have itunes 8 or later, and their ya go, completely accessible. THe Ipod that is touch screen, is called the ITouch, I've never messed with it, but one of my friends has one and she likes it. You can also get onto AIM with it, how I'd like to know since my 4th gen Nano can't.
I don't know how to use Itunes. Can someone either explain a few things, or direct me to a link or something. I've tried poking around in it, and I couldn't get anywhere. So... there.
Yeah, I'm having some troubletoo. My question is: How do you delete music off the iPod using iTunes? But anyway, staying on topic: I guess they're shiny and come in cool colors. Lol. Honestly, I don't knowthe difference. I just really like my iPod.
The iPod is simple in it's looks and it's interface. It allows the user to organised their music and carry so much more of their music around; alot more than the Creative Zen Stone (which was aweful). It is still very light despite having the ability to host nearly all of your record collection/
They are also power effician; running a 24 hour playback time and charging from a USB socket saves you time, hassle, and money too.
The iPod Touch and iPhone are also incredibly efficiant. they are not just a simple mp3 player but they can be whatever you want them to be and as the iPhone, it can truly outrun the Blackberry and Blackberry storm
The thing I really like about the ipod is the auto sync features. When I add new content to my itunes library, it is automatically copied over to my ipod the next time I plug it in. Not only does it auto sync the tracks themselves, but it will keep the playback time in sync on things like audio books and podcasts. Sometimes I like to listen to these things aloud on the computer, and sometimes I want to use the ipod. So if I'm listening on the computer for a while, I can plug in the ipod and it will update my current listening time. I can pick up right where I left off on the ipod, and when I'm ready to listen again on the mac, I simply re-sync and it knows my place.
Also, I know the itunes integration is a real drawback for a lot of you, but for me, it was one of the main reasons I got the ipod in the first place. Itunes is a very powerful media player, and all of that power carries over to the ipod. Itunes has worked great on the Mac with VoiceOver for years now, and now it apparently also works well with JFW and window-eyes.
To delete music, just delete it from your itunes library, and when you next connect your ipod, it'll delete it.
*agrees with the original post*. I've seen both mp3 players and Ipods, but personally can't see the difference apart from the fact that ipods take extra software to put music on them and mp3 players don't have great speech on them if at all.
i like the ipod because you don't have to remember any buttons and worry if you pressed it by accident.
also i like the new nano that has speech and plays videos as well as the shake feature.
i also like itunes now cause its accessible with jfw
i got the red ipod nano cause i did not like the black one, its too formal for me.
i am planning to buy an ipod case that looks like a kitten any suggestions on that one.
Hi, which IPod comes iwth speech? Also, why doesn't Apple make an Ipod with an FM tuner. Sometimes I like to tap into the news station when I'm traveling. Also, does an I pod work with Windows media Player for putting songs onto the player? Also, do I have to use ITunes for downloading music? I have Jfw 10.0, but I like Amazon and Walmart for downloading music. Also, is the wheel difficult to use? I do like the sleek feel of the Ipod.
Sorry, that was suposed to be with speech on that last post. I'm at work, and am typing fast. Also, what does a speech-equipped Ipod cost?
I have an IPod Shuffle that my mom got me for Christmas year before last. It's kinda cool because there are no menus to worry about. But it only has one gig of memory and I really don't like ITunes. True the newer ersion of Window-Eyes seems more accessible with ITunes but it still makes almost no sense to me. And I really didn't care for Anapod Explorer either. And then I got my VR Stream which plays not only music but books as well, which sort of knocked the IPod out the window for me.
The ipods with speech inabled are the 4 gen, and Amazon sells them for $133.
You can put mp3's from amazon on the ipods, but I'm not sure how that works if you want the speech on the system. If I'm not mistaken, itunes has to be used at some point if you want speech enabled.
agree with post twenty-three. i'd never touch ITunes with a ten-foot pole even if you payed me a million dollars.
Yeah. I'll se my VR Stream for my listening needs. If I need more memory I can always buy more SD Cards. They're not really all that expensive.
Itunes is not that bad. Everyone seems to be forgetting that ITunes is NOT required. You don't have to use it. So, if you don't like Itunes, don't use it. my reason for an ipod was the memory. I have lots of music, and I wanted to carry it with me in one little bundle, and that's what the ipod does. I don't use Itunes. Although, Jaws 10 and Itunes 8 are pretty compatible with each other, but one has to be willing to play around with it and also ask questions, but as I've said, Itunes Is nOT necessary for the Ipod.
But neither of the other prgrograms seemed all that accessible to me. Besides, if you want speach on the newer IPod model you do need Itunes.
Has anyone tried winamp with their ipod?
No, but I use xplay which is a program that allows you to copy and paste your music on to the Ipod. I've been using this program about a year, and it's very easy. Also, one really doesn't need a talking Ipod. For one, there is only eight things to choose from on the main menu, and music, which is the one I use, is on the top of the list. Also, there is no wrap around on my Ipod so you aren't going through the menu over and over. Finally, with sighted assistance, you can remove some of the options on your Ipod to make learning the menus easier. I only use my Ipod for music, so I could've just left the music icon up there and removed all the other options. I think with Itunes, there's not a lot of tlk about how to make it work. I don't know how to use Itunes; therefore, I don't use it, but I know you can use most of Itunes now with keystrokes and using various cursors, but again, I've just never learned.
Post 27 is completely incorrect, while you can copy and paste songs onto the ipod in explorer, they won't show up while using the device. Itunes is responsible for the speech generation there for if you want speech you have to use it.
@mm91, the touch can do aim because its got wireless - its practically a mini underpowered netbook where as the 4th gen doesn't.
Why do I like my ipod? Its light, feels very sexy, its very easy to use once you get the hang of the wheel, battery life is good enough, I can have my speech as fast as I want using my prefered voice, storage isn't overly bad these days on the flash based ones plus once when I synced my misc music folder, it sorted it all out into genres, albums and artists.
Itunes isn't that bad if your using dolphin products; if your willing to change a few settings, all you have to do after the first time you insert your ipod is open itunes, go to file > add file (Or folder; there to different options) to libiary, brouse to the file or folder using a standard tree view dialog, press enter, plug in your ipod, wait a bit then its all done.
i don't see the need to buy the talking one, when it's a lot ssmaller space. i have the thirty gig video. and am using rock box. it works awesome. I don't use i tunes. with rock box, you just copy and paste, just like you would with a external hard drive. it also plays ogg wav and many other file types. i sure wouldn't delete any oft the other choices in the menu. if your going to do that, you may as well just get a regular m p 3 player. it's handy being able to make different files for different things. like i have a audio book, a music and a movie folder. each seperate of course. rock box is awesome, and you can get a much larger storage space ipod using it.
Yep, and the same is for Xplay. Of course, with rockbox, you have to have anolder version of the Ipod, which they aren't making so many older versions anymore, but they can still be found. I agree about the talking ones. Way too little space.
The problem with the harddrive based ipods like yours is that the harddrive is prone to dieing if its mooved about a bit.
Since the only ipods that rockbox runs on now are discontinued, anyone that wants a harddrive based one will find it hard to purchase one that hasn't bee nocked about a bit - ie: you won't know how long the drive is going to last.
With my nano, I can have it in my pocket and not have to worry about the harddrive getting nocked about.
This is such a concern to some ipod users that own the classic that they are replacing there 160gb harddrives with 8 or 16gb flash drives.
Besides, once the touch is made accessable, 32 gb will surely be enough?
I think I might get a classic in the future. I've had no problems with my Ipod video so far, and i've had it for about a year.
i've had mine for almost two years and so has my husband and we have never had any problems with the hard drive either. of course you can't throw it around or slamm it on things. but duh, that's a given.
You know since there are hardrives and regular computer hard drives in ipods all you have to do if it dies is take the hard drive out and put in into a desktop or laptop and use the usual HD diagnostics tools like spinrite to get it up and running again ... of course this is providing you didn't do any actual hardware damage to the drive like shattering the platters or something. and well 99% of hard drive failures even in portable electronics are software errors not physical ones.nne
I am all for being cheap and efficient, and I am honestly fine with using the BrailleNote's media player. I have a 7.5 and it's wonderful! I mean what's wrong with just bringing a Braillenote, packmate or another PDA and just using the media players on there. Buy a few cheep flashdrives/compact flashes and you are honestly set. Simple, cheap, and no extra money.
The BrailleNote is far from cheap however, so for those who don't have that option the IPod is cheaper in the long run. I myself am actually toying with the idea, if my financial situation will ever permit, of getting an IPod Touch or at least an IPhone which in any case has an IPod built in. It'd be far far cheaper for me to do that than to get the newer BraileNote (I don't even use my old one much anymore). And let's face it the speach quality on the touch, while still not the best, is infinitely more preferable than Keynote, which I hate with a passion.
Well, now that the iPod touch is accessible, I don't have to worry about my PAC Mate's media player. I can just get an iPod touch for $300, rather than $5600, and use that for music. Of course I would use my PAC Mate for assignments and things like that, but my iPod would also be right there when I need it. I'll be getting one soon.
*agrees with post 38* I'm all for the Braille Note's media player, it's the easiest. No, it's not cheap, but if you have help and you're going to school, you can get it purchassed for you. And with a big external hard drive, you even have more memmory for your music. And, well, you don't have to use the speech, you can always use the Braille display. Isn't that why you're being taught Braille in the first place?
Well anyway, my point being, Braille Note all the way, but everyone has their preference.
I just need to find a flash drive that is compatible with mine. For some reason, my BN won't even read my flash drive, and I bought it for that reason. It used to read my external drive until I formatted it, which changed it from Fat32 to NTFS, and now my BN doesn't recognize it. Any ideas on how to fix this problem?
Also with a Braille Note, you always know what's going on. No having to learn menus or no guesswork about what song you're going to listen to.
Also, as mentioned above, it doesn't matter which version of jaws you're using with i tunes. i use jaws 9 and i tunes 8, and I'm content with it, since I don't have to use it for much more than actually listening to music.
I got a Sansa Fuse with 8 GB for $100, and I saw an I pod Touch with 2 GB for $300. However, the Sansa Fuse isn't quite as small.
I'll stick with the 32GB IPod touch if and when I get one. Probably way cheaper than a BrailleNote and a lot easier to carry.
I'm waiting for the prices for the Ipod touch to go down if they are, and when I'm around WiFi more. I have a 4th gen Nano which works pretty well for me.
I've never seen one of those either.
BryanP22
The braillenote doesn’t run on only Keynote, it now has eloquence as well.
Yes, It’s more expensive but than again, the Ipod can’t do as much as a braillenote can it? If you get the braillenote you get the whole deal. Wordprocessor, calculator, planner, address book, database, internet functions, media player, recorder, and very fun games. How much of these does the Ipod have now? With all these features, I think the braillenote is worth the money.
But… also you don’t necessarily need a braillenote either. You get a laptop for 200 or 300 dollars and the same deal. Oh, you get a CD player too, handy? Well, then there is the regular PDAs. Buy one of those for a cheap price and you can have all your music and more.
I’ll shut up now, before I sound like I am advertising.
Just wondering, but what is Xplay ?
Rachel, the iPod Touch does everything you listed for $299.
Agree with previous post. Sorry, but the braillenote is way out of date. The Ipod is quickly becoming the way to go. I might buy a 32 GB one. I can't afford the 64 GB right now. I first want to save up for mobile speak and mobile geo though. I'm putting needs before my wants right now. Well actually, Mobile geo isn't an exact need, but since I want to do some traveling, I think it might be the smarter decision. I do want an Ipod touch though, but as someone said, I'll wait for the price to go down a bit.
Santa came early for me, and I am now an exstatic owner of the Christmas Green 5th gen nano!
I love this thing! I have named it the Merriest! Hee-Hee!
The voice over is brilliant and I am getting use to itunes.
I'd have to say it is very special indeed! Small, sleek, pretty, affordable and accessible!
How often is accessible technology cool looking? This thing is gorgeous! And it was $137.
The question is, how often is accessible technology that inexpensive?
It's really true.
Agree with Jesse. For the person who has the Nano with VoiceOver, do all of the menus speak? Do all of the functions speak? My friend told me that some of the menus speak, but not all of them, and that's why she got the iPod Touch.
The date and time, and most things in the extra's don't speak. If I ever get a touch, I probably give my nano to my mom because she needs something that she can take to the gym.
At post 47, Xplay is a program you install that makes your Ipod show up as an external drive, so you can just copy and paste your music. I've heard there's a plugin for Winamp that will sync your music to an Ipod, but since I don't have one, I'm not sure how well it works. As for the person who said 32 gigs is enough, maybe for most people it is, but I have over a hundred gigs of music, so if I wanted an Ipod I would have to look for one with at least 160gb, if they even still make them.
They still make the classic as a 160 GB unit. I just saw one at best buy today!
Very cool. How much did it cost?
/The classic does not have the voice over on it just so you know. It's $229.95 on Amazon. Down from $245.
Yeah, I knew it didn't have Voice Over, but it should support Rockbox, right?
Only the 5th gen IPod. You probably need 6 of them for your music because they come in 30 GB. I would say, only put the songs you want on there, but that's easier if you only have a 5 gb collection like I have.
Yeah, the problem with that is I would never be able to pick. I would get sick of having the same songs with me after awhile too. I guess I could switch every now and then, but I don't want to deal with ITunes any more than I have to, as even using Jaws 10 it requires a lot of using the jaws cursor, and it annoys me.
To the last post, you don't have to use the Jaws cursor to get around. iTunes should be pretty accessible without it.
And I hae heard of people having problems with Jaw and iTunes, but Jaws should work well with it. Though I prefer to have Window Eyes over Jaws concerning iTunes, Jaws should work fine.
to brian i believe it was who posted waht the the brail note does .. the ipod touch does all that stuff as well.