iPod users in please

[YetAnotherOne]

With my el cheapo Lyra rapidly approaching its final stanza I finally took the plunge and snagged on of those snazzy new 80 Gb iPods. One question: with the Lyra I could just drag & drop files from Windows Explorer (XP), will the iPod allow this or will I be forced to use some awful and unweildy auto-synch function through iTunes (which I really don't want on my system at all if I can avoid it).

[skorb]

you just open iTunes, click Add File to Library, select the song in your Windows registry, and hit enter, and it will convert it to m4A or whatever that shit is that ipods read. works with 95% of the mp3's and wma files I've tried. I do it all the time.

[emperor_black]

yes, you have to use the awful itunes! Sucks! You can drag and drop songs onto the ipod, but then the ipod becomes just an external hard-drive.

Also, once you get songs onto your ipod using itunes, you can't get it out. that is apple's way of preventing songs from being shared illegally. You can get yourself a software called ephpod which allows you to get songs out of the iPod. but I dont think even ephpod will let you drag, drop and play.

[thetroy]

it is dumb - should have checked out some other options first!

[skorb]

yes, you have to use the awful itunes! Sucks! You can drag and drop songs onto the ipod, but then the ipod becomes just an external hard-drive.

Also, once you get songs onto your ipod using itunes, you can't get it out. that is apple's way of preventing songs from being shared illegally.

what are you talking about? the songs remain in iTunes and you can burn to cd's, copy them, do whatever. also, any song you convert from mp3 to iTunes, still remains in mp3 format in the directory you had it in. so it's not like you lost your mp3 (it's not altered or removed by the "terrible iTunes").

people bash iTunes a lot but I never see any legitimate reasons why. just wondering.

[Venomboy]

I never use the auto sync in Itunes. I create playlists, drag burned songs into the playlist, drag and drop onto the iPod.

[thetroy]

auto sync would be problematic if I had an ipod... 160GB of music in my computer currently

[Jack Napalm]

what are you talking about? the songs remain in iTunes and you can burn to cd's, copy them, do whatever. also, any song you convert from mp3 to iTunes, still remains in mp3 format in the directory you had it in. so it's not like you lost your mp3 (it's not altered or removed by the "terrible iTunes").

people bash iTunes a lot but I never see any legitimate reasons why. just wondering.

I was not a fan of iTunes either but it is not as bad as everyone makes it out. I use it often with an iPod video and 98% of all my music comes from ripped CD's that I can play anywhere. Of course, I don't have iTunes installed on my PC, it is installed on my wife's computer.

iTunes is no worse than some software, say like Windows.

[shobet]

Talking of Windows, what is Media Player like these days?

[GodOfRhythm]

I avoid Ipods just for that reason. I detest Itunes and the whole uploading & transferral system.

[Bengal65]

What's an iPod?

[Twisteramps]

You don't have to use iTunes... there are some 3rd party software programs that allow you to drag and drop what you want onto the iPod. I have just under 300gb of mp3s, and I rotate mine out on my 80 gig. Had it since last October, worked great. I just avoid iTunes like the plague. As far as the hardware goes, it's better IMHO than anything else out there.

Pete

[xsentrick]

I don't have a problem with itunes. I use it all the time. I've converted many mp3's and never had an issue. I think if you just take the time to learn it you'll see it is not that difficult.

[iced_earth]

I've turned off auto-syncing and just drag from my hard drive to ITunes.

[emperor_black]

what are you talking about? the songs remain in iTunes and you can burn to cd's, copy them, do whatever. also, any song you convert from mp3 to iTunes, still remains in mp3 format in the directory you had it in. so it's not like you lost your mp3 (it's not altered or removed by the "terrible iTunes").

people bash iTunes a lot but I never see any legitimate reasons why. just wondering.

Ipod users are forced to use itunes to transfer songs onto their ipods. That's what is annoying about it. My friend and bro each have mp3 players which you can just connect to any windows machine, open Win explorer, drag-n-drop songs and listen to them. You can't do that with an iPod. you gotta have itunes. Unless you do the research like pete suggested to locate a third party software that lets you drag-n-drop songs. But still, you HAVE TO USE some software to transfer songs to your iPod. That is where it sucks. That is because itunes maintains a database which hold songs' information like artwork, eq settings, etc. But for someone who doesn't care for all that, its a pain.

Yeah the songs remain on your comp and if you have the "Automatically sync itunes and ipod" checked, they will be in sync. But what if you accidentally connected your ipod into your friend's machine? BAM! you lose all your f**kin songs. It happened to me once and since then like many have already suggested, I manually manage what goes on and off my Ipod.

And just last week I opened up a thread about how the ipod stopped working and I had to revive it. It happened because I accepted the update that itunes prompted me when my ipod was still connected. the damn thing did not even bother to tell me "I am going to unload the ipod driver. please disconnect ipod until the update is over". If we didnt need to use the itunes, we would not be faced with this misery. And what's with that iTuneshelper.exe service eating up memory on the comp? With version 7.3, itunes has become more slow than ever!