@shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog: Actually, the newer versions of iTunes will detect if your machine is authorized to play songs purchased from apple on the iPod and offer to sync them back to the PC for you.

Otherwise, what I have done in the past is connect the iPod in Drive mode, change the properties on the directories on the iPod so that they aren't hidden, and then tell iTunes to import directory, the point it at the iPod. It copies it all back to the machine w/ proper directory structure, file names, etc.

Not the easiest in the world on some levels, but definitely not as difficult as say editing the registry on your windows machine.

Also, I manage two iPods from my machine at home w/ no problems. The machine knows the difference between the iPods and stores the appropriate sync lists.

Xavoc

@Minimum91: Exactly. If that's the only selling point, then let me quote Madonna and say "I'm keepin' my 160GB baby"

WTF?! Ponies!

@Xavoc: Creative screwed the pooch in two important ways:

1) It had the worst software imaginable instead of wisely licensing working software until it came up with solid software

2) It spent absolutely no money on advertising where it counted.

Apple originally relied on MusicMatch Jukebox until it came out with a full in-house iTunes. And, when iTunes did come out, it worked. You plugged your iPod in and the computer put all the music on it. That's how you play the game. At the very least, Creative should have ponied up the dough to license Notmad from Red Chair. Or bought them outright.

Creative only advertised the Zen in trade and hobbyist magazines like PC World and EGM. Apple, meanwhile, spent and continues to spend $250 million a year on advertising. When Creative finally started branching out in advertising, it still spent nothing on TV ads.

People watch TV. Lots of TV. Spend money to advertise on TV. Spend lots of money to advertise on TV.

The iPod became the dominant player because companies like Creative and Sony were too stupid to compete.

WTF?! Ponies!

@WTF?! Ponies!: Are there any iPod Classic owners who want to "Upgrade" to the new 120 Gb from the "Old" Previous 160 GB iPod?! Oh, I know, I want thinner! Meh, not really. I'm a happy kid with his 160 Gig iPod Classic.

Minimum91

Have any iPod classic owners gotten "Genius" on their iPod classic? Cause I'm not seeing it on mine.

WTF?! Ponies!

@Xavoc: I've owned two zens and was satisfied with neither. The menus were poor and the screens failed. I'm using a walkman now that I'm very happy with

snrub

@xoticlad: Apple has 75% of the Music Player marketshare. Microsoft has 2%.

Jon B.

@Xavoc:
First off, what Creative did was stupid crap on the sound cards and NOT the mp3 players. And by ZEN I mean this particular player:
[us.creative.com]

Bigger screen, more storage options, more format support, iTunes support, more colorful screen, radio and mic for a better price. So...yeah...

daftrok

Okay, so I hate apple but I do have two ipods (one for my daughter). What drives me nuts is the iTunes program. The computer with iTunes crashed and needed to be reinstalled... that was a friggen mess and I still can't get all my darn songs back and sync is useless now. Also, WTF, some of us manage two ipods on a single computer, what's so bad about that and why make it such a pain in the butt. THIS is the reason I hate ipods and thus apple has let me down again.

/Anti Apple Rant

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

How many "Complete stories"? or recaps for the event is Giz gonna have?? I think the Zune had more News the other day..It was an Underwhelming Event! I assume next year when they change the colors on the Nano and Bring back the scratch prone back, we ll have another 50 articles talking about it..

xoticlad

@daftrok: Having used a Zen before having used an iPod...The Zen can blow me. Yes it's more expensive to own an iPod, but honestly it's worth it to me to have a good user/ui experience. Which I've had ever since I made the switch. People complain about Apple's customer service in relation to the iPhone 3G it's nothing compared to the craptacular service that Creative has provided for years with shoddy drivers and a policy of blaming the customer/other applications.

Xavoc

I have to say, Genius works exactly as I want it to. Not only does it point out music I may be missing from an artist, but it can accurately build playlists based on "Sounds like" items.

It doesn't do so well on picking up changes in a band's evolution and sound so well though. When I select a song that was known for pop music in the 80's that plays more industrial/synthpop now days, I don't want to be inundated with selections from Wham!

Suddenly I'm worried about Genius thinking I'm gay ala Tivo...

Xavoc

Oh just to let you guys know that they do have a "white" and "black" Nano. But still, ZEN is better.

daftrok

No.

b33g33

Yeah, agree here on macbooks. NEED.

Brian Lam

MORE APPLE NEWS!? Give it a rest.
Dear Giz
If you love Apple so much why don't you effn marry it already.
xoxo
everfade

On topic: The new iPods are pretty.

everfade

Alright, alright. We get it. the Apple event was BOOOORING. It's time we stop milking it and start drooling for whenever they're gonna release aluminium MacBooks.

Now -that- would catch my interest and I'd forgive if you made a million posts about it. Seriously.

Eruanno

@shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog: Setting it up to properly do it isn't necessarily the easiest thing in the world.

What I found was easiest was just make 1 playlist for each iPod that contains EVERY song/album you want on there, and make sure to sync that over with your other playlists.

Xavoc

@daftrok: I'm well aware of what a Zen is, you do realize they've been out for over 5 years right? They started out as a discman looking thing, back when Apple had the iPod. Then they came out w/ a Zen Nano about the same time Apple released theirs. They both sucked compared to the UIs. My father-in-law owned the Zens, and my wife wanted an mp3 player. So I took her out to use the Zens, we borrowed the FIL's Zens and took them on a cruise. They were clunky, difficult to use, and difficult to sync. Then we stopped by the shiny new Apple store and played w/ the iPods, they worked better, were intuitive to use, and the syncing software was easy to use.

I've ripped my music collections several times over the years, and I know how to set up iTunes so that I can feed it disc after disc to get it done in a hurry. It just works.

I've used a lot of mp3 applications, players, and I still come back to my iPod every damn time. Even my 3G 40 gig iPod.

Xavoc

8 and 16 gig Nano?! That's not right! The touch needs to jump up to 60ish gb too.

myotheralt

@Xavoc: Ahh, see I had to choose to manage it on my own and that's how I was able to bring my songs into iTunes but then the auto sync has been failing ever since and I've had to do it manually.

I didn't know they've changed this flaw in the newer version so perhaps instead of trashing the thing I will try again. My hopes aren't very high though...

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

I'm underwhelmed by the lack of new filthy huge hard drives in the classics, but at $225 (after the trade in of a nearly dead 4g) 120 gigs is probably enough.

StartingAces

@Minimum91: I haven't tried updating mine yet to see if it supports it. Then again, I own the now discontinued 160 gig model...

@WTF?! Ponies!: Not to mention they took their history of poor support, poor software design, and threw it up against Apple. Which, while they've (Apple that is) had their stumbling blocks, they generally do a lot of things right the first time, and when they make changes it is usually for the better.

Apple took an all-in-one solution approach. They sell the music, they sell the hardware, they have a clean UI, and you're right. Typically the sync process for iPods just works.

Though the earlier (G3 and earlier) iPods had issues w/ PCs suddenly not recognizing iPods as attached devices when using USB. However when you used Firewire it worked great. To this day I STILL keep my USB/Firewire charger around just in case. (Not to mention the damn thing syncs faster using Firewire)

Xavoc

I have a shuffle & touch....yet I want one of these too....

Y2KGTP

@Eruanno:

NO SHIT!!!! How may Recaps of the fairly lame and boooorriiing event are we going to have to look at? I'm a fanboy for the most part, but this is ridiculous! Enough already we saw the event, done!

Faslane66

@Brian Lam: and a better Mac Mini.

Phenostar

*sigh*...still waiting on iPhone 2.1

Do we have any type of confirmation if the new iPhone software will contain the Genius? Or anything, for that matter?

Chromeo

Meh, I think I'll just go buy a zune after work. BTW, where the heck are the Open Source PMPs?

Scott

I think the new ipod nanos are an average leap for apple. I don't see why they are trying to bring video to everything. The nano is a great music device but I wouldn't watch videos on it. The ipod touch is better and I love the capabilities of my iphone, when they are working properly.
Overall, I think that the new additions to the ipod lineup are not revolutionary but rather just the next small step.

morituri23

This genuinely looks very nice. I'm not a big iPod fan but I've been using an 80gb classic for the last year and it's been reasonably trustworthy.

However "genius playlists" are reminiscent of something called "artistlink" from Sony mp3 players about 3 years ago.

Collins1

Zune FTW.

ViperBorg

@scott
an open source PMP would be just asking to be filled with torrents and other illegal things. (not that this doesn't already happen on every other device.)

but ipod and zune still make money from the people who legally buy songs

csharms

@ViperBorg:

Good Luck with that!

Faslane66

I have a really, really important question about the new ipods.

Do they allow proper, continuous, gapless playback of albums?

Thanks!

FunkyJ

@shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog: I gave up on iTunes a long time ago.
Media Monkey works just fine for me. All my music is MP3.
I do use iTunes to put video on my iPod but that's all I use it for.

Eff-One

@OMG! Apple Stinks!: Yes, people can't look for your product of you don't let them know you have one for sale. Plus you can't beat word of mouth Apple has gotten.

BiZarRroBALlmeR

@daftrok: I think you mean ZUNE my friend. Ba-ZING!

ALT

Whats up with this, I posted a comment, do they have to be approved before they show up here ?

DustinFinn

Has anyone been wondering why the relfection of the nano's in this photo is all weird?

Why is there a break, then the color and then the color again?

Whats happening there?

DustinFinn