Your Experiences Using A Phone As Main Mp3 Player?

[tominbkk]

I'm using the Samsung Candy/corby, works great, my only mp3 player now.

Too lazy to drag around anything else.

I have an iPod (120 gig) for my main music machine. Seems to run forever. Half way full and many thousands of songs.

[FarangBuddha]

Re: iTunes and the iPhone

Yes, you can load mp3s, videos, podcasts, and movies without having to purchase or download them through iTunes. The bulk of my content is "non-iTunes"...actually I don't think I've purchased anything from iTunes.

Agreed. The people posting about iTunes being locked into only playing downloads from the iTunes store are really showing their techno-ignorance The iTunes player plays mp3 format (as well as Apple propreirtary formats) so any mp3 formated music files can be played and syncned on iTunes or an iTunes syncned portable music player (e.g., iPods and iPhones).

As an example, 90% of my paid music downloads are from Amazon's mp3 store (mp3 format and play on any portable player or computer juke-box software) and I have Amazon's download program set to automatically add the music to my iTunes library. Works like a charm. You can also manually import non-iTunes music and video into iTunes as long as it supports the format (most major ones).

As well the comment that you can only download free stuff from the iTunes Store in Thailand...again untrue. Just set your location to your home country in the player's settings and with a credit card from there you can download paid content as well.

Edited April 13, 2010 by FarangBuddha

[Somtamnication]

I have about 20 gig worth of my own mp3s on my iphone. But I have them categorized how I like them on my computer or my dedicated mp3 player. Once imported into Itunes, it screws it up. I have to manually fix the file one by one.

Never purchased any tunes from Itunes.

[JSixpack]

Lots of "experts" that are convinced that files and folders are better than a database (iTunes). I don't think so. iTunes is great . . .

Get an iPod.

Suggest you Google "hate iTunes" to discover countless experts whose expertise must be at least as great as your own also hate iTunes. In fact, hatred of iTunes is rampant. Here's a representative little article from PCWorld, though their expertise likely falls far short of your own lofty level.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/149297/11_t...out_itunes.html

I've put in time with iTunes myself trying to help a friend with his iPod. It was quite enough for me to decide I'd never, ever let that crap onto one of MY machines.

And I'm totally happy just quickly dragging and dropping files into my MP3 player from my music folder, using a good file manager, as all my music is organized there well enough. The selection and copying cannot be faster. On my computer, foobar is an adequate music library manager, far more customizable than iTunes, and it uses ridiculously few resources for the power it has.

As for iPod, I'd considered it, but I much prefer Walkman: it's much smaller, far less expensive, good firmware (which cheap players lack), very reliable (Sony quality), sounds great (built-in equalizer, too), and--easy drag 'n' drop. (I would have got a Sansa Clip+ but they're hard to find in Thailand.) With the money saved, I then bought the Sennheisers and I'm very happy.

[nikster]

Lots of "experts" that are convinced that files and folders are better than a database (iTunes). I don't think so. iTunes is great . . .

Get an iPod.

Suggest you Google "hate iTunes" to discover countless experts whose expertise must be at least as great as your own also hate iTunes. In fact, hatred of iTunes is rampant.

Sorry can't be bothered with PC world - the magazine was always crap, the website worse. It's like C-Net or ZDNet. Total BS.

As for googling - do you suggest a google fight? Entertaining, but what would it tell us? Nothing. Therefore a waste of time.

iTunes seems to be fine for those about 100M people with iPods. It has become a bit cluttered, admittedly, but it's still the best free mp3 player out there. I guess I am one of those people who used iTunes for 10 years or more. 10 years ago I had a Creative Nomad, and getting music on it was by files and folders. It was a disaster. Huge waste of time to organize these files and folders, and keep them organized. Then came iTunes, at the time it supported 3rd party players, and saved the day. The Creative Nomad was still crap but at least I could get music onto it.

How much music do you have in your files and folders? 10 CDs? 100? 1000? Do you really manually and in the Windows explorer organize these? What do you do if the artist or album names are spelled differently?

Lastly I really want to know what exactly annoyed you about iTunes. I am really interested. I can't really imagine what it is - stuff that I read previously was usually about people not getting it. Perhaps it's too hard to use? Something else?

I had a friend who had the "files and folders" organization - and no ID3 tags on their files. Zip. So when I imported these files into iTunes, they were all unknown artist unknown album track 1 2 3 ... so it was completely useless. I recommended to them to stick with whatever mp3 player they were using before instead. But if you have iTunes or any other mp3 ripper worth the name, they'll go to that thing the internets and add artist/album/track names automatically. Maybe even the album cover. So you will never end up with a useless collection of un-identified songs.

I have 5000+ songs. Finding one by song title, or artist, takes half a second in itunes. I can create playlists, sync playlists automatically to the mp3 player. I can merge artists that are the same but with different spellings in seconds (edit multiple items). I can if I have to manually name songs very efficiently (next button on song info). I can create themed playlists, like 1980ies songs. Or 1990ies. Or any other smart playlists, say only songs with 4 or more stars, or only the 500 most played songs, or only the newest etc. I am not even using the genius or party shuffle features - maybe they're good, I don't know. I have loads of podcasts. Importing is a snap.

[tominbkk]

I've put in time with iTunes myself trying to help a friend with his iPod. It was quite enough for me to decide I'd never, ever let that crap onto one of MY machines.

And I'm totally happy just quickly dragging and dropping files into my MP3 player from my music folder, using a good file manager, as all my music is organized there well enough. The selection and copying cannot be faster.

If you take the time to learn iTunes, it is incredible at organizing your music database. I have about 100 gigs of music, and keep it in an external hard drive, as well as all on my iPod. I can very easily search out any particular song, artist, album, whatever in seconds...sure it takes a little prep for files, when you first plop an album into iTunes you can very quickly categorize it on as few or many different levels of labeling, all very easy to do.

Again, I do not auto-sync my songs, I manually arrange everything, because I have certain preferences which the auto-sync doesn't fit for me. To control it myself then was just the unchecking of two tick boxes on the main page.

Also, I can say I've never bought any music from iTunes, the only thing I've gotten from there is apps for my phone. Never any problem with any MP3s getting on to my phone though. Also, for almost any video format, you can use an open source program called Handbrake to convert vid files to iPod or iPhone format....very easy to do.

I too was hesitant to accept iTunes, but for music it is now my defacto player. For vids, GOM player.

[tominbkk]

I have 5000+ songs. Finding one by song title, or artist, takes half a second in itunes. I can create playlists, sync playlists automatically to the mp3 player. I can merge artists that are the same but with different spellings in seconds (edit multiple items). I can if I have to manually name songs very efficiently (next button on song info). I can create themed playlists, like 1980ies songs. Or 1990ies. Or any other smart playlists, say only songs with 4 or more stars, or only the 500 most played songs, or only the newest etc. I am not even using the genius or party shuffle features - maybe they're good, I don't know. I have loads of podcasts. Importing is a snap.

Have to agree.....I didn't like iTunes at first, because I didn't understand it. After spending a couple weeks with it, I realized how powerful it is as a great way to database and access your music.

Haha, I sound like such an apple fan boy, funny thing is that I've never owned a mac before. My my I do love the iPods and iPhone though!

[JSixpack]

@nikster:

> Sorry can't be bothered with PC world - the magazine was always

> crap, the website worse. It's like C-Net or ZDNet. Total BS.

Which merely means that you can't refute what they say and must resort to

copout of "'cause I the expert say so."

> As for googling - do you suggest a google fight? Entertaining, but

> what would it tell us? Nothing. Therefore a waste of time.

Googling tells us, as I said, that hatred of iTunes is rampant and a

productive use of time is to see if there isn't something better out

there, which as it happens there is.

>

> iTunes seems to be fine for those about 100M people with iPods.

Ah, well, it came with the iPod, didn't it.

> It

> has become a bit cluttered, admittedly, but it's still the best free

> mp3 player out there.

Cough. We'll just have to agree to disagree on that point. For those

whose expertise cannot hope to approach your own lofty level, there is

a comparison of audio and video players here in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...player_software

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...player_software

And a comparison of iPod managers here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_managers

You may wish to condescend to correct the crap and total BS in those articles.

> I guess I am one of those people who used

> iTunes for 10 years or more.

Seems you don't know much else then?

> 10 years ago I had a Creative Nomad,

> and getting music on it was by files and folders. It was a disaster.

> Huge waste of time to organize these files and folders, and keep

> them organized.

It's often the case that experts, working at highly rarefied abstract levels

(abstracted by iTunes), can become confused and disoriented when faced

with the most elementary computer tasks.

Functioning at my lower level, I seem to have no problem at all creating

a folder with an appropriate name and copying some files into it. And any modern file

manager sorts my view of them and filters/searches as I wish. Presto!

Of course, if I'm ripping a CD, the ripper creates the folder

automatically and names the files from the online databases.

If I download a folder of files, I just move it over

into the music folder. I dunno WHAT your problem was.

> Then came iTunes, at the time it supported 3rd party

> players, and saved the day.

Well, thank the lords of Kobol for that, in your case.

> The Creative Nomad was still crap but at

> least I could get music onto it.

Whew!

> How much music do you have in your files and folders? 10 CDs? 100?

> 1000?

Oh, merely 15,000 music files, roughly, about 88G, three times your

number. But then I have only about 210 CDs.

> Do you really manually and in the Windows explorer organize

> these?

If you had condescended to read my post, then you'd know that I use a

file manager. I can only marvel that you're still using Windows

explorer! It must be somehow related to also using iTunes . . . .

> What do you do if the artist or album names are spelled

> differently?

OMG! WHAT do I do? Lemme see. First, I scream and drop to the floor in a

fetal position for several hours. Then I get out all the musical

dictionaries I can find and search for DAYS . . . .

No, actually, believe it or not, I just go ahead and play it anyway. And I even

drag 'n' drop it over to my Walkman if I want to play it over there, still misspelled.

Amazing, eh?

I'm too lazy to bother correcting misspellings, you see, even though

I can easily do so in foobar or a file renamer or a specialized MP3

tagger. Somehow, I'm just able to guess that Nitewish is probably

Nightwish . . . . I must suffer from some kind of savantism.

>

> Lastly I really want to know what exactly annoyed you about iTunes.

> I am really interested. I can't really imagine what it is - stuff

> that I read previously was usually about people not getting it.

> Perhaps it's too hard to use? Something else?

Oh, just slow, bloated, unintuitive, too proprietary, no command line

options, no folder watching for automatic library updating, less support for other formats; tries to take

over your computer, connect to the internet whenever it pleases and sell you stuff. My friend's iPod,

it refused to synch, with a cryptic, meaningless error message--most annoying. In fairness, the iPod may

have been defective.

I see it and I want it out of my face. hel_l, gimme Winamp over that, plugins galore. Media Monkey

ain't bad.

But for just ripping and playing music on computer, I do love foobar. It also has a great library facility

and watches folders to automatically add new music to the library. Love the command line options, control it

from quick launch icons if you wish, no need to bring it in focus . . . on and on.

> But if you have iTunes or any other mp3 ripper worth the name,

> they'll go to that thing the internets and add artist/album/track

> names automatically. Maybe even the album cover. So you will never

> end up with a useless collection of un-identified songs.

Yawn. The operative phrase is "any other mp3 ripper." Standard stuff,

nothing that distinguishes iTunes. 'Course, now, there's the matter of ripping to

flac . . . wanna talk about that?

I should also point out that obscure albums may not be in the internet databases. It's not guaranteed, as

you portray above.

>

> I have 5000+ songs. Finding one by song title, or artist, takes half

> a second in itunes.

And, oh, a quarter of a second in foobar, using less resources.

> I can create playlists,

Wow. But not a standard m3u playlist you can't, useful when portability is at

issue. Wot?

> sync playlists

> automatically to the mp3 player.

Personally I don't much use playlists, though I could of course

(without iTunes). (Foobar automatically creates a playlist when you

click on a folder name (in folder view) or select some songs etc.)

I definitely don't want to create a playlist just for the MP3 player and then

depend on iTunes to synch it (probably tying up iTunes) and then

have to delete the playlist--'cause I want to hear something different

on my MP3 player when I'm out. At home, I'd never play the songs on

that playlist.

So I just select and drag the songs to the MP3 player directly from their

folders (expanded view, possibly from a filter/search list). (This, while I'm also

listening to other music on my music player.)

Now, that's logically and in practice more direct and faster than going through the extra

step of fooling around with a playlist, an unnecessary extra layer of abstraction, before the

files are copied over. I can be copying over files in the background while I select other files.

So before you're finished creating your playlist, most of my files will already be on the MP3

player ready to go.

I always have the MP3 player set to shuffle. I prefer a random order. So the file ordering on

the player doesn't matter at all.

All in all, I retain tight control over where my music is on the computer and how it's organized

and can be sure it's all backed up.

[tominbkk]

I always have the MP3 player set to shuffle. I prefer a random order. So the file ordering on

the player doesn't matter at all.

Well, then any ole MP3 player will do. An iPod is more sophisticated, ie my big pod has over 17,000 songs on it. It's a good idea to have some order if you want to find anything. Itunes helped set that all up for me, and I can find and play anything on my iPod in seconds.

[JSixpack]

I always have the MP3 player set to shuffle. I prefer a random order. So the file ordering on

the player doesn't matter at all.

Well, then any ole MP3 player will do.

Ah, no. Price, size, reliability, firmware, and sound quality differ between brands and models. Compare, as I did, Phillips, Sony, and Samsung, all commonly sold in Thailand, in similar configuration--Sony comes out well ahead.

Comparison shopping, my friend! Details, details.

Of course you can order the songs on the Walkman as you wish. But, in general, searching for songs isn't a strength of very small, highly portable, less expensive MP3 players--which doesn't bother me. When I'm out listening to my player, walking, exercising, riding, I just want to listen to it, not fool around with it. I like all the songs I put on it. If I know I want to hear the same song again real soon, I just repeat it just before it ends, since random order won't let you go back to a song after it's finished.

[neilf]

i have lg km 900 arena which is 8gb plus mem card

i plug it into my amp so it feeds speakers with pre-recorded or radio

you can set up a playlist for pre-recorded and has tv out etc.

touch screen 5mp cam plus flash ----------but have 2 take batt out twice a week cos it freezes up

its from uk so got unlocked here then like an idiot updated the software and it re-locked again so 500 baht wasted unless i can do from net

apart from that ok for me--------the screen " expands " with fingers like i-phone --------which i still dont rate and watch the copies !!