“Everybody wants Apple’s digital music player, but few realise how hard it is to use. It’s the epitome of cool, a must-have item rated No 1 with teenagers, oldies and muggers alike. Yet the iPod digital music player has confused so many thousands of new owners that the gadget has spawned its own service industry – to help technophobes download their own songs,” Charles Arthur and Helen Johnstone report for The Independent.
“Even though the designer-creation from Apple has been flying off the shelves in a storm of favourable publicity, few realise how complicated it can be to operate. Some music fans complain they have to upgrade their computer to get the iPod to work. Others report spending hours or even weeks transferring just a few tracks from their CD collection to the new player,” Arthur and Johnstone report.
“It can take around 40 hours to transfer 150 CDs on an ordinary computer, even though this barely dents the iPod’s massive capacity… Now companies are springing up to meet the need, including the London-based wePod, which does the hard work of converting disc tracks into electronic files for the iPod, using its own specially developed software,” Arthur and Johnstone report.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Either thier editor royally screwed up this piece after they submitted it or Arthur and Johnstone can’t muster a pinch of logic between them. This piece calls the iPod “hard to use,” but it is really an article all about the length of time it takes to rip a bunch of CDs with iTunes or any other piece of ripping software. This piece has nothing at all to do with iPod beyond the fact that having one likely means you want to convert your old CD collection for use in an iPod. In fact, the iPod is clearly one of the easiest-to-use digital devices ever created, as umpteen reviewers have noted. And, yes, it does take a long time to convert hundreds of CDs into AAC or MP3 files. But, that’s not the iPod’s fault at all, now is it?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
New iPods causing temporary ‘iPod Widows’ worldwide – January 26, 2004
A Coke drinker’s forced migration to Pepsi in quest of free Apple iTunes – February 04, 2004: “First, you must know that I recently upgraded to a 40 GB iPod and I have been re-ripping my 400 or so CDs into AAC 192 kbps files (yes, I have deluded myself into believing I can hear the difference over 128 kbs AAC; I suppose I read too many issues of “The Absolute Sound” way back when). This ripfest is a life-changing event in and of itself, as those who’ve gone through the same process at least once can attest. I have the CDs in alphabetical order; yes, I am a “Type A” Mac-using personality and I’ve just finished ripping The Cranberries, so I have a long way to go. Of course, I must have pristine artwork for each CD, too. Woe is me!”
first post.
do they need an age requirement or an iq requirment for the ipod?
Laura and Cary are only two people who make up the hundreds of thousands of Pod owners. This drivel clearly illustrates how the lack of statistical power renders the conclusion of the article null and void. What about the vast majority of Pod owners who are both content with their Pod and technically competent to use it?
These idiots obviously needed to work the word “iPod” into their piece in order to generate hits. It has nothing whatsoever to do with iPod as MDN correctly points out. Another crap article from The Independent.
Who’s that? Beavis&Butthead;?
Upgrade their computer to get iPod to work? Sounds like these iPod-inept users are running Windows. How the fsck do they manage to do anything with their computer if they can’t handle something as obvious as an iPod/iTunes? Weak.
Aparently one of the “problems” with the iPod is the time to convert files from compact disc to the iPod. I hope that the next version of OS X will allow users to bypass the time-space barrier.
at least they are probably too stupid to figure out how human reproduction works. So no worries about another generation of morons spurned by the creatons of whom i speak.
Hey, the iPod _is_ hard to use. I was told that my iPod could hold 100 CDs, but I _still_ haven’t figured out how to fit a CD into it, let alone 100.
Help!
It seems they don’t like any modern gadget. They are all too complicated to use. Just a fluff piece of journalism for technophobes its a wonder they can work out how to use a refrigerater, I mean all those temperature settings on dials & OMG how can you work out the ice maker. Besides it takes too long to get ice when you first turn it on.
You colonials have failed to appreciate the problem we have here in England. You see, cousins, because we have to work so long and so hard to earn the money to pay the taxes to keep our socialist government programs afloat we haven’t the time to convert our music from our CD’s to our iPods. Add to this the commuting time, standing in the queue, etc. etc. Well, I think you now know our predicament. Other than that the Pod really takes the biscuit.
These morons have obviously never heard of multi-tasking. I transfered my 200 + CD collection to my iPod and didn’t really feel that it was that much of a hardship. I did other things while the lions share of the process was being carried out. So when they say 40 hours that is utter and total bullshit. The actual time you spend DOING anything is a very small fraction of that.
Of course if you are stupid enough to think the iPod is hard to operate, you might also be the kind of person who feels it is necessary to sit there and watch every minute as the bar graph slowly creeps to the right.
Multi-tasking. Hmmm. What a concept. Wonder when this will become a phenomenon in Europe?
No.
The article actually proves that iPod is becoming the ubiquitious standard. There is no mention of competitors. These people are clearly associating music ripping and/or downloading with iPod, and iPod only.
So it’s a good thing
40 hours to rip 150CDs on to a computer…. and the problem with that would be what? (then about 10-12 minutes to transfer 8GB of tracks onto my iPod over USB 2.0
If the writers of this article were given brains they obviously werent shown how to use them
god what a pitiful article and what pitiful people if that is there experience with iTunes and an iPod.
These morons are so stupid they should be removed from the gene pool.
This has seriously got to be the biggest load ofsh*t I have ever read. In 3 days I ripped nearly 200 cd’s to 192 AAC files. Some people just write stupidly so the other techno weenie wannabeessss…. have something to gripe about. Some people just need to grow up
You people must not have technophobes around you..
In the past two weeks I have helped two people FINALLY make the transition to OS X from OS 9.
One was in person, the other was over the phone. In both cases they had not an atom of new software installed since they bought their computer. When Software Update would launch and remind them of updates, they would just cancel the whole thing.. It frightened them.
In BOTH cases they had no idea that deleted messages went into the DELETED folders of their mail program and sat there. They had deleted ONCE.. WHY delete again (‘because it’s like your trash can in the kitchen, you throw away ONCE, then empty the trash can again outside…. OOOOOHHHHHH).
They both had about 8000 messages in their DELETED folders and SENT folders. It never occured to them to look in the sent older and empty it. They ONLY dealt with the MINIMUM necessary actions to get anything done.
They would compose an email and send it. Done. No curiosity whatsoever about those other folders. None. One was a man the other a woman.
The man (who I helped over the phone) was FURIOUS that it was taking 3 hours to import his folders from Outlook Express to Mail. Until I figured out that he was importing over 10,000 messages loitering in his SENT and DELETED folder.
The Mac is so easy to use these people would NEVER look in the help section out of curiosity. I know lots of people with Macs who have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what the Desktop is, or a folder. They know how to launch a program, do a few things, maybe print, and that’s it. But it’s not just confined to at-home Mac technophobes. My wife has computer artists who are using Macs all day long for like 10 years. They don’t know what type of Mac they are on, are ignorant of how much ram or OS they are using. How big their drives are.. The speed of the processor. Nothing. They are good at using Illustrator, but that’s it. Are not even REMOTELY interested in knowing anything else.
One woman I know who had an AOL account bought a brand new PowerBook and spent HOURS trying to use the Earthlink account connection alias on her desktop to connecte to AOL. Hours.
“It says Connect to the Internet” or some such thing she would say. I tried to explain to her that you could NOT use an Earthlink telephone number to reach AOL. She didn’t care. She just wants it ‘To Work’.
(continued from previous post)
My parents called me on the phone a couple of days after getting an iMac. They were bravely, and hopelessly trying to understand Outlook Express. They were filling out the Address Book and at one point MY card popped on the screen and it said “CONTACT DAVID VESEY” meaning that I was the ‘CONTACT” on that address form. They thought that the computer was telling them to contact me.. so they obeyed, and called me. I switched them to AOL, which is about all they can handle.
I actually AGREE with the writers of the article in the sense that ‘featuritis’ has overtaken household products and techno gadgets. ANYONE an make a Walkman work. It is virtually impossible to screw up.
Even a CD player is a breeze. A person from 100 years ago could place the round platter down, close the door and hit the play key.
But trying to explain sampleing rates, different types of compression schemes, and the far more numerous steps to get from a CD to listening on an iPod is way more than these people want to deal with.
Way More.
These people live in a different world than we do. They have no idea how to use speed dialing, or how to program a microwave beyond how many seconds and what is the intensity.
You people don’t KNOW these types? I am surrounded by them.
David Vesey
Well, if a company has produced some software to help rip CDs perhaps there is a market for it – which means that people are genuinely having problems.
Yea, what is it with MDN? The article was not an attack on iPod or Mac OSX, it was just reporting on the fact that some folks are having problems and that there is a solution. Why all the vitriol? You folks seem to have way too much time on your hands and your reactions are totally disproportionate to events.
Macs may be easier or more intuitive to use than PC’s, but this is a relative benefit. There are sufficient numbers and varieties of Mac user groups, textbooks, magazines, and websites to permit anyone the opportunity to use the Mac effectively, efficiently, and enthusiastically. Learning takes work and is sometimes difficult, but it is a necessary and rewarding process.
It seems that most folks posting here are exasperated by the blatant ignorance and pathetic whining exhibited by some people who purchase Apple products, do not use them as designed or intended, then complain that the product of their inconvenience is not their responsibility. It is human nature to become frustrated and to exclude one�s self as a mitigating factor when our tech devices do not meet our expectations. However, what we may do naturally as humans does not mean what we do is either correct or appropriate.
1. When all else fails, read the instructions.
2. The vast majority of technological problems are directly related to human error.
3. If you want to know the rights answers ask the right questions.
There’s something I dislike intensely about iTunes: there is no way to get a table of all of the tracks on a CD where the track information can be edited by tabbing–instead, each track has to clicked on–and in the right spot, so to activate track editing instead of playing track–twice, then clicked on again at the beginning of the track to begin inserting from the beginning, instead of overwriting the track information.
I have converted my rock/pop/alternative and much of my jazz CDs to AAC, but have a huge classical collection I haven’t put a dent in because half the CDs aren’t in CDDB and the half that are have information inputted by illiterates–the composer field not used, often the piece not identified, movements not numbered, etc. etc. I have Applescripts that will at least fix the stupidist mistakes–using the artist field for the tempo descriptions “Adagio” etc. but on almost every CD I have to modify the information. For me, the speed issue with ripping in CDs isn’t the copying time–it is the amount of time I have to spend editing tag information.
Is there a utiility that is more text oriented and less mouse and click oriented? Mouse and click-click-click just to put a cursor at the beginning of a line is a pain the ass when doing 20 tracks.
David Vesey is correct. Tons of people do not know how to properly use a computer and it’s software.
If some Mac users are afraid to use Software Update, think of all the millions more PC users that don’t click on Windows Update.
And think of the long standing joke about people who can’t even program their VCR’s. In the article, you can replace iPod with any electronic, consumer gadget, and argue that it is “hard to use”
It’s just he way the majority of consumers are.