dumb iPod question

[alonewiththemoon]

If you have an iPod, do you *have* to use iTunes with it? And next dumb question, iTunes won't impose any kind of DRM restrictions on mp3s that weren't purchased through iTunes, will it? Can iTunes deal with mp3s, or only mp4s? Don't have time to google this at work...

I'm glad I got that flu shot, as everybody who was at the NBDA benefit on Sunday seems to be dropping like little dancing flies. Apart from the exhaustion that is to be expected from three performances over the weekend and not enough sleep the past two nights, I feel fine. Knock on wood.
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Comments

[nepenthedreams]

Ipod. You do need to use itunes but it does put drm on non-itunes songs. Do rip your cds to mp3 ... this is a setting. Mp3s are fine.

I hope that's not where I got sick .. saw a few of those people at the me Sunday nite.

[xenoglaux]

you do have to use iTunes, but it won't add DRM to ripped songs. Make sure you set iTunes to encode the songs to mp3 not AAC (through the preferences menu).

DRM will be on anything you buy from the iTunes store.

[kami-yasha.livejournal.com]

You don't actually have to use iTunes to manage the iPod, but it is certainly the easiest out of the box solution. ;)


http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/07/08/10-alternatives-to-itunes-for-managing-your-ipod/

[developer.livejournal.com]

As noted, not using iTunes to manage an iPod is a PITA, but is doable.

iPods will play AAC (apple format), AAC Protected (Apple format with DRM) and MP3. IIRC the iTunes store is selling most things as AAC without protection at this point.

You do need to make sure it rips as MP3 instead of AAC since AAC is proprietary to apple, however you can have iTunes change any non-protected AAC to MP3 (IIRC?).

These days I actually buy MP3s from amazon, they have no DRM and amazon has a little loader that adds the songs to iTunes right after download.

[ayun.livejournal.com]

No, you don't need to use iTunes (though you may have to have iTunes installed when you first setup your iPod) to manage an iPod. Lifehacker does a good job of keeping up with the iTunes alternatives (and reviewing them all).

I've been meaning to try out this one, which they posted about recently:
http://lifehacker.com/5375286/copytrans-manager-is-a-lightweight-itunes-alternative

[asim.livejournal.com]

Since I mostly run Linux, and only use MP3s, I can state flat-out you don't need iTunes to manage your iPod, except for firmware updates, which are (so far as I can tell) rare for most iPods.
Nor will iTunes lock-down MP3s on your iPod -- in fact, the format cannot be locked down! The only thing to watch for is avoiding allowing iTunes to mangle the locations of your music on your machine.

[meddevi.livejournal.com]

knock on wood, I'm doing good, also downed big vitamin C last night just in case, focusing on getting sleep and food.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_perihelion_/]

what they said excepting 1 thing. AAC is not an apple proprietary format. it's the open standard MP4 format. and it's got much better fidelity than MP3s, which is why I use it.