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---- Apple could provide a Framework for iPod interaction, but it doesn't - that's not open to third parties. This closes out reasonable competition for the sake of their music store. . . .

• gtkpod
• Anapod Explorer
• PodLift
• YamiPod
• Floola
• ImTOO Pod

The fact that Apple doesn't devote resources to publishing and maintaining an SDK hasn't stopped the groups above from putting out products that manage an iPod without a user even needing to install iTunes. The fact that you apparently didn't know they existed says something about the overwhelming demand for such products in the general market.

If Apple truly wanted to lock out such products, it would be easy for them to run the syncing process through a home-grown encryption tool for which they hold a patent. That would make any other product that worked an automatic infringement of the patent, and any attempt to circumvent the encryption a violation of the DMCA.

As for limiting DTrace, I think it's most likely that Apple's decision is based on its contractual agreements with the movie studios who just signed up to provide rentals. Those are the guys who demand that HD content remain in encrypted and unobservable channels from disc to screen. Granted the rental files aren't HD, but they are exploding media, to keep the Apple offerings more or less channel-neutral with pay-per-view cable, and I don't think the MPAA would be happy about a tool that allows people to snoop the video channel as it passes through iTunes.

Yes, what TheRaven64 describes is a workaround, and not very practical for most people, but since there's not crypto or DRM involved you CAN do it. There are some tools that can rebuild the filenames based on id3 tags, and I have done this in the past.

In fact I don't particularly like iTunes so I use Anapod Explorer http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/ on Windows, and Rhythmbox on Linux. Tons of programs are available to get to your music as long as you don't put DRM-ed files on it, so people make too big a problem out of this.

Hardware, also the creative Jukebox and Zen lines.

They used a riser for the headphone jack, that riser had a 5 month lifespan (Across 5 players I've owned or had friends own, all broken :().

Creatives Drivers for these products were terrible, so terrible that a company was started to provide a replacement, Notmad.

Thier Soundstorm technology put into several Nforce 2 boards is a gigantic pile of crap, basically you have to remove their drivers, do several updates and then run all the sound processing through software (And the card still creates lag in some games).

Several friends have had creative speakers break within the lifetime of my $50 logitec Z540s (Far cheaper than Creative speakers).

So please don't defend them, they don't seem to be doing many things right, except driving people to onboard sound.

I was really happy with my gen 1 DJ too until the headphone jack came loose last year. It's a simple soldering job to fix it, but I don't have a good soldering tool right now and when I took it to a computer repair shop they insisted they couldn't do it either. :/ So right now it's just a really small portable hard drive.

Last Christmas I got a replacement: a Creative Zen Touch. The only thing I really miss from the Dell was the scroll wheel control - Dell licensed Creative's file system so it's pretty much identical. You don't even have to use MusicMatch; there's some great third-party software from Red Chair Software which is a nice answer to the bundled software.

You're lying:

http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/
http://www.yamipod.com/.

Nuff said.

Don't use iTunes then - I don't. I never really could stand the user interface for it under Windows (I'm told it's better on a Mac by a friend who has a Mac).

I use Anapod Explorer by Red Chair Software. It allows me to keep my music collection in FLAC, and will transcode it to WAV or MP3 on the fly when I upload it to the iPod. Works great with my iPod Video.

-- Joe

Despite your repetitions of it, I'm afraid I can't explain why you're the only person in the world for whom itunes does not offer cddb support.

I can't either - and since I can neither explain nor find a reason, I'd have to just go ahead and say that iTunes does not do what it's supposed to, for me. And since it does not, obviously I'd think that it's a lousy piece of software - hey, it's my opinion, you don't have to like it.

Perhaps it doesn't like you; I have to admit that I'm kind of starting to not.

Heh. Wow, bring up an issue and you get attacked personally for bringing it up. Nice attitude.

Okay, so even if you have the world's only copy of itunes that mysteriously does not act as a cddb client, enter the artist and album tags into the id3 tags (via itunes or any other tool you like), and it'll propagate that to filenames and directory structure for you.

Yup, which would be work for me - which I'd rather not do and use another tool.

Or, as many other people have suggested, if you've already made the odd choice to manually enter this data as filenames and directory structure but not id3 tags, you can use either your own or someone else's tools to propagate that information in the other direction.

Like I said - WORK! More *work* from the user. Me, user - being asked to jump through hoops to get a stupid program to work. It might be fine by you, but I'd usually imagine that the *program* would do this for me, you know? Usability and all that?

Why bother when there are other softwares out there that do this? A much better job of it, if I might add.

Besides, every iTunes install has been broken in some way. 5.x crashed over the network and I could not even reinstall it at home. 6.x broke a lot of my existing podcast feeds, even though they were in quite valid XML etc etc.

So, I'll use other pieces of software that *work* as they're supposed to (rather than asking the user to do things, you know?), cuss at Apple for their lousy iTunes (think different, indeed - here's an idea! - let's make the *user* work rather than us developing something that works), and twiddle my thumbs and wait for someone else to release an alternative to copy music to my iPod. Or, maybe I'll just say screw this and get a Creative Nomad with something nice like Nomad Explorer. Or maybe I'll even shell out some bucks and get something by these guys that actually is nice and works.

That's what you get for not being a fanboy, I guess.

Why? Because the latest version of Media Player only support DRM-enabled players, and the Riot has no DRM.

So I have a couple of other ways to put music on the Riot, but the Media Player transfers worked pretty well.

When I can no longer repair the Riot, I guess I'll get another player, but I won't like it!

Try Anapod Explorer from Red Chair Software instead of iTunes (http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/). I find it works quite well on my shiny new iPod Video (for music only, but I'm sure that they'll have video support in due time).

iTunes has huge problems, but the one that bugs me the most is that I can't seem to get it to rip CDs with Autorun disabled. But, now that I'm using Anapod Explorer, it's a non-issue, since I'm re-ripping my CD collection into FLAC, and Anapod will convert it to WAV or MP3 on the fly before uploading it to the iPod.

It's a quality program, and I've been using it since 1992 on my Creative Nomad Jukeboxes.

-- Joe

I'm holding out for a web server that runs on my iPod. Meanwhile, I guess I'll have to make do with the next best thing.
--
Small barebones computer reviews

When my 2G iPod's hd died on me days after I bought it, I got a Zen instead of a 2G iPod back when they came out because of the a) price and b) hesitations at Apple's lack of support for lossless (at the time).

Not only was the interface completely horrid, I spent more time trying to use the software without it dying horribly. Thank god for Notmad Explorer, the only thing that made it bearable. Creative should fire all their software people (for ALL their lines, the Audigy applets for example are paragons of BAD EVERYTHING - UI, usability, stability).

After a just-as-bad debacle with a Rio Karma, I went back to the iPod. I rarely buy anything from the iTMS (which is, by the way NOT iTunes; you can't buy anything from iTunes, you buy it from the iTMS). However, the integration between all components (iTunes, iPod, iTMS, iSync even) is sooooo buttery smooth that everything else is really second rate in comparison. Other companies may have better or more interesting hardware, but Apple wins by a HUGE margin when it comes to usability and integration. And the lossless issue? Hasn't been one for a long time now.

How are u locked in to itunes when you by an ipod?

I bought an ipod. I don't use itunes. I use allofmp3.com(which is cheaper then anything you mentioned) and http://redchairsoftware.com/ to upload them on my ipod.

Doesn't matter that iTunes hasn't improved, because you're still an idiot. Seriously, iTunes is a lot easier to use than Creative Mediaplayer. There's a preference setting in iTunes so you can export and import mp3s by default, instead of AAC (which is a useless format anyways) I've drag n' dropped mp3s from PCs and macs directly to both Creative music players as well as iPods as removeble disks with no problem. I've also used the trial edition of Anapod, http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod xpod and vpod on Win98. But iTunes is just so easy to use, I found I don't need a replacement, free or otherwise. You're Geek card is revoked! Go buy a portable CD player, kid.

Alternative from iTunes (sync'ing of music) in Windows:
Anapod

There are many solutions to this problem. You could either: 1) Convert your files 2) Use something other than iTunes to sync (Like Anapod http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/)

This is hardly new nor interesting. There are plenty of programs that work with the iPod other than iTunes. Behold just a few:

- Anapod Explorer

- PodUtils

- GTKpod

- GNUpod

And rhythmbox, for example, offers nice integration of music management and iPod operability -- if that's what is supposed to have made this newsworthy.

You don't get it.

No, YOU don't get it.

If you need iTunes to use an iPod, APPLE controls what goes on and comes off. Not me. Not you. ONLY Apple.

You DO NOT NEED ITUNES TO USE AN IPOD. On the Windows side of things you can use Anapod Explorer, YamiPod, ml_iPod for Winamp, iPod Agent, or ephPod to name a few. OSX users have choices as well. Furthermore, even if I use iTunes, how is Apple "controling" what I put on my iPod? I buy a CD. I rip it to MP3. I put it on my iPod. End of story. Where is the control? I assume you are referring to the fact that iTMS uses DRM'ed AAC, but the fact is I am in no way forced to use iTMS. iTMS != iTunes.

The fact that you can use it how you want is ONLY due to the fact that Apple lets you.

Um, yeah. I *can* use it how I want, thanks for pointing that out.

I'd never buy a music player where someone else controls the content.

Neither would I.

I wish there was an easy Windows Explorer interface to just drop a bunch of MP3s on my iPod. here ya go... http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/getanapod.p hp

Check out Anapod Explorer from RedChair Software. It allows you to use your iPod as a removable drive and comes with a host of other (rather nifty) features.

It isn't free though.

the best ipod software i've used is

http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/featpw.php

has anyone ever tried Anapod Explorer?

http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/

I'll second this.

If you must use windows, the commercial software, notmad, is the way to go (I never liked Creative's software). Notmad makes the MP3 player accessible via windows explorer. The licensing is a bit funky, though (you buy licenses for particular models of Creative MP3 players, or you can buy a blanket license).

The UI can appear to be a bit weird, but that's largely caused by the Creative MP3 players, which do not implement a standard FAT32/etc. filesystem.

Or try NotMad from Red Chair Software. It's really, really nice, and also lets you stream from the player back through your computer's audio outputs (at least via WinAmp5). I used the free version for like 12 hours before I bought the registered version. http://www.redchairsoftware.com/

I've been able to copy tracks off of my Nomad Jukebox 3 using Red Chair's Notmad Explorer and according to the features page for Anapod Explorer, you should be able to copy tracks to and from an iPod/iPod Mini. Sure, it's commercialware, but for me, it's worth the price (Creative's software for music transfer for the Nomad is unstable and very, very bloated).

Regarding software for the iPod... although iTunes is the only software officially supported by Apple, there are several other programs (free/shareware) like Anapod Explorer, Ephpod, XPlay, and even RealPlayer that will transfer and manage your iPod's music collection.

As another poster points out, the iPod WILL play any MP3 you put on there. It will also play MPEG-4/AAC, which IS a standard format, licensed from Dolby. It will even play plain-old WAV files, too. The iPod doesn't support Windows Media files, but if you're using iTunes, WMA files will automatically be converted to MP3 or AAC when you import them to your library.

Maybe you're not familiar with Audible, which is an online store for Audiobooks. Audible has its own DRM-protected format which only a few portable players support, one of which is the iPod.

As far as pricing is concerned, the iPod is probably the most expensive in terms of $$/gigabyte, but not by much. Last time I checked, other 20GB players were in the $250-300 range, too. (A 20GB iPod sells for $299 or less)

Hey, it's great you like your big old Archos jukebox. But, I wanted a portable music player that was small and light enough to strap to my arm while I go out bicycling and to the gym. And I wanted one that would play Audible's audiobooks, too. The iPod was my only choice.

I'll admit, my biggest frustration with my iPod is with the software; I wish I could just plug it in and drag-and-drop my music via Windows Explorer. But it's a pretty minor complaint; Aside from being a memory hog, iTunes really is a great media player and organizer. And I still feel that the iPod is the best MP3 player for me.

Get Red Chair's RioRad software. Everything is done through Explorer with full drag and drop.

You know, I know this is slashdot and all, and facts aren't popular, but you could have at least done some fact checking

I for one have requested FLAC support, and hopefully other lossless audio geeks have as well. That and gapless playback would make the iPod beyond perfect. Right now its just near-perfect.

You can put the WAV files packed up inside your FLAC files onto the iPod pretty easily (albeit slowly) with Anapod Explorer, but you'd be able to fit twice as many if the iPod supported them natively.

Pretty please?

Go grab a copy of Anapod Explorer from http://www.redchairsoftware.com/. If you value drag and drop functionality (and among other things, using your iPod for Shoutcast streaming) that much you can pay Red Chair the $25 they're asking for their awesome software. I bought Dudebox for my Dell DJ, its a great product.

iTunes doesn't DRM your existing mp3 collection, its just as free as anything else. It just happens to be not so great on Windows cause it's not integrated so well with everything else as it is on the Mac.

Oh yeah, anyone wanna buy a Dell DJ?

Most of the Iriver players (I own an H120) require no software required at all. They simply show up as a USB mass storage device. Drag and drop. If you want a database structure (which I never use.. filetree works best for me.) there are several options. Iriver has their own utility that scans the drive and creates the database. There are a couple user-made programs for this as well which you can find at the www.iriver.com user forums. The other option is Red Chair Software who makes a line of programs for interfacing with various MP3 players. Gets lots of good reviews.

Unfortunately there are some stupid limits to filename length in database and playlist modes (which users have been harping on for months) - but that dosen't concern me since I use the file tree.

All in all, I like my Iriver alot more than my old 2nd generation iPod.

MusicMatch, the software that comes with the DJ is by far the worse part of the product. However you can pay $20 for Dudebox, a much better product by Red Chair. Highly recommended.

Read this: Red Chair Software's statement on changes made to the iPod software. According to them, there was no intent to harm and the needed changes can be made by competent programmers.

So of course it figures a new contender would come out. But all it took was one look at the $300 price tag (after rebate!) for the 20GB model to know I wouldn't be loooking any farther, no matter what. As another poster stated, for $300 I'd be buying an iPod. What drew me to the Nomad Zen NX was the price ($229 at Fry's for the 20GB model) and the reviews. There was a good article on "Ask Slashdot" that talked about the iPod vs. the Zen and I found that informative too. The controls on the Zen leave something to be desired, but it works and that's what really matters to me in the end. The awesome Notmad software from RedChair Software is very nice. It's not as necessary now that the Zen software has integration with Windows Explorer, but it's more fun to use. I've always disliked Creative's "over the top" applications; they're bloated and ugly.

This Dell unit would need to blow the doors off of the iPod to even be a contender... and that's not going to happen with MusicMatch as the front end (for me, anyway). Same reason the iPod wasn't a contender until they came out with iTunes for Windows; I really don't like MusicMatch software at all.

- Leo

Try Anapod. Not sure if it is what you want or whether it is any good (as I haven't used it), however people do seem to rave about it.

On a mac? the first nomad jukebox will work. I have an NJB3 and i can assure you it doesnt.

On windows? probably none... Apple wants you to buy its ipod, not a competing device. Besides, creatives drivers SUCK. if you're anything like me you use Notmad Explorer that makes your nomad basically as easy to use as an external hard drive.

I have a nomad IIc. It has builtin 64mb of memory, and I added a 128mb smart media card. Along with the notmad explorer from red chair software It has been a great MP3 player. the 192MB gives me more than enough music to last through the day. The thing is small (but not so small it's hard to use), light, I've dropped it plenty and had no problems. I use rechargeable NiMH batteries in it. It lasts about 5 days (2 hours a day of use on average) on one battery. With the cost of the extra software, the MP3 player, and the memory card I still came out under $150. The most expensive part actually being the memory card. And that I can reuse in my digital camera.

Since most comments here have been about the iPod and its features and nothing has really been said about the Zen, I'll take a shot.

First off, I love my Zen, but then I would probably love whatever mp3 hard drive player I had (sweet, sweet 60 gig of musicy goodness). The biggest point for the Zen versus an iPod (at least in my clumsy opinion/experience) is that the Zen uses a standard notebook hard drive, which means that if you buy the 20 gig version now (or perhaps you, uh, drop and kill your Zen) and later want to go to a 60 gig, you can replace it fairly easily.

Second -- the Zen sounds great, but I can't compare it to an iPod since I have never heard one.

There are drawbacks to the Zen, however -- you need drivers for it (and, for a while, when transferring by firewire the music would be randomly corrupted with parts of the song being mixed up and transposed everywhere) which means no just plugging in and using it as a external hard drive; the Playcenter software that comes with it is just utter shit which makes it necessary to buy Notmad Explorer (and then something like Mp3/Tag Studio to tag all your files so they show up right on the Zen) and while that is a nice little piece of software, it is an extra $30 you have to spend that should have been fixed by making it a USB storage device like the Archos; the lack of any input/output jacks other than headphone-out kind of sucks meaning that I have to use the headphone-out with the fm-transmitter and line-in on the car and no recording without shelling out another $60 for the fm/mic remote; the battery is non-replaceable without sending it back to Creative and is supposedly only good for 300-500 charges (although the NX's battery is replaceable).

While it may sound like I am coming down hard on the Zen, I do still dearly love mine -- having it full of 60 gigs of music means having my entire music collection in my pocket and being able to listen to anything on a whim or showing up at a party and having pretty much anything anyone else wants to hear.

And as for size? Eh, I wear pants with big pockets. I've already got the camera, flash cards, and phone in there, what more is another big toy?

Size isn't an issue, my current MP3 player being a MP3-CD player. The big thing is price. In the US the 30GB Zen costs $300, the 30GB iPod costs $500.

So the difference is $200 give or take. The Zen NX isn't quite as small as the new iPod, but it's much smaller than the original Zen.

One of the coolest things about the Nomad's is Notmad Explorer, or more specifically, the Notweb Explorer. It's a cool web interface to your mp3 player. You can browse it, search it, download or stream your mp3's. Very cool.

The battery life is significantly longer on the Zen NX (and the battery is user removable). Also very cool.

Go to Red Chair Software, try the trial, buy Notmad for 25 bucks and be amazed. This is what Creative should have built -- it is much more stable, fast, and not as bloated. When you do get it, start playing around with Notweb Explorer, and you'll be amazed what your little mp3 player can do.

Also the Nomad Jukebox 3 (not the current Zen) has optical-in recording to MP3 or wave. It's not as simple as pressing record on a portable MiniDisc recorder, but it works in a pinch.

Also the Nomad Jukebox 3 (not the current Zen) has optical-in recording to MP3 or wave. It's not as simple as pressing record on a portable MiniDisc recorder, but it works in a pinch.

If you've got a Creative NOMAD, Notmad Jukebox can serve your tunes from it over the web (Winamp streaming format!!!), and it even acts as a SQL database.

First lets clear up the specs of the Nomad IIc mp3 player (sorry, sign says "No oggs allowed"). The II designates this as the Creative's second effort to sucker users into paying good money for a player with some problems. The c means that you're not get the fm radio tuner present on the normal model II (don't worry, commercial radio is ass anyway). The IIc comes with an internal memory capacity of either 32, 64, or 128mb. Every model is also blessed/cursed to have a smartmedia expansion slot on the rear of the unit, tucked up under the battery cover. The unit has one Line Out/Headphone jack a built in microphone and a USB connector. Various buttons are also present for tinkering with things like volume, voice recording, and accessing the internal memory. The LCD is mercifully backlit with a delay that can be adjusted in the internal settings menu.

One of the biggest shortcomings of the unit is the lack of file organisation. Files are present in one long list with no "search" or "jump" function. To go from song 5 to song 15 takes 10 clicks of the "skip right" button. Only while your nomad is connected to your computer are you able to sort this list of unhappiness. So connecting a 10Gig hard drive would give you an amazing amount of storage and an RSI of your index finger.

The IIc does have updatable firmware (available from Creative)which dictates the maximum size of the smartmedia card that the unit can take. Unfortunately there are no firmware updates for the 128mb version but the 64mb updates seem to work ok.

Also, not to be forgotten, is the pox on the house of every Nomad user; Playcenter! This packaged in garbage software from Creative is the only way out of the box to store files on the your IIc to internal memory or smartmedia cards. The Nomad doesn't even show up as an external device in explorer. I've experienced repeated hangs/crashes when reading from 128mb smartmedia cards and long waits while it updates the database containing songs on my computer. Any respectable program should be able to handle a 6Gb+ mp3 collection without choking. The quick solution to this is Notmad Explorer (the free version only allows the transfer of 1 file at a time $15 US for the single player version $35 for all nomad support).

That's about it, so I present to you two major hurdles to overcome in hacking this little wonder:

1) Powering the unit and an external HD on the go. The battery cover must be off to access the smartmedia slot so you run the risk of that AA battery popping out at inopportune times. Perhaps you could power both through a 12v cigarette lighter outlet of a car.

2) Firmware. You'll have to become a master of rewriting the firmware or know someone who is to overcome the 128mb barrier, find some way to skip to a certain song, and allow folder organization for easy browsing.

Perhaps some potential for expansion lies in the USB connection on the side of the player.

Maybe instead of hacking away looking for a big storage fix, save your pennies and order a Zen from another country.

All for $250 (counting a $50 rebate (link to a pdf)).

At first, I started syncing over USB, man was that slow! For $30, you can pick up a firewire card, pop it in, and wham! stuff transfers super-fast.

I love it. Sure, it's a little bigger than an iPod, but that doesn't bother me. The interface is pretty darn good, you can create playlists on the device, I've got tons of battery life, the sound quality is great, and I saved a bunch of money. What's not to love?

Well, there is one thing that sucks about it. The Creative software that comes with it. Ditch it and get the Notmad Explorer software from Red Chair. It's a lot more streamlined, and syncs ID3 tags correctly with the device. It's cheap and totally useful. Todd

In fact, Creative's own PlayCenter GUI for its MP3 players (don't know if this fellow working on it or not, though), is so disliked by users that it has spawned third-party alternatives like Notmad Explorer.

For integration with Windows Explorer, check out Notmad Explorer.

A lot of people who have used the original Nomad Jukebox do not like the software that comes with it called PlayCenter. An alternative that has become very popular in the Nomad community is Notmad Explorer.

It provides full Windows Explorer integration, access to the Jukebox via a built-in webserver, and search and report generation features using a built-in SQL database.

There's a free trial version. Notmad Explorer is also mentioned in the first full review of the Jukebox3 at TBREAK.com.

A lot of people who have used the original Nomad Jukebox do not like the software that comes with it called PlayCenter. An alternative that has become very popular in the Nomad community is Notmad Explorer.

It provides full Windows Explorer integration, access to the Jukebox via a built-in webserver, and search and report generation features using a built-in SQL database.

There's a free trial version. Notmad Explorer is also mentioned in the first full review of the Jukebox3 at TBREAK.com.