Microsofts MVNO

[mollipen]

Not without installing iTunes.

Granted, you have to install iTune, but that's a better solution to me than hunting and pecking in a file browser for specific files and folders to drag over.

Other players dock in seconds and need no software or drivers.

Just like my iPod.

Plus, an iPod isn't going to play the higher-res Divx/Xvid files that alot of my video is encoded in.

Please tell me you aren't expecting the Microsoft unit to do this.

If they market it right they could actually be seen as the un-corporate option.

Microsoft... the un-corporate option. Keep dreaming there. (Which you are of course more than welcome to do.)

Except more then half of my music is disorganized by Itunes because it's not labeled properly. I have to have over 15gb of music that can't be organized by Itunes because of the way the MP3's were labeled, where does Itunes help me there?

I love people who blame iTunes because they either don't understand how it works or they just can't tag properly. What do you mean 15GB of music can't be organized?

Hell, I just checked, and I have over 20 cd's that are "new artist" since they were live shows that I downloaded.

So open up iTunes and tag them properly. What's the problem exactly? I currently have almost 40GB of music, with a lot more CDs to add once I get the time to rip them, and my library of music is organized just fine.

[sphere79]

The only thing different about the iTunes experience is that its done in one program, it goes in your mp3 folder automatically, and it goes on your iPod automatically. Any playlist you make in the iTunes gets uploaded to the iPod automatically, and everything is sorted by artist (or album, or whatever) - just like your CD collection.

Everything other than having an ID3-tag database on the PC happens pretty much automatically. I'm ripping directly TO the unit. A playlist is created, and accessed - on the unit. They all go in one folder, you can even keep them with the artists and it will dupe them in that one folder. I don't think of Windows Explorer as a program per se - it's used frequently to access stuff on disc, etc. Winamp (efficient - opens quick, closes quick) opens when it's needed to play stuff.

Do iPods/iTunes still keep content on the drive and player as well? My content lives on the player, if I want a back it up I dump a copy to a drive.

I can understand why you wouldn't want a program to do all that for you, but it strikes me as ideological rather than practical.

What's practical is what works.

The thing is, people like you are so clearly in the minority that it doesn't make sense for them to. People want a program that will handle things as deftly as iTunes does. Just look at sales.

I think alot of people buy the device first and get what comes with it. That doesn't mean Apple's software isn't a good program. I'll concede that if MS wants to go head to head with Apple, interface and experience are going to make the difference between niche and success.

You probably think everyone has been "duped" by Apple's marketing but that is a laughable explanation when applied to anything.

Some people will buy the "hype" or will buy it cause everyone else has it. Obviously if it wasn't a positive enough experience for regular users it wouldn't be selling as well. I sense there's a general belief especially at retail that nothing at all compares to the iPod. As far as overall experience (hardware/software) that may be true, but there are hardware-wise other players that are assembled well enough and are usable even without a click wheel. iTunes really is in a way Apple's bigger advantage. A company with the resources and right people pushing could change the public belief a bit, at least enough to make a small dent in Apple. And yes, an easy, slick way to load/encode content isn't going to hurt.

For Apple iPod users - some real competition would only keep Apple from getting stagnant and better their products. I don't understand the resistance from some - I say bring it on.

Apple made a product that works the way people expect the PC music experience to work and are reaping the fruits of their labor.

You think Microsoft doesn't know this? Even if they have to go out of house for some stuff (not unlike like Apple) they know all eyes are on them and they've got to get it right. I hope they get enough right to make theirs a long-term product. It's an uphill battle but maybe they'll learn from their mistakes (and others) and not completely suck. Offering a feature or something unique that only they have would also help.

[MechDeus]

Wow. I haven't been to their websites in months. That is annoying.

It's like Steve Jobs hired a random forum troll that's anti-microsoft and made him the head of advertising.

One of my friends went to an Apple store today to pick up a Macbook Pro so she could have a good laptop with a great service plan that also has a really good video card for the architectural programs she uses. Thing is, those programs are Windows-only so I'm going to be using Boot Camp to set all that up. While she was there they tried to convince her to purchase Parallels because "that was the only way to run the program on a Mac." Apparently they hadn't thought of running Windows by itself.

Way to try and unnesessarily force OSX usage where it wasn't needed. At all.

[Wildkat]

I realize this, but either I go through 20+gb of music and fix the ID3 tags, or I just download music into specific folders where I want them. Which is easy.

Unless there's an easy way to fix ID3 tags that I'm missing. Which there very well might be.
.

http://musicbrainz.org/ it will fix about 70% automatically. The rest, you will need to click and make some decisions, but it makes it very easy. It will also fix file names.

And anyone using a PC really needs to check out the latest versions of winamp if you have not yet. It will make you forget all about iTunes.

[Brand X]

That's a fantastic piece of software right there. Thanks a lot Wildkat!

[Dolemite]

I don't understand the hate. iPod and iTunes are amazing. STFU.

Microsoft's player will have to bring some serious goods to the table if it hopes to compete.

If they (Microsoft) market it right they could actually be seen as the un-corporate option.

LOL!!!!

[kedawa]

There are a few things that suck about iTunes. The first is obviously the DRM component, which nobody wants, but most people seem willing to tolerate.
Another thing that sucks is the internet radio support. The list of stations is pathetic, and there's a glitch that makes it so every time the stream rebuffers, user input is required in order to resume playing, which can get really tiresome when you're not sitting at the computer.
It's also stupid that it duplicates every MP3 you play with it and stores a seperate copy in the iTunes library. There should be an option to just create a shortcut in the library, or just let you listen to the song without adding it to the library at all.
Everything else is peachy

[mollipen]

There are a few things that suck about iTunes. The first is obviously the DRM component, which nobody wants, but most people seem willing to tolerate.

The ONLY part of iTunes that deals in DRM is the store. Don't use the store, and you'll never experience DRM.

Another thing that sucks is the internet radio support. The list of stations is pathetic, and there's a glitch that makes it so every time the stream rebuffers, user input is required in order to resume playing, which can get really tiresome when you're not sitting at the computer.

The initial selection of stations sucks butt, indeed, but you can always use iTunes to play other stations that use streaming MP3. And, I'm not sure I've ever had that buffering problem you're talking about.

It's also stupid that it duplicates every MP3 you play with it and stores a seperate copy in the iTunes library. There should be an option to just create a shortcut in the library, or just let you listen to the song without adding it to the library at all.

If you don't have it on auto-organize, it won't duplicate the actual song file. It will still add the track to the iTunes library listing, and yes, I do agree that it sucks a bit that there's no option to simply play a track. As a Mac user, though, I NEVER run into this, because OSX's Finder automatically brings up music files for playing right in the Finder, so I either just use that or QuickTime Player.

[Wildkat]

The ONLY part of iTunes that deals in DRM is the store. Don't use the store, and you'll never experience DRM.

So your telling me you can take music you rip, that you sync on your Ipod and copy over to another computer?

[kedawa]

That's what I was thinking.
A friend of mine just got an iPod about a month ago and he ripped all of his CDs through iTunes.
When he copied the files from his iPod to another friend's PC, the files wouldn't play at all.

As a Mac user, though, I NEVER run into this, because OSX's Finder automatically brings up music files for playing right in the Finder, so I either just use that or QuickTime Player.

It does?
I have Tiger, and I've never seen anything like that.