I want to buy an Ipod to download Rick's tours in Rome, Florence and Venice. I don't need a fancy Ipod, but I want to make sure I get one with enough memory to hold them all. Does anyone have any advice on the size? Is a Ipod shuffle enough or do I need a nano?
Also, we are going to Italy the end of September, what is the typical weather? Thanks for any advice!
Posted by
Austin, TX, USA
492 posts
Since there is a good chance, rumors anyway, that Apple will be announcing new ipods in a week or so, if you can wait another week or two you may be able to pick up a used iPod from eBay at a low price. On my Mac all 12 of the Italy audio podcasts are about 214 MB so a 2GB one is definitely large enough. The advantage of the Nano is that it is a little easier for this type of podcast, you can see more where you are pausing, fast forwarding or rewinding.
Posted by
Austin, TX, USA
12 posts
Good timing on posting this, I was loading up my iPod Nano (4 Gig) right now and it took 214.8 mb. The bit rate is fairly low so it conserves spaces well. You'd be good getting a shuffle if you'd like, I think they sell the 1 gig ones for $40 bucks or so. I don't have one myself, but you should read up on them because I think it really does what it's called, it shuffles the tracks, so you may not be able to access what you want right then. If you can swing an iPod Nano, they run about $150, but I see them on sale all the time. Nice too because you can load up a lot of music in addition and even a movie or two with 4 gigs. Best of luck.
Oh - and to be more specific, I downloaded all of Rick's Italy tours, there are 12 of them. Not sure if you'll want all of them.
Edit - as for weather, I just look at weather.com. They have the monthly breakdown. Of course, the weather varies depending on what part of Italy you are going to. We'll be in Rome and Tuscany in October. For September, the average temperature in Rome is high of 81 and low of 57.
Posted by
Northborough, MA
636 posts
The Shuffle has the ability to shuffle the music, but it can also be set to play in the order in which the music was loaded. The problem is that it's difficult to directly access the tour that you're looking for. My husband has a Shuffle, and he was fine using it for the audio tours. However, we had a laptop with us, and to simplify, he just loaded up whatever tours we would be using that day onto his Shuffle.
I have a Nano, and my kids have other older models, and we all loaded them all up for the entire trip.
Besides ease of use, the advantage of the Nano (or any iPod with a video capability) is that the tours are set up as tracks (like a CD), and each track has an associated photo. This makes ensuring that you're looking at the right thing when Rick is discussing it much easier.
Posted by
Kansas City, MO
113 posts
I agree that you should wait until Apple's September 9th announcements, since it's extremely likely they will announce new iPods on that day, and prices might come down.
I personally would not choose a Shuffle for the audio tours. Shuffles can't display photos, and each segment of Rick's tour includes a photo, which is invaluable for helping you to identify your next stop.
Posted by
Bel Air, MD, USA
261 posts
I went the cheap route and bought no name MP3 players, $20 for a 1G model. It had plenty of space for all the tours. BUT, it had difficulty figuring out which track went with which tour. Luckily I saw the problem before we left and was able to fix it. Others with non-iPod players have also had this problem. The player I had did not show videos, but we found everything fine with maps in the tourbooks.