Toadfish Monastery

Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on January 28, 2010, 03:00:25 PM
The thing with itunes is that is the only approved conduit for and ipod, that said you can use other programs for that but apple is known for making changes to the firmware of their devices so they only talk to itunes. The general solution is to NEVER install itunes, but it is still a hassle.

Personally I wouldn't buy neither an ipod or a zune, and much rather go with a sandisk Samsa or a Creative.

Both Sandisk and Creative are good products.

But, just like the Zune?  Finding accessories for them is... difficult.

"You wan to WHAT?"
"I wish to journey to Mars"
"Okay.  Not impossible, but very difficult..."

Specific accessories, yes, but the main accessory I need is a cable, RCA stereo to 3.5mm jack to plug into an amplifier, fairly cheap and easy to find.

Now if you're looking for a dock... good luck with that.

My 2c worth:

i would avoid an iPod like the plague.  They may do all sorts of things well - although some models are amazingly obtuse to use.  Their big problem is the software.  iTunes (the software, not the web site), simply put, creates havoc on a Windows machine.  The same can be said to varying degrees of all Apple software.  The problem is Apple thinks they know how to do everything better than any one else and don't play by the rules when coding their softeware for a PC.  In fact mostly their Windows software looks like quick and dirty ports from the Mac OS.  I have lost count of the number of times I have been called in to help out with a poorly performing PC, had a quick look, found iTunes, asked if I can uninstall it to testif it is the problem, then uninstalled and found that the problems go away.  This happens far too often for it to be a coincidence.

It is apparently possible to use an iPod without iTunes software but I understand that it is a pain to do so, plus Apple has been known to try and code the device firmware to force you to use iTunes.

I organise my music (ripped from CDs) in directories by artist and album.  Some MP3 players will allow you to simply copy these directories onto the player and then display the contents so that it is simple to navigate to the desired album or track and play it.  I have an old CocoPod that has a 20 GB HDD and it is simplicity itself to use.  A number of smaller units I have seen display the info on the tune being played but have poor ability to select a particular tune or album to play.  Often regardless of the directory structure these units simply see all the tracks and to pick out a particular one you need to know which number it is on the unit - ie track No 231.  This is a pain, and everytime you add or delete content the numbers change.

Most MP3 players can be loaded from Windows Media Player and if you have your music already managed by it, it is a simple thing to then load desired content onto the MP3 player.

Hope this helps.

I feel so smug:  today, I finally remembered the last time I had my iPod-- New Years, when I took a short trip to OKC.

Since the roads were poor, I packed for a longer trip:  a gadget bag.  I'd tossed my 'pod into there, and although I'd removed most of the stuff from the bag, I'd not removed my ipod....there it was (once I located the gadget bag).



Now, I will see if WinAmp will work on Win7, and still able to see my iPod.

I'm with Blue:  avoid CrApple-->PC software as much as possible. 

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Edit:  Well, I went to WinAmp's website, downloaded the full-but-still-free version, unchecked the stuff I didn't want (such as their toolbar-- I loathe toolbars... but that's me) but made sure portable media players support was checked, and it installed in Win7 no issues.

Then, I got out my newly re-found iPod classic, hooked it up, and within seconds, WinAmp detected it, and could browse it's media files.  Literally, falling-down easy.

And no iTunes.... (and no, I've never updated this player-- since I don't have iTunes, I cannot update it-- good.  Currently, it Just Works, and I don't need a stupid break-my-player "update"....  )

The battery is charging-- but, since Jan 1, when I had charged it previously, it was still nearly full-charge.  Nice.

Next up:  I'll see if I can hack my Zune, to avoid installing Zune-ware from M$...  I'm not expecting to, but why not? 

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Edit:  You Can't.   

M$ has carefully shielded the Zune player, that basically, you can't hack it into anything other than a zune-based player-- not even to use as a hard drive...

So, I installed the latest Zune-ware, and limited it to which folders it can mangle...  and, of course, Zune-ware (v4) requires an update to my player... naturally.  But that completed quicker than I could write this (it's running on monitor 2, currently)... now, it's re-booting the FLASH (step 3 of 4) okay, still another re-boot of the player (apparently, I had it really out-of-date).   Okay 3 more of those, and it's complete.  Roughly 3 minutes front-to-back (or the time it took for my TV show running the background to run through a spate of commercials).   Now, it's apparently fully in-sync with my Zune-music folder.   

*sigh*

After all of that messing around, I still prefer the Zune's interface to iPod's...

Thanks for the tip on iTunes no-no for Windows. WinAmp looks fine. I am still dithering. But will decide eventually.

Having finally decided to go for an iTouch and WinAmp, I just read that WinAmp does not support iTouch. Now I am dithering whether to buy a Nano even though it is the iTouch I want. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

I found an interesting article on the thing:

Quote from: articleThe company claims that the Touch can play music for up to 22 hours and video for up to five hours on a single battery charge, even with Wi-Fi turned on. But in my tests, using factory settings, music playback lasted just under 17 hours and video playback lasted just over four hours. Nearly every other iPod I've tested, including the new Nano, handily beat Apple's battery claims.

Wifi eats batteries like there's no tomorrow and if you really use it's functionality it will have the battery life of an iphone (which is dreadful).

Food for thought.

Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 06, 2010, 03:13:42 AM
Having finally decided to go for an iTouch and WinAmp, I just read that WinAmp does not support iTouch. Now I am dithering whether to buy a Nano even though it is the iTouch I want. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Sorry about that chief-- I did specify I had an iPod classic, v2.

Yes, the iTouch is generation 3.

Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 07, 2010, 04:22:36 AM

Yes, the iTouch is generation 3.

I played about with an iTouch in the stor-- hated it's interface.  But that's me.  I found the classic's interface tolerable.   Basically the iTouch is an iPhone without the 'phone' bits.  Not my cuppa-- all I wanted was a music player that would hold all my files-- I do not want or desire the ability to play games on such a tiny device.   

The iTouch appeals to me because it has Wi-Fi  - can download direct from internet. (+some other features that I like).

I've discovered http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_managers#Compatibility which is a huge comparison list of software that can be used instead of iTunes for different iPods. There are several that work with iTouch generation 3.1 of which from reading reviews etc CopyTrans looks to be the best.

So am re-considering the iTouch again now.

Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 08, 2010, 03:33:41 AM
The iTouch appeals to me because it has Wi-Fi  - can download direct from internet. (+some other features that I like).

I've discovered http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_managers#Compatibility which is a huge comparison list of software that can be used instead of iTunes for different iPods. There are several that work with iTouch generation 3.1 of which from reading reviews etc CopyTrans looks to be the best.

So am re-considering the iTouch again now.

Keep in mind, some of those are Linux-only programs.  That may or may not affect your decision. 

Edit:  that's a cool matrix you've located there.  I may have to bookmark it.

CopyTrans is windows. incl. vista.

Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 08, 2010, 07:18:29 PM
CopyTrans is windows. incl. vista.

I saw that one, too.... got my eye on it, if I ever upgrade from my venerable classic.

Having sorted out I was going to use CopyTrans to avoid putting iTunes on my machine, the first instruction that comes with my new  iPod is to download iTunes IN ORDER to SET UP the iPod. The iPod itself is just a dead machine - not even any menus - so I suppose it comes to life when plugged in to iTunes via the laptop USB. So that means I have to install iTunes. At least to set the iPod up.

So what's the point of stuff like winamp and copytrans if one has to install iTunes anyway? I mean, one might prefer them, but they don't remove the need to install iTunes.