Alternative to iTunes & Iphone

ve

Have on iPhone on the way and want to know if it is possible to transfer media to it without using iTunes? I never had an iPod in the past purely because I hated installing that splash of muck that is iTunes on my clean PC.

What about Songbird?. It seems like a good option for IPod users, but it doesn't seem to be supporting the iTouch or IPhone to date. Is there anything else out that that is not as bloated as iTunes that I could use instead?

Or should I just bite the bullet with iTunes, is my opinion of the software a bit harsh?

Creamy Goodness

at the moment no, the only way to use ipod classic/ipod touch/iphone is by using itunes.

maybe in a couple of months when pwned gets released for the iphone you might be able to just drag and drop music. google pwned iphone for more details.

120_Minutes

any opinions on sharepod? I was thinking of trying that

strecker

Ho ho... I just had a week's fun with itunes on a spanking clean vista pc that ran very nicely (after the usuall months of getting vista to run "nicely"...)...until I installed "vista ready" itunes that is...i wouldn't have minded that it has te appearance of a dodgy eastern european website for viagra, but every single element was buggy! So after an hour I uninstalled! No worries...BUT!!! Loads of junkware left behind all over the registry... Worse than realplayer, and for me currently THE reason not to get an ipod touch/iphone...though I guess it could've been an isolated incident/bad install... However, the filthy uninstall is what kept me from trying it again!

MeWantBroadband

Alternative to iTunes & Iphone: Any MP3 playing phone, including iPhone, plus the <snip>.

Predhead

ve wrote: »

Have on iPhone on the way and want to know if it is possible to transfer media to it without using iTunes? I never had an iPod in the past purely because I hated installing that splash of muck that is iTunes on my clean PC.

What about Songbird?. It seems like a good option for IPod users, but it doesn't seem to be supporting the iTouch or IPhone to date. Is there anything else out that that is not as bloated as iTunes that I could use instead?

Or should I just bite the bullet with iTunes, is my opinion of the software a bit harsh?

Splash of muck? I don't think there's anything at all wrong with iTunes. If you've ever used an alternative it's you may find it's far better than what's out there.

And a clean PC? Don't think there is such thing!

But yeah, bite the bullet, no big deal. Surely you don't hate itunes that much!?!

ve

strecker wrote:

wouldn't have minded that it has te appearance of a dodgy eastern european website for viagra, but every single element was buggy! So after an hour I uninstalled! No worries...BUT!!! Loads of junkware left behind all over the registry

This is exactly what I see with other people who run iTunes. These people tend not to be techies and are wondering why their windows installation feels much more sluggish than before. I have visions of installing it, and having my firewall alert me to suspicous network activity attempts every few mins. On my brother's PC, he gets a GPF everytime he closes the application on XP(SP2). Everytime I use his PC I want to scrub the disk and do a clean XP install. PC's that are slow due to bloatware are a serious pet hate of mine!

Splash of muck? I don't think there's anything at all wrong with iTunes. If you've ever used an alternative it's you may find it's far better than what's out there.

Then there's the other side of the story, which I see plenty of also. But when you say "far better", how exactly is that justified for you?

Cabaal

Predhead wrote: »

Splash of muck? I don't think there's anything at all wrong with iTunes. If you've ever used an alternative it's you may find it's far better than what's out there.

iTunes on windows feels somewhat buggy and clunky, iTunes on the Mac feels more solid and refined

Pythia

Guys, please don't talk about torrent sites here please!

strecker

Below is a link to a blog entry by mcelhear - s.o. who knows a thing or 2 about macs and itunes, and although it's an article from 2006 it illustrates some of the disturbing issues related to itunes (and being tied to that borderline ad/spyware program in order to use an iphone or ipod touch):
http://www.mcelhearn.com/article.php?story=20060111150127268
for those of you rushing in to point out that' "strecker, since 2006 a lot's happened, dude",... Consider that a lot of pressure has to be exerted for those companies to "adapt" their strategies...and everytime they fix "a problem" - read: feature they purposefully sneakily programmed into the application (NOT SOME GLITCH)... Every time they offer a "fix", bet your as* they're trying hard to replace it with a less visisble "glitch"... Consider how hard it is to even find out that in xp windows reserves 20 percent (that's a fifth!!!) of your internet bandwith! They don't tell you, do they? And even if you disable background services, updates etc, those 20pc are still "stolen" (curiously, when you disable the default setting and reduce it to, uuh, ZERO, all automated background services, updates etc still work!!!)... Apple use a similar feature in the iphone - that's how their customer "care" knows your iphne's a hacked unlocked one before you've even used it to go online!

as to "there is no such thing as a clean pc": you're just not trying hard enough, which is ok, but don't expect that those willing to try deal with other people's BS!!!

kaisersose77

I didnt know how bad Itunes was until I used it this week. I've seen some bad music software for other mp3 players but somehow this is worse. I never want to see playlists again! It doesnt even automatically recognise new music, if you added a new album to your music folder while itunes is open. Hopefully with all this jailbreaking, somebody brings out software that just lets you drag and drop!

And as said before, the windows version seems very buggy and sluggish.

flywheel

eh can we get back on topic for the OP please - providing them with (official, non torrent) alternatives... there is a Mac forum for anyone who wants to debate the pros / cons of iTunes there - thanks

strecker

DubWireless wrote: »

eh can we get back on topic for the OP please - providing them with (official, non torrent) alternatives... there is a Mac forum for anyone who wants to debate the pros / cons of iTunes there - thanks

Well, right you are sir, but the op DID ask if his opinion was a bit harsh re itunes! So, it's a bit of a cross-thread/forum matter.
I'll shut up now!