Well the main point of getting the big 30 to 80 gig Ipods is to put all of your music on it. I don’t want to be moving music on a off the player if I don’t have to.
I removed the link from your post, Illuminatiprimus. Don’t be offended, we’re generally pretty conservative about links to sites which potentially violate U.S. copyright laws.
I’m loving my 160 so far (and yes, I almost have it filled up). There are two big things, though, that I wish iTunes would do:
–Monitor folders on my computer for new media. I download mp3s all the time from various (legal) sources, and they wind up in a couple of different places. I’d love it if iTunes could monitor those folders for new mp3s, move them to the iTunes folder on my external hard drive, import them into the library, and add them to the iPod at the next sync.
–Play music from my iPod. I know it can’t upload, but I thought it could at least play the music that’s on a connected iPod. This would make my radio show much easier, as I could edit the playlist on the fly on my laptop just like I do now, but I wouldn’t have to lug the external HD to the station. (I can edit the playlist on the iPod itself on the fly, and that’s probably how I’ll do it, but that’s harder.)
iTunes may do either of these things, and I just haven’t figured out how to do it, or there may be add-ons that make it happen.
I currently have, in my iTunes library at home, about 51,000 songs, taking up about 200GB. Of course, I had to buy an external hard drive for my mp3s, but it’s pretty easy to fill up a 60G player, and to listen to the songs, especially if, like me, you listen to your mp3 player all day at work (I seriously never take mine off). I also generally spend my evenings at home listening to my library while I write/surf the net, so I’ve got at least a good 10 or 11 hours a day listening to music.
p.s. I’ve got a Creative Zen 40G (I think) mp3 player that also plays videos, and I’ve never had a problem with it, unlike every single person I know with an ipod. There are other brands; I can’t fathom why most people stick themselves with that crappy Apple product.
Maybe I was overly ambitious in calling myself an intermediate user. It all looks too complicated to me.
It can. You just click the song you want to hear in iTunes and hit the Play button. I just tried it & it works fine.
After some searching, I found that (for some reason) you can only do this if you have the AutoSync turned off. So thanks for letting me know it’s possible!
Under the “iPod” menu, what happens when you uncheck the “sync album art” button? Does that not solve your issue?
It took a lot of prodding and pushing but I finally have my new ipod somewhere where I’m happy with it. iTunes still stinks, J River isn’t great software either but it’s a little better and I’m making do with it. Ephpod is still the best imo, and hopefully a new version that works with 6G pods is being worked on.
I gave up trying to go totally artwork free. The new os is just built around cover art so I said the hell with it. Rather than a zillion floating music notes I just downloaded the art, which was another headache, but I’m guess it was worth it because it does look nice. The new clickwheel is still a step backwards. I hear apple got tired of paying someone else for them and started manufacturing their own, which are just not as good as of now.
In sum, coverflow should have been optional, apple shouldn’t have attempted to cut out third party applications, and should have perfected their clickwheels before releasing them. Three big let downs from a company that usually puts out an extremely polished product.
Heh. 14,300 songs and as you can see, I’m a rank amateur compared to other Dopers. 
I love having all of my music on the iPod because it’s great to be able to listen to anything on a whim. Earlier today, a friend and I were reminiscing about a particular album I hadn’t listened to for a while and I was able to play it in the car!
Me too - my Creative Zen rocks. The number of people who have looked at it and asked “is that an Ipod” shows just how ignorant people are of the world beyond Apple land. Even more depressingly I’ve met lots of people who don’t seem to realise that an Ipod is a brand of mp3 player, not the name of the device itself. Stupid pseudo-monopoly…
Who the hell actually likes coverflow, anyway? Who stepped back and said to themselves, “remember when you had to thumb through all your CDs, when they were in no order at all? Yeah, thems was the good old days”?
In better news, Apple is apparently adding some indie labels to its iTunes Plus service (no DRM mp3s), AND dropping the price on all iTunes Plus content (which is unfortunately only EMI stuff at the moment).
Why are they dropping the price? The article above speculates it’s in response to Amazon’s lower prices. Silly Apple, don’t they know they’re a monopoly? 
Edit:
Word. Coverflow is OK if you’ve got iTunes on your computer shuffling through a playlist, but that’s it. I don’t know why Apple is so enamored with it otherwise.
Yeah I definitely need to get a player with more than a measly 40GB (seriously.) I can’t carry around my Beatles, Stones, and Zeppelin along with everything else because they take so much room.
A third shoutout for my Creative Zen. It’s 30 GB, and I bought it online in the summer of 2005 for $150 and it came with a free leather case. Can you even NOW get a better deal for an iPod? Plus, it has never, ever crashed (the worst is that it “Rebuilds the library” about every other month, which takes about 90 seconds), I can change the battery myself if I want to (not that I’ve had to, and I listen to it for many hours a day, just about every day, and I still get… I dunno how many hours per charge, because I’ve yet to have it die), it plays any format, AND I don’t have to deal with iTunes! w00t!
I think it’s to further encourage sales of albums over singles. No sense having a whole album in cover flow if it’s just one little song, right? Right?
Does it play video?
Can you even now get that same player for that price? I’m seeing the 30GB Vision for 250. Most of the other Creative players seem to be in the 1, 2, 4 or 8GB capacities. Zune will have a 30GB, but that won't be here until November. Right now, with the 80GB and 160GB, Apple seems to have the best per GB ratio that I can see.
Seriously, what am I missing here? I’m in the market, and want to make the right decision.
Sorry if I was unclear – mine is just an MP3 player. I use it in the car, so being able to watch tiny videos is not a priority for me (at all). This is it here. If you want an MP3 player without any video or phone or camera or rocket launching or [insert superfluous technological device here] capabilities, I’d recommend this one.
30 GB Zune has been out since Zune launch. They are not relaunching a new 30GB Zune. The new firmaware will be free to previous Zune buyers via download. I think you can get a brand new one for around $100 now if you look around online.
I love my Zune and the new 80GB is the same price as the upod 80. I may jump back to ipod though because the 160gb is really tempting but I MUCH prefer the interface on my Zune (I had several generations of ipod over about 3 years)
FYI I had the Zen too. Didn’t like the scroll bar on the front. WAY too sensitive even after you lower the sensitivity via the software.