What is the difference between an ipod and a mp3 player? Which one is better? Which one has more features?

Question

Which, do you get more for your money?

What are ipods features?

Answer 1

Like the others said, an iPod is one brand of "mp3 player" (which is a misnomer since most players play more than just mp3 files--"portable digital audio players" may be more accurate).

Feature-wise, most non-iPods are at least as good as iPods; depending on the price/model, you can have ones that receive FM radio, store pictures, or even play video. Price-wise, non-iPods tend to run slightly cheaper than iPods, but not always--Creative's Zen line (which is probably the most successful mp3 player line next to the iPod) is priced pretty much the same as the iPod line.

What non-iPods don't have is the market dominance of iPods and all it entails--tons of accessories, for one; there are a lot more protective cases, integrated solutions for the car, and other doodads made for iPods than there are for other music players. iPods are also the only music devices that interface with the iTunes Music Store, the most successful legitimate online music (and video) source. And, probably most importantly, iPods have a consistent and very intuitive interface--the "scroll wheel" or "click wheel" found on iPods is probably the easiest and most convenient way of navigating a music library.

The iPods features depend on the model--the cheapest, the iPod shuffle, is pretty much just a music player (it doesn't even have a display to show you what song is playing). The iPod nano features a color display, holds 1, 2, or 4 gigabytes of data (roughly 250, 500, or 1000 songs of typical length and file size), and can store photos, notes, and contact lists and calendars (you can't input the data from the iPod itself, though; you have to manage it with your computer). The iPod video comes in either 30GB or 60 GB sizes, and adds the capability of playing video. You can get cables/accessories for the nano and video so that they can display their photos or videos on a television set.

And again, a major plus with iPod is that they connect to the iTunes Music Store, which allows you to legally purchase and download music, music videos, short films, and TV shows (and soon, feature films as well). The iTunes program also makes it easy to download podcasts (typically homegrown downloadable video and audio broadcasts available on the internet, like askaninja.com) and upload them to your iPod.

Typically, what most non-iPods have that iPods don't have "out of the box" is the ability to receive AM/FM radio--though one could argue that the reason you'd have an mp3 player in the first place is that you don't want to listen to the radio. Regardless, there *are* accessories for the iPod that allow you to incorporate an FM radio receiver to your listening setup (there's one that's pretty much just a little widget that comes between your iPod and your headphone).
Like most anything by Apple, all this is made very easy-to-use; Apple's key advantage over others (not just in regards to the iPod, but with comptuers as well) seems to be the ability to make things very simple and practically idiot-proof.

Answer 2

About 8 months ago I was trying to decide whether to buy an iPod or alternative mp3 player. I chose the alternative because I didn't like how the iPoD locked you into Apple's iTunes infrastructure. However, if I had the same decision to make again, I would opt for the iPod because all the accessories are made to exploit an iPod whereas other mp3 players are merely compatible, and I have found (through iPods that we DO have in our family) that the iTunes infrastructure is easy to use and I wouldn't have minded being locked into it.

I think you can find the same features on iPod and other mp3 players, but iPod is a bit more expensive. Our family has had better reliability from the iPod products that we do have vs. the other mp3 products; iPod has not been perfect, although I found their customer service to be easy to use and replacement of a bad Shuffle was simple.

The alternative mp3 player that I decided to buy 8 months ago was a Toshiba 40GB player which has been great, easy to use, reliable, etc. -- just hard to find any accessories which are designed for it.

Answer 3

an mp3 player is the type of object than an ipod is. It's like the difference between "Kleenex" and tissues.

Ipods are extremely user friendly, but many other mp3 players have much more features (more video types, more audio types, recording, radio tuners, better battery life, etc). People just think ipods are the best because they're the trendiest out there.

However, I have 2 ipods and I love them. The user interface is excellent. If I were upgrading though, I'd certainly look into other brands. There are some really excellent mp3 players out there, especially the ones from Creative.

Answer 4

An iPod is a type of mp3 player. I think an iPod has more features, but they cost more than Microsoft's Zen. Zen could be better... to be honest I have never used one. Also iPod nano's batteries run out faster than Apple says they do.

But with iPod you get iTunes for free.

Answer 5

iPod, is a MP3 player, but is clearly the most popular. The upside is there is iTunes, so you can get music right from you computer, although you have to pay for stuff on iTunes. One of the downsides is the metal back on the 30G and 60G models gets dirty fast and stratches easy. My recomendation is to check out how much storage you need and find what MP3 players are availible.

Answer 6

Ipod is the name of the mp3 player made by apple. Other companies make mp3 players (sony, etc. etc.)

Ipod has a lot of features, you can download shows, movies, etc. but it is more expensive

Answer 7

ipods are the same as mp3players becuase an ipod is an mp3 player. but if your looking for better quality and features a creative zen vision m video player will be best http://creative.com/

Answer 8

the best price i found for the iPod was at BJ"s warehouse...if you don't have that where you live, try Costco. i just found that iPod had more good features that i wanted.

Answer 9

both are the same thing it is other way to buy other band of the products.
i would go for apple ipod. it is have feature's that it is easy and have up to date of updates. and it is easy to use. most of all that it out last then other bands

Answer 10

ipod has more feauture.its better.