I bought a second-generation Shuffle. I was still on the PC at the time. I was already using iTunes, I'd been doing digital music since the mid 90s, and it was the best player so far. I plugged the iPod in, iTunes immediately recognized it (even showed me the right color), and it was brain-dead to either tell it to put a playlist on the Shuffle or for it to fill the Shuffle to capacity with random songs from my collection (which was entirely ripped from CDs, I refused to buy DRM music). I had zero problems.
Every time it was plugged into the PC, some apple application (I forget the name) would pop up, and it would start filling in the blanks for all the missing songs.
That sounds like Genius, which you have to explicitly turn on. When you do turn it on, it sends your playlists and listening habits to a database, but it doesn't identify you specifically. It does that for everybody. Then it can suggest other playlists and new music for you based on what other people with similar tastes to yours have.
BTW, while had low initial expectations for Genius, it rocks. I was amazed at the music it came up with, and I had some pretty esoteric music going. It was as if one of my favorite DJs made a playlist just for me. Amazing.
It also sounds like the "complete my album" feature, but that's just Apple trying to sell you something.
using windows media player to organize however she wanted.
WMP phones home too. And if you're afraid of the big bad RIAA, remember that Apple has been fighting them to remove DRM, while Microsoft pays them for each Zune sold on the assumption that you will pirate music. Who do you think is more likely to cooperate with the RIAA?
We could not figure out how to get both of them to work with their one shared computer. It wouldnt’ do it.
I ran two Shuffles and a Nano off a PC, no problem. Each had its playlist(s) that it looked in to get its music when synching. Remember, this is all prior to me buying a Mac.
But our kids were directed to do so. For an eight year old, getting pressured into buying music, is just wrong.
You do realize the Zune is connected to Microsoft's store in pretty much the same way, right?
Also, for us to use the thing, we HAD to have a registered apple store account.
That's your Apple ID for registering. It does automatically make the store available to you, including free stuff like podcasts, but there is no requirement to give it your credit card or buy a card at a retailer. You never have to buy anything.
What is your point?
That iTunes doesn't tie you to the Store. Your music can come from any source, and it doesn't care. In fact, the Amazon MP3 downloader added my purchased music to iTunes for me.
“WMP phones home too”
Only if your set to allow it to. Easy as pie to turn it off.
we could not, and never were able to do that with the shuffles. Nor could many that Christmas week, as we were all over the internet seeing the same complaint as well.
Maybe they fixed it. Maybe it was a glitch. I have no idea, but it was par for the course for my own previous experience with Apple.
Also, we were constantly barraged with some other apple application afterwards, even after tossing the shuffles to the bin. I can’t think of the name of it, Real Media maybe? Oh and Safari kept wanting to install on our PC on every start up. We could not find either of the programs on add/remove, nor was there a disable option. they were eventually removed I believe with either Spybot Search & Destroy or we manually did it with Norton.
“I ran two Shuffles and a Nano off a PC, no problem. Each had its playlist(s) that it looked in to get its music when synching. Remember, this is all prior to me buying a Mac.”
Wouldn’t work for us, and after paying for the apple tech session (yes, it wasn’t free) we were told to upgrade to maybe the nano, or whatever was the next model up. We were told that because the shuffle has no window, you must use the itunes application (whatever that was) to arrange and do your music, and only 1 shuffle could be registered to each account. We were not alone in this frustration, many many people experienced the same thing. Just because you didn’t, doesnt’ make it so. I am always amazed at the apple people who claim “didn’t happen to me, so it never happened” Right. Plenty of folks out there that it happened to. We were not alone, we were reading apple boards (oh yeah, and since apples never have problems why do they have so many problem solving boards?) constantly to get these Christmas gifts working properly.
So, our solution? Buy some piece of crap cheap thing for 30 bucks, and guess what? it worked better than the named brand Apple junk.
Oh, and it had a screen that the kids could use. Amazing.
“You do realize the Zune is connected to Microsoft’s store in pretty much the same way, right?”
They have Zens. No store pops up. Sorry, I get the zune, zen, zorro, and zulu confused. No account needed. All it does is play the music you put on it. Period. Just plug it in, it acts like a USB storage device, you drag and drop. Period. No store. No accounts. No filling in the blanks. No recommending songs for you. Just simple. If Apple would be this simple, I might give them credit. If windows devices would be this simple, I might give them credit. This is why I like 3rd party stuff.