Help me pick an IPOD/MP3 player for my kids....

[It's A Happy Day]

This is something I/we have been contemplating getting for the kids for Christmas. The only thing is I have NO CLUE!!! I don't want to spend a ton of money on them because they are young but don't want to buy junk either. They are will be 7 & 8 in the spring so they definitely do not need all the bells & whistles. Am I kidding myself thinking I can find something decent for around $50 per kid????

What should I be looking for as far as options?

What should I stay away from?

What accessories will I also need to purchase?

Please any constructive advice would be helpful (and not the type of well I wouldn't buy one for my kid(s) as this is something we have decided to do.)

TIA

 

[Evil__Queen]

I got my son (for hitting Honor Roll for ALL of 6th grade) last year the IPOD Nano.

He loves it, and the first thing, he actually shows pride in with the EXTREME care he takes for it. Don't get me wrong, he cares for all his stuff, and doesn't get much, but this is like his "baby".

He uses his allowance for ITunes cards, and has never asked for help in buying those. So he really only gets one, once a month. Since he doesn't make a big allowance. He gets "special: gifts throughout the year, and he actually has to earn his allowance. His allowance is also used on other things, so ITune cards aren't a priority.

I think I paid $150, which I thought was worth it, since he got very little for b'day and holidays etc, due to hard times at home this last 2 years.

 

[WillCAD]

I went with a Sandisk Sansa c240 1gb MP3 player. It plays the most common formats and has a few other features - FM tuner, voice recorder, picture viewer - and only cost me $40 on sale at TigerDirect. It also comes in 2gb and 4gb versions. The 1gb is hard to find these days, but the 2gb is fairly common and running less than $60.

However, 1gb (or 2gb) is plenty, because the Sansa c200 series has something that, AFAIK, no iPod has - a MicroSD memory card slot. In addition to the 1gb of on-board memory, I also have several 1gb and 2gb MicroSD cards full of music, which I can switch out any time I want. Effectively, this makes the capacity of the player nearly infinite.

It's small, lightweight, has programmable sleep timer, long battery life, and is a breeze to load up - no special software needed, it just shows up in My Computer and I copy stuff onto it. Of course, I can load up music on the cards with an ordinary memory card reader, which I also have in both of my computers.

It has a rechargable niMH battery that is replacable. It recharges with a USB cable, similar to an iPod.

It uses standard earphones, and comes with a set of earbuds that sound fantastic. I don't really care for the earbud style, though, so I've replaced them with a set of Phillips over-the-ear style phones that are much more comfy to me. I also replaced the included cheesy plastic string lanyard with a more comfy cotton lanyard from an Ativa USB flash drive.

The one drawback to this player is slow boot-up time. Each time you switch it on, it has to "Refresh database", which basically means that it looks through all of the on-board memory and all of the inserted memory card to find any music or pics that might be available. This can take up to 90 seconds when I have both memory locations full.

Overall, I rate this player very high, for both features-to-cost ratio and ease of use. I highly recommend it.

 

[imthatgirl]

we are getting our 8yo daughter a nano this year. after much discussion of whether it was too expensive and if she was too young. its what she really wants. ive tried to sell the sansa and the zen, shes not biting. shes a good kid so weve decided to bite. of course there will be rules.


the nano is retailing for $150 with 8gb. which is about 2,000 songs. thats about the size i want to get her. the 1 gb hold about 240 songs, the 2gb about 500 songs(both are shuffles not nanos). my daughter has about 60 cds, so i think the 8gb is appropriate. i actively checking the black friday adds hoping to find something. so far ive only found the ipos classic whoich is $250, not what i want.

in a side note, have you seen the shuffle? its an ipod and its around $50 for 1gb, maybe a bit less. we tries to convince my daughter that this was the way to go, but she really has her heart set on the screen. with the shuffle you cant scroll songs, you take what you get.

 

[Evil__Queen]

I went with a Sandisk Sansa c240 1gb MP3 player. It plays the most common formats and has a few other features - FM tuner, voice recorder, picture viewer - and only cost me $40 on sale at TigerDirect. It also comes in 2gb and 4gb versions. The 1gb is hard to find these days, but the 2gb is fairly common and running less than $60.

However, 1gb (or 2gb) is plenty, because the Sansa c200 series has something that, AFAIK, no iPod has - a MicroSD memory card slot. In addition to the 1gb of on-board memory, I also have several 1gb and 2gb MicroSD cards full of music, which I can switch out any time I want. Effectively, this makes the capacity of the player nearly infinite.

It's small, lightweight, has programmable sleep timer, long battery life, and is a breeze to load up - no special software needed, it just shows up in My Computer and I copy stuff onto it. Of course, I can load up music on the cards with an ordinary memory card reader, which I also have in both of my computers.

It has a rechargable niMH battery that is replacable. It recharges with a USB cable, similar to an iPod.

It uses standard earphones, and comes with a set of earbuds that sound fantastic. I don't really care for the earbud style, though, so I've replaced them with a set of Phillips over-the-ear style phones that are much more comfy to me. I also replaced the included cheesy plastic string lanyard with a more comfy cotton lanyard from an Ativa USB flash drive.

The one drawback to this player is slow boot-up time. Each time you switch it on, it has to "Refresh database", which basically means that it looks through all of the on-board memory and all of the inserted memory card to find any music or pics that might be available. This can take up to 90 seconds when I have both memory locations full.

Overall, I rate this player very high, for both features-to-cost ratio and ease of use. I highly recommend it.

That sounds cool. Might have to look into that for myself. I'm not an IPOD type of person. Hummm, Santa are you listening???

It's like the camera he got as a gift last Christmas, he could actually put music on it, it had video camera capablity, plus he could take didtial pics, voice recorder. Less than a $100, but he loves it. Great for his "timid" YouTube uses.

 

[Cindy F]

I know your kids are younger than mine but I just added phones lines on to my AT&T family plan and got them both refurbished Walkman phonesthat have a video player, mp3 player, camera, video camera, fm tuner, music dj (which they adore!) for $19 plus $18 upgrade fee. They may not need the phone part right now but it sure is a lot of bang for the buck!

 

[JABEAR]

I'm with WillCad. The Sansa Sandisk Clip is a very nice player. The 2 gig version has been selling for $49 in this weeks and recent weeks ads in the Sunday paper. I have been able to get a couple of the 2G Clips on ebay for about $25 with shipping (used but excellent condition). Anything made by Sansa Sandisk will be excellent.

 

[JABEAR]

I thought WillCad was talking about the clip. Anything by Sansa is great. I especially like the Clip. I just found a new 2G Clip that is red and has free shipping for a total of $43.88 and one for 42.90 with free shipping. Very friendly user interface. Don't need to buy carrying case since there is a nice clip built into the player. Do an ebay search for Sansa Sandisk Clip and then use the refine search section on the left of the page and click on the "iPod & MP3 Players" to get it to only show the mp3 players and not accessories.

Good luck

 

[MoniqueU]

They have the 3rd generation nano in silver with 4gbs for 79 bucks on the refurbished site on apple. I have had great luck with their refurbished products. I just love Ipods they are so easy to use.

 

[JackJack08]

We got DS4 and DD8 a Sansa also. But we bought, the Sansa Shaker. My kids, are not really great with taking care of their stuff...and I wasn't really sure they would use it. So...I bought these for around $20 (I have however, seen them for less.) The kids LOVE them. It comes with the card and you twist the top, to get a different song, or shake it and it will go randomly to another song. It also, is a little "bigger" for lack of a better word and takes a lot of abuse. You can also use it, without the earbuds because it has a little speaker at the top. THey like that feature. The kids wear it on a lanyard around their neck. For us they work great....but probably only if name brand doesn't matter to your kids. DS wouldn't even know what a Nano is!!
I think it is a good choice, for a 1st MP3, to see how the kids handle it and then you can upgrade from there.

 

[torinsmom]

The Ipod Shuffle is $49.99 at Target right now. That might be a good choice for that age group and it's cheaper than the refubs at Apple.com.

Marsha

 

[dlstc]

I found my kids Disney Mix Maxes on sale at Target for $25.99. I have seen them on sale at Disney Shopping for $39.99. Right now, they are $59.99.

We love them because we can load songs, photos and videos. It also has an SD slot for up to a 2 GB card. I can fit 4-5 full length movies on one 2 gb card. Pre-recorded cards can be purchased. Multiple card lots can be purchased on ebay at a discount.

It also is very easy to use. I just hook it up to the computer and drag and drop files. I have several SD cards filled with their favorite movies. In the morning or on trips, or whenever, they can just start it up and watch.

One drawback is that when they stop a movie, they can't go back to where they stopped it. They have to start over again. They can fast forward but that can be slow.

HTH,
Diana

I bought cases on ebay that hold their player, head phones and four cards.

 

[JackJack08]

I found my kids Disney Mix Maxes on sale at Target for $25.99. I have seen them on sale at Disney Shopping for $39.99. Right now, they are $59.99.

We love them because we can load songs, photos and videos. It also has an SD slot for up to a 2 GB card. I can fit 4-5 full length movies on one 2 gb card. Pre-recorded cards can be purchased. Multiple card lots can be purchased on ebay at a discount.

It also is very easy to use. I just hook it up to the computer and drag and drop files. I have several SD cards filled with their favorite movies. In the morning or on trips, or whenever, they can just start it up and watch.

One drawback is that when they stop a movie, they can't go back to where they stopped it. They have to start over again. They can fast forward but that can be slow.

HTH,
Diana

I bought cases on ebay that hold their player, head phones and four cards.

These do look cool! I was reading the reviews on TRU and it says they can be hard to load. Any problems? I'm not very computer literate!! Did you find them this year at Target, on sale?

 

[dlstc]

I haven't had any problem loading them. Just drag and drop. I put a card in my card reader and drag and drop as well. If you want to convert movies, that's a whole other issue, but still doable.

I bought them at Target for $25.99 back in April. I saw the HSM version for $39.99 just a few weeks ago. Watch DisneyShopping.com or ebay.

Good luck and feel free to write with more questions.

Diana

PS I also bought my kids cheap speakers ($6) that plug into their headphone jacks so they can "jam" with their friends.

 

[JackJack08]

I haven't had any problem loading them. Just drag and drop. I put a card in my card reader and drag and drop as well. If you want to convert movies, that's a whole other issue, but still doable.

I bought them at Target for $25.99 back in April. I saw the HSM version for $39.99 just a few weeks ago. Watch DisneyShopping.com or ebay.

Good luck and feel free to write with more questions.

Diana

PS I also bought my kids cheap speakers ($6) that plug into their headphone jacks so they can "jam" with their friends.

Thanks Diana....ummm...ok...another silly question. Do you download the movies onto your computer and then re-load them onto the Mix Max?

 

[dlstc]

I don't really download them exactly. I rip and convert them, then load them on to cards for the Mix Max. You can buy them already on cards and just pop them in. There is a limited (Disney only) selection. They have to be in wmv (Windows Media file) formatted for the Mix Max.

The Mix Max only has 512 MB of built in memory - about 2-3 movies worth.

Diana

 

[Mickeypooh99]

My kids age 6 and 7 love the sansa shaker. They got them for christmas last year. They were around $20.00. They have taken a lot of abuse from my very active boys. They have been dropped on the sidewalk and still work. Also we love that they don't have to use earbuds. We worried about the volume harming their ears. This way they just remove the earbuds and use the speaker. Also they can play music for their friends and everyone can listen. It's the only christmas gift they received last year that they still use daily!!

 

[JackJack08]

I don't really download them exactly. I rip and convert them, then load them on to cards for the Mix Max. You can buy them already on cards and just pop them in. There is a limited (Disney only) selection. They have to be in wmv (Windows Media file) formatted for the Mix Max.

The Mix Max only has 512 MB of built in memory - about 2-3 movies worth.

Diana

Hmmm....sounds kinda complicated for little ole' me!! I know the ripping part...but what is the converting part? (If it is too complicated, don't bother answering...I won't have a clue! )