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Little known iTunes 10 benefit

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Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#21

Post by jonknee »

sprout wrote: post #13
swombat wrote: post #4

That's a pretty big feature change... is that a mistake or did they somehow slip that past the record labels?

No it's not. This is only really useful if you want to use a computer's built-in speakers to play music that's located on your iPod.

Some of us can play to remote speakers (AirPlay) which makes this more handy. I can choose what room(s) to play something in from iTunes. If someone comes over and has a new track they want to play for everyone it's now easier. Still not as easy as it should be, but nothing with the RIAA / Apple is perfect.

Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#22

Post by SandB0x »

jsz0 wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, you still can't copy music from a device back into iTunes. I mean, obviously the bits representing the music flow from the iDevice into the computer, but the computer doesn't belong to you anymore, so you don't get access to them. Silly user. USB devices fail in that they rely on the user to make his own decisions about whether or not to copy his friend's music collection. Apple devices let some music ex…

USB mass storage players also fail nicely at being usable for most normal people. Plug it in, get an Explorer window, now what? Open another Explorer window -- reposition windows so you can see both. Navigate to your music collection. Find the first thing you want to copy -- hopefully your music folder is well organized by filename. Copy (don't move!) files. Make sure there are no incompatible filenames. FAT32 isn't…

With a mass storage player:

At least you have the option, and the device doesn't go out of its way to make life difficult for you and any software that tries to access it.

People love to think that users are completely clueless, but it's not the case. The general user has absolutely no problem using a USB drive. Sure, it might not the most usable option but it's not as arduous as you describe.

And organised music folders? Either it matters, and you play music directly with Winamp (or similar), or it doesn't matter at all and you use a jukebox program that works with the tags. You can also just play music straight off the drive if you want - fairly common in my experience.

Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#23

Post by doron »

jsz0 wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, you still can't copy music from a device back into iTunes. I mean, obviously the bits representing the music flow from the iDevice into the computer, but the computer doesn't belong to you anymore, so you don't get access to them. Silly user. USB devices fail in that they rely on the user to make his own decisions about whether or not to copy his friend's music collection. Apple devices let some music ex…

USB mass storage players also fail nicely at being usable for most normal people. Plug it in, get an Explorer window, now what? Open another Explorer window -- reposition windows so you can see both. Navigate to your music collection. Find the first thing you want to copy -- hopefully your music folder is well organized by filename. Copy (don't move!) files. Make sure there are no incompatible filenames. FAT32 isn't…

Most MediaPlayers that are not Itunes (like WinAmp for windows) will mange the devices for you, without the - disabled by design feature

Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#24

Post by elblanco »

jsz0 wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, you still can't copy music from a device back into iTunes. I mean, obviously the bits representing the music flow from the iDevice into the computer, but the computer doesn't belong to you anymore, so you don't get access to them. Silly user. USB devices fail in that they rely on the user to make his own decisions about whether or not to copy his friend's music collection. Apple devices let some music ex…

USB mass storage players also fail nicely at being usable for most normal people. Plug it in, get an Explorer window, now what? Open another Explorer window -- reposition windows so you can see both. Navigate to your music collection. Find the first thing you want to copy -- hopefully your music folder is well organized by filename. Copy (don't move!) files. Make sure there are no incompatible filenames. FAT32 isn't…

I guess you've explained why usb thumb drives have failed to take the market.

Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#25

Post by eli »

Setsuna wrote: post #7
swombat wrote: post #4

That's a pretty big feature change... is that a mistake or did they somehow slip that past the record labels?

>"slip that past the record labels" What does this feature has to do with that? /curious

There's no technical reason to prevent people from getting music back off their devices. So the assumption is it was part of the DRM requirements that Steve Jobs claims the record labels forced him to accept.

Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#26

Post by mitjak »

statictype wrote: post #8

I'm surprised that people who wanted this feature haven't already enabled manual-sync. Is there really some benefit in having it automatically sync your device to be worth the pain of not being able to plug it in somewhere else? I went a step further and edited the iTunes DB file's device ids so that they are the same across all 3 of my systems. So my iPhone now recognizes each as the same system allowing me to sync…

The downsides which are quite irritating depending on your listening habits are:

1. Having to manually manage all songs, which gets tiring if you constantly add new music to the library

2. None of the listening history and ratings are synced over when connecting a manually managed device. This ties in with #1: when listening to a bunch of new albums, it's helpful to preserve the ratings to make knowing what albums and tracks to trash easier later on.

Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#28

Post by mitjak »

Note: most bizarrely, it doesn't let you enable shuffling when listening to music this way. Pink Floyd and Sgt. Pepper are delighted and partying but what about all the 80s one-hit wanders?

Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#29

Post by mortenjorck »

GeneralMaximus wrote: post #20
jsz0 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB mass storage players also fail nicely at being usable for most normal people. Plug it in, get an Explorer window, now what? Open another Explorer window -- reposition windows so you can see both. Navigate to your music collection. Find the first thing you want to copy -- hopefully your music folder is well organized by filename. Copy (don't move!) files. Make sure there are no incompatible filenames. FAT32 isn't…

iTunes used to handle USB mass storage players just like it handles iPods. I think they killed that feature in iTunes 9.

I've been using iTunes since version 3, and I don't think I've ever seen it treat a mass-storage player like an iPod. There was, however, until perhaps very recently, vestigial support for a handful of very dated mass-storage players, a strangely-untouched holdover from SoundJam MP. I never did see what would happen when one of those was plugged in.

Re: Little known iTunes 10 benefit

#30

Post by leviathant »

htsh wrote: post #10

Is it just me, or did this used to work before? I thought you could always play the music off someone else's iPod without being able to copy it.

iPod yes, iPhone no. At least, not in the Windows version of iTunes. I used to do this with my iPod at work, and was pretty disappointed that I couldn't continue to do so with my iPhone. I'm glad to see the option to play is back, although I still can't sort my music by column.
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