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- Angostura, on 10/12/2007, -6/+27What's the point? It's a nice bit of jukebox software. I used it long before I had an iPod.
- greekgoat91, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17ahh, i miss firewire support on the new iPod models.
- colincornaby, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19iTunes loads in one bounce here, and the music store track quality is on par with everyone else currently. If you don't like the music store, bring your own cd's and rip as lossless.
- heyitsme23, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17give me one free alternative to itunes for both mac and pc that has everything itunes does.
- mingistech, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I agree.... here are some interesting stats compairing the two.
FireWire vs. USB 2.0
Question: Which is faster Hi-Speed USB 2.0 or FireWire?
Answer: In sustained throughput FireWire is faster than USB 2.0.
Question: If Hi-Speed USB 2.0 is a 480 Mbps interface and FireWire is a 400 Mbps interface, how can FireWire be faster?
Answer: Differences in the architecture of the two interfaces have a huge impact on the sustained throughput.
FireWire vs. USB 2.0 - Architecture
FireWire, uses a "Peer-to-Peer" architecture in which the peripherals are intelligent and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can best control a data transfer
Hi-Speed USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which the computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from and between the attached peripherals (adding additional system overhead and resulting in slower data flow control)
FireWire vs. USB 2.0 Hard Drive Performance Comparison
Read and write tests to the same IDE hard drive connected using FireWire and then Hi-Speed USB 2.0 show:
Read Test:
5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0
160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0
Write Test:
5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0
160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0
Question: So which products should I choose FireWire or Hi-Speed USB 2.0?
Answer: Often the choice will be made for you by the product itself. Some types of products are only available with the FireWire interface and some only with USB.
For all out sustained throughput, as shown above a FireWire external hard drive will provide the best performance. But for convenience and compatibility between multiple computers a USB 2.0 external hard drive would probably be the better choice (since practically every computer has a USB port). - knowall, on 10/12/2007, -10/+23yeah... they sync with iTunes... this isn't really "secret" or surprising news.
you still can't play iTunes Store (protected AAC) files on them... so what's the point?
Remember iTunes came out BEFORE the iPod. And the iTunes Store came after the iPod. - heyitsme23, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16what version of itunes were you using?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11because most people's music libraries are made up of mostly non-drmed CD ripped / bootlegged music. So it's nice that we can use some windows players with itunes since it is such a good piece of software.
- koregaonpark, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16Well, this is something I didn't know being a long-time Apple fan. I always believed that to use iTunes with a portable player meant owning an iPod, so I went and bought one. I mean, there have been several attempts to make other players work with iTunes, like BadApple for example.
- missingdigits, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Me too! Others might disagree, but I definatly notice USB 2.0 being way slower.
- sdrawkcaB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"you still can't play iTunes Store (protected AAC) files on them... so what's the point?"
I believe the point is that a lot of us have almost no music actually purchased from the store, or even store accounts for that matter, and still use iTunes. - koregaonpark, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9The iTunes Windows version of this page was last udpated early this year and states that no other mp3 players work with iTunes. Makes sense since it isn't the bundled player on Windows. The iTunes Mac page on the other hand (the dugg link) was updated in 2005 and still sports the names of all those other 3rd party players. Can anyone confirm if they sync with iTunes?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93377 - felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I have definitely found USB 2.0 to be slower than Firewire. I would be glad to pay an extra $50 or so for a "premium" iPod that could have ultra-fast Firewire transfers.
- blurplevtx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Apple bought Casady and Greene's program called SoundJam MP and turned it into iTunes, for those that don't know so it's been around for quite a long time.
- Whosawhatsis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I haven't tried another brand with iTunes 7, but I have used both an old Diamond Rio with older versions and a Creative MuVo with iTunes 6. These players do not /sync/ with iTunes, but they appear in the left column and it allows you to manually manage the songs by draging them to the player's icon. Support for multiple playlists is spotty (the muvo allows them through the creation of folders, but iTunes would only copy songs to the root directory). iTunes also provides a button to flash the player's memory and possibly a few other player options. The support for these players is nothing like that of the iPod, it's more comparable to iTunes' CD-burning capability.
- haunted, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5AAC is just mp4. Mp3 has proven amazingly resilient but it's over ten years old, and mp4 uses adaptive algorithms to capture better sound quality with the same bitrate. It's a standard format, and if other digital music players can't catch up by issuing a firmware patch, that's their loss and the consumer's.
- neut, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6you sure 'bout dat?
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34523
"What WiMP11 represents is one of the biggest thefts of your rights that I can think of. MS planned this, pushed the various pieces slowly, and this is the first big hammer to drop. Your rights, the promises they made, and anything else that gets in the way of the content mafia making yet more money gets thrown out. Why? Greed. Your rights? History. You were dumb enough to let it happen, don't say I didn't warn you." - aquax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@koregaonpark
"Well, this is something I didn't know being a long-time Apple fan."
Were you absent during 1998 to early 2001? iTunes' predecessor, SoundJam MP was /the/ application for copying music on to devices like the Diamond Rio players, and various others. Audion also supported devices too, I recall. When Apple bought SoundJam and re-rolled it as iTunes, almost all of that device support carried through.
The iPod was just a (friggin') wet dream of Steve Jobs and Jon Ive for that time period. - mcstewart37, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The article isn't saying you can play songs you bought on the iTunes store on players other than the iPod: From bullet #1: Not all digital music players can play AAC songs and only iPod can play AAC Protected songs
- JackAxe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4-hansamurai
Ogg Vorbis is only good for lower-bit rates, hence it's great for devices that are limited on their storage. At the higher-bit rates it looses all of its advantages and AAC and WMA actually hold up better.
I personally only use lossless formats these days. I really don't need to though, since my iPod has just under 10 gigs of space I've never used, so I could've just copied my CDs directly onto it with no compression/conversion needed. - origclubsoda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"only iPod can play AAC Protected songs.""
- mpancha, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@skhomerun - "So it's nice that we can use some windows players with itunes "
Windows Players?
is that a typo, or did you mean to refer to it as "windows players"? If its the latter, then Apple's marketing has worked very well. (I'm not trying to be a smartass, I'm genuinly asking) - millixaw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Are there any non-iPod players that play non-protected (non-DRM) AAC files on them?
- ptrcd003, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Each page doesn't have its own server..
- heyitsme23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2and no other players other than ipod can play apple lossless.
- fireball74, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It might be a monopoly, but Apple pretty much made the music download business legal. A monopoly isn't illegal until they violate anti-trust laws. There are far worse intities that wish to have monopolies in music, and they won't let you burn, or play songs on 5 different devices.
Hell, even the Zune won't give you an adapter so you can play your existing library. Can't wait until someone hacks it and makes a Zune emulator so you can fool it into thinking your laptop or puter with wireless is another Zune. I can see MS' and RIAA butts puckering already.
And the obigitory: If you want them unprotected, burn a CD and rip it to lossless. - mpancha, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@heyitsme - my PC is running Windows XP, is over 5 years old, and runs the latest software flawlessly. Were you trying to make a point?
iTunes 7 works okay, like I expected, its slower than iTunes 6 on my ibook, it runs perfectly fine on my 5 year old PC. I used to use Winamp, but after I think it was version 3 or 4, I quit using it. It started running slower on my many year old PC, and having to upgrade my hardware to run a media player just wasn't going to cut it.
Which brings me back to were you trying to make a point? - Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I had an old 64MB MPIO mp3 player that could be synced with iTunes with a plug-in (Mac only)... worked a hellava lot better than the Windows software that came with it.
- buttash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've recently come across an iTunes plugin called The Filter that can fill MP3 players with non-drmed iTunes music. Check it out at www.thefilter.com.
- lyso, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@JackAxe - not according to the studies I've seen (where LAME mp3 holds up pretty well at higher bitrates) - got a reference?
- MrObjectional, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I think he's got a point about the loading, though. iTunes on Windows takes nearly twice as long as WMP to start up.
- koregaonpark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@aquax
Thanks for the info. Yeah, I was in boarding school in 1998, damned to a computer lab full of bsod pcs. - meehawl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0You've missed the best: Media Center
http://www.jrmediacenter.com/
Syncs iPods, PSPs, phones, Tivo. Pretty much everything. - roryt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I think it is ironic that it is still on their website. I bet it is down once this gets to 1000 diggs.
- hasbeenhere, on 10/12/2007, -11/+9OLD! I submitted this 289 days ago http://digg.com/apple/iTunes_compatible_MP3_players
- lazyrussian, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3@heyitsme23
I'm definitely behind you on Winamp being the best. It takes less ram then iTunes. Loads my library faster. Great selection of radio stations with shoutcast. Amazing Skins (MMD3) and amazing plugins.
All it needs is the ability to sync with mp3 players and it'll be perfect. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I dont use DRM
I dont rip with WMP
I dont have Tivo
I use WMP11 to PLAY my files, and it does that better than any other I have seen. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+8yup, release 7 was very slow on some windows (probably fixed now) or powerpc macs (absolutely not fixed now) - i think it's apple's way of trying to make ppc users upgrade.
apple: they want our money, and lots of it. - FarcicalFart, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I have always used XNJB to sync my Creative Vision:M.
- shuffle, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6Right...and very few people run Linux on a mac...so, no.
- hansamurai, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Or maybe they use Ogg Vorbis, which is open source, and generally has the same, if not better quality than mp4.
- donatj, on 10/12/2007, -13/+9@heyitsme23 Winamp for PC, definetly. People some how completely miss its Media Library which is where a good 95% of the function other than the actual music playing lay. I t has a video stream browser, smart playlists (smarter than itunes's I might add) and plugin abilities unmatched.
- heyitsme23, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2unless your using a G3, which how many windows users are using a computer over 3 years old and using the most current software flawlessly?
- tavisjohn, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Lame! This only lists MP3 players that can play their AAC formatted UNPROTECTED songs!
If they want to make a compatability list, then they should list the MP3 players that are compatable with their PROTECTED files. The fact that ONLY iPods can play purchased iTunes songs is a monopoly! - drunkenoaf, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6why?
- karn, on 10/12/2007, -16/+8@heyitsme23
Amarok? ...that is of course if your using linux on either a PC or Mac... - colincornaby, on 10/12/2007, -13/+4The reason was iTunes was available before the iPod was. So, rather than cut out MP3 player support, Apple wrote iTunes to sync to 3rd party players while they finished up the iPod.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -15/+6My take on mediaplayers
WMP9 : only thing i knew about for a while
winamp : lite!
itunes : everyone in the dorms had it
WMP10 : ditched itunes; worst decision ever
WMP11: downloaded the beta the first day; best decision ever - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -68/+5itunes sucks. first of all it looks terrible, the library takes too long to load or scroll, and the music store tracks are far too low quality. apple needs to get their act together.
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