My 9 year old wants one of those I-Pod things..I have no clue what I am doing? Help. How much should I spend..

Question

What accessories would be good? Where do I get one? What does it do? How much should I put aside? Music only or music and other stuff? I am 31 and I should know, however, I am obviously on another planet and have no clue....please help me and be nice! :-)

Answer 1

Just a friendly recommendation, trust me plz!

> If you don't care about the money & you'll pay anything for it, then go for an 80 GB iPod, that costs something around $400, or even more,I'm not sure.
> If you want to pay less and still she/he resists on having an iPod (not any other brands of MP3 Players) then get her/him an iPod Nano that has a color LCD and shows photos, too
> You can get a cheaper iPod, named iPod Shuffle, it has no display(really boring) and only plays music, nothign else.
>And now the final recommendation, which is the best one! ;)
Your kid is only 9, buying her/him an expensive iPod would rally be spoiling. You can get her a Creative Zen V Plus that is a tiny MP4 Player, plays videos besides the music, shows pictures, has a radio, a microphone for voice recording, a line in recorder for recording directly from CD/DVD/Cassette player and many other things that iPod DOES NOT.
>Get her a Zen V Plus for now & she can have an iPod when she grew up ;)
I'm 20 & I even don't have an iPod!! I've got a Creative Zen V Plus with 2GB of capacity & I really love it. But you can buy her a 4 or 8 GB one if you want. The proce isn't that different but capacity gets double.
All iformation about V Plus is here: http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=15306
And all info about iPod here: http://www.ipod.com
You can check prices from different stores such as costco.com, bestbuy.com, compusa.com and also mp3.com.
Good luck.

By the way, you can make a sound volume level limit in Zen V Plus, so she can't turn up the volum so much & her ears won't be harmed.

Answer 2

Any electronic store would likely carry them such as The Source (by Circut City), Wal Mart, Future Shop ect. Since I am Canadian I have no clue of your type of stores but that should give you an idea. For accessories, definitly an ipod case, ipods are very delicate and can get scratched very easily therefore a cover is almost manditory. You want a cover that can protect the screen as well, as with even the slightest pressure, the screens can "shatter" and are not covered under the "insurance you can buy for these things. iPod insurance is usually around 70 dollars as they are registered with Apple (the ipod company). Another good accessory is a wall charger other wise you have to turn your computer on every night to charge the battery and it gets to be a pain. (all accessories can be purchased alongside the ipod as well. (In the same store I mean.) The basic function of an ipod is to hold music on a digital memory chip which can be played. I pods can also hold pictures too but I don't bother. the smallest size ipod you can get (I think) is 1 GB, they hold about 250 songs. Mine is a 2GB and hold 500 songs and mine costed about 400$$ after insurance and manditory accessories. Ipods can go all they way up to like 30+ GB's (I'm not sure the max # of GB's you can get but its alot) These ipods hold thousands, litterally. One reason its wise to get insurance is because ipods are like i said delicate, also, their batteries, I heard can die in like 3 months and only the company can replace them. Mine has been going since July 06, and in running fine. When I first got my ipod I had a heck of a time programming it, I found, however, that all that has to be done is to create a playlist than go into the settings and tell it to update that list, (It took me 4 days to figure this out, I must be stupid or something. I don't know). I also find that sometimes my ipod freezes on me, this is a minor problem as in the trouble shooting guide that comes with the ipod, they tell you how to fix it. I am one who likes all the details before going through with it, so I treat others the same. And sitting here, staring at my ipod that's every detail I think I can come up with. Good Luck!!!

Answer 3

An iPod is a very expensive piece of equipment to give a 9 year old, especially if they are prone to losing things. It costs anything from £100-£200 judging by prices I have seen, unless you are prepared to buy one second hand on a site like eBay. For a 9 year old, I would suggest that you get a cheaper MP3 player, at least in the short term, and teach him/her how to transfer the music on to it. Once you are sure that they are sensible with that, you could consider getting the real thing for a birthday present or as a reward for getting a very good result at school. I certainly wouldn't get your 9 year old an iPod that also shows videos. Far too expensive a treat for such a young child.

Answer 4

I agree that 9 years old is a bit young for an iPod. Better to buy a cheap MP3 player, and see how he/she goes.

You can get inexpensive ones for less than £10 now, from PC world, Argos, Tesco etc. For the money, they are pretty good, and if it gets lost/broken/stolen, it's not the end of the world.

If it absolutely must be an iPod, go for the shuffle. It's the cheapest version, but still very good. I would also buy some earphones (other than Apple), and not white. Not good to advertise to the world that you own an iPod (muggers favourite).

A 1GB shuffle will cost you £55, but you may be able to get the previous model a bit cheaper (Argos may still have some in stock).

Answer 5

iPod is a brand of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple Computer and launched in 2001. Devices in the iPod range are primarily digital music players, designed around a central click wheel — although the iPod shuffle has buttons only. The full-sized model stores media on an internal hard drive, while the smaller iPod nano and iPod shuffle use flash memory. Like many digital audio players, iPods can also serve as external data storage devices.
Here some relevant link, I hope will useful for you to know more about iPod and other MP3 Player.

Answer 6

Personally I think 9 yrs old is a bit young to have an i-pod. Go into Comets and they have loads of mp3 players that look just like i-pod but half the cost. I would go with one of those first to see how your child copes with it and then if he/she looks after it and uses it alot I would get them an i-pod at a later date xxxxxx

Answer 7

I agree with most people on this site, that you will be spending to much on your childs '1st' mp3 player if you get an Ipod.

There are Mp3s out there at a fraction of the cost and probably sound as good.


few things to be wary of with ipod:-

1. Screen very thin and easy to crack
2. battery doesn't last very long
3. not very reliable - I bought a Nano for my daughter and have changed it twice 'cos it didn't work!

Hope this helps..... and watch they don't have it too loud!

Answer 8

Seriously consider what you are doing here. Numerous studies indicate that listening to loud music on those tiny "bud" style earphone can seriously damage a young child's hearing.

If you really must buy him one, also buy some good quality headphones - the big ones that fit over the ears. The little tiny bud earphones can permanently damage his ears.

Here are some links to back up my claims:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/20/electric_earbuds/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4162028.stm

There have even been lawsuits! People suing Mac (creator of iPod) for loss of hearing!!! check this out http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/02/ipod_hearing_suit.html

Answer 9

I would go to ebuyer.com and look through all the dozens of alternatives available - that have more features and less hassles than IPods. IPods do really costs about twice as much as better alternatives. I've got a Creative Zen which is perfect.

All the equipment on their is rated by users, with tips and hints, and it also clearly shows what the features are.

Answer 10

I wouldnt think a 9 yr old should have one buth thats your department.

I would get a fm reciever so it can get radio and a fm transmitter so it can broadcacst on a radio (for car rides) and either a dc or ac charger.

as for the actuall ipod you really get your moneys worth when you buy the biggesy available.

as for music, if he actually needs an Ipod he should have TONS of music already.