itunes

[[AK]Beaker]

OK it's always asking for updates, I updated it now it's corrupt or something and I have to reinstall it. Do I have to download all my stuff and make playlists and all that crap again?

Not happy.

[[AK]Squidly]

Buy a Mac.

[[AK]Choozoo]

Beaks, no the settings and playlists will remain. You should perform backups on a regular basis though. With storage prices so cheap now $150/TB for an external USB drive, tell Clay to spring for something.

[[AK]Hylander]

iTunes on Windows should be classified as a Virus / Malware. It's a bloated resource hog that should be removed faster than boobies on an iPad.

If you buy alot from iTunes, you don't really have alot of options though. But, if you don't - I highly suggest you try DoubleTwist. And don't let the front page AirSync fool you, you don't need an Android device to use it. But if you do have one, DoubleTwist is a must. In fact, even if you use iTunes to make purchases, I still suggest you download DT and use it as your primary interface. It can import all your iTunes playlists, music, podcasts, videos, etc. and will sync with almost any device.

[[AK]Squidly]

Windows should be classified as a virus/malware. It's a bloated resource hog that should be formatted off your computer faster than boobies off an iPad (whatever that means.)

[[AK]StitchJones]

iTunes on Windows is a horrible mess no matter how great an application it really is.

Do what Squid said 'Buy a Mac'

end of line......

[[AK]Hylander]

Windows VISTA-64 to Windows 7 64 - Never a single system crash. If you "need" a Mac because Windows is too much for you, then yes - You probably do need a Mac, unless of course you use some of the thousands of applications that won't run on a Mac. But hey, then you can load Windows on your "pretty" Mac and pay a $1,200 premium to run Windows. If you do so, I'd also like to sell you a Cadillac Cimarron.

[[AK]Clay]

On my phone, I zoom in enough that the user name is off the screen, and I can only read the text - I have to scroll over to the side to see the name. This thread was funny, because you can to tell who the speakers are without even seeing their names.

"Buy a Mac" = Squidly (or Bribo sometimes)
"Mac and all things Apple are complete shit, and it's an amazing wonder that the company is still in business. Other products are all vastly superior to Apple and I seriously think Steve Jobs is the anti-Christ. I mean, I guess some of their stuff is OK - to a North Korean peasant or whatever. But God I hate Apple." = Hylander (smootches Hi )
"Yea whatever, your favorite sucks - buy a Mac" = Squidly (though I did suspect it was Bribo for some reason on this one..)

You guys crack me - perfect for a dull day before the holidays

Ok, back to the topic at hand. The reason beaker is stuck with iTunes is because we own several Apple products (iTouch/iPod nano, etc). So you have to have iTunes, because Apple locks their products. We can talk about the philosophy of Apple being the big guy on the screen as the athletic lady is charging up to it with her sledgehammer, but it is what it is.

So we use iTunes with the music central location on the main PC. (good point on getting yet another HDD as a secondary BU though, I need to do that.). Beaker's desktop then syncs up via iTunes' sharing feature, and she has transferred over what she wants - for her iPod. So even if she lost everything, it's still all on the main PC.

Back on the main PC, I use DoubleTwist for my Android phone, which reads off the iTunes central database. As much as I dislike iTunes, DoubleTwist blows. Don't sugar coat it. The Android App is pretty good, but the desktop interface is amateurish. Album art management is total fail. I had to use MediaGo to get my Album art worked out. DoubleTwist' concept is decent enough, and actions seem easy enough - it DOES most of what you need. But it takes hours to sync to the phone. It's absurd. Even little stuff like updating 1 song, which used to take 5 minutes on an iPhone can take 2 hours on DoubleTwist. It's not just me - do a Google on DoubleTwist Sync Slow and watch the negative feedback roll in. Usually with advise to dump DoubleTwist and use something else. And God forbid it starts linking to folders you don't want it to, because you can never delete a folder off the list once it does - they even say this in their help forums. It's got about 15 folders in my J: drive it's linked to. I don't even have a J: drive, unless i plug in an extra thumb drive or something, but somehow it thinks I do, and has doubled a lot of songs with phantom dummy songs in it's playlist now. It's just a sloppy program.

MediaGo is way faster, but it doesn't update playlists from the iTunes central database - so I don't use it anymore for that. I tried tinkering with WinAmp, as they now have a sync feature. But I didn't see the ability to automatically sync and update with changing iTunes based playlists as an option. If it does, and I just missed it, then I'll go back to good old WinAmp - because it really does whip the lamma's ass. If I had my druthers, I'd just use iTunes to sync with my Android but - back to the controlling overlord guy on the big screen with his guards chasing the lady with the sledgehammer - Apple isn't going to do that.

By the way, Choos was right - everything fixed itself in iTunes (this time).

[[AK]Bribo]

I like iTunes. Never had any problems even on Windows machines. Just back up your iTunes libraries regularly and you should be fine. That could be said of any large application system though right?

My biggest gripe now is the Ping bar on the right hand side. It's taking up real estate in my iTunes frame and there is no easy way to get rid of it (yeah, I know there is a hack but subsequent updates from Apple restore it.) I wish there was an option to "Disable Ping" or "Hide Ping Bar".

[[AK]Hylander]

Back on the main PC, I use DoubleTwist for my Android phone, which reads off the iTunes central database. As much as I dislike iTunes, DoubleTwist blows. Don't sugar coat it. The Android App is pretty good, but the desktop interface is amateurish. Album art management is total fail. I had to use MediaGo to get my Album art worked out. DoubleTwist' concept is decent enough, and actions seem easy enough - it DOES most of what you need. But it takes hours to sync to the phone. It's absurd. Even little stuff like updating 1 song, which used to take 5 minutes on an iPhone can take 2 hours on DoubleTwist. It's not just me - do a Google on DoubleTwist Sync Slow and watch the negative feedback roll in. Usually with advise to dump DoubleTwist and use something else. And God forbid it starts linking to folders you don't want it to, because you can never delete a folder off the list once it does - they even say this in their help forums. It's got about 15 folders in my J: drive it's linked to. I don't even have a J: drive, unless i plug in an extra thumb drive or something, but somehow it thinks I do, and has doubled a lot of songs with phantom dummy songs in it's playlist now. It's just a sloppy program.

Clay - I don't experience any of the issues you have with DoubleTwist. I can't explain why, but it works perfectly fine for me. Perhaps it's because I don't access it all that often, or that I have the search folders limited to just the one drive where I keep all my music / videos / photos. Again, I can't answer it but I know I can sync my Droid X up to DT on my desktop and have 3 to 5 playlists of songs sync'd up in a matter of minutes using WiFi. I do not sync up my entire library though, so I have no idea if you are attempting to do so or not. But I can add one song to my Droid in a matter of seconds, either through editing the playlist or simple drag and drop.

I also have the scan iTunes & WinAmp for changes deselected since I need neither, and that definitely adds to the sync/scan time frame if you have them selected. I do not know if it imported the record album covers from iTunes or from another source, but I haven't noticed any missing or anything 'weird' in that regard. But to be honest, I don't use it every day or even every other day so that may explain why I don't experience the issues like you do if you're a "heavy" user.

Have you checked on the DT forums or posted there?

[[AK]Squidly]

My biggest gripe now is the Ping bar on the right hand side. It's taking up real estate in my iTunes frame and there is no easy way to get rid of it (yeah, I know there is a hack but subsequent updates from Apple restore it.) I wish there was an option to "Disable Ping" or "Hide Ping Bar".

I was able to hide the ping bar without a hack.

iTunes.jpg

[[AK]Bribo]

Hmm. They must have just added that recently.

[[AK]Squidly]

Hmm. They must have just added that recently.

Merry Christmas