iPhooey
iPods, and iTunes, make me very frustrated and angry.
I have had two iPods. Both where hand-me-downs, so I admit it right up front: I've never had to invest in one of the devices, and I also admit that, left to my own pocketbook, I probably would have opted for something cheaper.
But then I probably would have suffered from iPod envy - not realizing that if the truth be told, neither iPods, nor iTunes, the iPod's enabling software, are easy to use!
And darn it, they should be!
You see, iTunes makes the classic Apple error: limiting what you can do with a device and limiting the devices usefulness to only branded software.
I started listening to podcasts several years ago, when it was still a fairly geeky thing to do. Today, podcasts are just another form of media - many radio shows are excerpted for podcasts, and there are hundreds if not thousands of really well-done podcasts from which to choose.
But iTunes (and iPods) are not podcast-friendly, which is kind of ironic, as the name podcast derives from the iPod (which has become something like "zipper," a trademarked name that people use to refer to all the devices of a type, whether they are the trademarked item or not).
iPods, and iTunes, work on a "synching" algorithm: the notion is that you have a body of files (presumably music) on your computer's hard drive, and you decide which songs you want to listen to on your iPod. You select those songs, and when you attach your iPod to your computer, it will synch the selected songs to your iPod, adding those songs you have selected, and deleting those songs on your iPod that don't match up with the selected tunes.
All well and good, unless you, like me, are listening to podcasts.
Podcasts are meant to be heard and then thrown away. They are not meant to be kept on either your hard drive, or your iPod, indefinitely.
Most mp3 players act like additional hard drives: when you plug them in, they show up as a removable mass storage device, from which and to which you can drag and drop files.
But if you access an iPod via the file structure, you will find that the files stored on your iPod have no human-readable information readily available. Yes, you can click on each file (which have been added to mysteriously named folders that mean nothing to the user), and go to the properties, and see what the name of the song/podcast is, and read the other tag information. And you can, thus armed, perform drag and drop operations this way. (If you drag and drop a podcast into one of the folders iTunes creates on your iPod, the visible name of the podcast will now be evident in the file structure, rather than the "VWEK" style naming that iTunes applies to every song or podcast.)
And if you want to remove a file, you have to locate it by literally going through every single oddly-named file, clicking on the properties and then finding out what the "real" name of that file is. Now, you can drag that file off your iPod. Trying to delete single podcasts or songs from your iPod using the "delete" available in iTunes will do nothing. The song won't show up as being on your iPod when you view the contents via iTunes, but the song or podcast will still be there, clogging up your iPod.
Thus, you can end up with hundreds and "used" podcasts on your iPod, and would ostensibly have to wait to listen to them all, then synch with another batch, in order to get rid of the ones you've listened to. The idea solution would be to synch on some regular basis, say, weekly or daily, listen to the podcasts in that set, and then synch again. But as a practical matter, most of us don't listen to all our podcasts in as scheduled a way as that.
I got into a discussion about this with a friend who is an Apple Geek. He patiently explained to me that all I needed to do was attend a seminar on how to use iTunes.
And I not so patiently explained to him that he had made my point for me: I shouldn't need a seminar to understand how to use a relatively simple piece of software! If I can drag and drop files onto a mass storage device of any other kind, and have those files show up with human-friendly names in folders of my choosing, and if I can drag those same files off the mass storage device when I wish... I should be able to do the same with an expensive iPod, right?
And one more thing: one of the reasons I got my first iPod was that it's original owner was fed up with trying to keep it charged, or to get Apple to replace its failing battery. She opted for a new device. Since the iPod was free-t0-me, I was wiling to buy a kit and attempt the battery replacement myself. Fortunately for me, it worked, and I got a couple of years out of the iPod for a $50 investment. But if I had spent the $300 only to have the device fail after one or two years, I would have been anything but impressed.
Now, I bet I've ruffled a few Mac feathers, and there is probably some great advice on how to manage my iPod better than I have been doing - and I'd love to hear from you! Email me at nancyc.roberts@gmail.com!
I have had two iPods. Both where hand-me-downs, so I admit it right up front: I've never had to invest in one of the devices, and I also admit that, left to my own pocketbook, I probably would have opted for something cheaper.
But then I probably would have suffered from iPod envy - not realizing that if the truth be told, neither iPods, nor iTunes, the iPod's enabling software, are easy to use!
And darn it, they should be!
You see, iTunes makes the classic Apple error: limiting what you can do with a device and limiting the devices usefulness to only branded software.
I started listening to podcasts several years ago, when it was still a fairly geeky thing to do. Today, podcasts are just another form of media - many radio shows are excerpted for podcasts, and there are hundreds if not thousands of really well-done podcasts from which to choose.
But iTunes (and iPods) are not podcast-friendly, which is kind of ironic, as the name podcast derives from the iPod (which has become something like "zipper," a trademarked name that people use to refer to all the devices of a type, whether they are the trademarked item or not).
iPods, and iTunes, work on a "synching" algorithm: the notion is that you have a body of files (presumably music) on your computer's hard drive, and you decide which songs you want to listen to on your iPod. You select those songs, and when you attach your iPod to your computer, it will synch the selected songs to your iPod, adding those songs you have selected, and deleting those songs on your iPod that don't match up with the selected tunes.
All well and good, unless you, like me, are listening to podcasts.
Podcasts are meant to be heard and then thrown away. They are not meant to be kept on either your hard drive, or your iPod, indefinitely.
Most mp3 players act like additional hard drives: when you plug them in, they show up as a removable mass storage device, from which and to which you can drag and drop files.
But if you access an iPod via the file structure, you will find that the files stored on your iPod have no human-readable information readily available. Yes, you can click on each file (which have been added to mysteriously named folders that mean nothing to the user), and go to the properties, and see what the name of the song/podcast is, and read the other tag information. And you can, thus armed, perform drag and drop operations this way. (If you drag and drop a podcast into one of the folders iTunes creates on your iPod, the visible name of the podcast will now be evident in the file structure, rather than the "VWEK" style naming that iTunes applies to every song or podcast.)
And if you want to remove a file, you have to locate it by literally going through every single oddly-named file, clicking on the properties and then finding out what the "real" name of that file is. Now, you can drag that file off your iPod. Trying to delete single podcasts or songs from your iPod using the "delete" available in iTunes will do nothing. The song won't show up as being on your iPod when you view the contents via iTunes, but the song or podcast will still be there, clogging up your iPod.
Thus, you can end up with hundreds and "used" podcasts on your iPod, and would ostensibly have to wait to listen to them all, then synch with another batch, in order to get rid of the ones you've listened to. The idea solution would be to synch on some regular basis, say, weekly or daily, listen to the podcasts in that set, and then synch again. But as a practical matter, most of us don't listen to all our podcasts in as scheduled a way as that.
I got into a discussion about this with a friend who is an Apple Geek. He patiently explained to me that all I needed to do was attend a seminar on how to use iTunes.
And I not so patiently explained to him that he had made my point for me: I shouldn't need a seminar to understand how to use a relatively simple piece of software! If I can drag and drop files onto a mass storage device of any other kind, and have those files show up with human-friendly names in folders of my choosing, and if I can drag those same files off the mass storage device when I wish... I should be able to do the same with an expensive iPod, right?
And one more thing: one of the reasons I got my first iPod was that it's original owner was fed up with trying to keep it charged, or to get Apple to replace its failing battery. She opted for a new device. Since the iPod was free-t0-me, I was wiling to buy a kit and attempt the battery replacement myself. Fortunately for me, it worked, and I got a couple of years out of the iPod for a $50 investment. But if I had spent the $300 only to have the device fail after one or two years, I would have been anything but impressed.
Now, I bet I've ruffled a few Mac feathers, and there is probably some great advice on how to manage my iPod better than I have been doing - and I'd love to hear from you! Email me at nancyc.roberts@gmail.com!
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