iTunes alternatives (part 1)

posted on February 6th, 2007


iTunes 7 is about the slowest program that ever made it to my Sony VAIO (about 3 years old, running Vista RTM). Opening the tag edit screen of a song takes 10 seconds, scrolling through a large library feels like pushing an elephant through a small door, Vista isn’t allowing to start the program thruogh the start menu (the icon is there, though it isn’t responding after clicking it: just one of those bugs in Vista I think..) and updating my iPod is just the most horrible task ever.

That’s why I deleted iTunes form my PC and started to use the Windows Explorer to manage my music, it works perfectly! Only one problem: Can’t update my iPod… Time to get some real iTunes alternatives! Sadly I don’t have time to write reviews so I’ll just post a list, maybe I can free some time next week and post a review, though it would be nice if you’ll post your experiences is a comment.

[FREE]

Songbird + iPod device extension (OSX/Linux/Windows)

YamiPod (OSX/Linux/Windows)

EphPod (Windows) (Note: May not work properly with new iPods)

[NOT FREE]

Anapod Explorer (Windows)

SharePod (Windows)

XPlay (Windows)

CopyGear (OSX)

Got more alternatives? Please post them in a comment and I’ll add them to the list.

3 comments:

  1. William Hook said on February 7th, 2007 at 4:18 pm :

    http://www.mediamonkey.com/

    I used to use it when I had an iPod.

    FYI: According to Apple, iTunes doesn’t yet work on Vista (some of the stuff), so they said wait for the next version of iTunes, which will be compatible with Vista. :)

  2. anon said on February 12th, 2007 at 5:02 am :

    SharePod is free. I use it all the time when I’m at work and don’t have iTunes installed.

    foobar2000.org even has an iPod extension.
    http://foobar2000.org/
    http://yuo.be/ipod.php

    I haven’t used it, yet, as I just found it the other day.

  3. peacewise said on May 2nd, 2007 at 8:49 pm :

    I use MediaMonkey and it works great. It’s a good mp3 player/organizer/tagger and the ipod support means never having to use itunes or use/buy additional software. I recommend it.

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