INTERACT FORUM

Devices => Androids and other portables => Topic started by: ThoBar on October 31, 2007, 12:55:30 am

Title: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: ThoBar on October 31, 2007, 12:55:30 am
My experience with portable music devices is limited to my Rockbox'd iRiver H340 (which I love).

Due to a need for a second device in the family, and being am able to get an iPod for next to nix (thanks to salary packaging), I have some questions about a potential iPoo purchase...

1) Can I get away with not installing iTunes on my PC. At all. Ever.
2) Can the iPod bookmark any audio file? (I listen to lots of audio books)
3) If 2. is 'yes', does MC pay any attention to the bookmarks? Can MC play from the bookmark, and set a bookmark?
4) What is the sound quality like? Compared to the H340, the older ipods were not as good, but I hear (no pun) they've improved... comments?

Cheers,
C.
Title: Re: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: Magic_Randy on October 31, 2007, 01:30:26 am
1) Can I get away with not installing iTunes on my PC. At all. Ever.

Only if you never update the iPod firmware. Apple no longer distributes a separate firmware updater. It is bundled inside of iTunes. The other option is to go to the Apple store and have them update the firmware, or use another person's PC to update the firmware.

That being said, there really is no problem having iTunes installed. The only restriction is not having MC & iTunes running at the same time.
Title: Re: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: ThoBar on October 31, 2007, 01:43:04 am
Only if you never update the iPod firmware. Apple no longer distributes a separate firmware updater. It is bundled inside of iTunes. The other option is to go to the Apple store and have them update the firmware, or use another person's PC to update the firmware.

That being said, there really is no problem having iTunes installed. The only restriction is not having MC & iTunes running at the same time.
Ah, OK. I wonder if I can do this from a Virtual Machine....
Title: Re: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: Matt on October 31, 2007, 08:44:24 pm
That being said, there really is no problem having iTunes installed.

There's no problem having iTunes installed.

Just beware of all the background processes and services iTunes installs without asking.  To me that's an offensive (and all too common) practice.
Title: Re: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: ThoBar on October 31, 2007, 09:46:47 pm
There's no problem having iTunes installed.

Just beware of all the background processes and services iTunes installs without asking.  To me that's an offensive (and all too common) practice.
That's part of the reason I don't really want it installed. I don't want things running (or installed for that matter) that I don't need.

I notice you didn't respond to the bookmarking Q. Does that mean it's a 'no', in terms of MC's support for bookmarking?
Title: Re: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: ThoBar on November 01, 2007, 01:59:08 am
OK, forget the MC support of bookmarking for the moment... can an ipod bookmark an audio file thats not:
 

This seems to be at least a part of what iTunes and the iPod want for an audio book to be able to bookmark, can anyone confirm this for me?

Cheers,
C.
Title: Re: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: edbro on November 01, 2007, 10:53:25 am
OK, forget the MC support of bookmarking for the moment... can an ipod bookmark an audio file thats not:
 
  • a '.m4b'
  • in AAC
  • genre tagged as "AudioBook" (although this one I dont mind so much)


This seems to be at least a part of what iTunes and the iPod want for an audio book to be able to bookmark, can anyone confirm this for me?

Cheers,
C.
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=42583.0 (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=42583.0)
Title: Re: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: lalittle on November 06, 2007, 11:38:02 pm
OK, forget the MC support of bookmarking for the moment... can an ipod bookmark an audio file thats not:
 
  • a '.m4b'
  • in AAC
  • genre tagged as "AudioBook" (although this one I dont mind so much)


This seems to be at least a part of what iTunes and the iPod want for an audio book to be able to bookmark, can anyone confirm this for me?

Cheers,
C.

Not at the moment, but someone from JR just posted today that they were looking into this.  As of this time, I don't know any specifics of how they're planning on implementing such a feature, but I'm hopeful that we'll see something this week.

Larry
Title: Re: iPod - some dumb questions
Post by: ThoBar on November 07, 2007, 07:07:54 am
Not at the moment, but someone from JR just posted today that they were looking into this.  As of this time, I don't know any specifics of how they're planning on implementing such a feature, but I'm hopeful that we'll see something this week.

Larry
Goodo, thanks for the info!