tag:google.com,2010:buzz:z12wvznxknauvf3rz04ccnti2wb4ejnxysk0k
Julian Bond Julian Bond 106416716945076707395
3 May 2010 3 May 2010 Mobile Public
I'm hating Apple today (unlike yesterday or tomorrow ;) ). I'm currently in iPod-iTunes hell and ...
I'm hating Apple today (unlike yesterday or tomorrow ;) ). I'm currently in iPod-iTunes hell and I think it's going to take at least another 24 hours to get out. Here's the story. - A nearly full iPod Classic 160 starts playing tricks where you play one track and actually get another. So it looks like the database is corrupted - Download ephpod and run verify database. It confirms maybe 3-400 files that are corrupt. Which means clicking on a dialog 3-400 times - Try and run rebuild database in ephpod but there are files with no ID3 tags and meaningless names - Decide to flatten and reload the iPod - Ephpod points me at iTunes. iTunes takes 45 minutes to start up because it says it's "verifying media store" - iTunes started so it's time to flatten the iPod. The option is helpfully called "restore" when "restore" is really not what it does! Actually it reloads the firmware, sets all settings to default and flattens the disk. - Reset all the customisations I'd done on the iPod like shortening menus and turning off the clicker - Fire up sharepod and start copying the library. "you have asked to sync 21,000 files, this may take several hours". The sync fails after 1000 or so. - Go back 3 steps and flatten the ipod again. Start copying files a letter at a time. Somewhere in here, I had a look at the wikipedia page on alternatives to iTunes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_managers What a mess! Apple keeps changing the rules. Commercial apps like Winamp don't or can't keep up so support for the Touch and iPhone is often lacking. The free tools are incomplete or buggy. The official tools like iTunes have a bunch of horrible quirks. So:- - If an iPod gets screwed in even a small, minor way, there seems to be no real alternative to flattening it and reloading everything. This takes a *long* time. - None of the management softwares including iTunes can really cope with *big* libraries - Apple really doesn't want or like any 3rd parties using the iPod at all, at all. - iTunes on Windows still sucks. I'm led to believe iTunes on Mac sucks nearly as badly. If you're quirky enough to be using something other than Windows or Mac, you're stuck with incomplete support. - The iPod has some silly market share, but everyone hates this part of the process. We love the device, we universally hate the management software. We universally hate the way this moderately expensive bit of consumer bling is apparently a fundamentally broken, disposable item.
I'm hating Apple today (unlike yesterday or tomorrow ;) ). I'm currently in iPod-iTunes hell and I think it's going to take at least another 24 hours to get out. Here's the story.
- A nearly full iPod Classic 160 starts playing tricks where you play one track and actually get another. So it looks like the database is corrupted
- Download ephpod and run verify database. It confirms maybe 3-400 files that are corrupt. Which means clicking on a dialog 3-400 times
- Try and run rebuild database in ephpod but there are files with no ID3 tags and meaningless names
- Decide to flatten and reload the iPod
- Ephpod points me at iTunes. iTunes takes 45 minutes to start up because it says it's "verifying media store"
- iTunes started so it's time to flatten the iPod. The option is helpfully called "restore" when "restore" is really not what it does! Actually it reloads the firmware, sets all settings to default and flattens the disk.
- Reset all the customisations I'd done on the iPod like shortening menus and turning off the clicker
- Fire up sharepod and start copying the library. "you have asked to sync 21,000 files, this may take several hours". The sync fails after 1000 or so.
- Go back 3 steps and flatten the ipod again. Start copying files a letter at a time.

Somewhere in here, I had a look at the wikipedia page on alternatives to iTunes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_managers What a mess! Apple keeps changing the rules. Commercial apps like Winamp don't or can't keep up so support for the Touch and iPhone is often lacking. The free tools are incomplete or buggy. The official tools like iTunes have a bunch of horrible quirks.

So:-
- If an iPod gets screwed in even a small, minor way, there seems to be no real alternative to flattening it and reloading everything. This takes a long time.
- None of the management softwares including iTunes can really cope with big libraries
- Apple really doesn't want or like any 3rd parties using the iPod at all, at all.
- iTunes on Windows still sucks. I'm led to believe iTunes on Mac sucks nearly as badly. If you're quirky enough to be using something other than Windows or Mac, you're stuck with incomplete support.
- The iPod has some silly market share, but everyone hates this part of the process. We love the device, we universally hate the management software. We universally hate the way this moderately expensive bit of consumer bling is apparently a fundamentally broken, disposable item.
17-23 Musley Ln, Ware 17-23 Musley Ln, Ware 17-23 Musley Ln, Ware, Hertfordshire SG12 7, UK 51.8138958 -0.026165
tag:google.com,2010:buzz-comment:z12wvznxknauvf3rz04ccnti2wb4ejnxysk0k:1272878064326000
thomas morffew thomas morffew 110352049954858592591
I would say I sympathize, but don't have an iPod. 3 May 2010 3 May 2010
tag:google.com,2010:buzz-comment:z12wvznxknauvf3rz04ccnti2wb4ejnxysk0k:1272878739212000
Julian Bond Julian Bond 106416716945076707395
I'm questioning why I put up with this, and why I don't just use the Apple tools and do what Apple tells me. Well it's because I basically don't trust iTunes to do the right thing. I've put a lot of effort into building the main music library and I don't want it corrupted, changed , "re-organised" or anything else. You have to be really careful with the switches, settings and defaults in iTunes (and WMP) to make sure this doesn't happen. And secondly, I ought to be able to walk up to any machine and move files on and off the iPod without having to worry about authorisation.

I can sit here and come up with the perfect portable media player, but it just ain't going to happen. And I suspect that by the time somebody makes one, we will have been persuaded that we didn't really want all our music on our pocket and what we really wanted was a better radio where the radio connection was via wifi or 3G. What I want is a 320GB pocket player that uses plain old USB mass storage. I don't expect to get that any time soon.
3 May 2010 3 May 2010
tag:google.com,2010:buzz-comment:z12wvznxknauvf3rz04ccnti2wb4ejnxysk0k:1272887879936000
Julian Bond Julian Bond 106416716945076707395
Nothing to do with Spotify or Gracenote. But all my MP3s are carefully tagged, cleaned, filenamed and sorted into a sensible directory structure. iTunes and WMP assume my tracks are messy and chaotic and want to help me sort them out. Do not want. 3 May 2010 3 May 2010
tag:google.com,2010:buzz-comment:z12wvznxknauvf3rz04ccnti2wb4ejnxysk0k:1272954999276000
Julian Bond Julian Bond 106416716945076707395
Finished re-loading the tracks at 5pm May 3. And all is well with the world again. 10Gb free. Still not sure what I'll do when it's 0Gb free. 4 May 2010 4 May 2010
tag:google.com,2010:buzz-comment:z12wvznxknauvf3rz04ccnti2wb4ejnxysk0k:1272957648283000
David Nelson David Nelson 108405838749140453662
hmmmmmm I think you need a droid. plug in usb. drag and drop files. aaahhhh... I feel your itunes pain brother, I do. 4 May 2010 4 May 2010
tag:google.com,2010:buzz-comment:z12wvznxknauvf3rz04ccnti2wb4ejnxysk0k:1272981330714000
Julian Bond Julian Bond 106416716945076707395
So is there a 160Gb/240Gb/320Gb droid? 4 May 2010 4 May 2010