iTunes Impressions

Well, it works and it hasn’t crashed….yet. As with QuickTime on Windows, window refresh seems slower but it’s acceptable. Imported music library fine, works with MP3’s as well as AAC and allows ripping and burning of tracks. Make sure you have plenty ram though as iTunes uses a fair bit – Windows users should be used to this though.

iTunes for Windows comes with support for the Apple Music Store, but not for any country other than USA – Europe should hopefully be able to buy from the store in the New Year. You can still get previews of the tracks though – very nice.

A new update for the iPod is also out. This allows iTunes to work with the pod and also puts a couple of enhancements on the pod – a new game, Music Quiz selects a random track and 5 options for the title – you need to select the title – simple but nice as its based on your own library. Backlight improved (altered), battery graphics changed and also support for picture storage and also audio note taking (as long as you buy the new hardware add-ons to go with it).

The iPod synching with iTunes works really well – much better than Musicmatch (start, control panel, add remove software, uninstall) and I’m looking forward to using the smart playlists and music rating.

All in all a good start and finally for Windows users a chance to use the software that best matches the iPod. Try this site for some tips on setting up some smart playlists.

IPod

When I bought an Ipod the first thing that struck me was the packaging. It was superb – the best I’d seen for any of my many gadgets. It makes no difference to the usefulness of the product but made me take value in the product. If you haven’t got an Ipod then you won’t know what I mean – unless you look at the piccies here.

If you really want to experience an Ipod for little or no cash (but a bit of effort) you could do worse than try this.