Alternative to iTunes ?

[Deimos]

Having just got myself an iPod (which seems a good device) I’m now searching for some decent software to drive it from my PC (all my music is on the PC and I don’t want to transfer it to the Mac).

iTunes is basically really poor.  Having been used to windows Media Player (which has it failings) I have to say that iTunes is a disaster.  I really think Apple need to do something fast.  I’m use that 3^rd parties would be able to do something except of course Apple do not allow plug-ins (as many Microsoft stuff does).

iTunes is actually pretty unusable so I’m really keen on finding something else (I will even buy software – so not just looking for free stuff).  It really lets down the iPod which is a real shame.

 

Ian

[Dick Smith]

The funny thing is that almost everybody else who uses iTunes thinks it is wonderful. Why do you think it is a disaster? Why unusable?

[tenniswitch]

I have not tried this, but Anapod Explorer has been recommended to me.  You can find more information on this at: http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/.

You might also try a Google search on the subject.

[Dick Smith]

What version are you using? Not that it seems to be relevant to your 'problems'.

Why do you need two application windows open at the same time? You can't listen to two tracks at the same time.

If you clear a search in the library of course it changes the list - it was search results and now it isn't - what did you expect to happen?

That is why you create Playlists, isn't it?

Why right-click to open a playlist when you should left-click on it? You can do it that way - but why? And when you click on the playlist it takes you to - the playlist. So you lose the view of the library. How could it be otherwise?

I've never heard of anyone trying to synch their Outlook calendar with an iPod, so I'll pass on that one. I often use one as an external hard drive, though, and have no problems doing that.

What do you mean by 'manually loading' MP3s into the iPod? Why not download them into your PC and then across, the way you are meant to, and which is so much easier?

It seems to me that you have discovered that no software is perfect if you expect it to do bizarre things! Why not use it the way it is intended to be used, for storing and playing music? It's good at that.

[Deimos]

 

Version is the latest (downloaded last week – didn't bother with the CD in the box as they are always out-of-date). iPod is also latest version (1.1.1 – downloaded and upgraded at the same time).

[quote user="Dick Smith"]Why do you need two application windows open at the same time? You can't listen to two tracks at the same time.
[/quote]

So I can listen to music whilst also sorting out what is in the playlists I sync to the iPod and whilst selecting what I want to play next.

As an example of where opening a playlist clearing browse selection: Looking through library to find a track and then start playing it. Decide its good and want to check if its on my iPod so open the playlist that is used to sync with iPod -> clears browse criteria and shows entire library !!. Next track that to play is now something completely different (as its now choosing from the entire library, not the limited selection from the browse). Still I can check if its on the iPod as that window is nor open – but what track was it (lost as the library is now showing everything). Never mind its playing – but how do I find what track is playing (no “Now playing”). Easy just scroll through the library – its only over 1000 songs so I'll just spend a bit of time.

[quote user="Dick Smith"]If you clear a search in the library of course it changes the list - it was search results and now it isn't - what did you expect to happen?
That is why you create Playlists, isn't it?[/quote]

Other players tend to have a “Now Playing” list. You can thus browse the library, filter, select, etc. without messing up what is being played. Thus you can work on playlists, rip, sort out album info, etc. whilst listening to music. I don't think this is unusual as its what other players to and works well.

[quote user="Dick Smith"]Why right-click to open a playlist when you should left-click on it? You can do it that way - but why? And when you click on the playlist it takes you to - the playlist. So you lose the view of the library. How could it be otherwise?[/quote]

Right click to bring-up the context menu for the item and from that open the list in a separate window. The idea is so you can see what is in the playlist whilst browsing the library (avoiding duplicates, add new tracks to the desired place in the play order, etc.). Thus, having a separate window open makes life a lot easier due to losing the browse selection. Even if you did everything in one window, properly implemented code would switch to the alternate view, and if you then returned to the previous view would have saved and would restore it to its previous state. e.g. In Adobe Acrobat, with two documents open, if you switch to document B, then back to document A, it returns you to the position you were previously at in doc A – it does not take you back to the beginning.

[quote user="Dick Smith"]I often use one as an external hard drive, though, and have no problems doing that.[/quote]

I've actually disabled that as I don't like the “having to eject” the iPod before removing it from its cradle. Don't know why this is necessary (my phone which also acts as a USB drive does not need ejecting) – but thats not a problem as I don't need to use it as a hard drive.

[quote user="Dick Smith"]What do you mean by 'manually loading' MP3s into the iPod? Why not download them into your PC and then across, the way you are meant to, and which is so much easier?
[/quote]

I was thinking of putting the MP3 on the iPod using a straight file copy and the iPod as a hard drive (something most other MP3 players are happy with). But the iPod will not recognise MP3 files written it it as a hard drive as media it can play – it just stores them. It was another way rounf having to use iTunes.

When I purchased the iPod last week, the guy in the shop was warning me the PC software was rubbish. However, I knew iTunes from some time ago and was sure it must have moved forward a bit so I unwisely ignored the sales guy's advice.

I'm really pleased with the iPod, just poor PC software is a let down.

[tenniswitch]

Here's a link to a thread on another forum that might be helpful to you.  Posts 17 and 18 have some info that is specific to iPod use.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6003672#post6003672

[Deimos]

[quote user="tenniswitch"]

Here's a link to a thread on another forum that might be helpful to you.  Posts 17 and 18 have some info that is specific to iPod use.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6003672#post6003672

[/quote]

Many thanks.

The Anapod software looks excellent and seems to work brilliantly (1^st day). If I were Apple I would buy the company immediately (but I guess some companies suffer from the “Not Invented Here” syndrome). Certainly leaves iTunes many decades behind.

What has surprised me in my searching is how many negative comments there are about iTunes (and positive comments about iPods). Apple would certainly have a stronger offering if they could sort out iTunes – and avoid losing sales to competitors what have/support/are supported by other offerings. Certainly, when a sales assistant tells you how poor the PC software is and points to competitor devices some people are going to listen.

However, the iPod is excellent, and I would recommend the anapod software as an excellent solution (after 1 day use !).

Many thanks for pointing me to an excellent solution.

Ian

[tenniswitch]

I'm glad you like the Anapod software and would be interested to hear if it continues to work well for you.  Or not. 

I have my first iPod on order and expect to receive it in a few days.  At the moment, I'm a bit torn between trying the iTunes stuff first or getting the Anapod software (I'm really a neophyte and a bit technophobic to boot, so the decision is difficult for me).

[Deimos]

 

I'll let you know about any problems or further opinions in a few days. iTunes is actually good at supporting the iPod – just not very good as a player. Also, its Digital Rights Management restrictions are excessive. I fully agree with limitations to stop people stealing music. However, it restricts you in terms of playing music you have a legal right to (i.e. have purchased). French gov. may be changing that though (unsure of the status/progress but they were passing laws requiring companies open their DRM technologies to others to allow for better cross platform support – to which Apple said they would “pull-out” of France – at least the iTunes Music Store). Apparently there is still no iTunes music store in Australia.

Anapod is a bit more Techy – but no worse that Windows Explorer and dragging files around (once you've take half an hour playing and getting used to it). If you load your iPod with iTunes first and then change to Anapod, you may need to do a factory reset as of course Apple hide the iTunes songs on the iPod.

My recommendation (at the moment) would be to stick with whatever music player you might already be using on your computer and use Anapod for transferring music to the iPod. You can download a free trial version of Anapod (few irritating limitations) to see how you get on. The limitations on the trial are enough of a nuisance that if you find it OK you will quickly buy the proper version.

Ian

[Steve Last]

Does the Anapod one solve my biggest complaint about Itunes - I wanted to make a printed list of albums so I could check which of my CDs I still need to put on, and found it impossible without a huge amo0unt of hassle. In Itunes, copy and paste just an album NAME always copies all the track details at the same time. I eventually found a Winamp utility called Albumlist which did it.

Also I really hate the way Itunes hides what is doing from you so you don't know where files are being held - I want to put a lot of old LPs and tapes on my Ipod, I can get them into MP3 format but had a horrible time stopping Itunes making multiple copies and othewise fooloing around with them. As a lot of peple have said, Ipod is great, Itunes is fine if you only want to use CDs and downloads from Apple and accept all its defaults.

Shuffle is a great and simple idea (I keep finding it plays stuff I had completely forgotten about) but I would really like to be able to have for example it work only on a single genre or artist and things like that, and I haven't been able to figure out how.

[Deimos]

 

From my few days with Anapod I don't think it will deal with you printing out lists of album names but it does not hide things. Basically it is just an up/down loader to/from the iPod. It is not a player. If you want to play music on your PC then you continue to use whatever media player you like (Windows Media Player, Winamp, iTunes (:lol:), etc.).

What it does is to add a new "branch" into your standard Windows Explorer (i.e. C:, D: Anapod, Control Panel, etc.). This allows you to drag files from your PC to your iPod just as you normally copy files around. There are "special" directories on the iPod part of the tree where you can create playlists, etc. You can store the files anywhere you like on the PC and drag them to your iPod from wherever without secret copies being kept all over the place.

One think I like is that you can copy the contents of your iPod back to your PC (i.e. do an iPod backup) - something iTunes and Apple will not allow. This does not meaqn you can nick music illegally (as Apple seem to think).

Whey do some stuff with browsing your iPod with a web browser, though not bothered with that yet. Also, they do this thing where you can stream you iPod music back through your PC and play it through your nPC using whatever media player you select on the PC. There is also another way you can use it if you want where you create a directory (or several) where you put music tracks you want on your iPod. when the iPod is connected, anapod will automatically make sure all teh music in theose directories is on the iPod (called "one-touch-sync"). Basically you tell Anapod the directories you want it to sync.

It does the photo syncing thing - but I only use it for music. I think its much faster that iTunes - though for me the speed is not really too much of an issue.

For me, what it does it seems to do well - communicate with your iPod and transfer music to/from your iPod. Reviews I read rate it highly, I like it. Seems reliable. Much lower memory/disc use on PC than iTunes, etc.

The trial version has a lot of limitations but it tells you what they are when you try to do something the full version does but not allowed in the trial (e.g. copy more than one file at a time).

Ian

[Bones]

Itunes is a real pain.

How many times has someone downloaded/transferred a song onto their pc - only for Itunes to deem it 'invalid'? All the other players like the file!

Even when you do manage to get it on Itunes, there's no guarantee you can actually get it onto your Ipod; which is kind of the point of Itunes in the first place!

I was so annoyed with Itunes once that I ignored it's error messages and pigheadedly continued dragging a file over to where I wanted it - eventually it gave in! So now, if I have problems with Itunes, I just bully it into submission: works a treat...

[Steve Last]

Thanks for that, will give it some thought. Not today though, getting ready for the 13 hour trip down to 84 tomorrow and want to be sure the Ipod and Inmotion speakers will be working in the car!

Steve

[Deimos]

[quote user="Bones"]

Itunes is a real pain.

How many times has someone downloaded/transferred a song onto their pc - only for Itunes to deem it 'invalid'? All the other players like the file!

[/quote]

 I agree about iTunes and its DRM. Seems there are two considerations to Digital Rights Management. You may have the legal right to play a piece of music but convincing iTunes of that fact is another matter !!

Ian

[Steve Last]

Also found another frustration with ***** iTunes …. Ran it a few days ago and got a message saying there is an update available - downloaded the install file to my desktop, installed and it was working fine a couple of days ago. Got here and tried it just now and got a message “can’t run because some files are missing - reinstall iTunes”.

Did that from the new setup file….. it appears to install OK and then failes at the last moment when installing ****** Quicktime which I don’t want anyway. Then tells me that installation has been successfully completed.

Try to run iTunes: get a message “can’t run because some files are missing - reinstall iTunes”.!!!

Also my Freebox ADSL line won’t initialise either so I am stuck with the dialup and can’t reacquire another setup file from Apple - but that’s another story.

Steve

[Deimos]

 I'm now using Anapod (to communicate with my iPod - which is an excellent product) and I'm trying WMP 11 beta. I tried WMP 11 some time ago but for some reason remove dit and reverted to WMP 10 (which went without any problem). Then I decided to go WMP 11 again last week and it installed fine and seems pretty reliable. Whilst its only a beta, the only issue I've found with it is that after it has been running continuously for several days, when editing the MP3 tags, it will not always report an error when a tag cannot be written (i.e. when writing larger tags such as image data). If you just exit and re-run it all works fine again so I'm pleased with it.

Steve, You would not be the first person in the world to ditch iTunes. If you are going to have to download something and you are suing Windows then try WMP 11 beta.

Ian

[Steve Last]

Also now trying Anapod and it seems pretty effective - at least one can see where things are.

On a slighly different topic, my iPod itself keeps "freezing" - can't access the menus with the top of the thumbwheel - it just gets stuck on "shuffle" which I use a lot, and it only seems to get unfrozen by plugging into the computer and updating. Is this a common problem?

Steve

[Deimos]

 

Not a problem I've found (in my few weeks of iPod ownership). Do make sure you have the latest firmware (you can download an updater program from Apple. For the iPod nano the latest version is 1.1.1. You can check on the iPod, but either way, if you have the volume limiter on the iPod its moderately recent.

I would recommend getting some sort of screen protector (as the screen (and whole unit) looks beautiful but scratches really easily.

One think I like about the Anapod software is the way you can create an manager Playlists effectively on the iPod (i.e. you don't need loads of playlists, etc. in iTunes. Also, the fact that having selected what music you want on the device, you can make a backup to your PC in case you ever need to reset the device.

A few days ago Anapod did start running really slowly - but after about 5 mins it picked-up again and was fine. The copies were fast, but after that the Anapod PC software started 100% PC CPU for a bit. Like I say, did it for 5 mins or so then and now runs fine again.

Ian

[Deimos]

One additional iPod thought. When you get your iPod immediately cur the headphones wire in two and buy a new pair of headphones. I used the ones that came with my iPod for some time and thought "sound not too bad". Then I happened to try an old paid of Sony earphones I had lying around and "wow" - the sound was fantastically better. I've recently purchased a pair of 25€ Sony earphones (which are more comfortable than the old ones) and the sound is still dramatically better than with those that cam with the iPod.

Ian