On another note. One feature I like is the fact that you can listen to the entire album before buying it, not this 30 second preview nonsense found in iTunes.
I'll give WMP a shot, just for the basis of being objective, but I see myself probably sticking with iTunes. Unless Microsoft finds a way to put music in my iPod!
One of my hugely major gripes about iTunes, though, is that Apple hasn't got a clue on how to patch a program. There was a period of time a few months back when they released a new x.x.y every week, it seemed, and you had to go to their website and download the whole program all over again and install it over your existing install. That's sloppy and irresponsible.
The "music store" features are entirely moot to me. I've never bought music from iTunes (much of it is utter trash anyway). I still buy all my CDs and rip the music myself. Such a shame that people don't actually give a hoot about audio quality that they buy their music from online stores. All I'm looking for in my music player is versatility and usability.
"Apple hasn't got a clue on how to patch a program." Maybe.
Then again maybe reissuing the program is the most efficient way to fix the problem. I admit it's a bit of a pain, but it costs Apple more money (in bandwidth, servers, etc.) to have users download an entirely new copy of iTunes so there must be a reason they do it.
Would you rather be doing ecommerce with program that's just a bucket full of fixes, like software from that other OS company? Or one that has been rewritten to fix problems or add features?
College Student Who Hasn't Bought A MP3 Player Yet?
I'm just impressed that CNet's journalist was able to find a college student who still doesn't own any kind of iPod or MP3 player. Whoa! Where did they find that girl?!
Kudos for the monster, in-depth research!
I sure am glad they included a quote from that girl, that sure is an informed opinion and a clear indicator of what the market thinks!! (NOT!)
College Student Who Hasn't Bought A MP3 Player Yet?
I'm just impressed that CNet's journalist was able to find a college student who still doesn't own any kind of iPod or MP3 player. Whoa! Where did they find that girl?!
Kudos for the monster, in-depth research!
I sure am glad they included a quote from that girl, that sure is an informed opinion and a clear indicator of what the market thinks!! (NOT!)
"I'm just impressed that CNet's journalist was able to find a college student who still doesn't own any kind of iPod or MP3 player."
They're more common then you might think. Set foot on a college campus sometime. They aren't hard to find.
"that sure is an informed opinion and a clear indicator of what the market thinks!!"
Would you prefer the obligatory quote from a CEO hyping their companies product? Apple has sold something like 50 million iPods, it stands to reason there are alot of people who don't have one from one reason or another. As the article points people aren't always up on the alternatives to the iPod.
I tried the current Beta. The interface is complete and total crap. Things that should be so blatantly obvious that it becomes borderline ridiculous. Things like the space bar should start and stop playback. You would think this should be a no brainer. Not only that but I can't import my AAC files into WMP's library even though it supports playback. ***? iTunes still is my jukebox of choice. Microsoft still doesn't have a clue as to how to make an interface simple and uncluttered.
Hey Johnny boy, why don't you take a look at the memory usage between iTunes and WMP11? That alone is enough to make the switch. Bet you didn't even look. The difference is ASTONISHING.
"The interface is complete and total crap. Things that should be so blatantly obvious that it becomes borderline ridiculous. Things like the space bar should start and stop playback."
I would hardly call the space bar as a start and stop button obvious. Then again I don't only use iTunes so perhaps I haven't developed the expectation that everything music related on a computer should behave like iTunes.
"Microsoft still doesn't have a clue as to how to make an interface simple and uncluttered."
Personally, I don't like the iTunes interface. The gradiant grey background and all the rounded controls are butt ugly.
I just tried this shortcut to play and pause music on iTunes. It works only when iTunes window is in focus. If that's the case, you may as well click on the play/pause button. So really it isn't of much use. IT would have been better if there was a shortcut which would work in either state, window in focus or out of focus.
Windows media player provides this solution. I use Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard whoch has all the buttons to control windows media player, even when it is minimised and I find it much more useful. I don't know if there is any other product which supports iTunes in a similar way, but that would be nice.
Regarding the AAC files, if you bought them from iTunes store (I am not sure if they sell files in that format and correct me if I an wrong), they would not play in WMP due to the Fairplay protection used by Apple. Exactly the same way, music bought from MSN Music won't play on iTunes
1. There is no one place where ALL songs you add automatically go to. "Recently Added": only temporary; (Found it later under Library ->"Songs" but only after creating my own playlist and adding new songs both to that and to any other playlist I wanted to.)
2. Very unintuitive interface. It took me a while to figure out the above.
3. Focus doesn't automatically go the current song being played so have to look for it in case I want to modify the tag.
Hey Johnny boy, why don't you take a look at the memory usage between iTunes and WMP11? That alone is enough to make the switch. Spacebar concerns are for newbs. Like you.
I teach at a public university, and use audio (podcasts) as supplementary material. In my classes, I do an informal survey to see who among the students has an iPod or other mp3 player; the numbers have been, consistently, about 60 percent over the past year and a half.
The first time I asked, I was stunned to see that not everyone had one; after the 3rd or 4th time, I'm used to it. I still don't understand why it is. Most students (even those with ipods) seem to do much of their listening at the computer...
I recently bought a Zen Micro Photo MP3 player, as I was tired of the $0.99 downloads with iTunes. To me iTunes lacked features, and isn't a good juke box program. I bought a Zen MP3 and installed Media Player 11. I will *NEVER* go back to iPod nor iTunes. Heck.. I gave my iPod to my 13yr old daughter. I'll keep th Zen player for myself :)
Listening to all this glowing praise for WMP 11, I think I'll pop right on over to the M$ website and download it right now . . . Oh wait - M$ doesn't make WMP for the Mac any more! Guess I'd better run out right now and buy myself a Dell (with enough horsepower to run the "ever upcoming" 15Gig Vista monster) just so I too can savour the eternal bliss that is WMP 11 - or - Not!
It's a real good player, no doubt. A lot of people have been raving about it's synk with URGE, but I think the small things make it a solid piece of software. Things like album art rather than text. Or easily monitering of folders. Or the easy type as you go (albeit an iTunes first) search.
Manage updates with the Download App
On another note. One feature I like is the fact that you can listen to the entire album before buying it, not this 30 second preview nonsense found in iTunes.
were not the kind of customer Apple wants anyway.
One of my hugely major gripes about iTunes, though, is that Apple hasn't got a clue on how to patch a program. There was a period of time a few months back when they released a new x.x.y every week, it seemed, and you had to go to their website and download the whole program all over again and install it over your existing install. That's sloppy and irresponsible.
The "music store" features are entirely moot to me. I've never bought music from iTunes (much of it is utter trash anyway). I still buy all my CDs and rip the music myself. Such a shame that people don't actually give a hoot about audio quality that they buy their music from online stores. All I'm looking for in my music player is versatility and usability.
Then again maybe reissuing the program is the most efficient
way to fix the problem. I admit it's a bit of a pain, but it costs
Apple more money (in bandwidth, servers, etc.) to have users
download an entirely new copy of iTunes so there must be a
reason they do it.
Would you rather be doing ecommerce with program that's just
a bucket full of fixes, like software from that other OS company?
Or one that has been rewritten to fix problems or add features?
student who still doesn't own any kind of iPod or MP3 player.
Whoa! Where did they find that girl?!
Kudos for the monster, in-depth research!
I sure am glad they included a quote from that girl, that sure is an
informed opinion and a clear indicator of what the market thinks!!
(NOT!)
student who still doesn't own any kind of iPod or MP3 player.
Whoa! Where did they find that girl?!
Kudos for the monster, in-depth research!
I sure am glad they included a quote from that girl, that sure is an
informed opinion and a clear indicator of what the market thinks!!
(NOT!)
They're more common then you might think. Set foot on a college campus sometime. They aren't hard to find.
"that sure is an informed opinion and a clear indicator of what the market thinks!!"
Would you prefer the obligatory quote from a CEO hyping their companies product? Apple has sold something like 50 million iPods, it stands to reason there are alot of people who don't have one from one reason or another. As the article points people aren't always up on the alternatives to the iPod.
iTunes still is my jukebox of choice. Microsoft still doesn't have a clue as to how to make an interface simple and uncluttered.
Spacebar concerns are for newbs. Like you.
I would hardly call the space bar as a start and stop button obvious. Then again I don't only use iTunes so perhaps I haven't developed the expectation that everything music related on a computer should behave like iTunes.
"Microsoft still doesn't have a clue as to how to make an interface simple and uncluttered."
Personally, I don't like the iTunes interface. The gradiant grey background and all the rounded controls are butt ugly.
Windows media player provides this solution. I use Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard whoch has all the buttons to control windows media player, even when it is minimised and I find it much more useful. I don't know if there is any other product which supports iTunes in a similar way, but that would be nice.
Regarding the AAC files, if you bought them from iTunes store (I am not sure if they sell files in that format and correct me if I an wrong), they would not play in WMP due to the Fairplay protection used by Apple. Exactly the same way, music bought from MSN Music won't play on iTunes
2. Very unintuitive interface. It took me a while to figure out the above.
3. Focus doesn't automatically go the current song being played so have to look for it in case I want to modify the tag.
4. Still nowhere near the simplicity of iTunes.
supplementary material. In my classes, I do an informal survey
to see who among the students has an iPod or other mp3 player;
the numbers have been, consistently, about 60 percent over the
past year and a half.
The first time I asked, I was stunned to see that not everyone
had one; after the 3rd or 4th time, I'm used to it. I still don't
understand why it is. Most students (even those with ipods)
seem to do much of their listening at the computer...
Stupid people annoy me.
on over to the M$ website and download it right now . . .
Oh wait - M$ doesn't make WMP for the Mac any more!
Guess I'd better run out right now and buy myself a Dell (with
enough horsepower to run the "ever upcoming" 15Gig Vista
monster) just so I too can savour the eternal bliss that is WMP 11 -
or - Not!
I've been a Microsoft user for 14 years (since I was 6), but they just seem to be getting worse recently.
It will be difficult for me to switch since I am so used to the Microsoft interface, but I will not put up with Ad-ware.
I spent a lot of money on my version of windows, and as Microsoft says, Media Player is part of windows. There is no excuse for it to have Ad-ware.
I refuse to accept and use ad-ware. I don't want it on my system (though in this case there is nothing I can do about it except switch O/S).
I hope the rest of you will stand up against ad-ware and go with a non-Microsoft solution too.