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iPods without iTunes?

jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
edited April 2011 in Strut Central
Hello, soulstrut.

A friend recently hit me off with two hand-me-down iPods from her mother and her brother. One of them is dated 2003 and the other is dated 2004, which I know is like Eddie Harris in computer years, but I'm still trying to make something happen; while I'm mostly finding them to be inhospitable and unintuitive little pieces of shit, they do have many many times the storage of my current tamagotchi-level jernt, and the overpacker in me can't front on that.

Now, I don't care about playlists or genres or artists or most-played or the accurate tagging that is so near and dear to so many, and the main thing is that I really don't want to fuck with iTunes or anything like that. Even iTunes surrogates make me a little queasy--I'm not trying to "manage" shit. What I'm trying to do is scissor away all the bullshit and basically just render these things drag-and-drop containers for my dubious musical tastes. I've put in a modest chunk of time trying to find some workarounds, and the closest I've gotten is some kind of shadow zone where I can dump new stuff on there but it doesn't show up on any of the menus, and while all of the original mp3s have been deleted, the titles and info all keep showing up. Plus, I found out that my friend's mom listened to "Rub You The Right Way," and that's some shit that you just can't un-know.

So I ask: Does anyone know a way around this shit? Is it possible to strip out the over-architecture and dumb these things down?

(Oh, and I'm working with a couple-years-old PC that I think is running Vista. It's black and silver, if that helps.)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.


James

  Comments

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    I dont think u can use that device without itunes.

    I have a Dell and most of my shit is in Window Media Player. Since coppin an ipad ive been transferring some of my shit to itunes but im not gona move my entire library into it.

    U wanna clear out that ipod and add your shit w/out itunes?
  • Otis_FunkmeyerOtis_Funkmeyer 1,321 Posts
    I think Rockbox is your answer.

    http://www.rockbox.org/

    I used it with an iriver for a while and it was great (extremely customizable), but eventually I switched to iphone + itunes for the star rating capabilities. I need that for attacking the 25,000 unheard mp3s on my HDD.
  • mattBmattB (FTB) Anywhere 673 Posts
    I used to use Rockbox before I got an iPod touch.
    Works great.
  • mattBmattB (FTB) Anywhere 673 Posts
    heh, beat me to it...
  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    I've been doing research before getting my first ipod and I believe wikipedia said the Touch is the 1st one that can't be hacked/modified to not use itunes.

    Whatever software replaces it would probably be similar in the end but I believe a "drag & drop" interface was the type desired by the hackers (understandably).
  • MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
    Then of course, there's the Gordian Knot solution: Just use Itunes. Drag and drop into Itunes, drag and drop into Ipod. You can delete everything from Itunes after that you know.
  • MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
    Deleted
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Someone on here (possibly Paul?) recommended http://www.mediamonkey.com/ to me when I finally caved in and got an iphone and was wrestling with my hatred of all apple controlled hardware/software. You'd need to install in on all computers you used but it does let you use the iphone like an external hard drive, gives freedom on adding and removing songs without having to synch to that particular machine, while also letting you set up playlists and the like.

    Sadly I ended up reverting back to Itunes, the lure of the pretty pictures and album art finally making me cave in. Shame on me.
  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,952 Posts
    It was me.

    mediamonkey is the boy.

    And it does the artwork just like iTunes. Monkeyflow, it's called.

    No more shitty synchs. No more "Please wipe your library before you can use this device" shit.
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    J i m s t e r said:
    It was me.

    mediamonkey is the boy.

    And it does the artwork just like iTunes. Monkeyflow, it's called.

    No more shitty synchs. No more "Please wipe your library before you can use this device" shit.

    Ah apologies Jimster, it's a device that has saved me many a time when I've desperately wanted to remove some chud from my device at the soonest possible opportunity without having to rebuild the database from scratch.
  • Mr_Lee_PHDMr_Lee_PHD 2,042 Posts
    J i m s t e r said:


    No more shitty synchs. No more "Please wipe your library before you can use this device" shit.

    I hate the way Ipod / Itunes try and limit you to using their products exclusively.

    Sure its lucritive from a business perspective, but its pretty oppressive.
  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,952 Posts
    Mr_Lee_PHD said:
    J i m s t e r said:


    No more shitty synchs. No more "Please wipe your library before you can use this device" shit.

    I hate the way Ipod / Itunes try and limit you to using their products exclusively.

    Sure its lucritive from a business perspective, but its pretty oppressive.

    Exactly. I think the ipod/iphone is great design, but the software and the physical act of transferring music and stuff from one device to another is so deliberately petty (why bother? the hacks are all out there?) that it puts me off permanently.

    Plus, the camera on the Nokia N8 is great, which is kind of a pre-requisite for me with two nippers. I avoid making/taking calls and texts as much as possible.
  • herbacios tweedherbacios tweed 445 Posts
    you guys are taking me back. on Rockbox. i used to have an Archos jammy in 2004 that weighed like a two pound brick. can't speak to how the software has evolved but Rockbox gave me exactly what I wanted, a simple file system with delete commands. for some reason the ability to delete a shitty song right then and there on the device was paramount -- no way I'm going to remember to curate my iTunes folder a couple hours later.
  • snicka_gsnicka_g Hong Kong 276 Posts
    I used sharepod on my PC. Works great.....drag and drop new songs, and create simple playlists.
    http://www.getsharepod.com/
  • funkfromthesunfunkfromthesun 212 Posts
    You can drag and drop music directly to the ipod in itunes, without the music being added in the itunes library on your computer. You don't have to delete anything. I hate itunes too, slow crappy crap. But with drag and drop it's possible to live with it.
  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    I'm not an iPod guy, but I do have a magical unicorn that follows me around and sings perfect reproductions of any song I could ever want to hear whenever I want to hear it. But check this???it always smells faintly like unicorn shit. I mean, what are we? Barbarians? Stupid unicorn.
  • z_illaz_illa 867 Posts
    Wow last time I checked rockbox didn't work on my inherited 2nd gen shuffle. Now it does, I installed it this morning and I might get a little more life outta this thing. (dedicated dre rodium tapes player maybe...)

    James, I am always here to help someone move away from apple. Let me know if you are having troubles.
  • willie_fugalwillie_fugal 1,862 Posts
    J i m s t e r said:
    Monkeyflow

  • z_illaz_illa 867 Posts
    DB_Cooper said:
    I'm not an iPod guy, but I do have a magical unicorn that follows me around and sings perfect reproductions of any song I could ever want to hear whenever I want to hear it. But check this???it always smells faintly like unicorn shit. I mean, what are we? Barbarians? Stupid unicorn.

    If only you realized that unicorns were magic and turning off the shit is as simple as flipping a switch. Oh wait, you bought the iUnicorn? You need to jailbreak it and void that precious warranty first.
  • dj_cityboydj_cityboy 1,477 Posts
    Mr_Lee_PHD said:

    I hate the way Ipod / Itunes try and limit you to using their products exclusively.

    main reason i aint buying....although i really want an ipod pretty bad...cant bring myself to even buy one for this reason, might be great for those Mac-oids out there as far as integration/seamlessness goes, but for dudes who use PC's (at least in my experience) its nuthin but a shit experience, i got my girlfriend an ipod shuffle years ago, i installed itunes on one of my PC's...it was nuthin but a huge pain in the ass...

    i uninstalled itunes and went and bought her her own laptop so she can install that crap on....

    *she no longer uses the ipod, totally dislikes the thing, no clue where it even is tbh....

  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,952 Posts
    DB_Cooper said:
    I'm not an iPod guy, but I do have a magical unicorn that follows me around and sings perfect reproductions of any song I could ever want to hear whenever I want to hear it. But check this???it always smells faintly like unicorn shit. I mean, what are we? Barbarians? Stupid unicorn.

    I did have 2 terrabytes of mp3s stored in a hollowed-out fox, but marathon training was difficult.
  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    Thanks for all the advice so far.

    I tried Rockbox first as it seems unfashionable and old as fuck and therefore a natural fit for my lifestyle, but as soon as I installed it my computer wouldn't recognize my iPod at all. I did some research on the issue, and the consensus seems to be, "Yeah, that's a problem." Pfft.

    I moved on to mediamonkey, and while it seems to be working okay, it's also really fucking involved. On the one hand it seems overly complicated, but on the other hand I'm also really really terrible with this kind of shit, so I'm giving it some time. At least I got it to make music come out of my iPod, so that's something.

    Anyway, thanks again.
  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts
    snicka_g said:
    I used sharepod on my PC. Works great.....drag and drop new songs, and create simple playlists.
    http://www.getsharepod.com/

    Yes, Sharepod for PC. Senuti for mac.

    - spidey
  • ScottScott 420 Posts
    Rockbox is waaay outdated. I've been using an iPod without iTunes for a year now with Banshee:

    http://banshee.fm/

    It has a slick iTunes-like interface and is also compatible with iPhones, Android devices, etc. The only issue I've had is getting it to work with podcasts, but I use a separate program called gPodder for syncing:

    http://gpodder.org/

    And I've used both with no problems on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
  • z_illaz_illa 867 Posts
    Scott said:

    It has a slick iTunes-like interface

    I interpreted the point of this post to be avoiding music library organizing type of apps.

    The whole idea that you need programs to organize files has never sat well with me. That is what an operating system is for.
  • SnagglepusSnagglepus 1,756 Posts
    z_illa said:

    The whole idea that you need programs to organize files has never sat well with me. That is what an operating system is for.

    I agree for the most part. But it's nice to be able to easily make playlists without actually duplicating the files themselves. And quick searching and sorting is handy.

    Of course, who am I kidding? As a librarian, I operate best when buried in metadata.
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