Should we reserve a spot for Apple's Tablet in our devices list?

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Really?! The most user-unfriendly?! EVER?!

In my experience and in my humble opinion, yes!

Originally Posted by 4-eyes

Agreed - iTunes is a total pain to use.

I guess that some people love it and some (4-eyes and I included) hate it. I'm never going to convince the fans it's rubbish, and they're never going to convince me it's great - as with so many things, it's all a matter of personal preference and opinion.

PS. 4-eyes, you and I are right though

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by 4-eyes

Actually, one bad thing about the Sony Readers seems to be that they need dedicated USB device handlers. Although once you have the drivers they do show up as a mass storage device, if drivers aren't available it means you can't easily transfer files (unless you use the SD/MS card if the Reader model has one).

I don't think the later models require special drivers (other than the ones that come with Windows).

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Hahaha

Try 2 hours to download, and that's with a speed of 200KB/s or better. Heck, installation alone takes at least 30 minutes.

That's just messed up. I have a gimped connection, and it never has taken me that long. The largest iTunes installer I've seen is the universal binary for OSX, which includes 2 instruction sets for PowerPC and Intel Macs, and it weighs in at 65mb. If that takes 2 hours to download, something is severely messed up or slow. Install, takes like 5 minutes at most. Run the installer, agree to the license, and it copies everything over.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

That's just messed up. I have a gimped connection, and it never has taken me that long. The largest iTunes installer I've seen is the universal binary for OSX, which includes 2 instruction sets for PowerPC and Intel Macs, and it weighs in at 65mb. If that takes 2 hours to download, something is severely messed up or slow. Install, takes like 5 minutes at most. Run the installer, agree to the license, and it copies everything over.

I like the "not installing it" option a bit more personally. Same sentiment with Calibre, though I suppose I'm more of a minority on these boards in that respect.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by 4-eyes

I just don't get why some here seem to think that being able to use a simple file copy to move files on and off the device (which would work in any OS) is such a bad idea vs a having to use a proprietary and IMO bloated piece of software with many arbitrary restrictions. The Cult of Apple is strong it would seem, strong enough to override common sense ...

Why imply it is a lack of common sense that is the only way someone could prefer iTunes?

Nothing wrong with drag n drop but for me it is a longer process and it isnt possible to use JUST drag and drop to do what I need to do.than iTunes so I use iTunes

Connect iPhone(iTunes opens automatically) import file into iTunes which then adds cover art(impossible using drag and drop you would have to have some software installed to do this) and allows me to edit any metadata then drag and drop it to my iPhone.

Its not a lack of common sense that makes itunes make MORE sense for ME and MY situation.

There are no restrictions imposed by iTunes that in any way impact on what I actually want to do.

ITunes is fine for me and better than drag and drop, for you its the other way round.

Is that any reason to say I lack common sense?

it seems to be you that lacks the ability to see that others are different to you and as such have different requirements and needs.

[kennyc]

From: http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/samiljan/2752

A reader writes: I just got a Samsung K5 for my birthday, but I bought almost all the tunes on my desktop on iTunes. How can I play the songs I bought on iTunes on the Samsung K5?

Though the answer to this question has been covered before—see Gina's link-tastic post from earlier this year—it bears repeating, if only to break the stranglehold that iPod and iTunes have on digital music.

The good news is that it's completely possible to (eventually) play your iTune-purchased tracks on a non-iPod player. The bad news is that it's a hassle and has some drawbacks.

[kennyc]

And further, from: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/itunes1.htm


iTunes Compatibility
music on iTunes
Screenshot by HowStuffWorks.com
Music is still the heart of the iTunes store.

iTunes software lets you sort, play and add to a digital media collection on your computer and sync it to a portable device.

*iTunes compatibility in the realm of portable players is a bit of a quagmire, which is part of the reason why some people just avoid iTunes entirely. You can use the iTunes Mac software with, say, a Creative Nomad MP3 player (see iTunes for Mac OS X: Compatible Players for a complete list). But iTunes for Windows only supports the iPhone or iPod series -- if you connect a Creative Nomad to a Windows machine running iTunes, the software won't see it. And there's no version of iTunes for Linux machines, either. But there are ways around that -- just do a Google search for "iPod Linux hacks."

Since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple no longer provides iTunes support to new phones from other manufacturers. Apple's strategy is to convince consumers to purchase Apple products and use them with Apple services. The company doesn't make it easy for you to use iTunes with any non-Apple device. Some companies, such as Palm, have tried to get around Apple's closed system only to be shut down in subsequent iTunes updates.
System Requirements
Mac Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later
1 GHz or faster processor (G4 Mac or better)
QuickTime 7.6.4 or later
1 GB RAM to play HD video
16 MB of video RAM for HD video
Broadband Internet (to use iTunesStore)


Windows Windows XP service pack 2 or later
200 MB of disk space
2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor to play HD video, iTunes LP or iTunes Extras
DirectX 9.0-compatible video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM
Screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or greater
QuickTime 7.6.4 (included in download)
1 GB of RAM to play HD video, iTunes LP or iTunes Extras
Broadband Internet (to use iTunes Store)

So iTunes (or at least the Mac version) does support other players besides the iPod. But here it gets even trickier: Older music you downloaded from the iTunes Store is protected by the Apple FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) format, which is a proprietary, protected AAC file format that Apple doesn't license to anybody. The only devices that can play those files are ones with the ability to decrypt the Apple DRM, which includes your computer running iTunes, an iPod, an iPhone, an iTunes phone and your speakers connected to AirPort Express. (You can't play them on Roku's SoundBridge, because Apple licensed Roku the iTunes software minus the DRM decryption.)

To play iTunes Store files with DRM on a portable player besides an iPod, you have to first burn them to a CD or DVD as MP3 files. The DRM encoding doesn't make it to the disc. You then rip the now-unprotected files back into your iTunes library and download them to the player.Songs purchased from the iTunes Store in the iTunes Plus format don't carry DRM, which means you won't have to go through this step.

So now we know which devices will and won't work with the iTunes software. Next, we'll find out what you can do with the software if you've got the right hardware (or the wrong hardware with the right hack).

[kennyc]

And

http://askbobrankin.com/convert_itun...p3_format.html

[vivaldirules]

0.5 (weeks to go)

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

0.5 (weeks to go)

I just hope there are no deaths as a result of the riots.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I just hope there are no deaths as a result of the riots.

I'll chuck a sicky on the day just to be on the safe side.

[mores]

I did have some reservations when I heard that there was no "finder" on the iPhone. Much like on the old palm devices, which always bothered me.
But I never knew *why* it bothered me. On my ppcs and symbian phones I had the need for a file manager - I have yet to come into a situation where I'd like to view my iPhones files directly.
Okay, Stanza would, in theory, inspire me to drag and drop books from my laptop onto the iphone. But both Stanza Desktop as well as Calibre fix this, with Calibre being the winner for elegantly giving me a much nicer way of importing books.

Then again I can understand people who want to "feel" like they're using an operating system and not just some kind of limited front end. I guess those people need to jailbreak their phones.

By the way, the "file manager" on my symbian phones was laughable at best, it required an extra app to really get into all the drives and files etc.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by mores

Okay, Stanza would, in theory, inspire me to drag and drop books from my laptop onto the iphone. But both Stanza Desktop as well as Calibre fix this, with Calibre being the winner for elegantly giving me a much nicer way of importing books.

And Calibre is notable for actually moving away from the folders/subfolders/finder approach to file management as well-relying on tags and metadata to organize information...a much more modern approach, which old timers like me had a hard time getting used to at first, but now appreciate.

[Not_A_Crook]

Someone chuck and anchor to this boat, cause it seems as if it goes nowhere.

Tablet or not, it's alrleady been announced in a psychologically biased way.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

I like the "not installing it" option a bit more personally. Same sentiment with Calibre, though I suppose I'm more of a minority on these boards in that respect.

Fair enough. Some people like the "no computer" option, too.