Oh, boy. I love my iPod, it makes endless miles of running bearable, and it’s just a nice, sexy little gadget. Recently, my old Nano 2G died, and because Apple evidently felt the need to change a winning thing, I had to get a Gen 3 to replace it. The new shape doesn’t do it for me at all (too square and awkward, I preferred the old longish feel), and it meant getting a new case. Bummer. But worst of all, Apple decided to mess with the file format, which meant that my trusted old Dopisp widget that allows Windows Media Player to sync with the iPod was rendered useless until they figured out the new encryption algorithm.
So I figured I’d give iTunes another try after bailing on it a few years ago. I installed 7.4, and proceeded to curse Steve Jobs in several languages… What a piece of crappy software! I mean, it’s one thing if it doesn’t have the bells and whistles you’re after — it’s free, for cryin’ out loud, whatdya expect for nothing? I don’t so much mind the constant plug for the iTunes store (actually, would it me too much to ask for a button that allows me to start up iTunes without being asked if I want to go to the store *every time*?!?) But when you go out of your way to make it so that your software is the only thing that works with your little black widget, could you at least fix the most elementary bugs? You know, like not crashing my computer every time I try to sync? Or have your stupid “determining gapless playback” feature kick in across several thousand songs and bring things to a grinding halt? And provide me no way to set things up so you don’t try to auto-download covers etc. so I can actually get my library up and running sometime this year?
Good grief, what a piece of junk. It’s so crappy that there are several initiatives out there to provide a much-needed alternative; notably the open-source Songbird project.