Jim Turley, editor in chief of Embedded Systems Programming, a sister publication of Electronic Engineering Times, writes, “Like zillions of others, I’ve got an iPod. But, unlike every other mammal on the planet, I don’t think it’s all that great. Frankly, I don’t get it. What’s the big deal? I’ve had MP3 players before and I think they’re terrific, but the iPod, frankly, is inferior to all of them. It’s just a hard disk with a Play button.”
Turley writes, “iTunes is terrible. It’s absolutely appalling, in my humble opinion. In no time at all, I’d erased all the content I’d laboriously downloaded onto my iPod. Twice…”
(Mac OS X dialog box inspired by MDN Reader “mike” – see Reader Feedback below.)
Turley continues, “The software’s operation is utterly counterintuitive, but with no other user interface it’s the only way to get your $300 hard drive to do anything at all… I could go on and on about how iPod only copies files one direction (from your PC to your iPod, never the other way); or how it obliterates all your content should you casually plug your iPod into someone else’s computer; or how it makes you keep a duplicate copy of every music file on your computer, wasting 20 Gbytes of disk space. Hey, I thought that’s what an MP3 player was for!”
Turley writes, “Alas, these and other glaring mistakes-which afflict no other manufacturer’s products-seem to trouble the general public not at all. They’re all enamored of iPod’s sleek white exterior. Yes, my friends, we have entered the age where high-tech electronics are sold based on the color of the plastic.”
Full article here.
[UPDATE: 8/16, 1:35am ET: Added iTunes dialog box graphic.]
Turley… Turley… Now, where have we heard the name Turley before? Let’s go to the archives… Oh, that’s right! This is the same Jim Turley who, in Mac 2004, was quoted by MacNewsWorld’s Jack M. Germain in an article about Apple’s G5 and servers as saying, “If Apple were to offer servers, it would have to run Linux or some derivative of the Mac OS because Windows is not an option.”
Turley said that only two years after Apple introduced Xserve, the company’s 1U rack-mount server and a mere three years after Apple introduced their Mac OS X Server operating system.
Folks, there are idiots and then there are royal idiots. We present you, King James Turley.
So, now Turley thinks that the iPod is “inferior to all MP3 players,” is nothing more than a “hard disk with a Play button,” and that iTunes is “utterly counterintuitive.” Are we supposed to care what this obviously ignorant and totally misinformed troller for hits thinks? Well, we don’t. And we’re not going to bother refuting his ludicrous statements, either. He insults 21+ million iPod owners as fools who are only “enamored of iPod’s sleek white exterior,” yet he’s the one who erased all the content he’d “laboriously” downloaded onto his iPod. Twice.
In case he ever figures out how to read his email:
Related articles:
A look at the G5 and an analyst who thinks Apple does not offer servers – May 04, 2004
It sounds like he doesn’t know how to use a computer (or an iPod) and he’s blaming Apple for his incompetence.
Hey Turley, did ya happen to read any of the instruction manual that came with your iPod? That could help a bit…oh yeah, you suck!
“Folks, there are idiots and then there are royal idiots. We present you, King James Turley.”
Okay, Diet Coke sprayed all over the place upon reading that – you guys owe me a new keyboard!
Turley is a prick.
Here is Jim Turley’s favorite movie
http://www.bpninc.com/evideo/video_mac_hi.mov
Jim Turd-ley is a Microsoft lapdog.
Like Enderle, as far as he’s concerned, Apple will never make anything worthwhile. His assertion that he, ‘… erased all the content I’d laboriously downloaded onto my iPod. Twice…’ only shows that he’s either grossly incompetent, or an idiot.
And this guy is an ‘Editor in Chief’? Oh boy…
He’s right, though.
iPod’s not all that intuitive.. and it’s a royal pain in the ass to try to scroll to a particular song if you don’t know the artist or album (or don’t have the data keyed in). You start scrolling alphabetically.. round and round and round.. after the 10th time around or so (thumb getting tired!) it suddenly goes into hyperdrive and blows right past where you’re going. Awesome.
And he’s right about it being WAY to easy to lose your whole library. Plugging into another computer when you’re configured to sync with your own first asks you if you want to delete all your music (that should be a user-initiated action, not a default!!), and if you dno’t, it positively prohibits you from even playing your music. on that computer until you DISABLE synchronization.
The one-way copy is a rights-management issue, I guess, but since iTMS songs are already protected, why shouldn’t you be able to just copy your tracks off? The protected tracks won’t play on an unlicensed computer, and the tracks that don’t have DRM should be easy to move around, but they’re not.
He’s right. It’s a good product — probably the best on the market right now — but it’s definitely got flaws. Always had. They gotta start correcting them, or eventually someone’s GONNA build a better trendy mousetrap.
King James Turley makes me smile, albeit slightly, in much the same way I would offer a compassionate smile to the severely retarded.
claiming that the scroll wheel is some detriment to the iPod is silly.
In my experience, it’s a superior interface to everything else out there.
I can somehow manage to navigate the with this supposedly clunky interface while running. That’s about all I need.
“if you don’t know the artist or album (or dont’ have the data keyed in).”…You’re right, the iPod, and any other music player, can’t read your mind nor help you identify songs without IDs.
Sorry Turley, Apple doesn’t make iPods or iTunes for retards. And even retards are insulted to have you in their league.
“Here is Jim Turley’s favorite movie”
Please don’t disgrace those people with such an association.
If Turley is the Editor in Chief, imagine his subordinates! I picture a severely retarded man screaming to a bunch of chimps, “Type faster! Don’t ya know nothing ’bout deadlifes! We got a deadlife comin’ up, you idiots! Deadlife, deadlife, deadlife!”
MDN is on fire these days:
He insults 21+ million iPod owners as fools who are only “enamored of iPod’s sleek white exterior,” yet he’s the one who erased all the content he’d “laboriously” downloaded onto his iPod. Twice.
just plain awesome. Someone e-mail Turley a link to this thread.
I do believe in the contemporary common parlance we call that … ownage.
It’s going to be fun to sign his email up to all kinds of random sites across the Internet.
Oh, is it going to be fun.
well, I just emailed him that you are idiot.
I wrote why, how ipod today to him.
I just wonder that even he knows how to open email?
Turley needs to take his extra chromosome on over to Best Buy, buy an iRiver and navigate his way to Wal-Mart music. I bet that the first thing he does is back through his closed garage door.
I don’t know about ipods, but when I switched to an iMac G5 in april and got iTunes I was blown away, it’s great!
mw: “hell” as in “what the hell is this guy smoking”
I just signed Jim Turley up to JimTurley.com
MW, analysis…ironic.
You guys can’t deny that the interface needs some improving, it is not all that and a bag of chips.
I’m sure at some point Apple will make it even better than it is but he does make some valid points.
While I agree, he probably didn’t read the manual it should be more intuitive than it is – like the ease of use of all of Apples’ other products.
OMG… iTunes and iPods are one of the better music players carried by affluent consumers in the asian cities from where I hail from… Tho it’s sound quality may not surpass Koreans makes… but it wins hats down with its bundled and user friendly software plus players as compared to Sony, Shinco, Creative…
I am doubting if Jim Turkey is really a nut case or just plain stupid. For God sake, this guy is an editor in chief of a publication…
My 12 year old has a iPod and iTunes and has no problem, Mr. Turley, I can have her help you!!!!!
The interesting bit is where he all but admits that his entire music collection is illegally downloaded.
“…it makes you keep a duplicate copy of every music file on your computer, wasting 20 Gbytes of disk space. Hey, I thought that’s what an MP3 player was for!”
Would anyone who had paid for 20GB of music entrust it only to a MP3 player that could be dropped or lost? No way.
What an idiot…
This guy, while a tool, isn’t the sharpest one in the box either.
Jim Turley here,
I understand technology very well thank you and I would remind you that I got my degree in Elecrical Engineering before I was 20 years old.
So please stop flooding my email box with your childish responses.
I certainly don’t appreciate being associated with the Redneck types either.
Yes I do occasionally smear myself with my own fecees as one email has stated, but this has nothing to my understanding technology.
Jim Turley
editor in chief
Embedded Systems Programming
I’ve been waiting for this commentary to be picked up by MDN. The man is so stupid that he doesn’t understand that the point of the one way movement of files on the iPod is to prevent copyright infringements.