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[Lard]

If no one bought it, the price would be dropped.

Econ 101.

Lots of people being willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money to look trendy does not mean it's not overpriced.

 

[wenis]

How do you do it? I've got two PCs activated for my iTunes store account, my desktop PC and my laptop. If I buy something while on my desktop, PC, I have to manually copy the audio files to a USB stick and copy them over to my laptop, as it seems I can't just redownload the music on my laptop insted :|

there are two ways.

when it comes to purchases that I want on two systems (I have my desktop PC and my MBP) I already have my itunes linked up between both platforms and I just drag and drop into each system.

If you want to redownload it, just get into contact with apple and tell them you need to download the music/video again and theyll let you. They say you can only do this once, but I've done it multiple times now without issue.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Lots of people being willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money to look trendy does not mean it's not overpriced.

Econ 101 is still going way over your head.

Surprise, many things you buy don't cost anywhere near the price sum of its physical parts.

 

[mrkgoo]

get NON apple mp3 player
uninstall itunes and never look back

This.

For people who eon't like the sync 'metaphor', then an apple device isn't really the way to go. It,s just easier to think that way. Sure you can use it in a sort of drag-and -drop way, but it still needs to sync to some degree. And you can use it it with other software or hack it, i'm sure, but part of what you're paying for is the combination of the hardware and e software environment - so if you think iPods are a rip-off already, then they must be even more of a rip-off if you only like the hardware side of things.

 

[see5harp]

Not sure why everyone just assumes Windows is the issue. iTunes works fine on both my old Windows 7 pc and my Macbook. If you don't want to update, then click no. If you don't want to backup prior to sync just click the x. If you don't want to auto sync enable 'manually manage' in the settings. NOT THAT HARD.

 

[Hellsing321]

God dammit. When will people learn you can drag and drop with iPods and iTunes?!

 

[Lard]

Econ 101 is still going way over your head.

Surprise, many things you buy don't cost anywhere near the price sum of its physical parts.

No I undestand it just fine.

You're trying to justify overcharging people for something, which is silly.

 

[mrkgoo]

Lots of people being willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money to look trendy does not mean it's not overpriced.

Actually, if lots of people paid a particular price for something, then, yes, it does mean it,s not overpriced. That's the way a Market works.

Edit: beaten.

 

[Future]

Not sure why everyone just assumes Windows is the issue. iTunes works fine on both my old Windows 7 pc and my Macbook. If you don't want to update, then click no. If you don't want to backup prior to sync just click the x. If you don't want to auto sync enable 'manually manage' in the settings. NOT THAT HARD.

Even though I hate iTunes, this man is right. All that bullshit that happened in the op was due to the user. You don't have to update when you open it...you agree to. You also don't have to auto synch which will obviously take awhile. If manual synching is turned on, drag and drop actually works (albeit thru iTunes interface)

 

[Dreams-Visions]

God dammit. When will people learn you can drag and drop with iPods and iTunes?!

as has been said, it's good shit when you take a few minutes to learn how to use it and get serious about your music organization. I suspect most haven't quite gotten to that point yet. an organized music library (complete with all relevant metadata: artist name, album name, genre, track order and artwork) + iTunes = awesomesauce. Otherwise, it can be a drag.

 

[Kong Fisso]

Itunes sucks regardless the platform. I think you can use Winamp to manage your ipod, so I'd go for that.

 

[Talon]

as has been said, it's good shit when you take a few minutes to learn how to use it and get serious about your music organization. I suspect most haven't quite gotten to that point yet. an organized music library (complete with all relevant metadata: artist name, album name, genre, track order and artwork) + iTunes = awesomesauce. Otherwise, it can be a drag.

I've wasted so many hours managing my music library over the years. Empires have risen and fallen in less time.

And still iTunes shits on me.

 

[Tobor]

iTunes is an excellent media database application.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I've wasted so many hours managing my music library over the years. Empires have risen and fallen in less time.

And still iTunes shits on me.

:-(

sorry. I don't know what to say. but then, I don't know how iTunes is shitting on you specifically so I can't be of any help. In the past, iTunes has lost some of my album art, but other than that it's not done anything strange to me that I can recall. I've never lost music or had music files damaged or anything, which I would consider unforgivable errors.

In my setup, I manually manage all my stuff, I import my music with ExactAudioCopy and convert to mp3 or aac with dBPowerAmp, add albums and fix metadata as needed. Takes a couple of minutes, but I'm used to doing it so I'm happy. I rely on the column browser and would not use iTunes without it. It's just that important, IMO...but with 14,000 songs, I couldn't imagine seriously using any music application without it. ymmv, though.

 

[BitchTits]

Turn off syncing and auto updates.

 

[dude]

I share the same opinions, and I finally landed on just using WMP11. It's super fast, mostly very well organized, and indexes all your music immediately and very quickly. It takes about 2.5 seconds for me from launch to listening to a song. The worst thing about it is no podcast support. I really wish they would add this.

It's not the prettiest and it's options are pretty limiting, but it's got the least bullshit and most consistent performance of anything.

That's where I am now, only I use Banshee because I'm on Ubuntu. It's far from perfect, but it does the job...

 

[mescalineeyes]

seriously, everyone complaining about itunes is really just too dumb to use it.

except for those people who are having performance issues - I feel for you.

 

[shantyman]

Select manual sync so you do everything yourself. That way Itunes essentially become drag and drop. Also turn off auto update. Very simple.

You know, iTunes does do drag and drop, it just doesn't require you to connect the device to to the dragging and dropping.

 

[esquire]

Stop complaining about everything! Maybe you suck at computers. iTunes isn't hard to use, but if you still can't figure it out after all this time, don't use it - just stop complaining about it all the time like a bunch of babies.

 

[HiResDes]

Yeah as others said I just make sure I press manual update if I plan to connect my iPod to a different computer later. iTunes is great because it's so easy to organize stuff, and the consolidating files option really comes in handy.

 

[MjFrancis]

I want to drag and drop in Windows Explorer, I don't need a shitty-ass front-end to do this, Apple. It makes me suspect either A) You've intentionally made iTunes for Windows slow to make the Apple version look superior or B) Your devs have no clue how to optimize for Windows.

I'm using Win7 64-bit and lament every moment I have to open iTunes to drag and drop music onto it. It's a shame since the iPod Touch is pretty nifty itself, but most associated software is garbage in my book. It just takes up space to advertise the brand everytime I connect my iPod.

 

[Manics]

iTunes works quite well for me on a Windows 7 machine.

 

[Iadien]

This is why I switched to Zune. I used iTunes for years, then tried Zune and think it's loads better.

 

[The Main Event]

Haha, Windows.

 

[Minsc]

iTunes works quite well for me on a Windows 7 machine.

.

Works better on my Windows 7 PC, than on the Mac at my work (it's a 2Ghz Intel Xeon too).

If only iTunes would save the rating information an mp3's tag, so stupid that rating information doesn't follow the songs, so if you lose your iTunes installation or move the songs to another PC, all the rating info has to be entered over again.

 

[Complex Shadow]

Haha, Windows.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

No I undestand it just fine.

You're trying to justify overcharging people for something, which is silly.

How much are you paying for the Internet access that let you type that forum post?

I'm not justifying anything. I'm just explaining life to you.

Stop complaining about everything! Maybe you suck at computers. iTunes isn't hard to use, but if you still can't figure it out after all this time, don't use it - just stop complaining about it all the time like a bunch of babies.

Seriously. Apple is dragging everyone here around by the nuts. There are other companies with similar products out there. I don't buy a loaf of bread, think it's shitty, then just keep eating it while crying about it.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

*iTunes is a piece of shit on Windows.

Fixed.

I'm sure I've probably been beat, but just want to reiterate that it sucks ass on OSX too.
iTunes just sucks, there was a time when it was great, but it is now the most bloated POS I have installed on my computer.

 

[Talon]

:-(

sorry. I don't know what to say. but then, I don't know how iTunes is shitting on you specifically so I can't be of any help. In the past, iTunes has lost some of my album art, but other than that it's not done anything strange to me that I can recall. I've never lost music or had music files damaged or anything, which I would consider unforgivable errors.

In my setup, I manually manage all my stuff, I import my music with ExactAudioCopy and convert to mp3 or aac with dBPowerAmp, add albums and fix metadata as needed. Takes a couple of minutes, but I'm used to doing it so I'm happy. I rely on the column browser and would not use iTunes without it. It's just that important, IMO...but with 14,000 songs, I couldn't imagine seriously using any music application without it. ymmv, though.

Yeah, honestly, I'm probably as much of a nerd as you about tagging and organizing my music, but that's not the problem I have with iTunes.

It's that it's so slow and bloated whenever I try to do anything.

Seriously. Apple is dragging everyone here around by the nuts. There are other companies with similar products out there.

Pretty much. At least the market leading software in other fields (Word, Excel, Photoshop, Flash, etc.) are actually good and stable.

 

[HiResDes]

.

Works better on my Windows 7 PC, than on the Mac at my work (it's a 2Ghz Intel Xeon too).

If only iTunes would save the rating information an mp3's tag, so stupid that rating information doesn't follow the songs, so if you lose your iTunes installation or move the songs to another PC, all the rating info has to be entered over again.

That's the one most useless feature to me, if every song isn't a four or five it shouldn't even be in your library...And this is coming from somebody with well over 20,000 songs.

I don't know,my computer isn't that fast, although it's a low-end quad core and iTunes runs just fine. Some of you guys just whine about the silliest shit. Like people really take technology for granted. People seem to lose their minds if a program takes 15 seconds to load versus 5, everyone just seems super impatient these days.

 

[YuriLowell]

Select manual sync so you do everything yourself. That way Itunes essentially become drag and drop. Also turn off auto update. Very simple.

Finally a voice of reason. Didn't realize gaf was so dumb sometimes.

 

[Minsc]

That's the one most useless feature to me, if every song isn't a four or five it shouldn't even be in your library...And this is coming from somebody with well over 20,000 songs.

It is pretty useless, true. I tend to rate everything a 3 no matter what and if I don't like it I delete it (been going through all my old music ever since I got my iPhone and car mp3 player, and deleting a lot of crap off albums I don't like). At one point I kept track of my favorites with 5-star and the rest were 3 or 4s. Then it all got lost somehow.

Now I don't really bother much, but the memory remains!

 

[wenis]

Yeah, honestly, I'm probably as much of a nerd as you about tagging and organizing my music, but that's not the problem I have with iTunes.

It's that it's so slow and bloated whenever I try to do anything.

Really? Because this is my current library

and that took about a day to re-tag most of the music there and I didn't have itunes crash or slow down once.

 

[mrkgoo]

Finally a voice of reason. Didn't realize gaf was so dumb sometimes.

We know drag and drop is in iTunes, but when people say they want to be able to just 'drag and drop', they want just a connection to their device and move files. Yes, manual iTunes does achieve the move part, but you still have to have your media managed (or referenced) by iTunes.

That said, manual file management is for chumps.

 

[Vyer]

You can drag and drop.

You can set it to not automatically sync.

I'm not a big fan of iTunes on Windows, but let's not act like a little research on the software you are using doesn't come in handy.

 

[Tobor]

That's the one most useless feature to me, if every song isn't a four or five it shouldn't even be in your library...And this is coming from somebody with well over 20,000 songs.

Ratings become hugely important when you use them for smart playlists. The number of stars = the frequency I want the song to appear in the playlist.

For example, an 80's top 25 playlist:

Choose 25 80's songs 3 stars or higher I haven't heard in the past two months, order them by rating.

What that does is allow me to tweak the frequency the songs appear by the rating, which is the only field you can edit on an iPod or iPhone, while you're out of the house and thinking about it. Lower rated songs won't make the top 25 until you've listened to the higher rated songs.

Hear a song too frequently? Drop a star. Not enough? Add a star.

iTunes is incredibly powerful once you realize it's a database and use that for your advantage.

 

[PflargBlarg]

I know people here know how to use computers but it's just weird. I have never had a single problem with iTunes. In fact I'd say it's pretty great. Rip or download music to my computer, add the folder to iTunes and it automatically sorts it into folders set up by artist and album. To move music from the computer to my iPod I just have to plug it in and that's it.

Playlists are easy to make, tags are easy to edit, album covers are easy to add and I have never had performance problems. Either the environment that allows this to happen for me is extraordinarily rare or you guys are doing it wrong.

 

[Talon]

Really? Because this is my current library

and that took about a day to re-tag most of the music there and I didn't have itunes crash or slow down once.

I don't know what to tell you, man. Come over to my house and look at what happens when I click from a smart playlist to my podcasts?

Judging by that flag you're probably halfway around the world.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

I know people here know how to use computers but it's just weird.

This is so untrue. I think most of GAF likes to think they know how to use computers, but they're confusing "I use a computer all day" with "I know computers."

 

[wenis]

I don't know what to tell you, man. Come over to my house and look at what happens when I click from a smart playlist to my podcasts?

Judging by that flag you're probably halfway around the world.

lol no, I was just rooting for Portugal during the world cup :lol
Maybe you need to get an older version of itunes or something. I keep mine up to date, but sometimes it helps.

 

[mrkgoo]

This is so untrue. I think most of GAF likes to think they know how to use computers, but they're confusing "I use a computer all day" with "I know computers."

This is true too, I never thought about it like that.

Anyway, people are also a bit "old-school" in that they feel the urge to organise files themselves. For many applications, there's no need to do that - just let your computer do it! They're good at it! (well, most of the time).

 

[ProfessorLobo]

get NON apple mp3 player
uninstall itunes and never look back

Is there a better alternate program for finding/downloading podcasts?

 

[PflargBlarg]

This is so untrue. I think most of GAF likes to think they know how to use computers, but they're confusing "I use a computer all day" with "I know computers."

Perhaps you have a point here sir.

 

[Tobor]

This is true too, I never thought about it like that.

Anyway, people are also a bit "old-school" in that they feel the urge to organise files themselves. For many applications, there's no need to do that - just let your computer do it! They're good at it! (well, most of the time).

This is almost always the problem. Use iTunes to manage the files, and stay out of Windows Explorer.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

Pretty much. At least the market leading software in other fields (Word, Excel, Photoshop, Flash, etc.) are actually good and stable.

Adobe sucks as much ass as Apple does. They're being slow as shit at getting 64 bit native versions of their software out there. I wish some one would give Adobe solid competition, so that they would get off their asses on some thing.

Anyway, I switched to a Zune HD after my 3rd ipod crapped out 1 - 2 months after the warranty was up. It was the best thing I did. I miss some of the apps obviously, but the player is awesome, and the Zune software is miles better than iTunes in most situations.

 

[out0v0rder]

i agree. i just want to add one song and i have to boot up itunes first before i can drag it in there.

i just wanna plug it in, select my mp3 and press ctrl+c and ctrl+v and be done with it. but no i have to load itunes first argh

 

[Crovax33]

I got fed up with iTunes always duplicating my songs, so I went to Media Monkey. So far so good, but I haven't even synced my iPod with it yet. It just seems a lot better for managing songs on different folders in my hard drive.

 

[andycapps]

Is there a better alternate program for finding/downloading podcasts?

Provided you have a PC, Zune. If you have a Mac there are ways to get it to work as well. Can add via the podcast directory/store or you can add via RSS feed.

 

[dmshaposv]

This is so untrue. I think most of GAF likes to think they know how to use computers, but they're confusing "I use a computer all day" with "I know computers."

You are a saint amongst mere men.

Truer words have not been spoken at GAF.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Since this is an Itunes bitch thread, I have a question.

Is there a way I can make it download multiple parts of a podcast? Some of the podcasts I download come in 2 parts and i have to go back and manually download the second part every day because Itunes only takes the newest/freshest one when I hit "refresh".

I looked in the options for the podcast folder, but didn't see a way to make it download multiple "new" ones.