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[theolodian]

Is there a better alternative to managing music on an iPod than iTunes?  I am getting fed up with it.  It keeps losing all of my music, or songs are getting corrupted.  It is a real PITA to manage music and especially photos.  Even more so with multiple computers and multiple iPods.  Really looking for freeware I guess.  Maybe yamipod?

Can be either XP or OSX, but XP preferred.

[omegaman2]

as far as im aware ipod wont function without i tunes ,have you tried downloading latest versions for both pod &tunes :question

[TheBoy]

Welcome to Apple's style over reliability world

[theolodian]

Welcome to Apple's style over reliability world

The iPod itself is very reliable in my experience.  I have one that is almost 5 years old and still works great, hers is over 3 years old and has never missed a beat.

The aggravation is iTunes.  There are alternatives, but they are geared mainly to allow you to copy music from an iPod.  Can't tell if they're better at anything else.

You're just jealous because Apple has style, unlike the uninspiring and still not so reliable alternatives.  :-?

[TheBoy]

Welcome to Apple's style over reliability world

The iPod itself is very reliable in my experience.  I have one that is almost 5 years old and still works great, hers is over 3 years old and has never missed a beat.

The aggravation is iTunes.  There are alternatives, but they are geared mainly to allow you to copy music from an iPod.  Can't tell if they're better at anything else.

You're just jealous because Apple has style, unlike the uninspiring and still not so reliable alternatives.  :-?

I think the ipod in its day was a great piece of hardware design.  The software, however, is appalling and frequently unreliable.  I hear of many losing all their tracks due to the poor software (or Apple's inability to manage DRM).

[Kevin Wood]

I think the ipod in its day was a great piece of hardware design.  The software, however, is appalling and frequently unreliable.  I hear of many losing all their tracks due to the poor software (or Apple's inability to manage DRM).

This is true of so many products these days

If I were to be in the market for an IPod type device I'd avoid it like the plague for this reason, and go for something that allows me to avoid all the DRM nonsense, as I'm only interested in ripping CDs that I have bought, looks like a standard USB drive and allows me to drag and drop MP3s onto it which it then catalogues. If vendors aren't going to do a decent job of writing support software, and make it available for a reasonable range of OS platforms they may as well not bother IMHO.

Kevin

[tunnie]

as far as im aware ipod wont function without i tunes ,have you tried downloading latest versions for both pod &tunes :question

Nope, there are a million and one programs out there you can use, but they cost. Winamp extension is quite nice.

[theolodian]

I think the ipod in its day was a great piece of hardware design.  The software, however, is appalling and frequently unreliable.  I hear of many losing all their tracks due to the poor software (or Apple's inability to manage DRM).

This is true of so many products these days

If I were to be in the market for an IPod type device I'd avoid it like the plague for this reason, and go for something that allows me to avoid all the DRM nonsense, as I'm only interested in ripping CDs that I have bought, looks like a standard USB drive and allows me to drag and drop MP3s onto it which it then catalogues. If vendors aren't going to do a decent job of writing support software, and make it available for a reasonable range of OS platforms they may as well not bother IMHO.

Kevin

I don't have any DRM'd files because of those fears, or more to the point it getting broken or stolen.  However, the iPod is great for ripping your own CD's to MP3's (Yes, MP3's not just AAC).  I have been doing it for years.  The problem comes when you run out of room on your iPod, or have more than one iPod and/or computer, or keep your music library on an external drive because it is a work laptop.  In these cases the iTunes program for loading files onto the iPod really shows its limitations.

We have 5 iPods in my family.  No files from the iTunes store, all from CD's.  Everyone loves their iPods, I just get stuck managing the music on all of them.  I have had to reboot iPods once a year or so, but that is really reliable in my book.

One other great MP3 device is the little Sandisk Sansa Express with radio and Micro SD expansion slot.  

[Paul M]

Amarok is a fantastic music application, better than any other I have used on any platform, and it works with iPods as well as other portable players.

Unfortunately it's an X11 (Unix) app, it works perfectly on OS X using Apple's X11 layer, but doesn't quite integrate with the rest of the system (i.e. it has it's own menu bar, rather than using the system one) and it's a bit of a pain to install. Well worth it though IMO, I'd be lost without it. iTunes is useless to me as it can't play FLAC, and I don't particularly like it anyway.

http://amarok.kde.org

The next major version of Amarok should be available natively for Windows and OS X, since the new QT libraries that it's built with are cross-platform.

Alternatively if you'd rather stick with Windows, you can use Winamp as mentioned. That's my preferred app when I'm on a Windows computer, but it's miles behind Amarok.

[Kevin Wood]

I use amarok under Linux and I would agree it's rather good. I have a feeling I heard a rumour about a Windows port somewhere...

Kevin