My parents are going to the USA and may bring me back an iPOD. Are there any issues with bringing one back from the USA ?

Whats the best model to go for at the moment and what would you be looking at price wise in the UK ?

Can you link the iPOD to the Impreza stereo in any way ?

 

Mine's a US import. No problems at all. I would use my iTrip in car if it wasn't illegal. Biggest is best and I'd go for the iPhoto, colour screen for showing your digital images.

 

Doing the same myself (although it's a mate going)
He's getting me a 4Gb Ipod Mini. Exchange rate is really good at the mo so it'll work out to about £93 from the US, where as it's £145 over here.
There are many ways to connect the Ipod to a car stereo, in the US they do FM transmitters which you just tune your radio into (although these are illegal in the UK - classed as a pirate radio station!)

 

editted cause I just found the iTrip for the mini!

 

I have a 40Gb iPOd from Singapore and theres no probs with it.

Only difference with EU and other iPods is that due to a EU noise directive (from France I think) the volume for EU iPods is quieter than US/Far Eastern ones. This can be a pain when using the iPod on the tube or with iTrip in the car (I use that every day and havent been rumbled by the authorities yet )

You can override the volume thing though with something like goPod (firmware mod).

Dave

 

What about the power supplies ?

 

The power supplies just use a different plug, just use one of those travel adapter thingys or just charge when connected the pc.

 

OK power supplies, essentially the main 'block' of the powersupply is world wide, there is a tiny corner of it that has a removeable section, this section can be replaced for a country specific one, for example, the UK one would have a three prong section, whereas my and your US one would have a two prong US section.

The simple solution is to buy a UK spec iPod power Adaptor, otherwise you'll need to get the 'worldwide power kit' which has the little sections for different countries. If you travel a lot then that might be of use to you.

As for which iPod to get, well, depends what you want. I don't need the photo displaying capabilities, so I went for the 40GB iPod. To be honest, if you're going to save on the exchange rate, I'd go for the top of the line 60GB iPod photo, will be cheaper than in the UK, plus there's the brag factor too lol

 

Just use a "figure-of-8" power lead with the PSU supplied (like you get with games consoles, kitchen radios) no need to fork for the Apple Worldwide Adaptor kit.

Bought myself a new iPod in NYC just before Christmas. Threw away all the packaging, put the cables in my hand luggage, ditched the CD-ROMs (you can download everything from Apple) and posted myself the receipt. Less chance you'll encounter issues with customs if you do this.

Warranty is World Wide like all portable Apple products and you'll also have no trouble purchasing AppleCare once you get it back in the UK.

HTH
Alex

 

Get a Sony cassette adapter for the headunit, make sure it's the sony one with the tape inside. Cheaper adapters get spat out by the headunit cos it doesnt 'see' the tape moving if you know what I mean.

Dipster

 

I thought there was something about the iTrip that meant it's not illegal. i.e. although it broadcasts, the range is so limited that it's not technically a pirate radio station? I don't know though, just thinking out loud.

Has anyone ever been done for using a device like this in a car though? Would a copper ever think about it let alone decide to pursue it?

 

I use my iTrip day in day out and I really don't worry about it. You don't even get a second look of any police.

 

get an ICE:>Link

 

Only thing to check is the "USB" cable is in the box, and not sold as a seperate part, I came back from NYC at the weekend ,and after looking at several shops I paid £140 + local tax for an IPOD 20gb, but I also checked the sealed box for the usb cable which is not always shipped as most use the Apple firewire cable, chargers are no problem and it can be charged from the USB cable anyway, the cheapest FM transmitter is the Belken at £18 which users 2 batteries but there is a version that charges and transmits for about £25 to £30

 

Go for the 6gb iPod mini, it should be available in the US by now.

 

My Ipod Mini is from the US.

Cost me £125 just before xmas, they were selling for £175 over here then.

I've got no problems.

It charges when you plug it in to your pc (as long as you have USB 2) or you can just do what i do and plug it into a shaver plug.

 

If you have a small music collection, or only want a subset of a larger collection then consider an iPod mini, otherwise, don't bother. It's a fancy looking player, but for between 100 - 200 dollars more you can get a full size iPod with a much greater capacity.

The iPod mini is a great marketing plan by Apple, but if you start doing the math, you'll see that it's not the best bang for buck if you're going for an Apple product.

I go an iPod as I wanted my entire CD collection, plus the various mp3 and m4a files I have on one device that I could use at home, in the car, and out and about. The mini just simply could not fit my music collection on it, and I saw no point in sitting and downloading different playlists to the thing when I wanted to change my music, to me that seemed the same as burning your playlists to a CD and carrying a CD walkman with you.

The other factor is that I wanted a bit of portable storage, as I have to rebuild various machines and it's far easier to use an image from a local drive than from a network one.

 

New iPods are now shipping with the USB cable only although some retailers may still have old stock.

 

Wheres the best store to send my mate to when he's in NY for my Ipod?

 

Prices are pretty much the same everywhere so either CompUSA (quite a few branches) or the Apple Store in SoHo which is where I got mine Lovely neighbourhood and the building itself is pretty special.

 

Cheers