Ipod irritations...
 

There is a significant downside to loading all the families music onto iTunes and transferring it to an iPod so that it can be played on a docking station.

Like a number of iPod users, I like to check out 'Most played' every now and again - get those favourite tunes blasting out.

However, since the ipod has been stuck in the docking station, my 6 year old daughter has had access to it.

Imagine my horror when picking 'Most played' as a playlist, and the first two songs out of the block are Abba's Dancing Queen and, worst of all, The Boy does Nothing by Alesha bleedin' Dixon! (36 plays! How is that possible?!)

Time to reset the play count methinks...

Anyone else suffer from this?

I suffer form much more than that. Apple is a bunch of greedy bastards.

1. I can not back my music up on my Ipod.
2. They change the ports constantly so docking stations will not charge them. (so they can make you buy theres)
3. Forced to use Itunes which blows.
4. Dont play Windows files simply because they have a monopoly.
5. Made there own file type because they can.

And yes I have your problem also. Although I mainly use genius and Recently Added.

Except for number three I have to say I don't understand your comments, RezZ.

How so?

My iPod is five years old and I've never run into this problem.

In what way do they have a monopoly? There are plenty of other MP3 players out there.

Which file type are you talking about? And what's wrong with them making their own file type anyway? This also seems like kind of a funny complaint considering your point #4.

The ipod prevents you from taking music form your ipod and putting it onto a computer. There are special programs to try and get around this, but certainly do not work very efficiently.
The new Ipods have different connection ports and will not charge (will play though) on almost any docking bays. My Altec Lansing bay does not work with sisters new Ipod because of this.
They own the majority of the market...Yes there are plenty of other players out there, but all hail in comparison to the almighty Ipod (in sales and such).
The .m4a file type. Not necessarily made by them but used with there Itunes store. This is a file that many Media Players and portable devices will not recognize. Also Itunes or anything apple will not play any Widows files such as WmA. This is the format most CD's are in, which makes it a real pain in the ass when you have to convert each one to .m4a.

all you have to do is check the "don't sync this ipod automatically" button and your daughter's shit won't be on your ipod.

I've said it hundreds of times before, even on here, and I'll say it again.

If you own an iPod you do not need to use iTunes.

Thats not what we are talking about. If your computer crashes and you lose all your files the Ipod will not serve as a backup device. You will have LOTS of trouble putting your music back onto the computer.

Explain, I would love to use something else.

^^There are many pieces of software that will let you plug in your ipod and copy the music back onto your computer.

As for not using iTunes, I've also said a lot of times that I use MediaMonkey. I do believe that the other big players will also sync ipods, but not sure which. MM far surpases these, but other people prefer other players.

i recently tried to make the ipod backwards compatible, and i lost all my music thanks to the program i used.

Last friday i did it again, one external drive took a fall and my other drives are at another home, so to save the wait i used one and successfully and easily got the music off onto a new drive.

All these issues have very simple ways to resolve them...
1) iDump is a pretty good way to move your music on your iPod to your computer. Free and fast, too.
2) I have an iHome and I can use every gen iPod made so far with it. It came with different size docks so it's adjustable to fit different sizes of iPods and it works damn well. If yours doesn't work that well, that's not Apple's fault. They've created a $2 billion accessory industry for the iPod, not exactly a monopoly.
4) The .m4a file was an audio format made specifically for the video iPod so that it could sync with video feed more efficiently. If you really hate it you can a) convert the files yourself or b) use a different program to rip music onto the iPod. I must also remind you that .wma files are designed specifically for Windows applications, and Microsoft makes a significant amount of money selling licenses to music player manufacturers. It doesn't take much reason to figure out why Apple wouldn't shell out money to Microsoft for a license they don't need. The real question is why Windows Media Player doesn't have a built-in converter to switch .m4a files back to .wma yet.

Personally I have enough experience with other mp3 players to realize that the vast majority of them are complete shit and not worth the money spent.

DO you know if there is any way to use Windows Media PLayer to do this?

Thanks for the advice. I just put my library into Media Monkey and am now syncing Ipod with it. Great program. I even have a WMP11 skin to go with it.

I will try this. If it works like you say thats great because I really need a place to back up the music. (Portability as least)

It looks like other people addressed you other points, but I just wanted to mention that WmA is not the format most CDs are in. In fact I've never seen a commercially produced music CD that was in that format. They are in a format that is native only to CD players, so anytime you are importing songs from a CD to your computer you are converting them to something whether that format is WmA or m4a or mp3 or wav or whatever.

Also, iTunes does play some Window files, such as wav.

Ic. Every CD I have gotten from the library and burned to my computer through Itunes would say that it would have to convert it from .WMA to .m4a

CDs use a format called Red Book audio, your computer displays it as .WMA because Windows has to translate it to that format to make it readable. I'm on a Mac and when I put a CD in my computer I never see .WMA and instead see .AIFF (or I think sometimes .WAV) because that's how my computer translates it. The extension you see is based on what your particular operating system uses rather than what the CD itself contains.

Anyway, why would you have to convert it to .m4a? You can set your iTunes preferences to import it as a whole bunch of different file formats.

I just wish Macs themselves weren't so goddamn expensive.

Allright that makes sence then.

And it really doesnt matter now, ( would have been nice to know though) I just switched over to MediaMonkey and am very pleased. Syncs well, many great features and some solid skins.

True that. I always get them because I do freelance work and they're the standard in the industry I work in, but I sure wish they were cheaper.

Funny thing is, this person created the exact topic on another forum I go to. 4 minutes before this one :D

A lot of newbies on this forum do. Then then seem to get angry and defensive when you call them out on it.

Well at least in the other forum they replied to the responses. Maybe they didn't like the responses here :D

Well, I figured that ds and here would throw up different responses. And they certainly have! It's interesting posting similar threads on unrelated forums - the responses you get vary greatly.

This thread was unanswered for a while, then came on this afternoon to find all this traffic - thanks all for the various suggestions.

No problem about calling me out on anything - I'm used to vigorous (and sometimes foul-mouthed) debate - bring it on!

Apple can isuck my ass!

I live in South Africa and I bought an ipod touch cause it looked like a great device. You could add music, photos, movies, games and applications.

I made an itunes account for the first time. I enter the itunes store, and find that you can't buy music, movies or games. I'm only aloud to buy applications!

All because I live in SA!

The ipod doesn't even sync properly. It often freezes the computer randomly during sync. I've trying everthing I can to fix it. Apple doesn't give support to cusomers without an "American" product.

I feel that because I live in SA I should maybe wait for apple to send some crates full of ipod support to parachute down from the skies!

We got REAL food OK! We just need Apple!

So buy your stuff somewhere else, like Amazon.

Have you tried restoring your iPod? And is it properly formatted for your operating system? Also, turn off the sync option if you're having trouble with it.

janszoon, I've tried everything...

Can't buy from amazon in SA either.

I can't get ipod touch games anywhere now...

Have you tried recently? I'm not sure about the games, but I just found this article from 2007 which talks about buying mp3s in SA. It references a couple other places to get them but also specifically mentions Amazon. It looks like you just have to download some free Amazon MP3 downloader to make it work.

If worst comes to worst, there's always the option of getting them via blog search.

EDIT: It looks like some of the later comments on that site I linked to are saying that the service stopped working in SA as of the end of 08. But someone did mention a site called prefueled. Maybe that helps? That does seem like a frustrating situation.

Thanks for the help, I'll check it out.

Simple answer- don't use an Ipod. Far too trendy and I hate itunes. I have to use it for my son's nano and it's bloody terrible. There are other players out there. Creative are pretty good and Samsung players are catching up too. I just use an 8gb card in my Sony Ericcson phone-suits me.

Despite thinking that almost every Apple product (especially software) is pure shite, I do love iPods, especially for the memory capacity. Jackhammer, try using different software for your sons nano.

My Ipod is a peice of ****. It doesn't even work half the time and it hasn't even been a year since I've purchased it.

Take it back then, lol. If it's under a year then there should be no problem.

Well, I don't think I can do that because I bought it off of ebay.

They are not crap. They are well made but I like something for all round versatility and just to be a little different. you can now get 16gb memory cards for 30 quid and whack them into your phone. Asthetics dont bother me when it's tucked in my pocket. Sound quality is reliant on earphones just as much and I would rather rely on Sony than Apple for that.

If a player goes beyond 160GB then i'll most likely switch to that in the future. I only use my iPod for audio so I'm not fussed about video and photo nonsense, nor radio crap.

I think may have gotten down to the real problem here.

Haha I know what your thinking, but no. I've purchased other ipods in retail stores like best buy and I've had the same ****ing problem with all of them.

That's weird. I've had mine for five year and my wife has had hers for three any neither of us have run into any problems with them. What specific issues have you had with them?

The scroll wheel stops working and it just flat out stops working all together.

Have you tried resetting it or restoring it? Also, do have one of those little cases for it to keep it from getting banged around too much?