So I picked up an Android phone this weekend and said to myself, “Hey, can I get music on this thing?” The answer, obviously, is yes. But, if you remember, I use iTunes and iPods. I bravely went off looking for iTunes to Android sync utilities.
Getting Comfortable With iTunes Home
I had read a bit about the new iTunes 9’s home feature. Unfortunately, trying to use it is a different matter. First off, using it requires you to log into your iTunes account. I’m assuming this is so you can transfer your old non-iTunes plus DRM laden music.
iTunes and Format Confusion
My foray into music formats was the WAV (waveform audio format). If you rip a CD into the WAV format you are getting an uncompressed, lossless, and very large audio file. When I was using this format, and considering hard drives were pretty small in the late ‘90s, I didn’t rip many CD’s.
Okay, I was never a big fan of Apple. I made a decision over 6 years ago to use Microsoft’s Windows Media to encode and listen to my music and it worked well for me. That was, until my daughter wanted an iPod Nano (3G) for her birthday. Okay, that was what she wanted and they were on sale, so why not. Sad to say, I was hooked — and it wasn’t even my iPod.
Disney Mix Stick Pain
Well, the wife received a Pixie Power Disney mix-stick for Christmas this year. I know, it is marketed for kids, but it an interesting shuffle like MP3 player. Yeah, no screen, but with a 1GB of flash RAM, expandable with an SD card, it appeared to be a great little player. That is, if you can get the music on it to play!