iPod, ePod, youPod, mePod

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Hey everyone. Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I did for sure. I got some cool clothes and some cold cash, so not bad. Okay so, I realize that barely anyone reads this blog so blogging about anything useful is pretty....well....useless, but here goes anyway.

So, since before I even owned an iPod, I've known of many common misconceptions that people have about them. You'd think that by now most people would know how they worked and that CERTAINLY those who own them would know how they worked, but you'd be suprised. The following is a list of things that people have said to or in front of either me or my friend Alex. Most of these I've heard at least 5 times from different people and most of them were iPod owners. All within the last 2 years.

Disclaimer: I realize that most people will read this list and think "well obviously that's not true, everyone knows that", but like I said this is just something that a lot of people just don't get.

1. You have to have the exact same music library on your iPod that you do on your computer.

2. If I plug my iPod into someone else's iTunes, it will automatically erase all of the music on my iPod replace it with the music in their library

3. You have to download a song from iTunes in order to put it on your iPod

4. iTunes is no good

5. You can't drag and drop music from your iTunes library to your iPod

Alright so basically (in case you're one of those people who believes any of those things, which if you are you certainly aren't alone) 1,2 and 5 are solved by one thing. When you plug your iPod into your computer and you have iTunes open (7.0 or later) a screen should come up that has a picture of your iPod with it's name and how much space is available and such. If this screen doesn't come up, then just click on your iPod's name on the left hand side of iTunes and it will. Anyway, at the bottom of that screen you should see three check-boxes. One says "Automatically sync my iPod something or another", another says "Manually manage your music", and the other says something else about checked music. I strongly suggest manually managing your music. Also, when your iPod is new it should ask you if you want to do that or not. This way you can click on a song in your library (or anyone else's) and drag it over to your iPod's name and drop it on to your iPod. Then that song is on your iPod. You can do this with multiple songs at a time and it's extremely easy. Let me just say if this wasn't the case and if any of the above were true I wouldn't own an iPod. That's why it suprises me that so many people buy iPod's even though they think erasing all of your music is that easy. Plus, this is also a great thing if you don't have enough space on your iPod to hold all of the music on your computer.

Let me also say that when you change from automatic to manual you should probably do it on your computer (or the first computer you plugged your iPod into) so things will go as smoothly as possible. But, if for some reason you want to keep it on automatic, this doesn't mean your music will be erased if you plug it into another computer. What will happen is it will tell you "hey, this isn't the computer I'm used to. Do you want me to replace your music with the music on this computer?" and so on. Which is why I strongly recommend manual mode. Then you can go to your friends iTunes and swipe some new music for them. Not that I encourage stealing, but this is a great way to get introduced to some new music that you wouldn't otherwise buy. I'll say that for a time I thought manual was the only way to manage an iPod, and as far as I'm concerned it still is. So, if you didn't know this, maybe give it a try. I will say that apple should make this a bit clearer, but other than that it's easy to make the switch.

As for number 3, iTunes is like any other media software. Downloading is great, but you can just as easily rip a CD just like Media Player into your library and it converts it to itunes format automatically. As for number 4, give iTunes a chance. You can't tell me it's worse than Windows Media Player (Zing)

Sorry for the long nerdy blog. This is just something I hear all of the time. So basically, this blog makes me feel better if nothing else. I'm not sure if any of the above applies to the iPhone. It for sure applies to my iPod Touch though, so it should be the same difference.

Another thing I wanna clear up....

I've been invited on facebook to join a couple of different groups.

One was called "The Teletubbies are trying to take over the world"
Really? A group making fun of the Teletubbies? Are they still making episodes of that? A little late don't you think?

Another was called "The I Hate Barney Fanclub"
Really? A group making fun of Barney? Are they still making episodes of that? Once again, a little behind. Plus, I don't get the title. Is it a group for those who hate Barney? For those who hate Barney Fanclubs? I don't know. It just seems like that shouldn't be funny today. Maybe in 1998 when the funny thing to do was hate barney, but 10 years later?

Wow, I was really rude during this blog. Sorry, didn't mean to be. But I've decided to vent about stuff that "Grinds my gears" Peter Griffin style. Now that's funny.

Happy New Year!
-Dillon

P.S. For those of you reading this on Facebook: If you were tagged in this it simply means that you're one of my friends and I wanted to let you know that I've posted a new note. You may or may not be mentioned in it. Sorry to anyone who I left out, I'm forgetful.