Be Excellent To Each Other

Any tips for the best way to use an iPod classic without having to install iTunes?

It ends up being a bit of a pain in the arse however you end up doing it, because Apple deliberately make it hard for other software to work.

I've used YamiPod before though and it does the job.

Ooh.. would that work with an "old style" Shuffle? I gosh darn hate iTunes.

install itunes.... it's a lot easier then faffing around with other crap

Do any of those not-iTunes syncing solutions support AAC files, or only mp3? The quality drop of the mp3 codec, compared to AAC or WMA or Ogg, would upset me.

I, personally, disagree. But I really, really hate iTunes.

I believe so.

I dont mind it. Ive got an ipod, it does the job, and Ive had no problems with itunes

This one is good advice.

I think Media monkey works quite well on all ipods. If the iPhone didnt need to use itunes for updates, I'd probably move over to that.

Also consider Doubletwist, or just not owning iPods if iTunes bugs you that much. There are plenty of non-Apple players.

I got 3 iPod Shuffles for free after my work ordered 3 switches that included them as gifts. As it didn't cost me anything and I use it maybe once every year, I wouldn't buy anything else. However, iTunes takes something in the order of 2-3 minutes to load due to my extensive music collection being cached or something. Fuck it.

It's not actually for me, but there are very few 120gb MP3 players out there anyway.

Winamp 5 with ml_ipod is all you need for iPods and iPhone/Touches with firmware earlier than 3.0.

Damn; that is pretty bad. Mine starts up in a few seconds and the library is around 530gb.

It did take a few minutes on Windows though...

SharePod does the job for me. In fact I reckon it's better than YamiPod as (I think at least) the latter expects you to have QuickTime installed.

There's also Floola, but I have yet to try it.

I gave Anapod Explorer by redchair a try and it was OK, but I stuck with itunes, as it was just easier and not painful for me to do so.

I use a programm called something like Mgtek Dobisp... google it.

It makes Windows media player work with your iPod.

I bought Anapod Explorer when it first came out and it was fantastic.

However, the developers turned into utter cunts and stopped supporting the product, despite continuing to take people's money for it.

On my old shuffle I had a little file stored on it that would allow me to just drag and drop mp3s into the shuffle, then I'd run the file (it's like a little CMD prompt window) and that puts the drag and dropped mp3s into an order the Shuffle recognises, allowing them to be played. Yay! I can't remember what it was called, though...