Is iTunes the only way to transfer music between an iPod and a PC?

[frankgomez75]

Never owned an iPod, or messed with one before. My friend got one for his bday and wants me to set it up. Tips?

 

[mchammer]

There's other ways, don't know them though.

 

[Looney]

There's a winamp plugin.

 

[amol]

ephPod

 

[Baked]

Go browse ilounge.

 

[secretanchitman]

anapod explorer...but of course everyone wants the full thing for free.

 

[fs5]

use iTunes first, then decide not to use it if you don't like it. No reason not to use it IMO.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: fs5
No reason not to use it IMO.

Unless, of course, you decide you want to get the music back off the ipod... In which case, you'll rapidly find out that iTunes won't let you do it. Try SharePod (haven't tried this myself, but heard it works.)

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: fs5
use iTunes first, then decide not to use it if you don't like it. No reason not to use it IMO.

And that if you have your library organized a different way iTunes likes to ignore that and do it the way it likes.

iTunes would work for me if it was 100% user customizable. Leave it to apple to make something work their way and tell people that's how it's supposed to be.

 

[frankgomez75]

thnx guys for the suggestions. I will try a few of these out.

I personally want a Creative Zen MP3 Player, but all my friends know about are Ipods... they think MP3 Players = Ipod
Oh well, what can you do?

 

[neovan]

http://sharepod.sturm.net.nz/

/thread

 

[JackSoph]

Originally posted by: frankgomez75
Never owned an iPod, or messed with one before. My friend got one for his bday and wants me to set it up. Tips?

Sell it on eBay and get him a zen vision.

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: fs5
use iTunes first, then decide not to use it if you don't like it. No reason not to use it IMO.

And that if you have your library organized a different way iTunes likes to ignore that and do it the way it likes.

iTunes would work for me if it was 100% user customizable. Leave it to apple to make something work their way and tell people that's how it's supposed to be.

Obviously you checked all the boxes when installing, including "Keep my iTunes music folder organized."

 

[Cristatus]

Originally posted by: Looney
There's a winamp plugin.

Yes, it's called ml_ipod. It is called so because it downloads tunes from your Winamp media library (hence the ml before the ipod).

Last time I used it, it was free.

I like their motto: Your iPod just became Useful.
I also like their logo (you can see it on their website): it's the llama in the typical iPod advertisement shadow/black with iPod headphones going up to it's ears. LOL.

 

[Hammerhead]

I use Anapod and it works great. I've never installed iTunes on my computer

 

[torpid]

I have anapod and it has hosed my ipod a couple of times. I think it may have something to do with opening itunes and then ejecting the ipod in the wrong order in the two apps.

 

[0roo0roo]

yamipod

 

[HN]

Originally posted by: frankgomez75
Never owned an iPod, or messed with one before. My friend got one for his bday and wants me to set it up. Tips?

it sounds like your knowledge of the things ipod are the same as your friend's. i think in this case, since you're both starting on equal ground, you should just let your friend deal with it. this is a slippery slope which will one day lead to your friend's gigs and gigs worth of music being hosed and looking at YOU to blame.

just a thought

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: Amol
ephPod

FTW

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: keeleysam

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: fs5
use iTunes first, then decide not to use it if you don't like it. No reason not to use it IMO.

And that if you have your library organized a different way iTunes likes to ignore that and do it the way it likes.

iTunes would work for me if it was 100% user customizable. Leave it to apple to make something work their way and tell people that's how it's supposed to be.

Obviously you checked all the boxes when installing, including "Keep my iTunes music folder organized."

K... try keeping that organization then ripping CDs with iTunes. Yep. Organizes them iTunes' way instead of letting you match your way (unless something has changed in the past few months.)

I mean, if I have to rip them with media player just to organize them the way I like, then why would I rip with media player then play with iTunes? Why the need for extra software?

 

[fs5]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: fs5
No reason not to use it IMO.

Unless, of course, you decide you want to get the music back off the ipod... In which case, you'll rapidly find out that iTunes won't let you do it. Try SharePod (haven't tried this myself, but heard it works.)

1) Why would you want to do that? You already have your music on your computer because you copied it from there in the first place.
2) Download EphPod if you ever need this scenario.
3) The argument for using iTunes is that you might as well use what Apple made for their own product. When they roll out new features such as the music store, podcasts, video, video podcasts, etc... and you're using a 3rd party organizer you're missing out.
4) Injury see #3. If you organize all your music in iTunes, you'll soon forget about sticking to your proprietary folder structure.

 

[CKent]

There's a ton of ways. Most popular players have plugins available, such as winamp, foobar and WMP. Then there are standalone programs, such as anapod (shareware iirc) and ephpod (freeware).

However, if your friend needs you to set it up for him, chances are any/all of these methods might be a bit difficult for him to use, so as another poster suggested, the default (itunes) might be his best bet.

 

[0roo0roo]

keep yamipod executable on the ipod. it requires no install and runs straight off it. good for access anywhere. it also works with all major o/s