Support NeoGAF

[PlayStation Tree]

I am a 100% complete noob when it comes to iPods and iTunes. I need a new phone, so I figured I'd splurge on the iPhone. Seems like a good Mp3 player/internet tablet. But I'm nervous about taking the plunge, so I need some help.

These questions are so lame I feel ashamed having to ask them (I'm usually very knowlegable about consumer electronics), but here goes:

1. Does the itunes program modify your exsisting mp3's, or rearrange your folders in any way? It can work well with non-iTunes Store MP3's, right? Is there a good tutorial out there somewhere so I know what to expect from iTunes?

2. I have 3 media centre PC's. 1 of them holds all my music/videos which are available through the network. Will iTunes be able to access the files without having them on the local PC it syncs with; and again, will it modify those files?

3. I want to get the phone without a data plan and just use WiFi for surfing at home. Is it difficult to stop the phone from randomly grabing data in the background?

4. I may in fact be getting 2 iPhones. Is there any problem syncing 2 iPhones on the same PC with different playlists/settings?

5. Do I really need a case for the iPhone? Does it still have the glass screen?

6. Does the phone come with that nifty dock stand I see everywhere or just the cable?

Any help on this stuff would be so much appreciated.

 

[hirokazu]

1. Does the itunes program modify your exsisting mp3's, or rearrange your folders in any way? It can work well with non-iTunes Store MP3's, right? Is there a good tutorial out there somewhere so I know what to expect from iTunes?

I think by default it will copy the MP3s that you import into it's on folder. On Mac, this is stored in ~/Music/iTunes/ There's also an option for it to automatically organise the MP3s in the library into the correct folders based on Artist, Album, etc.

If you don't want it to do this, make sure you go through the Preferences and disable them before you import anything into iTunes.

Immediately after importing music, iTunes will go through the files and calculate volume normalisation data for each song. This is written as a tag on the MP3 file itself and doesn't modify the song itself. This is used almost exclusively by iTunes and it may appear as a bunch of numbers in the Comments tag if you view the MP3 tag data in another app.

iTunes works fine with music not from the iTMS, but sometimes there can be problem files that maybe weren't encoded properly, contains errors, etc.

2. I have 3 media centre PC's. 1 of them holds all my music/videos which are available through the network. Will iTunes be able to access the files without having them on the local PC it syncs with; and again, will it modify those files?

If you turn off the option to copy imported music as mentioned above, it will read the files from their current location, be it local, or available on a network. It will modify music files as I mentioned above, but it doesn't change anything other than tag data, like most music players.

3. I want to get the phone without a data plan and just use WiFi for surfing at home. Is it difficult to stop the phone from randomly grabing data in the background?

From my experience, yes it is. You may want to contact your carrier and check if they have any options to completely disable data access if you only want to access the Internet via Wi-Fi.

4. I may in fact be getting 2 iPhones. Is there any problem syncing 2 iPhones on the same PC with different playlists/settings?

No, it works perfectly fine, it's no different to syncing multiple iPods on the same computer. iTunes will remember each device's sync settings when you connect it.

5. Do I really need a case for the iPhone? Does it still have the glass screen?

Yes, it still has a glass screen. No, you don't need a case for it. I personally do not use a case because I think it defeats the purpose of having a nice phone when you encase it in a silicon condom or something similarly ugly.

The glass screen is very durable, although it can shatter if you drop it and it hits the ground the wrong way, so you might want some sort of protection just in case or if you have butter fingers.

I put it in an old Sony MD pouch and slip that in my pocket to minimize the chances of the plastic back cover getting scratched while it's in my pocket, I don't really do anything else to protect the phone.

6. Does the phone come with that nifty dock stand I see everywhere or just the cable?

No, the original iPhone came with the dock stand, put with the iPhone 3G, they decided to cut costs and make it an accessory (and a pretty pricey one at that). To compensate, they included a 2c SIM card ejector instead.

Any help on this stuff would be so much appreciated.

^

 

[Hootie]

Ok so I just got my iPod Touch last night...

I found ckohler's GAF website for Touch/iPhone, but I couldn't log in or post. Is there any way I can do this?

 

[TheGreatDave]

Ok so I just got my iPod Touch last night...

I found ckohler's GAF website for Touch/iPhone, but I couldn't log in or post. Is there any way I can do this?

There's quote buttons next to everyone's username. You can click that to open up the standard site and reply. There is an icon at the bottom right as well which replies without quotes.

There's no way of posting directly from the mobile interface.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

3. I want to get the phone without a data plan and just use WiFi for surfing at home. Is it difficult to stop the phone from randomly grabing data in the background?

Where do you live? Because this is impossible just about everywhere.

Just get an iPod touch and some $10 a month cheap phone.

As for your iTunes questions, you have nothing to worry about. But why wouldn't you just download the free program and try it yourself anyway to be sure? It's so weird how this thread has someone every few pages that's absolutely terrified of iTunes and knows nothing about it when it's a free, easy download to just try it for yourself.

 

[PlayStation Tree]

Thanks hirokazu! That was a huge help!

Where do you live? Because this is impossible just about everywhere.

Just get an iPod touch and some $10 a month cheap phone.

In Canada on Rogers. Monthly plan is 10 bucks a month but no data. They charge $50 more for the phone upfront, but otherwise, its no problem to get it without data.

Data plans in Canada are notorious for being some of the most expensive in the world, and there's no unlimited option at all for the iPhone here. If I want I can add $30 to the $10 plan I have at any point in the future to get 500mb a month, so I'll do that if its impossible to not use data.

In the meantime I have my work blackberry for data.

As for your iTunes questions, you have nothing to worry about. But why wouldn't you just download the free program and try it yourself anyway to be sure? It's so weird how this thread has someone every few pages that's absolutely terrified of iTunes and knows nothing about it when it's a free, easy download to just try it for yourself.

I know its an irrational fear. But I 've seen someones music folder on a PC that has been raped by iTunes and it was a disgusting mess. Now that I know it is an option I'm cool.

And the problem with your suggestion to just download the program to try it out is that if it were to fuck with my mp3 collection once I ran it, what then? I don't want to go through a process that I later decide I don't like and it takes me forever to get my music back to the way I had it. You have to understand why this would be a concern to people? The organization of my files on my PC is important to me.

 

[Blackhead]

I know its an irrational fear. But I 've seen someones music folder on a PC that has been raped by iTunes and it was a disgusting mess. Now that I know it is an option I'm cool.

And the problem with your suggestion to just download the program to try it out is that if it were to fuck with my mp3 collection once I ran it, what then? I don't want to go through a process that I later decide I don't like and it takes me forever to get my music back to the way I had it. You have to understand why this would be a concern to people? The organization of my files on my PC is important to me.

How do you organize your files? I've grown lazy from using iTunes for the past few years but been experimenting recently with Songbird (plays flac) which doesn't have the same automatic database management. Also is there a better podcast manager for os x? I'm getting frustrated with iTunes in that regards.

 

[Xeke]

iTunes just copies your files to the iTunes Music Folder and puts them into Artist < Album folders, how else would your organize music?

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Yeah, I'd be interested in hearing how iTunes "raped" someone's music folder.

 

[GashPrex]

just like to say that getting the 3g + jailbreaking with PDAnet is like have a whole new phone. Usually when stuck in an airport I am forced to try to connect to random networks that don't work - but now I can just surf like normal with good speeds. This is fantastic. Never again!

Also, orb and some of the more refined newer official/unofficial apps really expand this device far beyond what I thought it could ever be. Now I just need to setup a tv tuner with a media server in order to always have access to all my media and TV Also, fieldrunners is awesome!

Lastly, anybody have experience with winadmin app? What can I do with remote desktop access? Can I run programs etc...? As for organizing tunes, fixtunes is the best but costs money - musicbrainz.org is a good free open source alternative that fixes tags by identifying albums.

 

[Tobor]

Yeah, I'd be interested in hearing how iTunes "raped" someone's music folder.

It was more than likely screwed up to begin with, or used a stupid naming structure.

I already had my library organized by artist > album > song so when I switched to iTunes it worked beautifully.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

It was more than likely screwed up to begin with, or used a stupid naming structure.

I already had my library organized by artist > album > song so when I switched to iTunes it worked beautifully.

Yep! Same here. Zero issues. And considering how it makes a copy of your music, I can't see how it would screw up music already stored on the computer. Some of the iTunes hate is really overblown.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

You can tell iTunes to just look for your music but not to touch it or move or rename anything. Alternately, as described above, you can have it copy everything to an iTunes folder so your original folders are untouched.

Honestly, I used to understand the idea of not letting it move things around, but now I just let it do everything for me. Really think about it: why do you care how your music is organized in the file system? I only ever see my music in iTunes. Why would I look at the files in Finder/Explorer? I think for people it's some sort of computer power user thing that they just can't shake themselves of.

 

[Tobor]

You can tell iTunes to just look for your music but not to touch it or move or rename anything. Alternately, as described above, you can have it copy everything to an iTunes folder so your original folders are untouched.

Honestly, I used to understand the idea of not letting it move things around, but now I just let it do everything for me. Really think about it: why do you care how your music is organized in the file system? I only ever see my music in iTunes. Why would I look at the files in Finder/Explorer? I think for people it's some sort of computer power user thing that they just can't shake themselves of.

That's exactly it. People became used to using Windows Explorer to organize their library since there wasn't a really good database managing option.

iTunes is a database management application with a media player built in. And the point of building a database is to not have to look at the raw data.

 

[Blackhead]

I had a bunch of music files neatly arranged in folders that iTunes didn't take to well. Something about the mp3 not embedding the proper metadata (or ide tags or whatever you call it). I added the files in one big go so I couldn't pinpoint exactly which files were which (I have a bunch of files named 'track 01'). The music was a bit obscure so iEatBrainz wasn't much help either. Don't care much really. I'm more frustrated with how iTunes handles deleted podcasts. It removes the entry from the library so I can't easily see check back what the recent episodes that I've listened to were and download them again if necessary.

 

[Wraith]

I can't believe how much iTunes love there is in here. At least on Windows, the program is an abomination.

 

[Bananakin]

Alright, so I just got a 16GB Ipod Touch last week (loving it), but as of this morning, none of my downloaded apps are working. I start them up, and they come up for about two seconds, then disappear. Everything else is working fine (browser, youtube, appstore, etc.), it's only my downloaded apps.

Help me, GAF! Has anyone else had this happen to them?

 

[suikodan]

Alright, so I just got a 16GB Ipod Touch last week (loving it), but as of this morning, none of my downloaded apps are working. I start them up, and they come up for about two seconds, then disappear. Everything else is working fine (browser, youtube, appstore, etc.), it's only my downloaded apps.

Help me, GAF! Has anyone else had this happen to them?

Did you try the "standard steps"?
- Restart the phone?
- Reinstall your apps?

 

[PlayStation Tree]

Seems like I started a firestorm here! Holy shit guys, chill. I was just trying to understand how a computer program works, not questioning your religion.

It was more than likely screwed up to begin with, or used a stupid naming structure.

I already had my library organized by artist > album > song so when I switched to iTunes it worked beautifully.

I think this was the case. Something that might be a problem for me because not all my tags are 100% I don't think.

That's exactly it. People became used to using Windows Explorer to organize their library since there wasn't a really good database managing option.

iTunes is a database management application with a media player built in. And the point of building a database is to not have to look at the raw data.

I understand what iTunes is supposed to do, I was just unsure that I wanted to turn over my music without understanding what exactly what the changes would do to my underlying music, in case I don't keep iTunes. And I guess I was asking as well how the music that had been changed by iTunes would then work with vista Media Centre, which is more important to me. But it sounds like from what's being said here that there shouldn't be any issues.

Honestly, I used to understand the idea of not letting it move things around, but now I just let it do everything for me. Really think about it: why do you care how your music is organized in the file system? I only ever see my music in iTunes. Why would I look at the files in Finder/Explorer? I think for people it's some sort of computer power user thing that they just can't shake themselves of.

As I said, as rediculous as it may sound to some of you, it's more important to me that my media works in Vista Media Centre than it will be that it works well with iTunes. I use Media Centre for everything. And before I hand over my digital life to iTunes, I want to make sure I can still make it back!

I can't believe how much iTunes love there is in here. At least on Windows, the program is an abomination.

Now this kind of talk scares me again! What are your issues with it (keep in mind I use VMC and Media Player 11, which aren't exactly the most highly regarded music managers out there).

And just so everyone here doesn't get their panties in a bunch, i'm going out to get my iPhone RIGHT NOW. So Thank You to those who helped answer my questions, and for the rest I'm sure I'll be back in here soon enough freaking out right along with you on the noobs who come in here and question anything apple.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

I had a bunch of music files neatly arranged in folders that iTunes didn't take to well. Something about the mp3 not embedding the proper metadata (or ide tags or whatever you call it). I added the files in one big go so I couldn't pinpoint exactly which files were which (I have a bunch of files named 'track 01'). The music was a bit obscure so iEatBrainz wasn't much help either. Don't care much really. I'm more frustrated with how iTunes handles deleted podcasts. It removes the entry from the library so I can't easily see check back what the recent episodes that I've listened to were and download them again if necessary.

You had no ID3 tags, which is exactly why you should be using iTunes/Winamp/Foobar/Songbird/WMP/Zune or anything to manage your music files and show proper tags in your music rather than looking at them in Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer is the worst thing to ever happen to MP3 collections.

For your podcast thing, are you referring to how when you delete an episode, it never shows up again, even if you get a full list from iTunes? In your Podcast menu, hold Shift (or Alt, one of the two) when you click on the little triangle icons that expand/collapse the full episode listing. Holding Shift will force iTunes to retrieve a full, brand-new listing rather than remembering that you deleted some episodes.

I can't believe how much iTunes love there is in here. At least on Windows, the program is an abomination.

It's a fantastic program that is unfortunately slow as shit on Windows. I wouldn't change anything about it other than its memory use.

 

[Bananakin]

Did you try the "standard steps"?
- Restart the phone?
- Reinstall your apps?

Yeah, I tried restarting to no avail.

As for reinstalling, well...not to sound like a total idiot, but how do I do that? I don't see any options for uninstalling on the ipod touch itself. Is it done through itunes?

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Yeah, I tried restarting to no avail.

As for reinstalling, well...not to sound like a total idiot, but how do I do that? I don't see any options for uninstalling on the ipod touch itself. Is it done through itunes?

Hold your finger on any icon on the screen and everything will start shaking. You can move/delete icons that way. Hit the Home button to go back to normal.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Seems like I started a firestorm here! Holy shit guys, chill. I was just trying to understand how a computer program works, not questioning your religion.

And just so everyone here doesn't get their panties in a bunch, i'm going out to get my iPhone RIGHT NOW. So Thank You to those who helped answer my questions, and for the rest I'm sure I'll be back in here soon enough freaking out right along with you on the noobs who come in here and question anything apple.

I'd hardly call this a firestorm, and most of us are not above calling out Apple either. It's just that aside from iTunes being a bit of a resource hog on Windows, I have yet to see any major issues with it, and I've personally never seen it do anything to someone's music folders. In fact, it tends to leave them alone as it imports the music to it's own system, unless you turn it off. I don't think anyone in here is put off by your comments or criticisms of iTunes, we're just a bit baffled by the idea that it somehow messes with your music.

All that said, you'll probably find that your music will be fine. Also, once you start messing with Smart Playlists and now Genius Playlists, and see the real power there, you will be amazed at the things you can do with iTunes.

 

[Bananakin]

Hold your finger on any icon on the screen and everything will start shaking. You can move/delete icons that way. Hit the Home button to go back to normal.

Thanks! I uninstalled and reinstalled one app, then all the rest worked. So I'm not sure what was going on there. Weird...but hey, now I know how to move icons around.

 

[PlayStation Tree]

I'd hardly call this a firestorm, and most of us are not above calling out Apple either. It's just that aside from iTunes being a bit of a resource hog on Windows, I have yet to see any major issues with it, and I've personally never seen it do anything to someone's music folders. In fact, it tends to leave them alone as it imports the music to it's own system, unless you turn it off. I don't think anyone in here is put off by your comments or criticisms of iTunes, we're just a bit baffled by the idea that it somehow messes with your music.

All that said, you'll probably find that your music will be fine. Also, once you start messing with Smart Playlists and now Genius Playlists, and see the real power there, you will be amazed at the things you can do with iTunes.

Ok, you're right, not a firestorm, I take it back.

Anyway, I'm happily screwing with my new phone right now and will be loading some music up when I get home today! Fun times!

 

[Hootie]

Another question! What are the "must-download" free apps? I got a couple of obvious ones like Facebook, AIM, eBay, WikiTap, Sports News and Google Earth but I'm sure I'm missing a few gems.

 

[KR3W]

Another question! What are the "must-download" free apps? I got a couple of obvious ones like Facebook, AIM, eBay, WikiTap, and Google Earth but I'm sure I'm missing a few gems.

AMAZON APP!!!

 

[Hootie]

AMAZON APP!!!

I don't really use Amazon but I'll d/l it just for the hell of it :lol

 

[giga]

Another question! What are the "must-download" free apps? I got a couple of obvious ones like Facebook, AIM, eBay, WikiTap, Sports News and Google Earth but I'm sure I'm missing a few gems.

Free or paid? Both?

Mobile news, pandora, stanza, google app, weatherbug, white pages

 

[Robobandit]

Seadragon from microsoft is pretty impressive.

 

[ToyMachine228]

I've been with Verizon for four years now and I've been looking into getting a new phone one way or another. The iPhone is pretty freaking tempting. I'd probably get the cheapest one, which is like what $199? I probably won't end up getting it anyway...What does the monthly plan generally run? Sorry for the iPhone noobness, this is the first time I've really looked into it.

 

[Flo_Evans]

oh no! I have dust under my screen. Will apple do anything about it or am I just stuck with a dusty screen?

 

[Wraith]

It's a fantastic program that is unfortunately slow as shit on Windows. I wouldn't change anything about it other than its memory use.

It cannot even monitor folders on Windows. That is basic functionality and only one of my many beefs with the program. I always hear that it's awesome on a Mac, but the program is truly awful on Windows. I know that your shtick is "pro-Apple fuck Vista etc", but trying to defend iTunes on Windows is a stretch.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

It cannot even monitor folders on Windows. That is basic functionality and only one of my many beefs with the program. I always hear that it's awesome on a Mac, but the program is truly awful on Windows. I know that your shtick is "pro-Apple fuck Vista etc", but trying to defend iTunes on Windows is a stretch.

Fuck what you think my shtick is. I like what I like, and I don't like iTunes on Windows at all. The memory problems are enough to make it unusable.

 

[Keylime]

It cannot even monitor folders on Windows. That is basic functionality and only one of my many beefs with the program. I always hear that it's awesome on a Mac, but the program is truly awful on Windows. I know that your shtick is "pro-Apple fuck Vista etc", but trying to defend iTunes on Windows is a stretch.

It can't on Mac either, so don't be offended. Pathetic absence.

 

[teiresias]

It can't on Mac either, so don't be offended. Pathetic absence.

It's pretty obvious the program was designed for you to check "Let iTunes manage my library" and not give a damn about the file/folder structure of your actual library. Coming at it from that concept of operations, monitoring folders isn't really necessary, and that's how I use it, and it's fine and dandy. Of course, I only have iPods, so I can see how that can be a problem for anyone that wants to use another player with the software (though why would you since you can't use it to load said player anyway).

 

[Keylime]

It's pretty obvious the program was designed for you to check "Let iTunes manage my library" and not give a damn about the file/folder structure of your actual library. Coming at it from that concept of operations, monitoring folders isn't really necessary, and that's how I use it, and it's fine and dandy. Of course, I only have iPods, so I can see how that can be a problem for anyone that wants to use another player with the software (though why would you since you can't use it to load said player anyway).

I don't care if it manages my music folder, but it won't monitor one to see if anything new was added and automatically add it to your iTunes library.

All my 8bitpeoples albums have to manually added, as well as any non-iTunes mp3 you obtain.

It's dumb that it's not there. I know they want you to use iTunes...but please don't remove basic functionality that should be there.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

In Apple's perfect world, you aren't doing anything with your music other than ripping CDs right through iTunes and buying shit from the iTunes Store. So you never see your music in the OS file structure. They do the same thing with every program in iLife. They all take over as file managers for their media type.

They also like having the user manually do things whenever it creates a visual analogy for that user. So if you happen to be the type that gets your MP3s in other ways, they want you to drag that MP3 into iTunes so you see it go into the program and stay there. I guess it also works as defensive design against dumbasses that would forget they have folder monitoring on or don't even know what it is.

Folder monitoring is my biggest feature request, but it goes against Apple's plan, and Apple is that one asshole company that doesn't give a fuck about sacrificing features to stick to their plan.

 

[Hootie]

Holy shit I'm posting on GAF from my iPod Touch...this is awesome.

 

[Juice]

In Apple's perfect world, you aren't doing anything with your music other than ripping CDs right through iTunes and buying shit from the iTunes Store. So you never see your music in the OS file structure. They do the same thing with every program in iLife. They all take over as file managers for their media type.

They also like having the user manually do things whenever it creates a visual analogy for that user. So if you happen to be the type that gets your MP3s in other ways, they want you to drag that MP3 into iTunes so you see it go into the program and stay there. I guess it also works as defensive design against dumbasses that would forget they have folder monitoring on or don't even know what it is.

Folder monitoring is my biggest feature request, but it goes against Apple's plan, and Apple is that one asshole company that doesn't give a fuck about sacrificing features to stick to their plan.

Once I decided to make my perfect plan == whatever Apple's current perfect plan is, I've been a much happier (if self-deluded) person

 

[StopMakingSense]

It can't on Mac either, so don't be offended. Pathetic absence.

You could do this with folder actions and automator, I think

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

I had a couple questions about getting an iphone. Is there a cheaper unlimited data than $130? I don't need a lot of minutes or text messages so default is ok for that except I might need it for the internet. Do you get internet/mail minutes by default? If you do how much and is it easy to tell if you're about to go over? Do they just not let you surf anymore or it just charges an outrageous rate?

Edit: O man, have I been reading that wrong this whole time? Do you get data, visual voicemail, and mobile to mobile calling unlimited not matter what tier of plan you choose. If so that makes a lot more sense.

 

[LCfiner]

You could do this with folder actions and automator, I think

yes you can.

for anyone curious, open automator and use the following two commands

1: find finder items (where: "downloads" folder or another folder you choose, kind = audio)

2. Import files into iTunes (Library or specific playlist. eg: new songs)

save as plug-in, type: folder action and save it for use with the "downloads" folder you picked in step 1.

that's it. the workflow will run each time an audio file (mps, aac, etc) is detected in the folder and it'll import it into iTunes. Saves you the drag and drop operation, if that bugs you.

alternately, you could save the workflow as an app that you would manually click to activate.

edit: i'm playing around with this now and I seem to be getting duplicate imports into itunes. not sure why...

 

[Xeke]

When I download songs from limewire they appear instantly on my iTunes.

 

[Costanza]

you use limewire in 2008? :lol :lol :lol

 

[border]

If Limewire is laughable what's the p2p program that the cool kids are using, then?

I had SoulSeek on my last computer, but haven't installed anything since I got my new one a couple months ago.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

edit: i'm playing around with this now and I seem to be getting duplicate imports into itunes. not sure why...

I've been getting duplicates since one of the latest versions. It seems like if iTunes copies a file from somewhere else into its iTunes directory, it has a chance of importing it twice.

If Limewire is laughable what's the p2p program that the cool kids are using, then?

The kids have been using BitTorrent or Rapidshare trading for almost five years now.

I really didn't even think Limewire existed anymore.

 

[Hootie]

Hay guise I yoose Napstar

 

[Deleted member 22576]

If a folder has a .m3u or playlist file accompanying the music files iTunes will import the songs twice.

 

[border]

The kids have been using BitTorrent or Rapidshare trading for almost five years now.

BitTorrent seems like it'd be kind of obnoxious for anything other than mainstream music (dead torrents for anything old and unpopular). Plus you have to use your web browsesr + another app. I'd rather have an all-on-one package.