Why is the iPod so popular?

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Balthazar

Originally posted by: sheik124

Originally posted by: Balthazar
too much

Sorry for mouthing off, you remind me of a "friend" that had a really hard time understanding how to use iTunes, but his condition was worse than yours, he also had a hard time getting word to work.

The setting is in the iPod tab, click Manually Manage my Music and Playlists. This won't help you with your library problem though, it looks like you may just end up having two seperate libraries, all my music resides in the same paths on both PCs, so I don't really worry about it. And, in response to your comment, all my little script does is copy the 500 KB database file off my PC onto my laptop, to sync play count and the like, its only because I'm picky.

 

[Azndude2190]

Originally posted by: Balthazar
I've never been a big fan on the iPod, or apple in general for that matter. But when they announced the nano, even _I_ caved....

So I got my nano in the mail today and I've had it for less than 3 hours....but I allready want to go back to my Creative Zen.

Seriously, like alot of things about the ipod but the interface, kind blows, and let me explain why.

First, adding songs....it should NOT be this hard. At first it looked similar to my Zen in that I could goto the menu, goto library, goto artist, then sort by track or by album, if I sort by album, right then and there I could add the whole album all at once. Or I could open the album and add individual songs. With the iPod, I had to add the whole album, period. Or if I goto into "Artists" I have to add ALL the songs by that artist.

That is unless I create a playlist, on my computer.

LAME.

And here is the REAL deal breaker for me.

I got a 4GB nano.
I have a 25GB MP3 collection....no problem, I have a laptop.

Oh but WAIT....I have to have ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL my MP3's on my laptop in the EXACT same paths (nevermind I have one HDD in there vs. 3 HDD's in my pc, makes the path thing hard to do).

And even IF I manage that, I have to manually export the library and import it when I go between PC and Laptop.

If I DONT, yeah it will delet anything that was put on by the other copy of iTunes.

THIS SUCKS.

With my Zen I just loaded up Zen Explorer, drag and drop my files, DONE. I keep about 8MB worth of drivers and the Zen Explorer app on my thumbdrive and in minutes any PC will allow me to add to my library just fine.

wtf Apple....

So I know that was a long rant, but I did it because SURELY not everyone out there is retarded enough to LIKE the way this behaves, sure SOMEONE out there knows how to get around this, some 3rd party app (ephpod kept crashing at the first unexpected thing it encountered), some settings (I tried "manually manage my library" but that didnt do anything at all so far as I can tell) or SOMETHING that can make this ungodly thing just....just....WORK.

I can kind sorta almost overlook not being able to add a song at a time or create playlists on the player itself so long as I can at least synch the stupid thing up like a normal non sucky mp3 player would.

My kingdom to anyone who knows the solution to this problem!

I was never into the whol Ipod thing either...thats why at the time I chose to buy a Dell DJ...imo better than the ipod with more features

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: sniperruff

Originally posted by: Balthazar

Originally posted by: sniperruff
first, you can add individual songs by going further into "album" (at least i can do that with a mini)
second, it's FLASH-BASED... go find out how much a 4gb compact flash costs. never skip or destroy your hard drive again...
third, the creative is a hunky brick IMO.

i don't personally really LOVE apple's products... they skim on the parts included (no AC adapter), and the sound quality isn't that good IMO. but hey, it's the smallest, not that expensive, and it won't skip.

Going further into "Albums" doesnt help, if you hit play on one (or click the center button) it adds them all. The trick is, and I didn't read this anywhere, I just happened to wander into playlists and clicked on "on the go" you HOLD the center button until the highlighted song flashes.

This fixes ONE problem, and honestly if I could get the stupid f'ing thing to JUST let me send song over, no sync, no deleting songs without asking JUST "hey, send this f'ing song over, NOTHING else", I would actually be VERY happy.

Second, I dunno why exactly I should go price 4GB CF cards, I don't recall complaining about the price. And I am very well aware its flash based, one of the reasons I bought it.

However, at the time of doing so I figured, no biggy, so what if I have over 20GB of MP3's, I can keep most of them on my laptop so that if I want to swap some out, no problem.

Thats not the case.

sorry to hear that. in my mini i can just go into "album" and click on the song to play it. as for upload songs... it's drag-n-drop for me too.

heh wanna trade your nano for my much better and user-friendly 2nd gen mini?

I take it you dont use iTunes (or you dont use multiple PC's)? If not, how the heck do you get it to be drag and drop?

And yeah I just double checked, clicking the center button queues all songs in the current view (whether it be album, artist or all, or in a playlist).

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Balthazar

But as I mentioned, I set both copies of iTunes to manual, went to the laptop, copied songs, hooked it up to the desktop, boom, automatically updated it and the songs were gone.

Automatically updating copies the ENTIRE library over to the iPod, and WIPES everything else off it. Don't automatically update, thats whats f*ing it all up.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: Balthazar
Why is the iPod so popular?

good design + even better marketing

</thread>

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: sheik124

Originally posted by: Balthazar

Originally posted by: sheik124

Originally posted by: Balthazar
too much

Sorry for mouthing off, you remind me of a "friend" that had a really hard time understanding how to use iTunes, but his condition was worse than yours, he also had a hard time getting word to work.

The setting is in the iPod tab, click Manually Manage my Music and Playlists. This won't help you with your library problem though, it looks like you may just end up having two seperate libraries, all my music resides in the same paths on both PCs, so I don't really worry about it. And, in response to your comment, all my little script does is copy the 500 KB database file off my PC onto my laptop, to sync play count and the like, its only because I'm picky.

I am fully aware that I am a noob at this, but, ugh, it just drives me nuts, I've been looking forward to this thing and aside from a few things its SO good, and what REALLY drives me bonkers is how simplistic the problems are, its like, seriously, you spent all this time and effort developing something with so much potential, but you let a couple amateur stupid things get in the way of what would otherwise be a GREAT little toy.

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: sheik124

Originally posted by: Balthazar

But as I mentioned, I set both copies of iTunes to manual, went to the laptop, copied songs, hooked it up to the desktop, boom, automatically updated it and the songs were gone.

Automatically updating copies the ENTIRE library over to the iPod, and WIPES everything else off it. Don't automatically update, thats whats f*ing it all up.

Yes but you see thats the whole problem, I set it to "manually manage my songs and playlists" on BOTH machines, and even though I did that, it STILL auto synchs.

Thats after closing and reopening, restarting, nothing seems to work to get it to STOP doing this crap.

 

[HN]

Originally posted by: sheik124

Originally posted by: Balthazar

But as I mentioned, I set both copies of iTunes to manual, went to the laptop, copied songs, hooked it up to the desktop, boom, automatically updated it and the songs were gone.

Automatically updating copies the ENTIRE library over to the iPod, and WIPES everything else off it. Don't automatically update, thats whats f*ing it all up.

He said he "set both copies of iTunes to manual"

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: Balthazar

Originally posted by: sniperruff

Originally posted by: Balthazar

Originally posted by: sniperruff
first, you can add individual songs by going further into "album" (at least i can do that with a mini)
second, it's FLASH-BASED... go find out how much a 4gb compact flash costs. never skip or destroy your hard drive again...
third, the creative is a hunky brick IMO.

i don't personally really LOVE apple's products... they skim on the parts included (no AC adapter), and the sound quality isn't that good IMO. but hey, it's the smallest, not that expensive, and it won't skip.

Going further into "Albums" doesnt help, if you hit play on one (or click the center button) it adds them all. The trick is, and I didn't read this anywhere, I just happened to wander into playlists and clicked on "on the go" you HOLD the center button until the highlighted song flashes.

This fixes ONE problem, and honestly if I could get the stupid f'ing thing to JUST let me send song over, no sync, no deleting songs without asking JUST "hey, send this f'ing song over, NOTHING else", I would actually be VERY happy.

Second, I dunno why exactly I should go price 4GB CF cards, I don't recall complaining about the price. And I am very well aware its flash based, one of the reasons I bought it.

However, at the time of doing so I figured, no biggy, so what if I have over 20GB of MP3's, I can keep most of them on my laptop so that if I want to swap some out, no problem.

Thats not the case.

sorry to hear that. in my mini i can just go into "album" and click on the song to play it. as for upload songs... it's drag-n-drop for me too.

heh wanna trade your nano for my much better and user-friendly 2nd gen mini?

I take it you dont use iTunes (or you dont use multiple PC's)? If not, how the heck do you get it to be drag and drop?

And yeah I just double checked, clicking the center button queues all songs in the current view (whether it be album, artist or all, or in a playlist).

correct, i only use ONE computer. i just open itunes, then i drag any song/folder from a window folder to anywhere inside the main window of itunes, then it'll add onto the ipod.

did you try scrolling down to a song and press the center button? does it still play ALL the songs in the album?

 

[Fenixgoon]

i don't understand how its become so popular either - its fvcking insanely expensive, yet people at my HS had them all over the place and personally, i fvcking hate itunes and will continue to use winamp with great pleasure

 

[Balthazar]

Ok, just to double check to make CERTAIN I am not retarded I tried it again.

I connect the iPod, iTunes opens, it synchs it. I goto Edit -> Preferences -> iPod where "Automatically update ALL songs and playlists" is checked, I check "Manually manage songs and playlists, it says "Disabling automatic updates requires manually ejecting the iPod before each disconnect."

Whatever that means. I click ok, click ok again, close iTunes. Unplug the nano, plug it back it, iTunes comes up, auto synchs, goto the prefs page and lo and behold its set back to automatic. Ok, do the same thing again, this time before I unplug it I click the "safely remove hardware" icon is systray, says its done, yay for me, close iTunes, unplug nano, plug nano back in....auto synchs.

 

[Balthazar]

To make matters worse I just said the hell with it I will use winamp....download ml_ipod, install it....nothing. Hmmm, thats odd. Restart, open winamp, open media library, plug the nano in over in the left I see it show my ipod and it contents, yay right....15 seconds later it disappears, I can't get it to come back without reconnecting, and it vanishes again....

SO not worth this much hassle.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: Baked
One word - Marketing.

 

[Whatisthat]

Buy a dell juke box......its a better deal and practically the same thing excpt for the fact that you can get 5GB for 199 dollars instead of 4GB for 199 like an IPOD. and besides who has 40GB of music?????

 

[Anubis]

after reading this thread and as much as i think itunes is crap i beleive the real issue here is PEBKAC

 

[sniperruff]

i'd just uninstall itunes and start over if it's too confusing.

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: Anubis
after reading this thread and as much as i think itunes is crap i beleive the real issue here is PEBKAC

I would GLADLY acquiesce to this if only SOMEONE could tell me how to do it right. So far nobody seems able to do so.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Probably having more of a PeeCee problem than your iPOD not working right. Get a Mac and you'll be much happier.

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: deathkoba
Probably having more of a PeeCee problem than your iPOD not working right. Get a Mac and you'll be much happier.

I think...wait....yes, yes I would in fact rather die that buy a mac....I allready feel dirty enough as it is owning an iPod.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Try uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes once again. I bet it'll clear it up.

 

[Balthazar]

Ah the old windows approach to fixing things.

At this point, its pissing me off enough that I might as well reinstall before I install the "burnout" patch on this nano.

Thanks to all the people who gave me tips and info.

 

[The Stigenator]

learn to use itunes.. it is so much easier to use than you think.

 

[randomlinh]

manual eject is the same thing you have to do for any usb based mass media device... you're suppos to eject it before unpluggin it. so this is nothing new.

i wouldn't think the nano would kill indiviual song adding to the on-the-go playlist. however, previous versions were limited in functionality IMO, such as deleting single songs from the list, and having multiple lists. i didn't notice if anyone else w/ a nano posted about this or not.

itunes is a great piece of software for most ppl, but is a bit intrusive initially. manual manage, add your songs to itunes (w/ the "copy to itunes folder" unchecked and any management options as well). drag and drop whatever you want to the nano. that's really it.. unless apple has done something to change how the nano works vs my ipod mini (and 3rd gen ipod when i had it).

 

[javald]

I love the ipod!!

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Balthazar

Going further into "Albums" doesnt help, if you hit play on one (or click the center button) it adds them all. The trick is, and I didn't read this anywhere, I just happened to wander into playlists and clicked on "on the go" you HOLD the center button until the highlighted song flashes.

This fixes ONE problem, and honestly if I could get the stupid f'ing thing to JUST let me send song over, no sync, no deleting songs without asking JUST "hey, send this f'ing song over, NOTHING else", I would actually be VERY happy.

I am deeply confused by the problems you are having. I'm not sure if my iPod Shuffle is just special or something, but I just fire up iTunes, hook up my iPod and wait until the iPod shows up in the left sidebar of iTunes. After I see my Shuffle is ready to go, I find the song or album that I want in iTunes (either by scrolling down the main list or clicking on the Browse icon in the upper right so I can break it down by genre, artist or album). Once I find the songs or albums I want, I simply highlight the name of the song or album I want (using the Shift and Control keys to highlight multiple items), grab the selections with my mouse pointer while clicking and holding the left mouse button, and drag the music selections over to the cute little picture of the iPod on the left hand sidebar and the music copies itself over to my iPod.

I don't understand the hate for iTunes. I was a WinAmp user back in the day, but after a while I just got tired of creating a new playlist every time I added more music to my library (hopefully, they fixed that by now in the newer versions but I have never bothered to check). I tried a lot of different programs, and they all required me to create a playlist or clumsily naviage a big folder structure if I wanted to play a song. The user interfaces were also horrible, and most user-made skins are unusable (maybe a handful out of a thousand skins look and function well in my experience). I switched to iTunes because the interface is clean and well thought out. I can find and play a song in no time at all using the browse feature. The software can be a bit glitchy when it comes to reliably connecting with my iPod, but I think that may partly be from the card reader in my multifunction printer that shows up as a USB Mass Storage device (so my computer tries to use that driver to run my Suffle some of the time since it is a modified USB key at heart). I'm not brainwashed, I just think that Apple did a great job in the usability department with iTunes. They put a lot of thought into their products, and the way Microsoft rips off their user interfaces on a regular basis shows who has the best design teams (just compare Vista to Panther and you can see how heavily MS borrowed from Apple's ideas).