iPod - never again!

I will never buy an iPod again unless...

Published on February 25, 2007 By Life is a Game In iPod

Don't get me wrong. I think that iPod is a high quality product with unique design but there is one HUGE thing that is a total turn off for me which I didn't think about when I bought my first iPod Nano over year ago and that's a tight 'bond' with iTunes.

Again don't get me wrong. I think that iTunes is a great piece of software. Stylish, clean and simple but I don't like that it takes as twice as much as memory and CPU as Windows Media Player. Don't even want to compare it to WinAMP that is extremely low on consuming the system resources. For example at one point iTunes took 120 MB of my system memory but in average about 75 MB and when minimized 35 MB. Compared to Windows Media Player 35 MB and when minimized 15 MB. I have 1 GB of memory so it's not like my system was really slow when using iTunes but I'd rather give those extra 100 MB of memory to Photoshop or some other software that really needs it.

Another reason why I will not buy an iPod again is that it doesn't allow you to take music of it. Oh, and why the hell do I need an ipodservice.exe running in the background. So unless iPod becomes 'Drag and Drop' device I will not buy it again no matter how amazing the design is. And speaking about the design. Please Apple, please let me put a photo for the menu background or at least change that already boring and plain gray menus. Most of the iPod's compentition has that feature.

I know there are solutions to all of the above problems. I disabled the ipodservice from running in the background. I also installed EphPod software that allowed me to transfer music on and off the iPod easily. But I rather stick with a simple 'Drag and Drop' device that has more colorfull menus and I don't need to install additional software on my computer to use it.

iPod and iTunes are great products but they need some improvements if they will want to attract Power Users such as myself to again consider buying it. Oh and I'm not alone in this opinion I know many people that share this opinion with me.

So hopefully Apple will get to work soon and change their products to make them more attractive to power users that want full control and freedom.

Comments

CerebroJD

on Feb 25, 2007

You can get the music off, no problem. All the files are in hidden folders... if you have an app that'll snag all the mp3's out of them. I use mp3tag to do it. The next hitch is, of course, the convoluted naming sequence that iTunes gives your muzac. Also manageable!

Heres the process I use:

First, I copy all the folders off the iPod. The folders themselves, not just the files (no mp3tag yet). The reason why we're doing this, and not just getting the files is because some of the files are duplicately named, but in different folders. If you put all the files into one big folder, you'll get filename errors. So now, in mp3tag, you're going to convert tag information into new filenames for all the mp3's. (Make sure you're renaming with enough info to have all distinctive filenames. Then, in mp3tag, you can move all the mp3's to one huge folder. As for the final step of shuffling all the songs into proper folders based on artist/album info... thats up to you. iTunes will do it, if you add that huge folder and consilidate your library. Mp3tag might do it too, but I havent experimented with that option... my library is fragile enough just trying to keep it from becoming a gigantic mess of different naming schemes.

Anywho... this might help, might not, but I know I like my iPod for its speed, large screen, and ease of use. I dont need drag-drop functionality, since I generally keep my tunes fairly organized in folders, and syncing on plug-in works excellently for me.

Tsk tsk on using Apple and 'full control' AND 'freedom' in the same sentence. Doesnt work that way.

By the way... alternative software for your iPod does exist. I havent played with it, but apparently RockBox is a very good alternative that *does* offer drag-n-drop functionality, as well as normal file naming. Dont have a link, but a quick google will get ya what you need.

charliecam

on Feb 25, 2007

Yamipod my friend

Hippie

on Feb 25, 2007

I have a RCA LYRA 40GB. I paid $159.00 for it about 3 or 4 years ago. Never had any problems. I can drag and drop from iTunes or any other place I store my music. I've heard people say, how did RCA know MP3's where going to be big. Don't know. Don't care. It is the best music player. It plays through my car speaker, has since I bought it. Built in equalizer. Backlit. I wouldn't have an iPod if it were given to me.

nocalgal

on Feb 25, 2007

Until recently, I used an RCA Lyra 2850, which I loved for the same reasons that Hippie stated. It finally bit the dust after multiple drops onto concrete.

I swore that I would NEVER own an Ipod based on Apple's sneaky way of hogging resources and entering startup with Quicktime and ITunes, even when I have no intention of using their programs.

While trying to determine which MP3 player for my next purchase, I stumbled upon an Ipod mini that had been in the lost and found at work for over 9 months. After another month of seeing it just sit there everyday, I decided to borrow a charger and see if it even worked.

Finding out that it was functioning left me in a quandary about how to find a way to get my music on it without ITunes!! I found a great alternative.

You can actually drag and drop files from your media library to your Ipod with a Winamp plug-in, ml_ipod.

Here is a link with all the info.

http://www.joerobot.com/mlipodwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

phoenixma

on Feb 26, 2007

I prefer my Creative Zen Micro which I bought for around $200 a few years ago. I've never had any problems with it.

Bebi Bulma

on Feb 26, 2007

I prefer my Creative Zen Micro which I bought for around $200 a few years ago. I've never had any problems with it.

Same here.

SanChonino

on Feb 27, 2007

It seems many times that the power user and the computer geek don't like the iPod; rather, they buy the mp3 player from a different company with more functionality.

iPods are for the computer illiterate to the computer friendly; they look cool, and they sell like hotcakes. I walk around campus and everyone has the white earbuds hanging out . . . except me, of course.

cactoblasta

on Feb 27, 2007

I've got an ipod nano and I haven't any problems with it ever. Granted I predominately use a Mac, so the software is heavily biased towards me as an end-user, but it's the easiest way I've ever seen of getting music onto and off a MP3 player.

As for the "how do you get music off the player" dilemma, just open itunes and delete the songs/playlists from the ipod. Problem solved.

Technician

on Mar 02, 2007

Well I think the iPod is one of the best MP3 players on the market.

I love my iPod Video.

Many people do not use iTunes with there iPod there are alternatives.

werewolf

on Mar 03, 2007

I prefer my Creative Zen Micro which I bought for around $200 a few years ago. I've never had any problems with it.

Same here.

Me too um..too

Also have a Creative Zen Vision:M 30g Absolutely amazing device. Beautiful video, great audio output...the whole shebang.

Nothing specific against iPods of any flavor, just like to have choice.

Ton-K300

on Apr 10, 2007

I still prefer minidisc!! We had a Nano too but for much the same reasons as -Life is a Game- we droped it! Still, the sound on the ipod nano is great, just found the whole concept 'fussy'. We even sent it back to Apple via the web due to a malfunction. Excelent service. Recieved a new one in no time but.. oh well, call me old fashioned!

NGTV

on Apr 10, 2007

Welcome to the Zune.

Note- I don't have one yet, but I heard sound quality is superb and the screen is good.
Drag and drop needs a registry hack (should be automized into an app by now) though.

Corky_O

on Apr 10, 2007

I like my iPod, but I do agree that the demand that iTunes places on system resources is quite significant (it does not seem to play nicely with Windows - when compared to other common alternatives), and the lack of straight forward manual transfer of music files onto the computer from iPod is probably 'chalked up' to the 'DRM' issue.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the file transfer issue with the (announced) deal for 'DRM free' music that Apple has made with one of the big music companies. Hopefully the 'use as disk' feature of the iPod will actually let you use it as the backup for files without needing to mess with tagging programs.

Only time will tell.

BuddhaV1

on Apr 10, 2007

Welcome to the Zune.

Note- I don't have one yet, but I heard sound quality is superb and the screen is good.
Drag and drop needs a registry hack (should be automized into an app by now) though.

i bought one of those lil buggers and i am amazed at it's quality! 30 gigs, nice big screen, excellent audio quality. there are minor annoyances(zune software), but i've noticed that it works just about the same as WMP, so it's not much of a switch for me. playlist creation is very easy, the album art is well done, and the video quality is great. i'm not using 10 gigs yet, and i have 1100 songs, 1500 pics, and 5 full length movies on it. the battery is advertised as 14 hours with wireless off, 13 with it on. that's rubbish. the actual life is about 9-10 hours, and the video is about 4, so it was advertised correctly. the biggest prob i've had so far was the darn auto-sync, and i disabled that, so all is well in ZuneLand. the Zune pass is good, too. i've only found a few artists that require payment. I've never liked the iPods, and the new ones that format when you add music are ridiculous! the zune has great anti-piracy software so only the most advanced of users will hack it, drag and drop would be a nice feature, im unaware of it being around yet. the Zune is an awesome player, and i recommend it to anyone who's got $250 bucks to dump into a music player. No offense to Zen users, but the sound quality is better with a Zune. I've had the Zen, and as amazing as it is, the Zune is better sounding, better looking(screen, that is), and better overall. the iPod is on it's way out as the mainstream, primarily due to iTunes and the format feature.

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