Community Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: vudu on March 26, 2009, 09:52:04 PM
Title: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on March 26, 2009, 09:52:04 PM
I recently inherited a used, first gen, 2 GB Nano. I've never used iTunes before and I've quickly come to the realization that it is the worst program ever. There are so many retarded "features" it's unbelievable. (I'm absolutely dumbfounded that the only way to switch libraries is to hold down the shift key when opening iTunes.)
Anyway, I have a problem.
I loaded an RFN podcast onto my iPod but it doesn't appear when I view the contents through iTunes. (It's on the iPod and it plays just fine through the unit.) When I select the device from the menu it shows that an audio file is on there, as evident by the capacity bar at the bottom of the following picture.
What the heck? How do I get this cursed file off my iPod?!
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on March 26, 2009, 10:33:22 PM
no idea cuz i don't listen to podcast (any, not just RFN) but i completely agree that itunes is the worst program ever.
one of the reasons i've been absent from the forums is i've been going on a crazy downloading spree of new music and i'm so fucking OCD about putting music on it that everything has to be a certain way. i have all my albums listed chronologically and i fix compilations so that they don't go in as compilations because i hate scrolling thru ipods and seeing "ooh, artist X! i love them!" then you open it and its one song.. and the only reason they had it on there was cuz it was the Y soundtrack.. blah!
anywho, imagine having 8000+ songs (and a few movies and episodes of south park) on there customized to my liking and CONSTANTLY having itunes not open with the message "itunes library xxx could not be opened. It appears xxx is not a valid itunes library. Saved copy as itunes library xxx (Damaged 10)"
Yeah, thats right, 10 fucking times.. its actually more than that since i keep deleting those damaged libraries since they don't help me out one bit. After that message appears, itunes opens up with maybe 5 freakin artist and a measily 200 songs.. and its always the same artist too, why the hell do only those stay on itunes, everything else has to be re-imported? Do you know how long it takes (me) to re-import 40gbs of music/video? Or how long it takes to re-do all my customizing once i'm done with that? I have to constantly save my library as an exported file just so i can only click one button on and leave my computer on for about a day. I go thru this almost daily now. i have to be sure to sync a hell of alot of **** onto my ipod at once, because chances are the next time i open up itunes to add more stuff to my library, its all going bye-bye.
oh and thats when my ipod isn't giving me a headache. at least once a month i'll try to sync my ipod only to have it tell me i need to restore it to factory settings. I've been lucky a few times, i'll just disconnect the damn thing and my music will still be on there. Other times, i'll leave my ipod connected overnight so it can sync up another 1000 songs or so, only to wake up and see that.. yeah, it finished... i disconnect it properly, walk to my car plug in the AUX cable and turn up the volume.. and NOTHING. i look down at my ipod and it says "0 music files/0 video files" yet when you go into settings, i tells me 40gbs of my hard drive are used.
WTF
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: bustin98 on March 26, 2009, 10:41:25 PM
You have it set to manage your music manually. You should be able to browse the device through Windows Explorer. Or you can uncheck the option then go to the music tab after selecting the 'VUDU' device in the left column. Once there check 'Sync Music' and 'Selected playlists:' and don't select any lists. Click apply at the bottom.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: BranDonk Kong on March 26, 2009, 11:08:12 PM
iTunes absolutely sucks. No question about it. The reason I don't ever add to my iPod is because iTunes sucks...and I have Sirius now, and it's Mandatory Metallica until the Hall of Fame induction.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: NWR_pap64 on March 26, 2009, 11:39:04 PM
I haven't had any problems with my iTunes, so can't help you there.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: TJ Spyke on March 26, 2009, 11:52:25 PM
iTunes works fine for me and I have never had any problems with it. I can't imagine why you don't like it. Most of your complaints seem to come down to you rather than the iTunes service.
I don't have a iPod Nano, I have a iPod Touch. Does your iPod Nano have a Podcast section? On my iPod Touch they don't show up in the Music section, they show up in a separate Podcast section.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: NWR_pap64 on March 27, 2009, 12:00:46 AM
iTunes works fine for me and I have never had any problems with it. I can't imagine why you don't like it. Most of your complaints seem to come down to you rather than the iTunes service.
Me neither. I've been using iTunes since I got my iPod shuffle way back in 2005 and been able to organize playlists, songs and podcasts without any issue.
The most recent iPod was the Nano and once more, I haven't encountered any problems with video playlists and the like.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on March 27, 2009, 12:05:08 AM
Does your iPod Nano have a Podcast section? On my iPod Touch they don't show up in the Music section, they show up in a separate Podcast section.
No, I don't have a Podcast section.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: Nick DiMola on March 27, 2009, 12:20:17 AM
Automatic Syncing will probably fix the majority of your issues. I have mine setup that way and it makes life way easier. I register podcasts in the specified section and they are automatically downloaded and then moved once I connect my iPod.
You can also set up your music library to only sync checked songs that way you can maintain your whole library on your PC and then only transfer what you really want to listen to over to your iPod.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: ThePerm on March 27, 2009, 12:33:29 AM
i never had any problems using it on mac osx, i never used it on windows
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 27, 2009, 12:43:02 AM
i deleted itunes from my computer, and refuse to re-download it regardless of how many times they try to get me to during quicktime updates.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: nickmitch on March 27, 2009, 01:04:03 AM
I don't know why a "Podcast" section isn't showing, but it would be in there.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: yoshi1001 on March 27, 2009, 08:44:11 AM
The main problem I have with iTunes is the shortcomings of its store search options. No negative keywords, no phrase searching, and some of its alternate spelling matches are just silly (polkadot for Polkamon?), though none are as strange as Amazon.com's suggestion of "bow hunting" when you search for Pokemon there.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on March 27, 2009, 09:01:05 AM
The main problem I have with iTunes is the shortcomings of its store search options. No negative keywords, no phrase searching, and some of its alternate spelling matches are just silly (polkadot for Polkamon?), though none are as strange as Amazon.com's suggestion of "bow hunting" when you search for Pokemon there.
I've never used the itunes store.. lol
my biggest gripe about the whole thing is how i can't just drag and drop music into a folder and call it a day. There's a long annoying process to go thru and it makes adding music such a hassle.
I used to have an iRiver mp3 player, back in like 2005, and it was sooo easy to use. You didn't even need to run the instal disc it came with, since you could just plug it in and get a message directing you to their site to download the most up to date firmware. After that it was as easy as going into 'my music' folder and dropping everything into the "iRiver/music" folder, and it never took more than 10 mins to copy all my songs on to it. Album artwork was there, the id3 tas i'd already made were there, it was great. Best of all, because my computers hard drive space was limited, once i copied everything to the mp3 player i could just delete it off my computer. Not with itunes, the second i change ANYTHING itunes thinks its missing. Sometimes i'll notice an mp3 file is misspelled, so i'll fix it, then later on wonder why its not on my ipod. Oh, itunes is stupid and thats why.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 06, 2010, 11:23:55 PM
*frustration bump*
Today a friend of my parents called me up, tells me he found on iPod while on the job (he's a bouncer; if he says he found it, he found it. Don't **** with him) and wanted my help getting him some music. According to him, the iPod was already preloaded from its previous (and unfortunate) owner, but he also had another friend manually add some music to it (ie w/o syncing it and losing the previous tracks). He needed me because he knew I'd have all the 80s rock music he craved.
He comes over, with his new 80gb iPod with about half of that storage space used up, and we go through some music he wants from me; Journey, Motley Crue, Billy Idol etc. I go thru the process of manually adding my music to his ipod, double check that they have the correct artist/album titles so he won't be confused finding them, then disconnect. I go into My Computer, open up the iPod drive and check the hidden folders until I recognize some of my music I just uploaded for him, thinking my job is done.
No.
Once I try to confirm on the actual iPod that the new music is there, the damn thing reads "no music" yet in the About section ~42gbs of space are being taken up by "other". Then, when I try to reconnect the iPod, iTunes no longer recognizes its library and expects me to restore it.
NO!
This shits happened (TOO) MANY times to me, and I put up with resyncing process because all 58gigs of music are still there. I CAN'T do that with his iPod because he has 40gigs worth of music that I DON'T have and honestly don't feel like replacing thru quick (but illegal) means.
Please, I'm begging anyone who has been thru this [even Apple Zealots] to help me out. I haven't been able to find a decent answer to this problem that DOESN'T involve me copying the files off his ipod to my hard drive, then restoring the damn thing and starting from scratch.
Until then, I'll be planning a way to sodomize Jobs so he knows the pain he puts me through every time some stupid **** like this happens with his "simple" to use iTunes software.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: Spinnzilla on April 06, 2010, 11:40:48 PM
Never had a problem with Itunes myself. Apple even gave me back all of my paid stuff without any question when my harddrive crashed.
I was pretty terrified about losing my Prince and David Bowie albums.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 06, 2010, 11:50:54 PM
Ezqr, don't auto sync your Ipod. I don't. Then manually drag everything.
Sorry, if I missed where you've done that already.
It's okay, don't be sorry.. I already said once how your post didn't help :P (I never auto-sync anything, thats how i was able to drag music from my library on to his existing library)
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 07, 2010, 12:49:54 AM
I think your only option is the one you don't want to do: copying the files off the iPod and starting from scratch. That sucks for you; it'll take a while.
If you want a simple way to make iTunes work great and not have any issues (at least in my experience), it's really easy: buy a Mac. I don't have anything bad to say about the OS X version of iTunes; I absolutely love it. It seems, though, that Apple is about as incompetent at making Windows software as Microsoft is at making Mac software.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: Tobli on April 07, 2010, 04:02:44 AM
I use itunes a bit to have a nice lists of podcasts. The podcast player is extremely unreliable though.
I don't understand why it won't buffer the whole cast. Which means that any minor hitch is a source of frustration that makes me go to the podcast website, and use the vastly superior generic flash/quicktime player.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: D_Average on April 07, 2010, 09:34:28 AM
I don't mind the lay out of the store so much but syncing is a real b*+€#. Especially when you have iTunes on a few devices then everything just goes to hell. I currently prefer Amazons store.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: TheBlackCat on April 07, 2010, 10:24:00 AM
Besides the other stuff people have said, and the massive size of the updates, and it routinely borking your media catalog on updates (according to people I know who use it), I have another major problem with itunes: no album art unless you register with the apple store. That is just insane. Even if you set up album art manually on your hard drive itunes will just totally ignore it. Even my cell phone can detect and use album art stored in the same directory as the music on a flash drive, how can a supposedly full-featured desktop music player not do that?
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 07, 2010, 05:33:05 PM
Besides the other stuff people have said, and the massive size of the updates, and it routinely borking your media catalog on updates (according to people I know who use it), I have another major problem with itunes: no album art unless you register with the apple store. That is just insane. Even if you set up album art manually on your hard drive itunes will just totally ignore it. Even my cell phone can detect and use album art stored in the same directory as the music on a flash drive, how can a supposedly full-featured desktop music player not do that?
This is hit or miss with me. I've never once bought anything off itunes (and don't ever plan to) but some of the stuff i get ends up having its album art recognized, which is nice, but more often then not I have to manually update the album art (which means googling an image, saving it to the appropriate folder, and doing the whole itunes process).
ANYWAY.. I've been copying files since last night. Awesome.
Why oh why couldn't apple of made a simple drag and drop interface for this POS? Oh thats right, that'd be TOO COMPLICATED for the retards that think its easier to just buy music from them directly and let it all take care of itself.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: lemylinh on April 08, 2010, 12:31:32 PM
i agree with you
Nevermind, you are definitely a spammer... and are banned. ~Pale
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: RABicle on April 08, 2010, 02:05:45 PM
EasyCure. Goot the iPod preferences, tick "Manually Update iPOd" or whtever, then you drag and drop from iTunes. Thats how your bouncer friend had a most savvy friend get stuff on there. :p
Quote from: EasyCure
(which means googling an image, saving it to the appropriate folder, and doing the whole itunes process)
Sure man, I can just drag the googled album art directly from the internet to the "Drag Artwork Here" square. If you don't see that square, hit the button fourth from the left down the bottom.
I've you've been using iTunes since before it was even called iTunes learning every new feature is pretty easy, but then again I'm also on a mac.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 09, 2010, 10:27:29 AM
Damn, what'd we miss?
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: Shorty McNostril on April 10, 2010, 06:37:19 AM
This is why i refuse to own an Ipod. I have had my Creative gear and have never had a problem.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: BranDonk Kong on April 10, 2010, 10:29:58 AM
If you're trying to inject MP3s with album art, then open your library, right-click on the album you want to add it to, and choose "get info." Find your album art (Google images or albumart.org), then just copy and paste it into the empty space where the album art goes. If you do it any other way (at least if you choose "download album art"), it will only put the art in a folder so it shows up in iTunes/iPod, but it won't actually put the album art inside the MP3, doing it the way I mentioned will actually embed it. You can also just use Media Monkey. I don't even use an iPod anymore, but I do use iTunes for all of my MP3s because I like how it renames them and such, and how it's relatively simple to add album art (though it doesn't always work, and then I switch to MM).
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: Stratos on April 10, 2010, 03:52:05 PM
Oh, good. I've been wondering how to add album art manually since iTunes is terribly fond of getting album art wrong. (live album covers on studio releases and random crap that is completely unrelated on others...)
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 10, 2010, 04:39:51 PM
you didn't know? its one of the first things i learned to do (since to use the "get album art" option requires an itunes acct and i never plan on making one).
So today i noticed that at least one album was missing. I figured this was because a few weeks ago, i had to restore my ipods library from a backup and didn't have the most up to date backup. No problem, just re-add the folder to my library and sync it up. After what should of only been 15 mins, itunes says the sync is complete and before even ejecting the damn thing I notice the capacity bar at the bottom has gone down from 58GB of audio to ZERO (2.97GB of video are still there).
What the ****?
As of 4:30pm I'm resyncing my entire ipod. I'll update this post when its done in like two days.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 10, 2010, 04:41:38 PM
as of 4:40pm (after my last post) i noticed itunes had not stared syncing my ipod. I hit the sync button once more, and the first thing i notice is my Video is gone too. Wonderful.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: BranDonk Kong on April 10, 2010, 11:08:36 PM
But Apple makes everything so easy!
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: TheBlackCat on April 10, 2010, 11:33:57 PM
Apple makes everything really easy as long as you do only the things they want you to do exactly the way they want you to do it. They make it very hard if you want to do anything different.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: Stratos on April 11, 2010, 12:20:11 AM
Apple makes everything really easy as long as you do only the things they want you to do exactly the way they want you to do it. They make it very hard if you want to do anything different.
Reminds me of a joke:
Quote
If Operating Systems Ran The Airlines...
UNIX Airways
Everyone brings one piece of the plane along when they come to the airport. They all go out on the runway and put the plane together piece by piece, arguing non-stop about what kind of plane they are supposed to be building.
Air DOS
Everybody pushes the airplane until it glides, then they jump on and let the plane coast until it hits the ground again. Then they push again, jump on again, and so on...
Mac Airlines
All the stewards, captains, baggage handlers, and ticket agents look and act exactly the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are gently but firmly told that you don't need to know, don't want to know, and everything will be done for you without your ever having to know, so just shut up.
Windows Air
The terminal is pretty and colourful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.
Windows NT Air
Just like Windows Air, but costs more, uses much bigger planes, and takes out all the other aircraft within a 40-mile radius when it explodes.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 11, 2010, 01:20:51 PM
update: i left my apt for the day, came back thinking my ipod would still be syncing but no.. it stopped with only 4gis worth of music. It didn't sync past the A's!
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: TJ Spyke on April 11, 2010, 01:24:30 PM
as of 4:40pm (after my last post) i noticed itunes had not stared syncing my ipod. I hit the sync button once more, and the first thing i notice is my Video is gone too. Wonderful.
Sometimes iTunes won't even recognize that my iPod Touch is connected, and it's annoying.
I would be pissed if I had to re-sync 60GB of date, just re-adding 7 GB on my iPod Touch takes like 2 hours.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 11, 2010, 01:40:35 PM
as of 4:40pm (after my last post) i noticed itunes had not stared syncing my ipod. I hit the sync button once more, and the first thing i notice is my Video is gone too. Wonderful.
Sometimes iTunes won't even recognize that my iPod Touch is connected, and it's annoying.
I would be pissed if I had to re-sync 60GB of date, just re-adding 7 GB on my iPod Touch takes like 2 hours.
Ha so at least you feel my pain. I can't even re-sync the ENTIRE iPod at once because my external HD is prone to overheating after long periods of time on and then won't be recognized by the PC. Re-syncing my entire library usually takes about a week of checking off albums and leaving them to update overnight and while I'm at work the next day. I come home, and if its done I'll check off some more albums, turn everything off until right before bed and start over.
On a more positive note; I finally got around to instaling my last cars after-market stereo into my new car (something i've been meaning to do since October) because it has an auxilary port; ie i can finally listen to my iPod in the car..
that is, I woud be if all this **** didn't happen the SAME day
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: BranDonk Kong on April 11, 2010, 01:49:55 PM
Apple makes everything really easy as long as you do only the things they want you to do exactly the way they want you to do it. They make it very hard if you want to do anything different.
I guess I should have use sarcasm brackets.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on April 11, 2010, 02:03:57 PM
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: gbuell on April 11, 2010, 02:23:06 PM
My god these iTunes problems are ridiculous. I've never had so many issues, even when I was using it on Windows. I think most of the problems on this thread stem from assuming that iTunes will somehow recognize changes to your Music folder's file structure. IT WON'T. Turn on "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" in prefs, drag and drop new songs onto the iTunes window, let iTunes sort them by their metadata, delete the originals, and everything should work much better. And when you want to edit album names, artist names, song titles etc, DO IT IN ITUNES, NOT WINDOWS EXPLORER, and everything will be dandy.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: gbuell on April 11, 2010, 02:25:17 PM
By the way, in that OS Airlines joke above, the Mac one sounds like the best option by far. If that's supposed to make Apple look bad, it totally doesn't.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 11, 2010, 03:19:24 PM
I configure all my date in BOTH itunes and windows explorer, because iTunes will never be my default media player. I also never alter my music folders under itunes (learned that the hardway a looong time ago) because my fake OCD makes me do everything a certain way; so my problems do not come from that, they come from iTunes being an Apple product ;)
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: gbuell on April 11, 2010, 03:24:13 PM
If you change folder names or file names in Windows Explorer, iTunes will not work for you, period. Use another media player, there are lots of them and many will sync with iPods. I don't understand why you're even trying to use iTunes if your workflow doesn't match up with the workflow iTunes is designed for.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: EasyCure on April 12, 2010, 12:01:06 PM
If you change folder names or file names in Windows Explorer, iTunes will not work for you, period.
You mean if i alter something already synced up? Because I know that. When i alter file names and folders, thats all pre-game baby. Once its uploaded to itunes, i just use the sorting options to tweak everything one last time and then i'm done.
Example:
-I download both albums by The Advantage -Create a folder under iTunes/iTunes Music for "Advantage, The" -create subfolders for "01 The Advantage (2004)" & "02 Elf-Titled (20006)" -be sure to rename tracks in the format of "01 [track name]" in each folder -upload to iTunes -Change sort Album names to add "01" and "02" respectively in order to display albums chronologically -sync
i know its a long annoying process, but its something i choose to do to keep everything organized to my liking. I've invested too much time for my massive library to suddenly switch to a 3rd party software option, but on top of that my computers such a peice of crap lately that i'm having trouble installing any new programs.
I recently heard of something called "tuneup" that is supposed to fix all this ****, but simply being unable to download it, i heard its a paid service. Why would I want to pay for that when I already do it on my down time? just not worth it.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on April 12, 2010, 01:31:41 PM
-I download both albums by The Advantage -Create a folder under iTunes/iTunes Music for "Advantage, The" -create subfolders for "01 The Advantage (2004)" & "02 Elf-Titled (20006)" -be sure to rename tracks in the format of "01 [track name]" in each folder -upload to iTunes -Change sort Album names to add "01" and "02" respectively in order to display albums chronologically -sync
Why not turn on "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized", drag and drop the Advantage music onto the iTunes window, and edit the track metadata in iTunes, which will sort them into the proper folders for you? iTunes will also automatically rename tracks to the [track number] [track name] for you.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: TheBlackCat on April 13, 2010, 02:16:36 AM
Not everyone likes how iTunes chooses to organize their music. I have a very specific organizational structure to my music that is totally different than what iTunes uses. Some people like to actually have some measure of control over their computing experience, but that goes against the Apple philosophy. It is not like it is hard to have a media player that keeps track of changes in your music, lots of other developers have done it (in fact I would say it is pretty much a standard feature of modern media players). So it is a perfectly legitimate complaint.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: BranDonk Kong on April 13, 2010, 10:03:04 AM
I let iTunes manage my music folders, simply because I don't care, and my MP3 software on my phone just reads the actual song titles, etc, anyway, so it doesn't even matter how they're named.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 13, 2010, 11:15:51 AM
If you want to keep your own folder system, set it up to not copy the files to the iTunes folder and do all your editing before you import things into iTunes. That should work.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: gbuell on April 13, 2010, 12:42:21 PM
Not everyone likes how iTunes chooses to organize their music. I have a very specific organizational structure to my music that is totally different than what iTunes uses. Some people like to actually have some measure of control over their computing experience, but that goes against the Apple philosophy. It is not like it is hard to have a media player that keeps track of changes in your music, lots of other developers have done it (in fact I would say it is pretty much a standard feature of modern media players). So it is a perfectly legitimate complaint.
I never suggested that no one should want to organize their music differently from how iTunes does it. That's fine, and if that's the case, iTunes might not be the program for you! But what EasyCure is wanting to do IS something that iTunes can do automatically.
Anyway, it's really disingenuous to suggest that using Apple software means having no control over your computing experience. iTunes is scriptable, after all, and Mac OS X in general is endlessly hackable/customizable. If people don't do it as much as they do it to Windows, it's more likely that it's because they're happier with the default Mac OS X experience than the default Windows experience. At least, that's been my experience in using the two platforms.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on April 13, 2010, 01:17:25 PM
vudu, did you try unchecking "Manually manage music", and then going to the Podcast tab and making sure no podcasts are checked?
I don't subscribe to any podcasts through iTunes--I download them manually and then add them manually.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: Stogi on April 13, 2010, 01:36:42 PM
I didn't read any of the previous posts but I would still say that you should just use MediaMonkey. It'll play anything and everything you throw at it. It syncs with ipods and iphones and even allows you to customize how the songs are automatically converted just in case they aren't a file an ipod can play. It allows you to stream podcasts and regularly updates (everytime you open it, it'll check). It also has Last.FM built right into which is perfect for parties. Oh and speaking of parties, it has a "Party Mode" which locks people from changing the song. They can still suggest something by double clicking it and it'll show up in a suggestion box. Oh and it also has the best visualizer in the business, not to mention you can design the look of it in anyway you want.
Just take a look at mine.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/mczntw.jpg)
I made that background (or at least leveled and cropped it)
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 13, 2010, 02:36:41 PM
Not everyone likes how iTunes chooses to organize their music. I have a very specific organizational structure to my music that is totally different than what iTunes uses. Some people like to actually have some measure of control over their computing experience, but that goes against the Apple philosophy. It is not like it is hard to have a media player that keeps track of changes in your music, lots of other developers have done it (in fact I would say it is pretty much a standard feature of modern media players). So it is a perfectly legitimate complaint.
I never suggested that no one should want to organize their music differently from how iTunes does it. That's fine, and if that's the case, iTunes might not be the program for you! But what EasyCure is wanting to do IS something that iTunes can do automatically.
Anyway, it's really disingenuous to suggest that using Apple software means having no control over your computing experience. iTunes is scriptable, after all, and Mac OS X in general is endlessly hackable/customizable. If people don't do it as much as they do it to Windows, it's more likely that it's because they're happier with the default Mac OS X experience than the default Windows experience. At least, that's been my experience in using the two platforms.
Yeah, all this "Apple controls everything and you can't customize it to your needs" stuff reeks of people who aren't at all familiar with OS X. I don't think iTunes is scriptable in Windows, though; it's done through AppleScript in OS X and from what I understand Apple never bothered to adapt it for a Windows-compatible scripting language.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: gbuell on April 13, 2010, 03:24:49 PM
I don't think iTunes is scriptable in Windows, though; it's done through AppleScript in OS X and from what I understand Apple never bothered to adapt it for a Windows-compatible scripting language.
Oh good point, I didn't think about that.
vudu, what about the Music tab on the top of the iPod summary window? Can you click that and make sure nothing is syncing there? If nothing is set up to sync, try actually selecting some other things to sync (if you have any in your library), syncing your iPod up, and then going back and unchecking all the sync options, and syncing a second time to remove everything. That might flush your system out. If that won't work, what about restoring the iPod? vudu, so the podcast in question is showing up in the "Music" section of your library instead of the "Podcast" section?
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on April 13, 2010, 03:45:51 PM
vudu, so the podcast in question is showing up in the "Music" section of your library instead of the "Podcast" section?
It's not a problem with my library--it's a problem with my iPod. I don't have a podcast section under my iPod (in iTunes) and it's not showing up in the music section. As far as iTunes knows the podcast isn't on my iPod at all!
I've determined that the problem is caused by podcasts edited with Audacity. RFN usually doesn't show show up because that's what Greg uses to edit the podcast. But when Karl edits them using Garageband it shows up just fine in iTunes. It's the same way with Newscast--all episodes before #12 won't show up in iTunes but when Andy switched to Garageband for episode 12 and beyond they appear just fine.
It's really weird.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 13, 2010, 03:57:15 PM
Which version are you using, MP3 or AAC? Have you tried using the other one?
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on April 13, 2010, 04:12:31 PM
AAC. I prefer it to MP3 because when I charge my iPod halfway through a podcast it restarts from the beginning on MP3 files but not on AAC files. Very annoying on a 2-hour podcast.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 13, 2010, 04:16:36 PM
I'm pretty sure you can get any file to start where you last stopped it, it's just on by default in the AAC version. There should be a checkbox in the Get Info window that lets you toggle that on or off.
edit: It's in the options tab; "Remember playback position," at least in the Mac version.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: Stratos on April 13, 2010, 11:19:11 PM
I didn't change the settings and my mp3 podcasts still start where I stop them.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 14, 2010, 07:48:42 AM
I don't have a podcast section under my iPod (in iTunes) and it's not showing up in the music section.
I realize you don't have a podcast section in your iPod on the sidebar to the left, but does anything show up when you click the Podcast TAB on the top of the iPod summary window? I know you have a Podcast tab up there because I see it in your screenshots.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on April 15, 2010, 01:40:20 PM
Nope--nothing shows up there.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: gbuell on April 15, 2010, 05:44:52 PM
Did you restore the iPod?
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on April 15, 2010, 06:38:03 PM
I'm sorry--I guess I don't understand the question; what does restoring my iPod have to do with my empty podcast section in my library?
Maybe I'm not understanding your problem. Your iPod has space being used up by a podcast but you can't see the podcast listed on the iPod, so you can't delete it, right? Your goal is to get rid of the podcast and reclaim the space, right? So wouldn't restoring the iPod clear the iPod's memory, thus getting rid of that podcast that is using up space?
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on April 19, 2010, 04:06:32 PM
That's my exact problem. Well, sorta. The real problem is this happens with all RFN podcasts, so I have to restore my iPod every single week if I want to remove an episode after I've heard it. It's annoying and time consuming.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: TJ Spyke on April 19, 2010, 05:14:43 PM
Why not try just subscribing to RFN? It's usually available within 30 minutes of going up on the site, so time really isn't a issue and it might solve your problem.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: gbuell on April 19, 2010, 08:42:06 PM
Yeah, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, PROBLEM SOLVED.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: vudu on April 19, 2010, 09:06:42 PM
What part of I hate iTunes don't you guys understand? I subscribe to podcasts through my RSS reader for a reason.
Title: Re: I hate iTunes
Post by: gbuell on April 20, 2010, 03:48:48 PM
