A few lame questions about music and computers

[martha]

I know I should know this, but I don't.

1. Is an iPod the same as those mp3 players at other stores? If it isn't, what's the difference? If it is, what makes an iPod so special? I'm not thinking of getting either one, I'm just thinking.

2. I have over 400 songs on my school iMac that's three or four years old. When I'm playing the music, everything seems to run slower. Have I overloaded the damn thing?

3. I was trying to upload (right word?) a few songs from a cd to my school iMac the other day, and the cd made the computer freeze every time. No other cd has ever done this before. Does that mean the cd is protected or just fucked up? It plays fine on a cd player.

Thank you. You may snicker, but try not to laugh.

 

[indra]

I'm not snickering...I'm clueless too.

 

[~LadyLemon~]

Me too

I lack all technology and my computer is a dinosaur.

 

[typhoon]

1. All MP3 players are basically the same thing; I guess iPods are just more popular because:

a) They were the first hard drive-based players that weren't huge and ugly.
b) They're reasonably well made and have nice controls.
c) They work really well with the iTunes music player, which is pretty popular in its own right. They're also the only MP3 players that work with files bought from the iTunes Music Store, as far as I know.
d) They're perceived as stylish and cool.

But in general, it's kind of like how most people called portable cassette players Walkmans.

2) Could be. I remember I made my first MP3 on my 100 MHz Packard Bell; it was "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" at 56 kbps (didn't have enough hard drive space for higher quality). I couldn't play it and browse the web at the same time.

The original iMacs were between 233 and 700 MHz, so who knows. I remember using 300 MHz ones in high school, and they could handle MP3s fine (things got a little laggier, but not unbearably). Do you know if it's running OS X? That would probably slow things down a lot on an older computer. I think the easiest way to tell if you don't know is: is the Apple logo in the top-left rainbow-colored or one color?

3. You generally call it "ripping" when you're copying a CD to a computer (uploading it when you're copying a file from one computer to another). It could be locking shit up either because it's scratched up or copy-protected, like you said. What CD is it? Is it the only CD that does it?

 

[martha]

2) The original iMacs were between 233 and 700 MHz, so who knows. I remember using 300 MHz ones in high school, and they could handle MP3s fine (things got a little laggier, but not unbearably). Do you know if it's running OS X? That would probably slow things down a lot on an older computer.

I think ours are 400 MHz. We're running OS 9.1 now, but our district wants us to upgrade to OS X without buying us new computers. It didn't run this slow before I added a bunch of songs this fall after I got my cd spinner fixed. I also can't print if I've had iTunes on. I have to restart the computer to print, which is a royal pain in the ass.

3. You generally call it "ripping" when you're copying a CD to a computer (uploading it when you're copying a file from one computer to another). It could be locking shit up either because it's scratched up or copy-protected, like you said. What CD is it? Is it the only CD that does it?

It's Little Steven's Voice of America. It isn't scratched, and I don't see any copy-protected warnings on it. So far, it's the only cd that's done that.


Thanks for the help! Now I can be a

 

[anitram]

Even if it is copy protected, it's really easy to get around it with a Sharpie.

 

[U2DMfan]

#3-does the CD have bonus material that executes when you put it in your CD-rom? I have a few CD's that screw my dinosaur computer up when I run them.

This would be a problem if you had too little RAM or not enough to run it, basically. Might have something to do with your CD-rom speed reading certain discs etc. I have a disc with about 50 songs on it a friend gave to me and it only works about half the time on this piece of shit.

 

[RA-D]

The iPod is, essentially, just a flashy mp3 player but is one of the best marketed products I have ever encountered.

 

[IWasBored]

Even if it is copy protected, it's really easy to get around it with a Sharpie.

explain this to me.

 

[martha]

#3-does the CD have bonus material that executes when you put it in your CD-rom? I have a few CD's that screw my dinosaur computer up when I run them.

This would be a problem if you had too little RAM or not enough to run it, basically. Might have something to do with your CD-rom speed reading certain discs etc. I have a disc with about 50 songs on it a friend gave to me and it only works about half the time on this piece of shit.

It has two extra songs, but they're just extra songs.