“One, the Shuffle was not one of the first iPods.”
On this you are correct, I do not keep up on music devices. To our family, it was one of the first, because it was the first time one of my family members expressed interest in having such a device. But, since it was not one of the first, this makes it even worse. Wouldn’t Apple have gotten their head out of their collective arses by the time this came out? I guess not.
“Two, you did not have to register your current content. “
She sure did. Every time it was plugged into the PC, some apple application (I forget the name) would pop up, and it would start filling in the blanks for all the missing songs. If I remember, on the agreement as well, you agreed to share your information with Apple. My kids were downloading their content from torrents, from Limewire, and copying old CD’s mom and dad had. With all the stories of folks getting fined for illegal music, this was a big no no for us. Apple has and had no right to categorize our music. And we searched, and searched on how to turn this off, we could not. We were told if we bought the better music thing (whatever i thing that might have been) we could use whatever music management device we wanted.
“Three, contrary to your claim it did work with your PC. “
yes, it did work with a PC. but like crappola. Her zen was plug and play, no apple pop ups, no categorizing songs, using windows media player to organize however she wanted.
Further, we had 2 of them things, now that I recall, one my oldest daughter had as well. We could not figure out how to get both of them to work with their one shared computer. It wouldnt’ do it. It would update both song lists, and force the song list to the other one, or it would direct us to the iStore thing to buy the usage rights for one song that had been bought already. I think my oldest daughter just chucked hers after a week or so.
“Four, you do not have to buy content from the Apple Store.”
No, you don’t. But our kids were directed to do so. For an eight year old, getting pressured into buying music, is just wrong. Also, for us to use the thing, we HAD to have a registered apple store account. I do remember that. There was no way to even manage or remove or add songs without the registered account.
“I have Amazon MP3 content in my iTunes right now.”
My kids have tons of songs on their zens, or zooms or whatever they have now. My son says he has over 10,000 songs on his Android. What is your point?
““Four, you do not have to buy content from the Apple Store.””
Let me clarify that, now that my wife is awake, and jogged my memory.
For the shuffle to work, you had to hook up to iTunes. To hook up to iTunes, you had to have an iTunes account. There is (was) no anonymous access. You had to fill in all of your personal information, neither of us remember if a credit card was needed.
As far as the 2 shuffles on one computer, it was because a computer could only be registered to iTunes once. You could not register the product, it was the PC we were logging from, so when one kid would plug in the shuffle, it would go right to the iTunes thing, and update her list from there, which was very different from the other kids list.
Our solution was to register each shuffle on a different PC, which means we had to use up the HD space of 2 computers. It was a pain, and the songs we bought back then, would only work on 1 device. Dispute this all you want, but when we transfered them to the other PC, and the other daughter would go to the iTunes store, it would direct her to buy the usage rights. The iTunes software would not accept the license agreement connected to the song, if the song was transferred via our network. It had to be registered to the particular shuffle.
You can scream and kick all you want, and claim that is not true, but when we got on the net back then, the posts to this fact were found all over.
Maybe the shuffle has changed. I think we bought ours Christmas 2 years ago (not including this Christmas). It was a stroke. I think by Feb, we replaced them with the cheapest music players they had at Walmart, and never had a problem after that.
I bought a second-generation Shuffle. I was still on the PC at the time. I was already using iTunes, I'd been doing digital music since the mid 90s, and it was the best player so far. I plugged the iPod in, iTunes immediately recognized it (even showed me the right color), and it was brain-dead to either tell it to put a playlist on the Shuffle or for it to fill the Shuffle to capacity with random songs from my collection (which was entirely ripped from CDs, I refused to buy DRM music). I had zero problems.
Every time it was plugged into the PC, some apple application (I forget the name) would pop up, and it would start filling in the blanks for all the missing songs.
That sounds like Genius, which you have to explicitly turn on. When you do turn it on, it sends your playlists and listening habits to a database, but it doesn't identify you specifically. It does that for everybody. Then it can suggest other playlists and new music for you based on what other people with similar tastes to yours have.
BTW, while had low initial expectations for Genius, it rocks. I was amazed at the music it came up with, and I had some pretty esoteric music going. It was as if one of my favorite DJs made a playlist just for me. Amazing.
It also sounds like the "complete my album" feature, but that's just Apple trying to sell you something.
using windows media player to organize however she wanted.
WMP phones home too. And if you're afraid of the big bad RIAA, remember that Apple has been fighting them to remove DRM, while Microsoft pays them for each Zune sold on the assumption that you will pirate music. Who do you think is more likely to cooperate with the RIAA?
We could not figure out how to get both of them to work with their one shared computer. It wouldnt’ do it.
I ran two Shuffles and a Nano off a PC, no problem. Each had its playlist(s) that it looked in to get its music when synching. Remember, this is all prior to me buying a Mac.
But our kids were directed to do so. For an eight year old, getting pressured into buying music, is just wrong.
You do realize the Zune is connected to Microsoft's store in pretty much the same way, right?
Also, for us to use the thing, we HAD to have a registered apple store account.
That's your Apple ID for registering. It does automatically make the store available to you, including free stuff like podcasts, but there is no requirement to give it your credit card or buy a card at a retailer. You never have to buy anything.
What is your point?
That iTunes doesn't tie you to the Store. Your music can come from any source, and it doesn't care. In fact, the Amazon MP3 downloader added my purchased music to iTunes for me.