cost of an 8 GB USB memory device that doesn’t require charging: $13. Cost of an 8 GB ipod $80.
Exactly what “techo-niche” is that?
I don’t know, what is a techo-niche?
Ah yes, make fun of the typo. Always the sign of a strong argument.
What argument are you trying to make?
That’s a great deal, since iTunes works with both.
I remember desperately trying to get a copy of iTunes in 1999. The Windows alternative was comically pathetic. I find it entertaining that these people that lived without anything worthwhile for years suddenly find that what was easily the best mp3 program for years is suddenly worthy of contempt. iTunes IMO is still the best music player out there. You can reasonably disagree, but the visceral hatred for iTunes clearly comes from the Windows fanboys and it’s association with Apple.
Oh for crying out loud. You’re the one who made a point and is now clearly avoiding my question trying to get clarification on it…
There’s a gigantic amount of difference between “DOS vs Windows” as they’re light years apart in function and operation, and the differences between two digital music formats which provide more or less identical sound quality with any differences being indistinguishable to 99% of the population.
You do know Zunes aren’t available in Australia, right? Or, as far as I can tell, anywhere except the US and Canada?
The point (which has been made subsequently) is that AAC is not the worldwide default standard for digital music, it is- at best- a standard, and one with no real advantages over the current “standard” MP3. I’d be willing to bet that begbert2 isn’t the only person on the boards saying “I’ve never even heard of AAC until now”.
Look at it this way: Digital music players are called (and marketed sold as) either “iPods” or “MP3 Players”. Not “AAC” players and not even “Digital Music Players”.
Cheap MP3 players- you know, the sort people get from discount stores and markets and the like- play MP3s. Various cheap combined FM Transmitter/SD/USB card thingies for cars play MP3s. They don’t necessarily play AAC, and even if they did, AAC is still, to the vast majority of the world, a “weird” format that they’re unfamiliar with. Most people probably don’t realise the music from iTunes that they’re loading onto the iPod is even in AAC format.
And going around saying “Oh, I’m sorry peasants, but technology has moved on and we didn’t bother to tell you because you’re not cool enough, and you’re a loser for not being hip enough to know about these wonderous new technological changes” is the poster-child example of stereotypical Apple/Mac fan-boy behaviour and pretty much exactly the sort of thing the OP was talking about.
Not everyone who disagrees with Apple or Steve Jobs is a Microsoft fanboy, but I’ve met entirely too many Mac users (online and in the real world) who have some sort of smug superiority complex about the fact they’ve got a Mac (or other Apple product) for it to be more than a baseless cliche.
The only people I know who use iTunes as a music player do so because they have an iPod and need the programme to buy music for it and get the music onto their player. Everyone else I know uses VLC or WinAmp for their MP3 listening needs.
The visceral hatred for iTunes has been reasonably explained several times in the thread, and it’s got nothing to dow with “Windows Fanboys” and everything to do with Apple limiting the user’s control over a product they’ve paid good money for.
It is the industry standard of media players. It’s also a 5th wheel when people are already carrying around cell phone/media players. This was not the norm when the ipod was introduced. It holds a commanding percentage of the market to the tune of about 75%. That market is maturing and the trend will inevitably be toward devices that use USB sticks and memory chip slots. If you look at car stereos they’re starting to sell units without CD drives. they’re just radio/MP3 players.
Doubtful.
The market will more likely move to smartphones (like the iPhone), with syncing to Auto stereos.
As do iPods.
Did you read my reply to you in post #194? The idea the Apple ‘limits the user’s control’ is a complete misnomer. iPods will play MP3s, AAC, AIFF, WAV, and Apple Lossless. iTunes will play and encode any of those. It is exceedingly easy to import non-iTunes Store (and non-AAC encoded) music files into iTunes and onto an iPod. You can have iTunes do it for you automatically, or do it manually. I don’t know how they could make it any easier.
Don’t like iTunes and don’t want to use it with an iPod? Here’s a comparison of 31 other applications you can use as an iPod manager, many of which don’t have some of the (admittedly frustrating) blocks that iTunes has.
Look, I’m not trying to convince you to become an iPod adopter. You don’t like the company, the platform, whatever, that’s fine. It really doesn’t bother me. But basing it on, and passing along, erroneous “facts” about it does.
That means you have to have a docking station or a charger as well as a very expensive piece of equipment. Kids will naturally gravitate toward car stereos that allow very small (and cheap) media storage to be swapped out. My USB drive is the size of a nickle and fits easily on a key chain so I can carry my music and other files around with me to listen in the car or at the office.
You’re missing the point. The point is that the consumer shouldn’t need ANY software to make their iPod/MP3 player work. iTunes shouldn’t exist, basically. That’s the point that’s being made. Users should be able to put their music- in any format- and simply drag and drop onto their iPod, and away they go. They shouldn’t have to install special programmes or what have you to get their music from their computer onto their MP3 player. Which is how most non-iPod MP3 players work, incidentally.
I don’t have an iPod, and I use iTunes because it came with my computer, it does everything I would want from a music player, and I know that it won’t spread tendrils of evil throughout my computer. I have no idea what format it uses to store the CDs I’ve ripped, and it doesn’t matter to me, either: I select the songs I want from the iTunes interface, and basically never need to deal with the actual music files directly.
Again, if it’s that transparent to the end user, why does it even matter?
Really, that’s just stupid.
iTunes makes it easier to manage your music.
It has a ton of features that millions of people use (smart playlists, for example), that would be impossible to do manually.
Next thing you ask for is to get rid of all those annoying windows and go back to a green-screen text interface. :rolleyes:
Let me clarify: If someone wants software like iTunes to create smart playlists etc, fine. But it shouldn’t be required for people who just want to put all their music on their iPod and set it to “random”.
Jesus, if I ever needed proof that the SDMB has almost no correlation to the world I live in, this thread is definitely it.
It matters because most non-apple devices read either MP3 or WMA. If all you listen to is an ipod then it doesn’t matter.
That might work for something like an iPod shuffle (no visible UI), but most people have iPods with screens, and might want to see their cover art. So, then you need to specify what directory structure all the files need to be in and their formats, just so you can arrange them yourself and put them on the iPod manually. Oh, and maybe they want to manipulate their songs’ metadata (rating, etc.) - how do you propose to do that?
When you stop and think it through, you will realize that an App is required.
You’re assuming people- and by people I mean “Not SDMB users”- actually care about things like metadata.
As I’ve said, if people want to ultra-organise their music, fine. But users shouldn’t be required to install special software to make their $200 MP3 player work if all they want to do is see the name of the song (and maybe the cover art) and just set it all to random while they’re out jogging or in the library or whatever.
Are you in business?
Do you design products for a living?
I do.
I’ll let you in on a little fact - you can’t please everyone. So, if you come up with a solution that pleases 75% of your customers, annoys 15% (but not enough to get them to buy something else), and makes 10% hate your guts - that’s the solution you go with.
Sorry to say, iTunes / iPod / iTunes store solution is the giant success it is because of the way they all work together. There are simply not enough people out there who want to manage their iPod in a 100% manual fashion to make it pay.