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back to article HP buys iTunes jailbreaker

HP has bought one of the more interesting music startups for an undisclosed sum. Melodio's nuTsie software looks up what's in your iTunes library, including the playlists, then matches it against a catalog of music on its own servers, from where the music is then streamed. It creates recommendations based on machine algorithms …

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  1. Dazed and Confused

    iTunes

    Is it just me or does anyone else find that iTunes is the most annoyingly crap piece of software I've ever needed to suffer?

    In the old days, I just used to connect my MP3 player to which ever computer I was working on at the time and just copy the files over to, hell you could even doing it in windows explorer, and the MP3 player would just play them. Easy

    Why is all this sh1t needed?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      @confused

      All this shit? A piece of software that automates the process so when you hook it up it just syncs it without having to go into explorer and select, then drag and drop files from one area to another? Sorry, but your process is anything but smooth, and doesn't organise it either.

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  2. Dazed and Confused

    @AC

    But I have many many giga bytes of of MP3 files on my PC and only a fraction will fit on the MP3 player at a time. Syncing the whole thing is the last thing I want to do.

    I also have a whole load of computers, desktop, laptop, netbook, Windoze, Linux... again, I just want to be able to chuck which files I want onto the damn play when I want as easily as possible.

    BTW, the files come nicely organised on nice little round shiny things called CDs. I almost always want to play them as intended.

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    1. Henry Blackman
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      What?

      The 80's called, and doesn't want their technology back.

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      1. Daniel B.
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        Drag & Drop

        This is the main complaint I get from my sister. She got an iPod shuffle 1GB as a present from my dad a couple of years ago; I used it once and wondered why the playlist was so random. My sis told me that it was annoying, because iTunes would grab all her playlist and chuck it all into the iPod until no more space was left. It seems that checking/unchecking the boxes of a zillion mp3's isn't my sister's idea of "user-friendly". And I also concur.

        She said that she would rather have one of those cheapo mp3 players all her friends had, as she would only need to drag & drop the mp3s on it, and it would also double as a USB pendrive.

        I'd also like to note that my sister isn't that IT savvy at all. She just hates the iTunes sync option.

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        1. Alastair 7
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          It's a wonder anyone gets out of bed in the morning

          "I'd also like to note that my sister isn't that IT savvy at all. She just hates the iTunes sync option."

          http://lmgtfy.com/?q=itunes+turn+off+auto+sync

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    2. Alastair 7
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      Well..

      "I also have a whole load of computers, desktop, laptop, netbook, Windoze, Linux... again, I just want to be able to chuck which files I want onto the damn play when I want as easily as possible."

      Hi, non-typical consumer. How are you?

      iTunes, like most Apple products, isn't made for the user with complex demands. People use iTunes because it's a one-stop shop for buying music, listening to music and transferring music to a portable player. While it's bloated and heavy, it does the job perfectly well for most people.

      (this is not directed at you specifically, so a pre-emptive 'no offense, but...')

      Why is it that so many commenters on El Reg are totally unable to conceive that there are users out there with different needs / levels of expertise to them? Anyone who buys an iPhone is a moron that likes sitting Steve Jobs' lap- why, it doesn't even have a native SSH interface /!!/. Windows users are simpletons that couldn't handle the ivory towers of a command line interface. Mac users only like shiny round things, etc. etc.

      Different horses, different courses.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Re:Alastair

        >iTunes, like most Apple products, isn't made for the user who has any idea what they're doing. People use iTunes because they can't handle browsing to more than one web page without getting a virus, and who have no idea what a folder is, much less a file system. While it's bloated and heavy, it is the equivalent of strapping a giant helmet on so they don't hurt their head when they fall down.

        Fixed that for you.

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        2. Sean Timarco Baggaley
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          @Bullseyed:

          iTunes, like most Apple products, isn't made for users who GIVE A SHIT about how the magic box works. People use iTunes because it's *there*. They don't care about "drag and drop" because *they don't even know what that means*. They don't look stuff up on Google before asking other people how to do anything either—why would they? "Google" is just some nerdy, techie thing that pops up when they double-click that weird-looking "e" picture.

          Apple's products are DESIGNED for the kind of people who ask where the "any" key is. For the kind of people who, when told to move the mouse pointer across the screen will *physically pick up the mouse and move it _across the display_, instead of the desk's surface*. You know: those people you love to insult so much for not having spent ten years of their short lives studying IT.

          But you are no better than they are. EVERYONE is a gibbering ignoramus! They're just ignorant about *different things*.

          There are general practitioners who cannot believe anyone could be so dumb as to not know where the femoral artery is; they, in turn, will be laughed at by radiographers for not knowing how to use an MRI. And lawyers giggle whenever some ignorant twit posts on a game development website asking whether they can make a free, indie, MMORPG using characters from Nintendo's most popular games.

          EVERY job has its specialist knowledge-base. The IT industry is not unique in this. It merely *thinks* it is.

          And that's why it's so fucked-up.

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      2. Tom 13
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        Actually, I'd bet most typical consumers have more than 1 PC, and

        would prefer to have the ability to synch their iTunes to their iPod rather than the other way around. In my case I hadn't read closely enough and thinking my music was backed up on my iPod, didn't have a back of my iTunes. Drive crashed, now I've got several man-day of work reconverting the music because it all came from CDs, not from their crapware store.

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        1. Alastair 7
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          @Tom 13

          http://lmgtfy.com/?q=get+music+from+ipod

          Your life would be a lot easier if you looked things up more often.

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      3. Trevor 3
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        Joke

        what title?

        There are users out there? I did wonder what the service desk did all day....

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  3. Dazed and Confused

    @Alastair7

    I've always thought my wants from a Music Player are really really simple.

    I have lots of CDs on my computers.

    I want to easily choose which ones I want on my MP3 player today.

    It doesn't sound like a lot to ask.

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    1. SImon Hobson Bronze badge
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      @ Dazed and Confused

      > I have lots of CDs on my computers.

      > I want to easily choose which ones I want on my MP3 player today.

      And guess what, iTunes can do that for you. For a device, you can configure what will get synced to it. If you want specific playlists - you can have that. If you want the space filled with a random selection till it's full - you can have that. You can have "smart playlists" that select music based on some criteria (no don't ask me, it's not something I've used). And you can have it sync a set of playlists and then fill the device with random selections. I suspect some of those won't work with some devices - eg the Shuffle doesn't have a display so it doesn't make too much sense to actually keep playlists intact as you can't see to select them.

      If you've got a small device and want the equivalent of "drag and drop files to it" then make a playlist, set the device to sync only that playlist, and then drag and drop the tracks you want into it. Want more - drop them in; want less, drag them out. iTunes will take care of syncing only what's needed to make the device match your playlist. In the meantime, you've got a list there of what's on your device that you can sort by track name, album name, artist, etc - can't do that in Windows Explorer !

      OK, it will only sync with an Apple player - yes I think that sucks too. But it seems there is an interface so people get get access to the playlists etc and do their own sync software - that would have avoided Palm's sorry tale. So if you've a device that doesn't sync, perhaps the question should be why the device vendor couldn't sort themselves out and support what is probably now one of the most widely used packages for managing tracks.

      I can't help wondering if some of those with the "i<anything> is only for idiots who don't even know to ask" attitude have actually even looked as what iTunes can do. No I don't mean looked at it when the original iPod came out (yes, that's what I'm still using), but at what the current version does. That's like looking at Windows 98 and proclaiming just how crap Windows 7 is - iTunes now is somewhat different to the original version.

      Yes there is stuff in iTunes that I don't like, or would like to work differently, or that isn't there and I'd like it to be. That's the nature of packaged software - it's not likely to match everyone's requirements unless you write a package just for each of them.

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