I suppose I’ll be the first to talk about iTunes. This is a really great program that makes it worth buying an iPod to begin with. It is similar to a lot of Apple software in the way that it appears simple but has a lot of powerful features built in that are accessible. For instance, there are many ways you can update the songs on your iPod. One way is to have it sync with a playlist that you select. Or you can add songs manually. I like to have all of my purchased music on my iPod because I know it is something that I want to listen to. Also another feature is use the date added feature for something useful. Of course because I just switched to my Mac mini, all were added on the same date.
Slight hijack. Is there any way to get my PC itunes settings onto my iPod? I would like to get the “date added” stuff like it was on my pc along with my playlists. I don’t know how to do this.
But again, iTunes has the best DVD ripping stuff there is out there, because if you get an iPod it will make integration that much easier. If you get another player, you’ll have to get the ripped MP3s and the new player to hook up.
Let me put it this way, I’ve had another MP3 player before. I used to use Winamp to listen to my music before I got this player, and I used it some, but to update the songs, I had to do it with windows and to make a new playlist I had to do that through windows. This was very bad, and I never actually listened to it. With my iPod I can do that through iTunes.
That’s an important question, though. Do the other options allow you to encode, and add playlists to your player as easily as iPod does? That’s a very important question because it will be the deciding factor in how much you use it. If I buy a new CD all I have to do is stick it in and then copy it to a playlist that is on my iPod already and then plug in the iPod. Then its there in the iPod. Before I would have to encode it. Go to My Computer and add the files manually (after renaming them) and then add them to a playlist ON THE PLAYER That sucked badly. But who knows?
One more thing. Here’s teh way the iPod menu works, which most people don’t talk about. The Base menu has “Music” and “Playlists” and then at the very bottom “Now Playing” in between are other setup related items. Underneath Music you get the options: Playlists, Artists, Albums, Composers, etc. These correspond to the iTunes categories. For instance when you see a song in iTunes it will have many different things that can be filled in for information like Artist, Album, Song Name, Genre, Composer, Bitrate, Date added. Well, you get the idea. Basically this menu allows you to browse your songs by playlist or by these other categories.
But the system works really well because of the on-the-go playlists. For instance, if I want to add something to my on-the-go playlist (located with the other playlists) All I have to do is hold down the center button. That’s it. It will eventually blink and then it is added. You can do this for an entire playlist, artist, album, or individual song.
Then there’s the iTunes integration.
Once you import your CD it is added to the library. You simply click a little plus on the area to the left to create a new playlist which can be added to the iPod automatically. Its just a matter of drag and drop. When I first got my iPod I only had on iPod playlist with all of my songs before I realized how it works the best. You have all the playlists you normally listen to synched with the iPod and you add songs to your playlists as normal and your iPod allows you to take it with you.
Okay its a joke but its true. If you let iTunes manage your music then there are no problems. Sure then you are DEPENDANT ono iTunes to manage your music, but all that requires it that you feed your new music into iTunes whether it be from a CD or ahem downloaded. What is the purpose of having MP3s on your computer? The way I see it is to either listen to them on your computer, make compilation Cds, make MP3 CDs or to load them onto your iPod. Of course if you have no Ipod there is a major problem, but if you do you don’t have to worry about any file-management becuase iTunes does it for you. If you make them from a CD its in your iTunes library or if you download them then you simply drag them into your iTunes and it copies them for you, if you let iTunes manage your library.