I need to lighten the mood around here. My new toy just arrived, and I can’t wait to play with it. But I have to…work. To pay for it. Keep those priorities straight, girl.
I’ve been listening to podcasts on the computer and downloading songs and copying them to a CD. Yes, I was still using the old-school, heavy CD player. Sometimes I walked around with my really old-school…cassette player. For a long time, I couldn’t figure out what people were staring at!
Anyway, I asked for reader input months ago, and I finally decided to leave the Stone Age. 
I thought about buying an iPod, but it’s too trendy and overhyped, even if it’s a good product. Unlike Jeff Jarvis, I’ve had a good experience with Dell (desktop computer). Last week I decided buy a cute little DJ Ditty, then I remembered all the stuff I wanted to download and reasoned, quite accurately, that I’d need much more space. So I opted to give them more money in exchange for a Dell DJ 30 (GB). This thing can hold up to 15,000 songs. Music and podcasts and audio books, oh my!
If you don’t hear from me for several days, you’ll know what I’m up to…
{ 27 comments }
La Shawn:
I didn’t know there were 15, 000 songs to record.
You’re funny, Frank.
That’s what makes it so great. You’d never download 15,000 songs, but you can.
No sooner do I get used to blogging and then they spring pod-casting on me! Oh my is right! My husband (who got an IPod for his birthday from his darling wife) has already mentioned the possibility of pod-casting our stories from AGreaterFreedom. Baby steps is all I’m saying. Baby steps.
By the way, love your spell check feature!
When you come up for air, why not give those of us still in the ’stone age’ a review of your new toy! Am looking for Christmas ideas (for me!).
I enjoy reading your articles and must say we’re on the same page at least this one, “aborting Black babies”. My old saying is, it ain’t worth talking about.
Peace and Love
I’ve got over 1000 CDs, so I’m waiting for a 60 or 80 GB model before I buy any of these players. Soon enough, I suppose. I figure loading all of my music onto a hard drive will be a good idea should something ever happen to my CD collection.
Sorry I didn’t get to comment on the Israel posting earlier. There may be some interest here in an organization called Tikkun, a American Jewish congregation led by Rabbi Michael Lerner. They look at Palestinian/Israeli issues and peace in the middle east through a Jewish/spiritual perspective.
http://www.tikkun.org
La Shawn,
Good for you! I was one of the many encouraging you to check out the Dell, I’ve had mine for quite sometime, it’s even gone to Africa with me, and is doing just great!
I hope you have just as great an experience with yours!
Mike M.: Rumors are rampant that Apple will announce an 80 GB iPod at a special event next week. Even if it isn’t, there’s already an 60 GB iPod model out there right now.
Can I have your old cassette player? I’m doing Hooked on Phonics with my son & I purchased the older version w/ the cassettes. I’m having trouble finding a cassette player….
Mike M.
Saw a 60 gig iPOD at the Apple Store the other day. I have about as many CD’s as you do. I have the 40 gig iPOD. Right now using 22 gigs so far.
Wow! Looks awsome. But with a price tag like that, I’ll stick with my ‘ancient’ walkman cd player. Of course, it would be great to download the Rush 24/7 podcast… Oh well, too expensive for now.
Nice toy, but you should’ve gotten an iPod.
I bought an iPod Mini at the start of summer (which they’ve replaced with the iPod nano) and I very easily filled up all 4GB (mostly with my audio Bible, several podcasts including john macarthur’s ‘Grace To You’ and the Al Mohler show). I actually have started to archive stuff.
But I’m also formatting the ESV so it fits on my iPod as well.
Nice, even though it’s an iPod knock-off. Hope you enjoy it.
I just got my DJ 20 two weeks ago and love it. I think the iPod is a fantastic product, but like you, I hate overhyped/overpriced things. In addition, I use the Yahoo/Musicmatch service and fill my DJ for $7 a month and it doesn’t play with iPods.
The DJ is a really simple player to use and has good sound. The clincher for me was the price (I’m a true Scottish woman – thrifty to the core!!). I found a coupon for $50 off plus an additional $50 rebate – just couldn’t pass that up!!!!
Enjoy your toy!!!!
I got my wife (that would be “Pamela,” above) a 40Gb iPod nearly a year ago. Shortly thereafter, she discovered the iTunes Music Store.
I never before understood the appeal of the combination…but now I do: providing that kind of a resource, and at that price, to music lovers (like Pamela) is like throwing gasoline on a flame. I owe at least one guy from Apple an apology for doubting them.
I’m sure the Dell will work with one of the other music services out there, such as Yahoo! or the “Not Your Father’s Napster.” If that’s the case…I expect it may be more than “several days” before we hear from La Shawn again.
I used to think I’d never fill my 20G machine. But guess what…only 3 gigs left and a lotta CDs in Philly waitin to get picked up.
I hate the idea of sellin out and gettin an ipod, so i may hafta copycat and see what this dell is talmbout.
I have the 60GB IPod Photo…Personally, I like the sound better than anything I’ve heard, and the battery life is about 12 hours. More than enough for me.
For the most part, I don’t care for the ergonomics of other players. And that’s why I bought the IPod….But you enjoy that MP3 player, LaShawn! They’re COOL..
Dan
Frank said: “I didn’t know there were 15,000 songs to record.”
La Shawn said: “You’d never download 15,000 songs, but you can.”
You two do NOT know my wife.
If you drive your car much, FM transmitters are a great buy as well. The transmitter plugs into your cigarette lighter and gets it’s input from your DJ’s headphone jack. You get an instant La Shawn radio station in your car.
Great buy, La Shawn I’ve had my Dell for about 2 years now, I have the 20, my wife has the 15, we love them, my son wants one for his birthday, which is New Years Eve. I’m always recommending the Dell Jukebox to my friends, but many like the trends and fashions of the day. My Dell has done well, my desktops a Dell, and so are my two laptops. I invested in both Dell and Apples stock, my Dell stock kind of bearish, but Apples is increasing my portfolio, so everyone keep buying, I want the bull to keep running. The jukebox is a nice buy. Enjoy!!!!
Let me know how you like it, I’m considering getting one also.
I have the Creative Labs Nomad Zen, which has the same guts and brain as your DJ. Check out the software RedChair (redchairsoftwareDOTcom) has put out to increase the cool factor. You can stream audio and all sorts of nifty with it.
Also, there is a plug in for Windows Media Player that allows you to put a “Now listening to X” tag on the blog that is compatible with many blog engines.
In addition to my political consulting, I have the privelege of also having a rock band as a web-design client. We’ve noticed a dramatic way in which the I-Pod/MP3 player is changing the way people listen to music. Of course, it givens them greater overall access to a wider group of songs, which is a good thing — but I think it also devalues that old “CD” level experience we are accustomed to. Remember the album – sometimes the “deep cuts” were the best and they grew on you. This could change the industry to incent even more superficial poppiness. I hope the I-Pod doesn’t crowd out your experience.
What I want to know about these new-fangled gizmos, will they store permanently the music I record? I go out on the water frequently; what would happen if it went overboard? Inquiring minds want to know!
rememeber, it may say it can store 15,000 songs, but they are measuring songs that last for 4 minutes. So if you download a lot of songs that go beyond 4 minutes, then that total decreases. However congratulations on your new toy. I have an iPod and i love it.
Tom, if you configure it properly, all of your music would be protected if your I-Pod went overboard (your I-Pod would be gone, of course). I-Pod operates on the same principle as a Palm/Portable data unit. There’s software on your computer and you “sync” it to the I-Pod. When you add songs to your I-Tunes software on your computer, they get added to your I-Pod after you sync it to the computer. So the songs are in two-places at once – that redundancy protects you if you lose the Pod.
Pod’s can also store other data, photos, anything a computer can hold, so they are like portable mini hard-drives (some photo pods can display photos – though none yet can display documents or other files, you can still use them to carry them).
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