You have ten days. 240 hours (more or less depending on when you read the Times Record today) to order an iPod from Apple’s online store, take advantage of free “standard” shipping, and get one of this (or last, or probably next) year’s hottest tech gifts in your hot little hands by Christmas Eve. Simple enough.

But which iPod should you get? That depends a lot on who you’re getting it for, and for what and how they’ll be using it. Here’s everything you need to know about the iPod family if you’re planning on bringing one into your family this Christmas.

First, some general information. You’ll need a computer (PC or Mac) to load and manage the music and other goodies that can be toted around on an iPod. That computer will need to have Apple’s free iTunes application installed. All iPods can play music encoded in the following formats: MP3, Variable Bit Rate (VBR) MP3, AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), Audible (audio books), Apple Lossless Codec (a form of AAC that knocks a CD’s AIFF file’s size in half with very little loss of quality), AIFF (uncompressed audio found on commercial CDs), and the old standard WAV files. iPods WILL NOT play music encoded in RealPlayer or Windows Media Audio formats. But who would want to anyway? OK, I digress.

Now on to the individual models. We’ll start small and work our way up. And I mean small. Weighing in at as little as a car key and as small as a pack of gum is the iPod shuffle. Two capacities, 512MB (around 120 songs, $99), and 1GB (240 songs, $149). Twelve hour battery. Flash RAM memory, so no moving parts, meaning skip-free playback. No screen, so you listen to your songs in order or step through them will simple controls. Perfect for gym rats and runners.

Not much bigger is the iPod nano. 2GB (500 songs, $199) and 4GB (1000 songs, $249) models with skip-free RAM memory. Thin as a pencil, about the size of one-half a credit card. Also does photos (up to 25,000), your Address Book and Calendar, and a few simple games on its small color screen. Available in black and white.

I described the “big daddy” iPod last week. If you have any more specific questions, email me. One last thing – with either the iPod nano or full-size iPod, be sure to get a case.

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski