I love the Iphone,, but hate the Itunes...
Because they can.
Apple still hasn’t come up with an elegant way to manage multiple devices (iPhone, iPod, Wife’s iPhone, kids iPod, the old iPod in the drawer...) with a single iTunes login.
iTunes still wants to manage one device with one login. Their best suggestion for multiple devices is to have multiple logins on your computer. A non-starter when I want some music on my iPhone, and a shorter subset of music on my smaller memory iPod Touch.
Must be their way to ensure you must buy the latest and greatest device.
I don’t own an “I” anything. I still listen to CD’s and my radio.
I just file my LPs alphabetically by composer....
Apple has been doing its utmost to “Microsoft” iTunes.
By this, I mean that each iteration makes me less and less inclined to use it.
Awful icons, redesigned layouts, pressure to use the cloud (which I NEVER will use), etc.
Steve Jobs, we miss you.
It’s easy, use a droid and amazon.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies.
Note the emphasis on MUSIC COMPANIES, not artists!
Lots of the difficulty in using iTunes and the play-back devices derives from the fungibility of digital music, use (or non-use) of DMA for restrictions and only finally does ease-of-use come into play. Things were so much easier in the days of LPs and even analog tape, but now with digital, it is a dance of legalities in a minefield.
Personally, I am surprised we have it as good as we do. I think Steve Jobs caught them by surprise and got enough momentum going that the RIAA could not shut Apple & iTunes down.
When you have a large digital music collection, there are programs out there that are MUCH better than iAnything to catalog them.
I myself prefer MediaMonkey. I’ve been using it for most of a decade.
There are plenty of generic MP3 players that are not I-Things.
They work just like a thumb drive that plays music. Browse and drag and drop the MP3 files you want and enjoy.
Solution to the author’s problem.
DON’T USE AN IPOD.
Guess what, sparky? Apple Computer, Inc. isn’t the only outfit making portable, battery powered mp3 music players.
I've never liked the way iTunes imports music. I listen 99.9% of the time to classical. iTunes thinks every movement of a symphony is a "song". I guess a lot of people these days don't care what order their "songs" are in and play them on shuffle anyway. I usually create a new playlist (which is essentially a folder) while I am importing the music. That way, I can see where iTunes is putting the music tracks (iTunes may file it under composer, orchestra or conductor, or name of work) and can move them to the playlist before I lose track of them.
Rule #1 for an MP3 player for me is that it MUST be able to be accessed as just storage. Windows Explorer is as much file management as I need or want.
Itunes, Ipods, Iphones are a joke.
Thank you very much for your post. I owe you a debt of gratitude. I planned to buy an ipod classic for a gift for someone and had no clue they were discontinued. Just bought one off Amazon while they are still available and the person I’m giving it to will be thrilled. Stupid decision by Apple to discontinue the user-friendly model from their lineup.
Thanks again for the heads up or I might have ordered too late.
“I just wanted to cut and paste the files onto and off the iPod. I still have no clue how to use the supposedly default folders and snyc function. I do not understand why Apple makes what should be a simple process so convulted.”
The quantity of files involved, and the technical process of juggling them, has grown to the point where most users shouldn’t be allowed to have file-level access thereto. Apple is actively trying to prevent such access, lest the user _easily_ screw something up and blame Apple for it.
It’s kinda like someone lamenting the inability to start a car with a crank. The technology has advanced to the point you don’t want people doing that.
Last week I tried to burn a CD out of iTunes for the first time in a year or so. It took a half hour of searching and clicking to find what used to be right there in the top menu.