Ipod Q, Do I really need to install I-tunes?

seriously, I can’t tell you how much I hate that software. it ranks only slightly below realplayer on my list of things I always find running on start up on my friends and falmily’s pc’s that are making start up times incredibly long and the computer incredibly slow.

but I need an mp3 player, preferably flash type, dont want a hard drive. and a long battery life is key.
the nano fits that bill in every regard BUT the itunes reqirement. if thats the case I will probably just get another lexar 600. which isnt the best player but works just fine for me. (I dont give a crap about ease of use, I just start the thing and let it play on random.)

so somone tell me it aint so, that or convince me I-tunes isnt pure evil Pc death.

I am very particular about what runs on my computers, but I have iTunes installed on my PC right now. It doesn’t run on startup, and doesn’t slow the computer down. I’m not sure why you’ve experienced problems with it. I’ve always found it simple, functional and unobtrusive - unlike the software that comes with devices from other manufacturers.

That said, you don’t need iTunes to load music on an iPod anyway - if you do a search, there are numerous third-party applications that do the same thing.

Sweet!

I would have thanked you sooner but I had to go feed the hampsters.

Winamp works pretty well for managing an Ipod. I use it for my first gen nano without problems. You do need Itunes if you want to update the firmware on the Ipod but those updates don’t come along very often.

There are third party programs that can update the iPod’s firmware and do much of the work of iTunes.

Try starting here.

Geek child #1 has an ipod nano. Geek child #2 has an off brand mp3 player. I liked hers so much better than the ipod that I bought one for myself. It just looks like an external drive to the computer. All I need to do is copy over mp3 files from windows. There’s no file conversion or itunes garbage to mess with.

When my wife got an ipod I installed itunes on an old crappy computer. When we took that computer out of commision (more having to do with rearranging the furniture then anything else) I told her she could charge the ipod on my computer (I tried charging it from a powered USB hub first, but that didn’t work) but she couldn’t install itunes on my computer. Infact, the ipod was one of reasons I bought her her own cheapo laptop.

Hijack:

Three years ago, I’d agree with you about Realplayer. It was a real pain in the ass as it tried to be the default player on my PC. Now, you can define what files it will be the default for during setup, and it doesn’t try to take over the machine (or slow it down). These days Realplayer behaves itself and Quicktime is the pain in the ass software that tries to take over my PC.

and here we have culprit number 3…its not so much that I hate the software as software, I truly despise any kind of software that defaults to run on start up that isnt something your pc needs to have running 24/7

for instance. Sensiva is a program that lets you execute comands with a right click and draw with the mouse. (to copy I hold right click and drag straight up, to paste its the same but straight down. now this I want on all the time unless I am gaming

realplayer, Itunes, Quicktime…why the hell do I need 2 video players and an audio player running in the background 24/7? esp on a system where I can click a file and have it playing in literaly a second or 3?

/hijack off

some nice suggestions, I got one tip I will check out from another board about a Sansa Express player.

I just bought a Sandisk 4gig (flash) Sansa. It acts like a hard drive, runs great, and sounds good.

They come in 2, 4 and 8 gig versions and accept a microSD card to expand memory.

I love it.

Resist becoming a pod person. :smiley: