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While I don't have an iPod -- yet -- I use iTunes almost every day. I find it one of the most intuitive programs I've ever used, as do -- at last count -- every reviewer on the planet except for Mr. Turley.

And I thought the iPod and iTunes was idiot proof. I stand corrected.

And millions of people wrong, but then nothing is idiot proof.

Geez, a CD player is nothing but an optical drive with a play button.

It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear to be an idiot than to open it up and remove all doubt!

From the sound of it, this guy would have a hard time flushing a toilet.

1>Mr. Turley criticized the inability to move songs from an iPod to a computer,

Blame the music industry. They are the ones paranoid about people copying files between portable devices and why Apple limits things like this to try and appease them.

And it can be done if you have half a brain.

2> the fact that "it makes you keep a duplicate copy of every music file on your computer, wasting 20 Gbytes of disk space,"

He must trust that hard drives never fail to only want one copy of a file.

And it doesn't MAKE you keep the computer copy. Sync to the ipod and delete the orignals if you want. (don't connect the iPod again, of course, but if you only want one copy on your iPod, not a problem).

3>and problems he has had when plugging his iPod into a new computer, which erases the content.

See #1 and the music industry again. (there are also thrid party utilities to get around this)

I'd be suprised if WMP players don't have the same or similar (or worse) issues with trying to copy music files from players to multiple computers.

What do you expect from an embedded systems engineer! What's intuitive to most people isn't to some (my father and wife picked up my iPod and sussed out how it worked with no help - ironically, I had problems, because I tried to navigate up / down / etc - as a programmer my expectations of an interface were different. Ditto coming to OS/X after years using X-windows and MS Windows. Inexperienced users pick it up quicker than people going 'this doesn't work the way it does on X'. There's intuitive and then there's familiar.

I'd also like to see his reaction to iTunes insistence of keeping a duplicate copy of 20G of songs when his MP3 player goes wrong and loses them - it's taken weeks of ripping my existing CDs to iTunes (more than 20G) and I certainly don't intend doing it again.

just gave a collective "whew ... I know I am going to have a job for a while"

There are just way too many short-sighted thoughts in that opinion piece to pick at.

It would be one thing if Jim Turley was pointing out things that should be improved upon, as certainly we could all point out such things, but instead he makes idiot blurt outs.

"The iPod is inferior to all of them"

So why did he buy/get an iPod?

"It's just a hard disk with a Play button."

Yes, if that's all he's able to correctly figure out.

"iTunes is terrible. It's absolutely appalling, in my humble opinion"

Other than not being able to figure out how to use it like millions of other people, what about it is so bad?

"I could go on and on about how iPod only copies files one direction (from your PC to your iPod, never the other way)"

Instead of spewing words out, why not do 10 seconds of research on Google as to why this is the case...hint: think RIAA, or spend another 10 seconds for 3rd party software that allows this?

"how it obliterates all your content should you casually plug your iPod into someone else's computer"

No it doesn't.

"how it makes you keep a duplicate copy of every music file on your computer, wasting 20 Gbytes of disk space. Hey, I thought that's what an MP3 player was for!"

No, the MP3 player is for taking copies of some, or all of your music library with you. It would be a *really* bad idea to have any investment in a music collection that solely lived on *any* MP3 player. This isn't rocket science...who in their right mind would trust any investment of a music collection on something that could be lost forever if dropped, stolen, or malfunctioned?

It troubles me when I see people who fail so miserably at the job they get paid to do. In this case, we have an editor in chief who can't even be bothered with the seconds of research it would take to see why his reviews of the iPod and iTunes are so far off base from every other one.

Mr. Turley is nothing more than an ass with a mouth.

not really, but my humble opinion is not really counting here, is it? ;_) LOL

How dumb is this guy anyways? I know complete non-computer literate people who can figure out how to use an iPod. It is by far the easiest interface on any MP3 player out there by far.

This guy shouldn't own a computer. He's an idiot.

"I deleted all my files." Well, you f'ing told it to, ya nimrod.

"how it obliterates all your content should you casually plug your iPod into someone else's computer"

Automatically update songs and playlists is iPod's default preference. If you don't set iPod's preferences to manually manage songs and playlists and plug your iPod into someone else's computer with a fresh install of iTunes and nothing in the library, the iPod's library is automatically replaced with the (empty) iTunes library on the computer you just plugged into. It takes a new iPod user exactly one time to figure this out, but I'd guess that this very thing burns quite a few users (especially those, like me who don't RTFM).

If only there was some way to tell iTunes to NOT automatically manage your iPod contents. Hehe. Man what a dumb ass.

And I hope his MP3 player never gets stolen! If it worked the way he wanted, then he'd be saying "iTunes should keep a backup copy of all of your music! It's appaling that it doesn't!"

The sync feature is really confusing if you're not expecting it, which this guy obviously wasn't. I really don't think it should be the default setting.

When I've plugged my iPod into another users computer... it asks me if I want to erase my ipod and sync with the new computer.... am I missing something? He's surprised that by selecting that it actually DOES erase it?

PLUS, you can set the iPod to "manage playlists manually" and plug the iPod into multiple computers with impunity, storing the songs only on the Ipod.

:-/

No, the default is to sync with good reason. You plug YOUR ipod into YOUR computer and get YOUR songs on it. It works without you having to change options or configure much. That's the behaviour most consumers want.

It's worth asking why you would be attaching your iPod to another computer. I can think of three reasons :

1) To play music on their computer, maybe at a party, or 'hear this cool track. This should be catered for - a better default behaviour when plugging into another computer would be to mount it as a shared iTunes directory as if it was on the network.
2) To buy songs from iTunes. This one is a bit annoying and something they should solve. I hear a song at someone's house or at work - I need to make a note and buy it at home. Would be good to be able to just plug-in (which should log me in with my Apple ID), buy direct to pod and have the song synced back on my 'home' iTunes account. (And of course ability to disable this if my Pod was stolen).
3) To copy songs from my iPod onto a friends machine . . . whyever would I want to do that.

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JulesLt wrote:
1) To play music on their computer, maybe at a party, or 'hear this cool track. This should be catered for - a better default behaviour when plugging into another computer would be to mount it as a shared iTunes directory as if it was on the network.

Hey that's a cool idea!

This article is a joke! The simplicity of the menu hierarchy is it's charm. But I guess simplicity does often not impress the technical individual, at least this person seems to think that the technical solutions equals elegance, not simplicity. And for the one-way download, he should do some more research. he would have found, it was a record label requirement.

Embeded systems engineer or not, this Mr. Turley guy is the editor-in-chief of Embedded Systems Programming. Just imagine your collegues reading your Humble opinion. What an ass.

I get the impression Mr Turley was trying to be clever. Or that he was under deadline pressure. Or perhaps he's just a first class idiot.

Yeah, that's it. First class idiot.

And, to address another response to this thread, there is a really good reason to plug your iPod into another computer, especially when you own that other comptuer. There are four Macs in my house and it would be neat, as one of these Macs is not networked, to shunt 2 or 3Gb of recently ripped CDs to that machine. Using an iPod, it's the fastest way to achieve this objective.

This is why I have iPodrip, which allows transfers of songs from the iPod to a computer. In fact, I just use the restore feature to transfer the whole of the music library on the iPod to the computer. It's a set and forget process.

Oh, hang on, this was supposed to be about that idiot Turley...

I love my iTunes and iPod(s). This is the most intuitive software out there. The DRM aspects of iPod/iTunes can be annoying, though. This is not apple's fault per se, but the record companies who, understandably, are worried that their product will be easily copied to and from people's iPods. Apple is just appeasing them so they can offer downloads and other benefits to users.

I am an apple fanatic and consider myself a power user, but I have actually deleted my entire iPod before... I think because I plugged it into my lap top and for some reason it began "Updating" (it was set to sync the iPod to the library). Sometimes it doesn't ask you, which has prompted me to do some quick FORCE QUITS on iTunes before any damage was done. Nonetheless, yes, luckily I had an "extra" copy on my G5 which I promptly recovered my files from. It can be tricky when you add new computers to the equation and change music libraries from one computer to another, so the old computer (aka laptop) believes that it should sync music library when I don't want this to happen any more because the music is now all on my G5 (and the laptop has no music anymore).

I think his point is, why can't the iPod just be a hard drive for my music files and why do I need to keep copies on the desktop. He is obviously an engineer-type guy who thinks in a very linear fashion... iPod=harddrive, why should I be wasting space on my desktop when the iPod is a hard drive. He probably got burnt once by thinking this way (aka iPod deleting his music files) and is understandably pissed.

I am thankful for having two copies of my music... in fact I make a backup to a third drive every week, so I actually have three copies of all my music at one time. Call me a psycho but I paid a lot of money for my music (downloads and CD rips) and spent a lot of time getting it onto the computer in the first place.

He's trying to get hits.

So he sacrifices whatever reputation and credibility he has. That's an idiot.

This guy is an engineer - these guys gave us the billions of video recorders currently flashing "12:00" around the world...

As JulesLt above said, what's easy or intuitive for one person isn't for another.

My cousin managed to erase a partition on my old Mac SE way back when. This was after she selected "Erase disk" (um, what does erase mean?), then when she was prompted she still clicked initialize (I think you get two opportunities to cancel out here and she continued on thru both of them.)

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Guest wrote:
He's trying to get hits.

Ta-da! And he sure got them, too.

… the excerpts I got satisfied me that the whole article wasn't really worth my time !

Geez. My mother figured out how to use iTunes, and she's afraid to even look at a menu that she hasn't been shown how to use. What the heck is wrong with this character?

Whotcha, there's another, far more innocent reason for plugging your iPod into another computer - transfering files (since it is just a hard disk with a play button ). I commonly store presentations / papers and such on my iPod when heading somewhere to give a talk rather than bringing along my laptop (one less thing to get stolen). But when you get to where you are going, you need to transfer the file to the computer from which you are going to give the talk from (unless you save your slides as still photos and project straight from the AV out on the newer iPods).

Mr. Turley highlights very cleverly the reasons why i like my ipod:

It is a hard drive with play button!
It is NOT designed for embedded systems engineers!

If you actually read the article, he has got few good points. (Although masked quite well). iTunes does ask the (Do you want to erase and sync?) dialog every time the ipod is connected to new compupter. That's why i need to buy a separate usb stick for my wife, so that she cannot accidentally erase the music (or word files!) in the iPod with school computers.

And i also erased the contents by mistake once. With any product, there are still things to improve.

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Anonymous wrote:
If you actually read the article, he has got few good points. (Although masked quite well). iTunes does ask the (Do you want to erase and sync?) dialog every time the ipod is connected to new compupter. That's why i need to buy a separate usb stick for my wife, so that she cannot accidentally erase the music (or word files!) in the iPod with school computers.

And i also erased the contents by mistake once. With any product, there are still things to improve.

But do you see how you wrote a thoughtful, intelligent post that explains how the iPod works and the ways you'd like it to work differently?

Compare that to this guy's article where he pretty much writes "it sucks because it erased everything!" He didn't really take the time to even figure out WHY it was doing what it was doing in order to write a thoughful review. I don't care if he doesn't LIKE it, but unlike you, he clearly doesn't even UNDERSTAND it.

Why he would write an article about something he dosen't understand is a mystery to me.

I still don't get why you people are going around plugging your iPod into random computers! If it's not your machine with your music collection, then what is the point? Do you need to charge the battery and there is no outlet?!

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Biff wrote:
I still don't get why you people are going around plugging your iPod into random computers! If it's not your machine with your music collection, then what is the point? Do you need to charge the battery and there is no outlet?!

I use my iPod as a hard drive for other files than music. Sometimes I take large photoshop files to someone's house and I don't want to spend the time uploading something that large to an FTP site. Other times I take Quick Time movies of something I've made to show people.

I wish there was a way to tell someone else's iTunes to just ignore my iPod. Not only do I have to tell it to not erase my music, I find it often puts my friend's Address Book information into my iPod without asking at all!

The iPod makes a great hard drive in addition to being a music player. It would be nice if it was easier to use that way.

Dear Mr. Turley,

We're sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience with your new Apple iPod.

Apple is constantly improving Apple iTunes software and would be interested in your suggestions for improvements. You can submit your libations via the following URL:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

My dad is better than your dad! My car is just a motor with a gas tank. My HD TV is just a display with a power button. And I didn't get paid to make fun of you.

> The much-vaunted iTunes software that comes with every iPod handles all the content, for the simple reason that you can't manage it any other way.

Wrong. There are dozens of free/shareware products that let you manage the ipod without itunes. Go to versiontracker.com. The #2 and #3 on their site belong to iPod and iTunes, respectively. You may also use your iPod to sync your address book, your calendars, your email.. or just plug it in and use it as a hard drive (drag/drop). It's not required that you use an iPod for music at all.



> But iTunes is terrible. It's absolutely appalling, in my humble opinion. In no time at all, I'd erased all the content I'd laboriously downloaded onto my iPod. Twice.

You're welcome to your opinion just like everyone, but if you erased (twice!) your iPod, then you're not reading the alerts that appear, asking if you'd like to ERASE it. If you click YES, then it will do so. iPods don't just erase themselves. It worked precisely how it's designed to. Pay attention.. you can't just go instantly dismissing alerts (without reading them) and expect it to read your mind.



> Several friends have done the same thing, so this is apparently not an isolated case of "cockpit error." The software's operation is utterly counterintuitive, but with no other user interface it's the only way to get your $300 hard drive to do anything at all.

For damn near everyone who buys one of these, it's used to sync their music from their mac to the iPod. For these people, they simply connect it.. this opens iTunes, syncs, and unmounts.. in seconds.. with ZERO user interaction required. How much more intuitive could it possibly be?!



> I could go on and on about how iPod only copies files one direction (from your PC to your iPod, never the other way);

Again, this is factually incorrect. There are dozens of free apps that let you go both directions. As far as it not doing this 'out of the box', that was a requirement by the recording industry.. that it shouldn't be used as a device to easily sync songs from one mac to someone elses (ie. pirating). NO PLAYERS allow this out of the box. That said, you may still put the iPod into disk mode and drag/drop files (including music) to/from it.. just like any other kind of media.



> or how it obliterates all your content should you casually plug your iPod into someone else's computer..

..after you've chosen the option to ERASE the iPod. The alert is quite clear about this.. again, pay attention!!



> or how it makes you keep a duplicate copy of every music file on your computer, wasting 20 Gbytes of disk space..

This is a lie. It doesn't make you do this at all. iTunes allows you lots of options regarding how you manage content. I didn't have enough space on my laptop to store ALL of my music, but i did have all 40GBs on the iPod. It's very simple to do this.. and without additional s/w. Please make a minimum effort to check your facts before publishing gross inaccuracies such as these. Thank you.

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It takes a new iPod user exactly one time to figure this out

And yet this guy managed to erase his iPod's contents twice.

I'm guessing that Mr. Turley is...

1) A Mac hater (and by extension, an Apple hater). Thus, he went into his so-called "evaluation" wanting to find problems... and found them.

2) A complexity lover (#2 often implies #1). Being an engineer, I'd guess it's quite likely. Such people often have trouble operating simple gadgets, because they expect it to be difficult and don't even think about trying the easy or obvious way.

Fortunately for guys like him, there are plenty of MP3 players out there with horrible, complex interfaces that will make his eyes light up.

I guess we're supposed to be impressed because he's an engineer.

I love how he says he had to "laboriously" get the songs onto his iPod.

1. Plug in iPod.
2. Wait x amount of time (x not being very long).
3. Done

Clearly, this guy is hoping that whoever reads his article has never used one before. Which means the article is pure FUD.

Luckily, no normal person would read this article normally. Only us engineers. And engineers usually have pretty good FUD detectors.

Turley just wanted attention. Either that or he smoked some major-league contraband before hittin' the ol' keyboard.

Either way, he's a fool, and not worth anyone's time.

I think that in the next few months we will be seeing more of this "too simple" garbage, and more "columnists" ragging the iPod. What I want to see is what these same people do when the purpoted M'soft device comes to market. I can bet they rave all over it, and praise it to high heavens. Then we will know that these people were in the pocket of m'soft from the beginning. I'm curiious to see it myself, and will be waiting to call them on it.

Mr. TURKEY...

Why do guys like this get to write columns about something they're not expert on.

I have problems with the navigation of iTunes and iPod but I haven't them to ever be counterintuitive. And one of the selling points for me purchasing a Pod is that it makes for good second or third back-up of all my music files. Since I'm not buying CDs anymore, I need a way to insure that I don't lose my music and my iPod is one of those insurances. Apple will do nothing but improve the iPod, though competition will always be there--and perhaps that's a good challenge for Apple.

Why do guys like this get to write columns about something they're not expert on.

I have problems with the navigation of iTunes and iPod but I haven't them to ever be counterintuitive. And one of the selling points for me purchasing a Pod is that it makes for good second or third back-up of all my music files. Since I'm not buying CDs anymore, I need a way to insure that I don't lose my music and my iPod is one of those insurances. Apple will do nothing but improve the iPod, though competition will always be there--and perhaps that's a good challenge for Apple.

Pure, absolute hubris. " I don't like it therefore it sucks".

An engineer would make a tennis ball more aerodynamic then blame the tennis player for not hitting it properly.

When i plug my ipod in it will charge but it wont automatically update. what should i do? It doesnt even read it on itunes. it usually says MY IPOD and shows the songs i have on it but not anymore, please tell me if i need a new cord or if there is something i can do to fix it. thank you