Mild Success

Well, after much frustration, swearing, and downright corporate stupidity, I have finally found a (permanent?) solution to my iPod troubles.

I've spent the better part of the past two days downloading and testing different programs, and I even downloaded the latest version of iTunes. Yesterday, I could get nothing to work. Today, I had a panic attack at one point because one program "helpfully" synced it's default playlist titles onto my iPod, wiping out my existing ones, while at the same time scanning my computer for any sort of sound file and uploading it to my iPod. Yes, suddenly I had no playlists of my own, just 700 random songs and about 300 random wav files--all of the blurbs, beeps, and clicks that are loaded into the operating system of any computer. So earlier today I was in a murderous rage and thought my iPod was ruined. Or at least severely compromised.

But alas, all is not lost. The first thing I did was delete both iTunes and that complete shitbag program, MediaMonkey, off of my machine. Good lord--I thought iTunes was bad. I then reloaded Anapod, somehow got it to work, and spent a couple of hours deleting all of the useless wav files from my iPod, rebuilt and customized my playlists, and then reloaded the music in it's proper folders.

It was a long and ridiculous process, but not nearly as stupid as downloading one song at a time to an iTunes library just so I could 'sync' the damn thing every time I wanted to add a new song. (yeah, they don't want you moving songs into their library--who knows where it could have come from!). Oh, and Anapod also has the capability to move songs FROM the iPod TO the computer, so I can share it, burn it, or do whatever the hell I want to do with the file, unlike iTunes, which is a one-way street. You can only move files from the computer to the library to the iPod, but not from the iPod to the computer.

I think I'm ok now...

And Hoya, I know you like to sound smugly sophisticated with your "14 reasons you'll never own an iPod", but honestly--it's you're loss. As far as inventions go, it's damn near revolutionary. Not only is it the coolest gadget I've ever laid my hands on, it is the standard for all mp3 players on the market--everyone else is playing catch-up. The problem is not with the iPod itself, it has to do with Apple getting in bed with the RIAA and trying to keep people from "owning" their digital music--they are perfectly cool with you having the ability to listen to the music on the iPod after you pay for it, but how dare you think that you own it and wish to burn a cd. It's the record companies--not the hardware--that cause all these headaches. Even more of a reason to stick it to them at every opportunity, as far as I'm concerned, and I fully support the 'better mice' that keep thwarting the record companies' attempts at building better mousetraps. True, Apple had to make a deal with the Devil to bring the iPod to the market, but if literature and pop culture is any indication, there's always a way out before he comes to collect your soul.

Surprisingly, most of the music on my iPod is actually ripped from CDs that I bought and paid for through legitimate means. But if I want a copy of 'We Ride Tonight' by The Sherbs, and it's unavailable through any retail outlet, you're damn right that I'm going to use Napster to try to get my hands on it. And if they shut that down, I'll use Grockster. And once that goes away, I'll use Gnutella. And once they destroy that, I'll use Limewire. It doesn't matter what they do--they're fighting a losing battle. There will *always* be a way download music on the internet. iTunes is making great strides in tightening up the pirating--99 cents a song is a pretty good deal. But to charge me for it and then tell me that I don't *really* own it and I'm not allowed to download it to my PC is the pinnacle of arrogance.

I love the iPod. But I'll *never* use iTunes.

Mikey