Questions About My I6000 Before College

I can't help with all of those, but I'll give you some advice anyway. First of all, use iTunes over WMP; it's extremely good at what it does and that's it. You can find widescreen laptop sleeves a number of places. Try targus, they usually have good stuff. I would go ahead and buy one if you're planning on carrying the laptop in your backpack. A little extra protection can make a big difference. Lastly, and this is REALLY important, as painful as it may sound, engrave your notebook's case with your name and driver's license number. In the event that it's stolen, that's one of the only safe ways to ensure police can contact you if they recover it. Hope this helps.

itunes > wmp especially on the networks you'll be on with your university, not only that but i think it organizes music so much better than wmp, and it is a must if you have an ipod. I just finished my summer term (my first term as well) at UF (go gators!) and the shared music on itunes is awesome. I went into the term with 1000+ songs thinkin i was a pimp, i came out with 4000+ songs. iTunes only lets you listen to the music libraries you connect to (when you do connect- its only 5 users per day on a library- but you can connect to as many as possible, as long as your one of those 5 in a day) I found a program called myTunes which will download people's music through the shared music function, and it doesn't get detected by the network as filesharing (UF has a strict anti file sharing detector, 3 strikes you're banned, etc.etc. no xdcc from irc either)

also- check with the local PD of your university, at UF, they have a registration system where you can register all of your valueables, and if stolen, they can then retrieve it if found. All you need is the serial number, and they will register it. They register anything from bikes to computers (monitors) to calculators, just about anything. (i think even jewelry)

Seems a bit extreme to engrave it yourself. Maybe get it professionally done.

I use WMP. I found iTunes a bit annoying.

About the WMA files... if you have the cd's they came from, get rid of the files (find the folder they're in and recycle them, and then empty the recycling so you don't waste space). Personally I would never use WMA because it is a much lower quality standard than mp3, and you don't save that much space with it. However, I would also stay clear of the Apple/iTunes AAC format because it has way too much DRM stuff built in. If you rip a CD in iTunes, make sure beforehand that the preferences are set to import as mp3 (128 or 192 depending on how much space you have).

You can find notebook sleeves by case logic here .

That’s not true. With WMA files, you get similar sound quality at lower bit rates than MP3s. For example, a 96 kbps WMA file is equivalent to a 192 kbps MP3 file. Basically, you can have the same song in WMA format at half the file size versus MP3 format. The weakness of the WMA format is that it uses lot more processing power to playback than an MP3 file. For portable electronics, that a significant hit on battery life.

Really it’s more a matter of personal preference. Some people like the way WMAs sound and others hate them. Online music stores (except for iTunes) like the WMA format because it offers DRM protection.

Where possible, never covert between two lossless music formats (i.e. WMA and AAC) because the resulting music file will usually end up being worse than the original. Where possible, always re-rip your music from the original CD. Of course that is not always possible since we all download and share so much music these days.

I am using my Transcend 1GB stick along with one of the 256MB sticks that came with my Dell. It works great.

I use WMP.

Winamp is what I use. Better than WMP and uses less resources than iTunes

Personally, I hate iTunes, and it makes me mad that Apple decided to package it with Quicktime now. I've been using WMP for years, and I have over 3000 songs. I never have trouble finding a song, and if I do, I use the search feature. I like the organizational methods of WMP 10, and I would never use iTunes over WMP. I also hate various other things from Apple.

As for the RAM, there is no need to get rid of that 256MB stick. It's useful. The only reason you would want to have two of the same-sized sticks in your laptop is to take advantage of dual channeling, but most people don't care about that on laptops. It's more popular on desktops.

I am loving iTunes, although its all personal preference to me, I just like how it looks and how it works, simple as that. If all else fails, try them both and see what works for you... I suggest encoding with mp3 over wma, but thats also just me =P.

First of all, my mistake on the WMA quality. GSTom1 is correct in that you get more quality for the bitrate with WMA. However, in my experience, WMAs still sound mediocre at best. I guess that's just my personal preference.

DRM = Digital Rights Management, i.e. the RIAA shoving it's hands down your pants and grabbing you by the balls. I can't remember exactly the problem, but there's something about AAC files in iTunes where you can't burn them to CD more than once to prevent copying. That's where DRM comes into play. There are also all kinds of tracking things, it gets messy. Anyway my advice is to use iTunes to rip CDs to MP3. Winamp is great too, but I tend to prefer the clean sharpness of the iTunes interface. Just my opinion.

YESSS!! I hate the fact that they bundle them together. I now use a prog called QuicktimeAlternative. Its works really well, and it is quicker to start than quicktime.

And I agree WMP10 has better organisation.

As I said before, it’s really a matter of personal preference. The Element for example has stated that he hates the way WMAs sound. I generally encode my music in mp3 format (the most widely compatible) at 192 kbps. I find that 192 kbps gives the best sound to file size ratio. However, for my small 5GB music player, I encode to WMAs at 96 kbps. This allows me to fit more music onto the player while also preserving some good sound quality. However, WMAs tend to drain the batteries faster.

Ogg is an open source format that is gaining in popularity. AAC is popular with the iPod crowd and Flac is popular with audiophiles since it’s a lossless format.

A. If they are already compressed, lossless will do no good. You need to rerip them.

B. No, they need to be converted to MP3/AAC first.

C. Not sure, but basically you are more than doubling the bitrate, therefore more than doubling the filesize.

D. iTunes unforuntely.