apple love hate relationship.

i had my mbp for about 2 months now and i absolutelly love it. i bearly touch my pc and it just serves as a back up computer and a storage server. i use the monitor from it as a secondary display for my mbp everything has been great. lately i have been in the market for a new mp3 player since i will be flying to poland this summer and i need something better than my 256mb iriver that i use for working out. for some reason i cant make myself to get an Ipod. i love the mbp but hate the ipod lol. it just looks very proprietary to me and i hate the how its managed and the fact that you cant remove single songs unless i get an extra app. anybody else feel like that? ill be getting a sandisk sansa 2gb version. it has a replaceable battery and a micro sd slot and in the size of a ipod nano.

What do you mean by cant remove single songs? There is an option in iTunes to allow YOU to manage the content of the library on your iPod. That way you can have exactly what songs you want on there

The main thing i love about my iPod is how it so easily integrates with iTunes. Just plug it in, drag and drop songs across and then your done

~~ TS ~~

When i wanted to pull off some songs of my friends ipod into itunes or just my mac to make a playlist for a party it would not let me for some reason. after some searching on here i found a seperate piece of software that let me do that.

plpete said:

When i wanted to pull off some songs of my friends ipod into itunes or just my mac to make a playlist for a party it would not let me for some reason. after some searching on here i found a seperate piece of software that let me do that.

Click to expand...

Well what you're trying to do is illegal, you can't just take music from someone else's MP3 player with out paying for a license.

That said, the iPod is a very good MP3 player. It has the largest capacity of any MP3 player out there as well as best sound quality (after you replace the iPod earbuds of course) You can set iTunes to manually manage the music on your iPod (so you can add just what you want).

But if you still don't want an iPod I suggest the next best thing... a Creative Zen with XNJB, to make it work on the Mac. Do know that you won't be nearly as happy with how the Zen works with a Mac than you would with the iPod, you also won't be able to put any music purchased from any online store on your Zen (except if you buy from iTunes, burn to a CD and re-import the songs. Also in the near future iTunes will be selling non DRM files for 1.20 per song that will work), since Microsoft hasn't made it's Windows Media DRM work with the Mac.

--Cheers and good luck

Benjamindaines said:

Well what you're trying to do is illegal, you can't just take music from someone else's MP3 player with out paying for a license.

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Ben is correct. This was done purposely to satisfy the record labels when Apple was in negotiations for the iTunes Music Store. You may consider it a shortcoming, but it is part of the design. Please note that the Zune has the same restriction and for the same reasons.

All that being said though, using that as an excuse NOT to buy an iPod sounds a bit silly to me...

As Benjamin Daines said, it is illegal to pull the files from another person's MP3 player to copy them onto your own machine. However, there are some situations where the capability of reading the iPod's file system is perfectly legal - for example, say you want to transfer files directly from your player to another machine in your household and don't want to go through the pain of networking the two machines.

Prior to owning an iPod, I had a Dell DJ and someone turned me onto a program called DudeBox from Red Chair Software. DudeBox will let you peruse and directly access the file system of the DJ. As it turns out, they have a similar program called Anapod Copy Gear for the iPod (even have a Mac-specific version) and it works great.

When my DJ ran out of space, I decided to take the gamble and go iPod. I bought a 20GB Photo and absolutely loved it. Then I bought a 2GB Nano for my wife, and she absolutely loved it but ran out of space. So, I gave her my 20GB and bought a 30GB. Once you've used one (having come from a non-Apple player myself), I can tell you from experience that you'll never want another brand.

IMO, the iPod is not only best because it's the most popular, it's also very well made, easy to use and by far the most flexible. Since you need to replace a platry 512MB player - I'd say take the gamble and pick yourself up a 2GB Nano and see how you like it. You should be able to find them used very cheaply on eBay. They are excellent players.

cwa107 said:

As Benjamin Daines said, it is illegal to pull the files from another person's MP3 player to copy them onto your own machine.

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I don't have an iPod, let alone two, so I can't check this out. I wonder whether this restriction applies to any of these players sold in Canada. If it's just the software, maybe not. If it does apply, it shouldn't.

Legally, no. But an iPod still won't do it. Apple followed US law, and the wished of the recording industry, since they are a US based company.

Benjamindaines said:

you also won't be able to put any music purchased from any online store on your Zen

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that's not true.

there are plenty of music stores that sell straight non-drm mp3s, emusic for example.

will you find all the top 40 stuff there? probably not, but to say all purchased music from any online store won't play on an ipod is simply wrong.

To get music off you iPod all you need to do is open Terminal and type
This will show the invisible files on the iPod and you can find your music there (they won't be named the same as they are on your computer, but this is fine for backup proposes).


To return to defaults.