I succumbed to the Dark Side and got myself an iPod Touch for Xmas ( 64GB, lossless audio only !).

But the only reason I got was for 2 applications - Guitar Toolkit and SignalScopePro, which are incredible.

Yes, iTunes is possibly the most horrible app I've every seen - intrusive, unintuitive and clutzy. Not to mention the MacNazi business model.

geoff

Strange. I use iTunes regularly for music purchases and it always works well, never have any trouble with it.

The only issue i've ever had is that sometimes it fights you tooth & nail when you try to create a playlist to burn to a CD. I've gotten around that by just having a single generic playlist entry which i clear out and reuse to make the next CD. But with that exception, it seems very well behaved and cooperative.

For those of you who find it intrusive, have you disabled the autostart on Windows startup? I only launch it when i want it rather than having it in the background all the time.

Well, it turns out my son-in-law has an iTunes account on his laptop that I can hopefully use to activate an iPad to at least try this thing out. This project will be really lucrative in the long run and I would hate to think I let Steve Jobs screw me out it.

By the way, the website (and the organization) has to do with high school students and streaming video. And the agency I'm working with is completely Mac based, so they are convinced that at least half of the high school students on the planet use some sort of Apple mobile device (iPhone / iPod / iPad / etc...) thus, they insist I have an iPad for testing.

So, I went to Best Buy tonight to try one out they had on display. Of course, I get the Apple Worshipper of all time as a "product specialist." Man, was that guy annoying. He couldn't leave me alone long enough to test drive the iPad. No -- he had keep my attention to bestow the virtues of joining the "Mac family" of which he is apparently a rather intense member. In fact, he was so beside himself that Steve Jobs was well enough to announce the release of the iPad 2 that I thought he was going to cry! He really did actually choke up!

Finally, I told him no thanks and promptly went across the street to Wal Mart and bought one.

My son-in-law is going to bring over his laptop tomorrow so I can try and get this thing activated.

I cannot believe how much I resent this...

jdw, I feel your pain! ;-)

Geez...

I have no love lost on Apple and refuse to buy a Mac, but I recognize a good product when I see one.

The iPad is, quite frankly, brilliant. Right size, right time. Not perfect, but nothing is. it will replace about 90% of my laptop use weigh 1/5 as much, and I worry a lot less about damaging it than my $3500 laptop.

I have iTunes on my laptop, and my normal data PC at the office. I don't have it on my editing machine. It works ok for me, but I just use it for software updates and to arrange my apps. Everything else I do from my devices.

Geez is right. I have never understood the people out there who are so adamantly anti-Apple/Steve Jobs. Most don't own any Apple products and proudly proclaim they never would.

So don't. Nobody is forcing you to buy an iPad/Mac/iPhone. But millions upon millions of people do. Because. They. Just. Work.

As the one-man IT department for all of my family, and my in-laws, I find that the quickest way to stop the late-night phone calls for help with their computers is to get them to buy a Mac or an iPad.

The calls for support/driver help/viruses/crashes/malware simply... Stop.

There are some very sound reasons for disliking iTunes.

Before I list those reasons, let me first acknowledge that there are some people who dislike everything from Apple, just as there are people who don't like Microsoft, Adobe, IBM (remember them?), etc. Big companies just rub people the wrong way.

However, let's not bother with those objections because they are not based on valid criteria.

By any objective measure, most of Apple's "i" hardware products are brilliant pieces of engineering, and other than the lack of replaceable battery, are hardware design at its best. The sales figures speak for themselves.

HOWEVER the iTunes product is something else entirely. Here is why I loathe this program and have done everything I can to use other software.

1. It is bulky. This program doesn't do much, but it consumes an inordinate amount of space.

2. It is obtrusive. It "takes over" your computer by reassigning associations.

3. It is slow. Compared to other programs that play audio and video files, I find iTunes slow to load.

4. It deletes files. If you own an iPod Shuffle, if you connect it to iTunes on a different computer from where your audio was originally loaded, it will erase every single audio file on your Shuffle.

5. It is inconsistent and unintuitive. The software side of Apple has always been weak, but iTunes is the nadir of Apple's software work. For instance, I have an iPod Touch and wanted to bring some music, pictures, and videos to a reunion, to show off to my old classmates. I found out that the pictures ALL must first be copied to a single folder. You then "sync" to this folder, and iTunes creates a million little files in that folder and other folders it creates before it will send the photos. The process takes a long time, and creates unnecessary duplication. I can't remember if it altered the video. As for the audio, I was able to just drag that to the device, and didn't need to go through the copy process, and didn't have to use the sync function.

So, each type of media had to be copied using a different workflow. And, it took me an hour to do five minutes work when I tried to load up my iTouch. For my Shuffle, I have lost music so many times, that I gave up on iTunes for that device and now exclusively use a tiny shareware program called "Floola." Great program.

I could go on, but my point is that iTunes is very unfriendly, unintuitive, and just plain "un-nice."

For me, there is no "i" in iTunes.

"So don't. Nobody is forcing you to buy an iPad/Mac/iPhone."

Sounds like good advice. Problem solved. I'm returning the iPad in the morning. Sorry Mr. Jobs (Mr. Holmes and Mr. Ford) I guess the Apple iCart will have to continue on without me...

As far as the original reason I "needed" an iSomething -- I spoke to a producer friend of mine that has an iPhone and he's willing to test any webpages at anytime for me.

As a side note. I had gotten as far as to download and install iTunes on one of my older PC's (78 meg download, took 30 minutes to install) and setup an Apple account in order to participate in one of their forums. And just like the two previous posts defending Apple / Steve Jobs, the folkes in the forum will turn on you in a second if they even detect a hint of not being an Apple devotee. You either fully embrace the "culture" or leave with teeth marks in your rump.

Geez.... I always thought of a computer as a tool, not a religion.

"Geez.... I always thought of a computer as a tool, not a religion."

It isn't big enough to be a religion, it's a cult. Apple users do fit most, if not all, of the definitions of "cult."

CULT:

1. a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. Sociology . a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
7. the members of such a religion or sect.
8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.

I don't know if it is a religion, a cult, a gang, a fraternity, a cabal, or just an unholy alliance. However, one clue should be that Apple product managers have, since the early 1980s, been called: evangelists.

On a somewhat relate note. I absolutely adore my Android tablet. Copying files to the device is really easy. I don't even have to connect a USB cable thanks to an app called wifi explorer.

I'm really impressed with my Android devices. I'm posting this message from my DroidX phone right now standing in line at the grocery store...

( My girlfriend is hating the fact that she's got another year to go on her iPhone contract, she really wants an Android.)

Strangest thing --
I'd been taken in by the ipad ads and figured everyone under the age of 40 wanted one, so last holiday season - after buying my wife a Kindle - I asked my son, a college freshman in Boston, whether his friends all had ipads. I was surprised by his response.
He said that no, none of his friends had one, and that further their general consensus was that Apple had really missed the mark on the ipad, that it didn't do much more than the ipod touch, couldn't fit in your pocket, and couldn't do 90% of the stuff that he needed his laptop for every day as a student, so it would never replace that. In fact, the only people who really needed it were the ones whose vision was too shot to be able to read an email on the touch, or who just wanted to play games on it!
So much for succesful marketing to college kids!
Needless to say, It didn't bother either one of us that he got something completely different for the holidays.

He said that no, none of his friends had one, and that further their general consensus was that Apple had really missed the mark on the ipad, that it didn't do much more than the ipod touch, couldn't fit in your pocket, and couldn't do 90% of the stuff that he needed his laptop for every day as a student, Very interesting information from your son. My son is also a freshman in college and also has no interest in the iPad. This is especially interesting because he has owned three different iPods; insisted on getting an iPhone, and when he went to college and had the choice of what laptop to purchase, he got a Mac notebook despite the fact that I have ten computers at this house and they are all Windows.

His friends have the same lukewarm response to the iPad.

HOWEVER ... most of my friends (I am almost sixty) think the iPad is ultra cool and many of them have purchased one. Part of it is that they can actually see the screen (I can no longer see the small text on any hand-held device, and it is tough even with reading glasses). This is the same group that has taken so strongly to the Kindle. In both cases, they view it as a consumption device, and not something on which to create new things. This probably is why the college students are not keen on it: typing on the iPad is not a pleasant experience. In fact, I was going to get one for my wife for Christmas until I went into the Apple store (a wonderful experience, those stores, BTW) and tried typing on one. I've never liked touchscreen keyboards, and this was absolutely the same as all the rest. I knew my wife would get frustrated trying to do email on it. So, no iPad for us yet.

Typing in an iPad is pure, unadulterated torture. The touch screen aside, it's near impossible to find an angle that lets you see the screen and still type without straining the wrists unbearably. It's also very heavy so it's difficult to hold in one hand while typing with the other. It needs real keys, it needs to bend in the middle between the keys and the screen, and it needs to be able to sit on a table with the screen tilted up to be viewed.

Basically ... it needs to be a netbook!

I'll put up with all those flaws in a pocket-sized phone because i like something that i can carry in my pocket and get a few quick things done when i don't want to drag the full laptop with me. But in a device as big as a netbook and much heavier, no thanks!

For the consumption side though, i can see that point. My boss got one for a 5 year gift at work. She lets the kids watch movies on it and it's stunning. The screen is big enough to avoid squinting and can be watched by 2 or 3 people at the same time.

Hmmmm. Come to think of it, my 5 year anniversary is coming up soon. I wonder if that means i'll become a possessor of one too.

I love the reference to iLovers being similar to a cult. That was good.

I myself have no love for Apple's products, yes I will acknowledge that they are well designed. At the end of the day though its a software war, not a hardware war. (dramatically speaking).

I like going to Best Buy and harrassing the staff attending to the Apply displays. As a poke to Apple I like to compare Apple and PCs to communism and capitalism respectively.

Of course the staff will then throw the boot camp option, and then I will come back to them with "so... its a Personal Computer, a PC right?" Around and around I'll go.

In respect to the ITouches and Nanos... I bought a Sony Walkman and have been very happy.

Chad

I think it's laughable that ANYONE would consider me an Apple cultist. I've been accused for over a dozen years of being vehemently anti-Apple. And I don't argue the point. I hate the company. However, some of their products are just excellent.

The iPod was a watershed design. Elegant, simple, and not super expensive, though slightly moreso than it's competitors. Took me several years to get over my Apple loathing and just buy one. Still have it.

I am on AT&T. I had a succession of Motorola phones. When my RAZR gave up the ghost, I wanted a smartphone. AT&T had two decent ones. The Blackberry and the iPhone. Blackberries would not work on my corporate network so I was left with the iPhone. They had it available for $99 and it was the cheapest phone smartphone in the store that day. So I bought it.

For me, the iPad is different. Because there is no keypad, I can hold it like a magazine, close to my face. Which makes reading easier. I don't need a mouse, or a touchpad. I would not use it for forum work like this. It's for movies, web-browsing, Facebook, newspapers, magazines, etc. The iPad is a media device, not a computer. And as such it excels.

My father is 92 years old. On a recent visit, I watched him struggle to read his daily newspaper. Something he's done since he was in his 20s. He loves reading. But he can no longer comfortably read books. He lives 1000 miles from me, so we don't see each other often. And this was my motivation for the iPad.

He can get any newspaper he wants on it. He can blow it up so it's easy to read. He can take the iPad from the kitchen table, to the bedroom, or the bathroom, or outside on the porch if he wants. We will do skype and he can see me and I can see him. And he doesn't have to do any typing. He cannot type. I let him google on my iPhone and he LOVED it, but it was too small. He learned how to zoom in and out. I let him see pictures on Facebook of his relatives who had pages, and he could swipe from photo to photo. He LOVED that. But it was too small.

I told him about the iPad this week. Told him it would be like my phone, but the size of a magazine page. When he learned that he could use "the internet" without typing, you could hear the joy in his voice. When I told him we could talk on it and see each other he loved it. I told him he would never have to squint any more or use his glasses to read the small print in the paper.

The iPad makes little sense for a college student. But it makes a LOT of sense for older people who just can't navigate a small netbook or a phone. I'll be buying a pair of them this weekend, and reconnecting in an exciting way with the most important man in my life.

That said, I TRIED to get a XOOM. I went to look at them, and frankly, I couldn't figure out how I would explain it to my dad. The iPad makes sense for *me* and my dad. Two other friends told me how they would be giving them to their elderly parents for many of the same reasons. To watch TV in the nursing home, or to watch movies off Netflix. I'll pay for all the Hulu, Netflix, WSJ, and other things for my dad. For him, the iPad will simply be a window to the world. And as much as I despise Apple, I am damned grateful for this bit of technology.

Mr. Ford,

"My father is 92 years old. On a recent visit, I watched him struggle to read his daily newspaper. Something he's done since he was in his 20s. He loves reading. But he can no longer comfortably read books. He lives 1000 miles from me, so we don't see each other often. And this was my motivation for the iPad."

Of course, like all pad devices, the iPad is a tech marvel. My concern isn't necessarily that it's an Apple product, but rather its total dependence on an external computer (PC or Mac) and required access to iTunes via that computer. Users (you and your father included) are required to either figure this procedure out or have someone else do it for us.

The Apple Soup Kitchen has dictated that if you have no regular access to an external computer running iTunes -- then no iPad for you. Period.

While I originally "needed" the iPad for a clients project, I have decided I like the idea of a tablet device. That being the case, April the 3rd (hopefully) I'll be down at my local Sams Club and pick up the new Xoom wifi only Android pad. It's only a little more expensive (reportedly $540 verses $499) than the iPad 2 but it includes 32gigs of RAM, micro SD port, built-in GPS.

Also. Wait for it. Does NOT require iTunes...

And by the way, I think it's great that you have the dedication to your Father that you do. I wish you and him all the best!

Jim

The only thing I don't like about my android tablet is that I can't watch Netflix or Hulu Plus on it. I believe you can with an iPad.

Looking around the internet a little it appears that Netflix and Hulu support might not be far away for Android devices.

"And by the way, I think it's great the you have the dedication to your Father that you do. I wish you and him all the best!" Second that!

I think J.C. description hits it on the nose about general Apple users that own more that one Apple device that they use daily.

iTunes is a bloody mess for a major product to be push on the Apple product user. ;-) If any other corp pushed out such a poor product, the news headlines would never end. I personally think iTunes for PCs is intentionally designed to be slow, so when the iTunes user sees it on a Mac that they are "WoW" by the speed. Same for Quicktime or "Slowtime" for heavy users.... ;-)

Here's the thing.

You connect the device to iTunes, authorize it, register it. Load apps if you like. And that's it. Done. You do NOT need to continue to connect it to iTunes if you don't want. I can (and have) loaded apps right from the device. I can do everything I need to do without any further connection to the iPad.

I tried the Xoom. I really hoped to like it. The money wasn't really a consideration. You know what? I played with it and hated it. I found it confusing to navigate. If it works for you that's cool. But you keep talking about how you need to stay tethered to iTunes, and honestly you don't.