iPods: Crap/ Not Crap?

[FridgeMagnet]

ooh, that's a fab idea.

I didn't know about rsync. Is that some kind of automated syncing thing? You do it over usb, I presume...

Yep, it's a UNIX program that syncs directories. You can get a version with full HFS+ support and a nice GUI from http://archive.macosxlabs.org/rsyncx/rsyncx.html - I have a couple of automator actions which run it, "Sync From iPod" and "Sync To iPod", with aliases on my desktop. I'll post the code when I get home.

 

[han]

cool, thanks Fridgie

 

[Sunray]

I've been playing with itunes because Apple forced it on me more than anything. I have discovered that you dont actually have to use for any other purpose apart from copying music to the iPod. You can just drag drop tracks from explorer directly onto the iPod, in iTunes

The only thing it does force upon you is decent tags. But there are a lot of tools that speed that process up for you if you need them if the music is in Artist/Album folder structure type arrangement.

My mate's got 1 tb of music (it's taken him 10 years to...erm...collect it ) - which I'm about to copy off him - huzzah!

Now THAT's disgusting. But no, actually - it's not disgusting - it's an amazingly good collection of everything you could ever want and fortuantely he's got an obscure and rather interesting taste in music.

But going back to the ipod debate.

I have always had a disliking for iTunes and the way it does things, even though I've got a mac. However, recently I have begun investigating mp3 players cos I've never had one. And the fact that you can now get £160gb of storage for £200 on an ipod is just SUCH good value compared to others (eg. Creative, who don't do a player of anywhere near that capacity). So I'm leaning towards getting one.

I think the reason why I find iTunes annoying is because I'm old fashioned and have only ever used a file-structure to organise things. I'm realising that actually, it could be quite a useful tool if I can just be arsed to learn it and get the best out of it. And I can still browse the file-structure if I want, obviously, by just looking at the folders in the Finder window (or using Windows Explorer if you're PC based).

I think I'm getting converted to iTunes/iPods. A technophobic mate copied loads of my music onto his iPod recently and it was just so easy. A monkey could've done it. Yep, it IS good software design!

 

[Crispy]

I've been playing with itunes because Apple forced it on me more than anything. I have discovered that you dont actually have to use for any other purpose apart from copying music to the iPod. You can just drag drop tracks from explorer directly onto the iPod.

But those songs won't show up in the ipod's interface - it has an internal database that has to be updated to include the new songs. 3rd party software can do this, as well as iTunes, but drag'n'drop shouldn't work.

 

[jæd]

The only thing it does force upon you is decent tags. But there are a lot of tools that speed that process up for you if you need them if the music is in Artist/Album folder structure type arrangement.

But if you had all you music tagged you don't need a to keep it in Artist/Album folders. (And what happens when you have a single, but no album...? )

 

[Crispy]

But if you had all you music tagged you don't need a to keep it in Artist/Album folders. (And what happens when you have a single, but no album...? )

You leave the Album tag blank

 

[jæd]

You leave the Album tag blank

I meant if you were using a Artist/Album file structure, where do you put the Singles...

 

[kyser_soze]

List them all as 'Singles' in the 'Album' column. I did the same with all the mixes I download, they're all on an album called...Mix.

 

[Crispy]

List them all as 'Singles' in the 'Album' column. I did the same with all the mixes I download, they're all on an album called...Mix.

Mine too But the genre and artist tags are correct, so it al makes sense.

 

[kyser_soze]

I don't faff with genre tags, but then I've not got terabytes worth of music...

BTW, Wry has just gotten herself an iPod - all the music is on an external HD, so would it be worth registering her's on her PC instead of trying to manage one 20gb and 1 4gb pod from the same itunes?

 

[Sunray]

But those songs won't show up in the ipod's interface - it has an internal database that has to be updated to include the new songs. 3rd party software can do this, as well as iTunes, but drag'n'drop shouldn't work.

If you re-read what I wrote, I am not saying you can copy direct to the iPod, that won't work. You just drag it onto the iPod in iTunes, that works just fine. No waiting hours for iTunes to load in all your music.

 

[Crispy]

Oh right That's a neat trick.

 

[Xanadu]

My parents can use it, and I didn't even have to help them. Now that's good software design.

my parents cann use windows without help from me. is that good software design?

 

[ovaltina]

Oh dear. I think I've broken it already. I was on the tube today, I think it was a bit hot and sweaty in my coat pocket, and the screen went white. It's still white now, and not responding to my increasingly-urgent prods. It should have lasted longer than a couiple of days ffs! It's going back to Selfridges. Is this a common thing with ipods?

 

[tarannau]

Try and do the soft reset thing. There'll be a guide somewhere online - press and hold two buttons together and it'll probably restart.

 

[Crispy]

White as in all misty with condensation? Put it somewhere dry and warm for a few days and cross your fingers.

Soft reset is holding Select and Menu down, btw.

 

[Blagsta]

That's just the 'genre' tag though. Can you remember where you filed every artist? Can you queue up 5 albums in a playlist in less than 10 seconds? Can you create a playlist called 'fresh' which only plays you music you haven't listened to in the last month? Can you search those folders instantly as you type? How quickly could you build a custom playlist and burn an audio CD?

Problem I found with using tags and a library is that it relies on my MP3's being tagged correctly and logically. No problem with rips off CD but downloaded files are often tagged wrongly.

 

[ovaltina]

Ooh! That worked! Thanks tarannau. I luv Urban I do!

 

[ovaltina]

White as in all misty with condensation? Put it somewhere dry and warm for a few days and cross your fingers.

Soft reset is holding Select and Menu down, btw.

I need to be less sweaty when I'm on the Piccadilly Line.

Am going to buy a case thingy for it.

 

[Crispy]

Problem I found with using tags and a library is that it relies on my MP3's being tagged correctly and logically. No problem with rips off CD but downloaded files are often tagged wrongly.

Getting the tags sorted is the first thing I do when I get new music. Not such a pleasant business when you've already got gigs of stuff, but there are apps out there that help to do mass retagging.

 

[Disaster]

I *heart* my iPod.

If they were crap, they wouldn't be so massively popular

 

[jæd]

Getting the tags sorted is the first thing I do when I get new music. Not such a pleasant business when you've already got gigs of stuff, but there are apps out there that help to do mass retagging.

Apart from EditTag on Linux, am I the only one to find iTunes very useful for tagging...?

 

[Crispy]

Yeah, it's prety good. A bit clunky for doing individual track names. Some fancy tagging software will automatically figure out the album and track names, based on song length and a little bit of prodding from the user.

 

[jæd]

Yeah, it's prety good. A bit clunky for doing individual track names. Some fancy tagging software will automatically figure out the album and track names, based on song length and a little bit of prodding from the user.

This is what I use EditTag on Ubuntu for... .Cue files are handy for the latter...

 

[cybertect]

The only thing it does force upon you is decent tags.

To wit: if you don't have tags and you're using a file structure to manage your music like Dub, how does your portable music player (Creative or whatever) know what's playing?

Is it just that people who work in this way only ever play music from the desktop or that they're using directory / file -based portable players?

 

[jæd]

To wit: if you don't have tags and you're using a file structure to manage your music like Dub, how does your portable music player (Creative or whatever) know what's playing?

Is it just that people who work in this way only ever play music from the desktop or that they're using directory / file -based portable players?

Now playing : "Artist A : Track 2.mp3"

 

[editor]

I had a good play with the iPod Touch over Xmas and was massively disappointed.

As a media player it is superb -the interface is fantastic and if you're a fully signed up member of the iTunes collective, it's a great mobile media solution. The design is great, it's super slim and feels great in the hand. The web browser is arguably the best of class too.

But for anything more than that, it's ruddy awful - it makes a truly dreadful PDA, far worse than my 4 year old Sony Clie.

Where's the camera, for starters? It's impossible to add friends photos to your address book, and all the finger scrolling soon starts to irritate.

The lack of Bluetooth means it's rubbish for sharing other stuff unless you happened to be connected to a wi-fi network, the calendar app is awful, there's no decent to-do/task management and then there's that hideous virtual keyboard to contend with, which makes any kind of lengthy note taking clumsy at best.

Great music player. Great browser. Rubbish PDA.

 

[Crispy]

Don't think it's supposed to be a PDA, though is it? All that stuff is 'bonus features'

I had a chance to fiddle with one recently and came to pretty much the same conclusion. If I was bothered with mobile video, I'd probably get one. But tbh, they nailed the interface and the form factor ages ago with the classic and the nano - you don't need any more for playing music.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Sure, it's not supposed to be a PDA, it's a communication device, but the question is - why _not_ try a bit harder? Why have miserable PIM software? It's not hard to do. The iPod Normal annoys me with this as well - it's like they don't _want_ you to use the calender and to-do sync (the to-dos don't even give you the option to hide done tasks!)

 

[jæd]

Great music player. Great browser. Rubbish PDA.

Thats because its a media player... And AFAIK its marketed as such...