From the main menu (the list that first appears when you turn it on), choose Settings. There's a menu option there called "Date/Time" or something like that. You should be able to figure it out.

There's also an item in the Settings menu called Main Menu. That determines what options are displayed in your main menu.

Gareth Keenan wrote:Regarding the Kodak software, I find that shit is pretty useful for photo editing/cropping/file size reduction.

Photoshop, my good man.

Or Paint Shop Pro, CorelDraw, etc. for a cheaper solution or even Paint.NET if you want a free solution. All those applications have much better functionality than that Kodak software.

My parents have that Kodak crap on their machine, so I'm well aware of it's shittiness. It makes everything like 10 times more complicated and annoying whenever I work with images on that computer.

Oh, BTW:

sparky wrote:I have no idea what latency or runtime freezes are

"Latency" means slow responsiveness. When you click something and the app takes over 3 seconds to respond to your selection, that's an example of really bad latency. Where I work, lag times like that are considered totally unacceptable, and we're making rich-content Web applications. iTunes often takes several seconds to respond to user input, especially when adding (already-ripped) songs to the library or accessing an (already mounted) iPod. Neither of these operations are dependent on Internet traffic, so why the lag time? My theory is that the Apple developers don't know how to properly manage multiple threads or priority queues. On a fast computer, latencies of many seconds are inexcusable for an application which is basically nothing more than a combination file manager and Web browser front-end.

"Runtime freezes" are situations where the entire application locks up for extended periods of time, with no functionality whatsoever. iTunes does this at irregular times, and fairly often when ejecting the iPod. There have been times when I was a hurry, I tried to eject the iPod and the damn iTunes just locked up for 5 minutes or more, preventing me from properly disconnecting the iPod from my machine.

Bugs like that might be tolerable in an alpha or even a beta release, but not in a full-release version of a major commercial application.

I guess if you're used to the AOL-style of computing where everything contains pop-up ads and marketing hype, then yeah iTunes is great.

iTunes only has add's if you click on the iTunes music store, if you dont use that feature there is no popups or adds at all.

I have an iPod, I bought it over two years ago. Aside from the battery losing its charge, its great. I bought an after market battery for 15 dollars and installed it myself, and works like new. I have dropped my iPod, sat on it, and used it for about 4 or 5 hours a day MINIMUM, with no issues.

As far as quality control goes, lets face it, every single option discussed in this thread is still made by a Chinese 10 year old. The only reason you never hear about people have problems with the other players is because very few people buy them (most just get an iPod). I would hazard a guess to say that a lot of the people who go with other players have just as many problems but never talk about them, because it would damage their anti-iPod stance.

Let me make sure I understand this correctly. You're saying that more people report problems with iPods simply because they're the most popular device, and most people who use other players refuse to report any problems because they're so anti-iPod biased that they refuse to admit their players have faults...

Well I can't argue with that logic. You're obviously incapable of using any kind of objective reasoning when it comes to this issue.

I'll "hazard a guess to say" you have absolutely zero experience with any of the other players that we've mentioned here, yet you still keep shilling for Apple Corporation and pimping iPods even though Dr. O' Nothing plainly stated when he started this thread:

Dr. O' Nothing wrote:I DON'T want an IPOD.

We're merely suggesting alternatives to iPods as per his request, and all these people come in here proselytizing that all other players suck and that he should buy an iPod, even though he plainly stated he doesn't want one.

WTF? What is it about Apple that causes normally intelligent people to throw away all objectivity and blindly hype their products without even considering alternatives? It's like Scientology or something.

Colonel Panic wrote:Let me make sure I understand this correctly. You're saying that more people report problems with iPods simply because they're the most popular device, and most people who use other players refuse to report any problems because they're so anti-iPod biased that they refuse to admit their players have faults...

Well I can't argue with that logic. You're obviously incapable of using any kind of objective reasoning when it comes to this issue.

I'll "hazard a guess to say" you have absolutely zero experience with any of the other players that we've mentioned here, yet you still keep shilling for Apple Corporation and pimping iPods even though Dr. O' Nothing plainly stated when he started this thread:

I have experience with a hand full of players beyond the iPod. Ive used a few Creative players, one of the Dell players, and a couple others. The first Creative I used (zen?) was alright, but was all plastic felt kind of cheap. The newer one that I used was good, but as far as the physical size to hard drive size ratio, the iPod won. The Dell was total shit, and the others were all while ago, I dont know if they even had a real screen.
I know Apple has a lot of insane fanboys, and because of this, Apple also has a lot of people that are "haters" if you will. If you ever read blogs like Engadget, or other tech blogs, any time there is Apple news there are endless comments hyping Apple up, and just as many tearing them apart. My point? Just like there are people out there who blindly support every product Apple releases, there are also people who are blindly Anti-Apple.
The reason you hear about a lot of problems with iPods is because more people have them, everyone either has one, or knows someone who does. Look at it like this, lets assume 25% of iPods, and 25% percent of other players have some sort of defect. If you have 4 friends who have an iPod, than chances are you are going to hear about some sort of issue from one of them. However, the friend who has the other player only has a 25% chance of have a defect, so there is only a 25% chance you are going to hear about any sort of issue. My whole point of this is not that "Apple is great, they dont have any problems", instead, I just want to point out that reliability is going to be an issue with any player because as I stated before, ALL of them (that I know of) are still being made in the same type of factory, and a lot of them from the same parts.
I know you stated that you didnt want an iPod, I guess some of us just thought you might give it a second thought, because we (or at least I) like them.
check out www.cnet.com, they have a lot of reviews and a of videos of them in action, so you can use the interface and everything.

alex maiolo wrote:iPods probably sell more than all of the other players combined. That doesn't make them the Britney Spears of MP3 players, it makes them The Beatles.
Their reputation is well deserved.

The interface with iTunes in good.
They are well supported.
They are reliable.
The customer service is the best in the business. Notice I didn't say "awesome," but it's far better than the rest.

Best of all, they work.
Always. You don't have to dick around, they set up and work really easily. My mom uses one.

Everyone else is just trying to make a better iPod, but the only people who have been making consistently better iPods have been Apple.

Buying anythng else is a mistake.

-A

I am going to quote this on every new page by the way.

Colonel Panic wrote:Oh, BTW:

sparky wrote:I have no idea what latency or runtime freezes are

"Latency" means slow responsiveness. When you click something and the app takes over 3 seconds to respond to your selection, that's an example of really bad latency. Where I work, lag times like that are considered totally unacceptable, and we're making rich-content Web applications. iTunes often takes several seconds to respond to user input, especially when adding (already-ripped) songs to the library or accessing an (already mounted) iPod. Neither of these operations are dependent on Internet traffic, so why the lag time? My theory is that the Apple developers don't know how to properly manage multiple threads or priority queues. On a fast computer, latencies of many seconds are inexcusable for an application which is basically nothing more than a combination file manager and Web browser front-end.

"Runtime freezes" are situations where the entire application locks up for extended periods of time, with no functionality whatsoever. iTunes does this at irregular times, and fairly often when ejecting the iPod. There have been times when I was a hurry, I tried to eject the iPod and the damn iTunes just locked up for 5 minutes or more, preventing me from properly disconnecting the iPod from my machine.

Bugs like that might be tolerable in an alpha or even a beta release, but not in a full-release version of a major commercial application.

Perfect. Our next mission is to get you on the team heading up the next Microsoft Windows release.

No, thanks. I don't think I'd exactly fit in with Microsoft's coporate philosophy. They're the industry leader of the bloatware trend, and their stuff is almost as buggy as Apple's. Worst part is, most of their customers have more at stake than just their music libraries.

Colonel Panic wrote:Let me make sure I understand this correctly. You're saying that more people report problems with iPods simply because they're the most popular device, and most people who use other players refuse to report any problems because they're so anti-iPod biased that they refuse to admit their players have faults...

Well I can't argue with that logic. You're obviously incapable of using any kind of objective reasoning when it comes to this issue.

I'll "hazard a guess to say" you have absolutely zero experience with any of the other players that we've mentioned here, yet you still keep shilling for Apple Corporation and pimping iPods even though Dr. O' Nothing plainly stated when he started this thread:

Dr. O' Nothing wrote:I DON'T want an IPOD.

We're merely suggesting alternatives to iPods as per his request, and all these people come in here proselytizing that all other players suck and that he should buy an iPod, even though he plainly stated he doesn't want one.

WTF? What is it about Apple that causes normally intelligent people to throw away all objectivity and blindly hype their products without even considering alternatives? It's like Scientology or something.

Thanks for the support/reminders Col.
Now, time for some clarification.

From what i've heard from friends about iPods, the battery usually expires after 2 or 3 years, regardless if you take care of it or not. The replacement batteries are fucking expensive, like buying a new iPod, yes? I can't get behind that sort of business practice.
I did notice one poster mentioned something about buying a replacement battery for 15 dollars?!

But the other reason i don't want an Ipod is because its really more than i need or want to spend. The iPod Nano would be enough for me and i would consider one of those i guess.

The brand isn't the important thing. My concerns are (in order of importance):
- reliability
-ease of use
-cost (i'm not willing to drop two hundred dollars or more on this thing)
-sound quality/volume capability

Like i said in the orig. post, i'm pretty oblivious to this technology.
I did some research and from what i've read about other mp3 players, some of them require Windows to function. Yes?

I own a Mac, which is capable of running Windows, but i don't have it installed. If anyone recommends any other players, please take note than it will have to interface with a non-windows MAC.

Happy Holidaze.

I got my replacement battery here...

http://www.ipodbattery.com/

However, I did notice that they dont sell batteries for the newer models, so that rules that out as an option. Did you look on overstock.com at all? They have pretty much everything except iPods, and pretty cheap because they are a little dated (older that 6 months). Someone else might know more about this, but I think the type of batteries that are used in these types of devices (laptops, mp3 players, digital cameras) tend to shit the bed after a few years no matter what. Its something about the process of charging and draining over and over, I think the cells start to lose their ability to hold a charge as well. There are a bunch of models out there with a removable battery than can be replaced very easily. Apple also will replace your iPod battery for $75.00, which may or may not be a total ripoff.

I just did some comparison shopping and made up this chart of popular mp3 players, their specs, relative advantages and drawbacks:

http://mp3-player-comparison.9f.com/