Re: Where do you get your music?
@Figment:
Concerning my status as a devoted Apple-worshipper, could be, could be. I'm hardly the most reliable person to suggest otherwise. But I do think iTunes fits my needs. If you don't agree, just don't use it. Apple is most certainly not forcing you--in fact, as things stand, you have more options than ever for doing without if you choose to. You will not get the same experience, but it's a compromise worth making if you think that iTunes gives you no benefits. Different spokes for different folks and all that. Just try not to cut your nose off to spite your face. Are you sure you don't just hate Apple and all its satisfied customers with a burning passion?
I don't frequent AppleVis myself much either; I'm afraid things have got just a bit too obsessive for my taste. However, their articles and podcasts remain pretty excellent. If you find you can't get help from them, then the macvisionaries Google Group will certainly help you; despite the name, it discusses all of the Apple sphere including iOS, and there are certainly Windows-only users there too. I often check it out and the atmosphere is very friendly. You might give that a try.
@Dark:
My issue is not that I disagree it could be done better, or that I believe there could not be more choice. On the contrary, as I've often said, it gets on my nerves that Apple (or Microsoft, or Nokia, or Cisco, or whoever) have found ways to lock people in in ways that could easily have been avoided if interoperability were truly a priority. That doesn't change the fact that Apple simply chose one way of doing something (media management) which just happens to work better for one group at the expense of the other, and that the people for whom it is a useful abstraction are not in the slightest bit inconvenienced. Another way to think about this might be that if you were to start out your CD ripping project with iTunes, you might have finished up with a different opinion of iTunes than you do now. I'll be the first to throw a company under a bus for doing something clearly anti-consumer, but in this case I simply can't see how it is: you have a choice, you just prefer not to take it. That's awesome, but it's not some sort of conspiracy to exclude you from using your iPhone to play music, it's just a consequence of a choice that Apple made which simply means you can't use iTunes the way Apple designed it. Happily, as we know, you can work around all of the iTunes problems by ditching iOS as a music player (get a Stream, use different apps, whatever). That is something I'm wholeheartedly behind supporting people in doing if they choose to.
And now, for something completely different:
I just got a Sovereign USB memory stick player from RNIB (now sold out, sadly) for use as a Bluetooth speaker. It accepts USB memory sticks, and cost less than £50. No doubt also available from elsewhere for less. It's made by Kings Audio, and is about the most massively simple device imaginable. It's not suitable for taking about with you because it has two large speakers but it's battery-powered and portable. I am using it as my bedside player and am loving it. If you can get hold of one, you should. It has exactly four controls: start of folder reset, rewind/skip-back, play/pause, and fast-forward/skip-forward. Reset switches folders, and the other three controls do what you expect. The device saves its place when powered off, by means of its volume/power dial. And when there is no stick inserted, it becomes a Bluetooth speaker, which iOS or whatever can stream to for anything that can't be dumped on the stick (not supplied). It takes up to 32 GB FAT32-formatted media. And of course RNIB's free talking books are compatible with it. My stick now has about 18GB of audiobooks on it. This will make a great addition to my Stream. Bloody marvellous, if you can get one.
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