I've just had to exchange my non-functioning packard bell audiodream (do NOT get one!) for an ipod shuffle 1gb.

My problem is I've only got Windows ME and it says I need Windows 2000 or higher. Are there any ways around it or does anybody have any suggestions on what I could do?

Any help or tips will be greatly appreciated!
Thanx,
Sean

For anyone who's interested, it looks like I'm just going to have to convince a friend to let me borrow their laptop.
Unless anyone has any better ideas?

I saw an article yesterday that might help you, it's for a winamp plugin that will let you put music on, and also off your ipod from within winamp without the apple drivers etc... the homepage is: http://www.mlipod.com/.

Hope that helps,

Grant

Thanks for the link Lonsome, I'm going to give it a try.
I'll post the outcome on here!

Cheers,
Sean

Originally posted by seanyboy
I've just had to exchange my non-functioning packard bell audiodream (do NOT get one!) for an ipod shuffle 1gb.

My problem is I've only got Windows ME and it says I need Windows 2000 or higher. Are there any ways around it or does anybody have any suggestions on what I could do?

Any help or tips will be greatly appreciated!
Thanx,
Sean One of the flaws of all Ipods, they will NOT work as UMS (USB Media Storage device class, which is in all fairness, the only way to deal with Digi cams & media players.
First Ipods are extremly crap, go for a Creative or an iRiver.

And yes, you're stuck with Itunes hahahaa.

iTunes is a computer program made by Apple Computer intended to play, organize and buy music files (it is also a common name for iTunes Music Store). It is compatible with computers running Mac OS X, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating systems. <= laaaaame !

With Creative Players or iRiver players you have a choice of either using their software or UMS.

When will people learn, don't go for iPods !

Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
One of the flaws of all Ipods, they will NOT work as UMS (USB Media Storage device class, which is in all fairness, the only way to deal with Digi cams & media players.
First Ipods are extremly crap, go for a Creative or an iRiver.

And yes, you're stuck with Itunes hahahaa.

iTunes is a computer program made by Apple Computer intended to play, organize and buy music files (it is also a common name for iTunes Music Store). It is compatible with computers running Mac OS X, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating systems. <= laaaaame !

With Creative Players or iRiver players you have a choice of either using their software or UMS.

When will people learn, don't go for iPods !

If you take a look at the link I posted you'll see that ipod users are no longer stuck with itunes but can use winamp to manage their music instead. The plugin should work for other kinds of windows operating systems as well.

I have a 40gb zen xtra which is awesome, cheaper and more space than an ipod but I do have to use creatives software. I cannot simply drag and drop to it like other mp3 players but need to install special drivers etc... so I can access it in windows explorer, even then I cannot do what I like and put what I want on, I can only put music on it except for a special section/folder which I can use to store files.

Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
First Ipods are extremly crap, go for a Creative or an iRiver.

Phweeeezeeeee...
Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
And yes, you're stuck with Itunes hahahaa.

What dont you like about iTunes? It does evrethig u ask of it, smoothly and every time. Music store is great and radio stations rock!
Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
When will people learn, don't go for iPods !
And dont shop at Tesco! dont even think about buying a PlayStation! :x

Originally posted by lonesome
If you take a look at the link I posted you'll see that ipod users are no longer stuck with itunes but can use winamp to manage their music instead. The plugin should work for other kinds of windows operating systems as well. I did see the link, it's good, but, I was trying to makea point of what was doable with the build-in software.
And yeh, zen xtras are good, although I'm not too sure of the look.
I have an iRiver and it's the bomb, no hard drive (so a lot more robust), enough memory for me to put stuff I need for the week.

In a realistic point of view, Apple is at the bottom of the league in Players, BUT it's the only one to advetise. the idea of the iPod Shuffle is unbelievable and totally dumb... Why bring out such a model I don't know... when youcould buy any other model and simply change mode to shuffle !

adaline: I don't like iTunes, as it's simply totally useles, I simply do not need it ! I don't need the radios (I'll search for my own thank you) I don't buy track over Tinternet and I don't use the built-in software to upload music on the player ! So why should I bother ?

iPods can't play Ogg vorbis can it ? ;) ;)

Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
iPods can't play Ogg vorbis can it ? ;) ;)

no, but the Rio Karma can and its a beast of a player... I love mine to bits :D

Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
I don't like iTunes, as it's simply totally useles, I simply do not need it ! I don't need the radios (I'll search for my own thank you) I don't buy track over Tinternet and I don't use the built-in software to upload music on the player ! So why should I bother ?

Fair doos dude, but just coz u dont need it dont make it bad. I for example dont have a need to use print managment software, dont meen to say its all total balls. I do use iTunes alot and im more than satesfied wiv it :thumbsup: .
U dont buy tracks over tinternet sooooo u rip them right?

Originally posted by adaline
Fair doos dude, but just coz u dont need it dont make it bad. I for example dont have a need to use print managment software, dont meen to say its all total balls. I do use iTunes alot and im more than satesfied wiv it :thumbsup: .
U dont buy tracks over tinternet sooooo u rip them right? I have CDs I rip yes.

xafier: Yeh, RIOs are good, well the old ones had an annoying tendancy to freeze. They were the first ones around :)

A good lil' debate we have 'ere, ableit a tad off topic ;)

I got myself this (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=7909&GroupID=378) MP3 player last week. It was only £17.50 - the price has gone up to £22 now though.

I can't see the point in the Ipod Shuffle, you can get better MP3 players with a display and which will work on any computer with a USB port for a lot less.

So if you rip them, y does it matter if ur player plays OGG?
Anyway, I love my iPod, I really like iTunes and i would recomend an iPod to anyone.
Here is the guide on using ur iPod wiv winME, click me (http://www.geocities.com/mmcfly8888/) .
There is an iPod driver you can download for Win98 (and i assume it shud work on ME too) here (http://mho.republika.pl/ipod/index.shtml) .
That page also tells you about and gives links to software that can be used instead of iTunes on win98.
Have fun :thumbsup:

The point of the ipod shuffle is that it's the cheapest 1GB flash player on the market (or was when i last checked).
It is annoying that you have to use iTunes, i'd rather drag and drop, but it does have an autofill that fills it randomly when you plug in from your collection and that's quite cool.

Originally posted by adaline
So if you rip them, y does it matter if ur player plays OGG? Because as Ogg Vorbis is the best compressed format for sound I rip CDs to Ogg... so kinda makes sence to have a player that plays Ogg no ? Mp3 is lame (joke for those who know the codec used to encode sound into Mp3 haha), Ogg vorbis owns due to its rotating bitrate which respects the original sound a lot more.

www.ephpod.com

Thats what I use instead of iTunes. Much nicer.

Oh and the iPod can be used as a UMS, you just need to change two checkboxes in the iPod manager thing. First one to enable Hard Drive mode, 2nd to display filenames on iPod.

More sensationalist rumour made up by jealous 'mp3 player x' fans QUASHED.

ogg vorbis is sound. Phanfm (in it's heyday) streamed mp3 and .ogg - and yes, the the same sized file sounds better at streaming bitrates. But chuck the bitrate up around 192/256 and its getting hard to tell the difference between .ogg .mp3 .wma or .aac

Originally posted by RPG
www.ephpod.com

Thats what I use instead of iTunes. Much nicer.

Oh and the iPod can be used as a UMS, you just need to change two checkboxes in the iPod manager thing. First one to enable Hard Drive mode, 2nd to display filenames on iPod.

More sensationalist rumour made up by jealous 'mp3 player x' fans QUASHED.

you can use it like that, but it won't play mp3 files dumped in the hard drive area, so a rather awkward seperation of the functionality that is completely unneccessary.

Thanks for everyones suggestions!
I decided to go up to my friends house today and borrow his laptop which runs windows xp. Getting itunes up and running was the easy part, getting songs onto the ipod itself took a lot of working out. I managed to get a few albums on so I unplugged it to check if it worked and it did. But when I added the next few albums it decided to delete and replace the first lot!

I think my next step is to follow some of the links that have been posted on here and see if they make it easier to use!

Thanks again, I'll keep you all posted!