Ipods and Itunes - What are they all about?

[Jason Miller]

Hello

Here is what is with iPods and iTunes. iTunes is the music player that
comes standard with the apple systems, and can be downloaded onto
Windows.

An iPod is like you said, the player. As far as differences with iPods
and other players, there are quite a few. Some of the  iPods now come
accessible out of the box with Macintosh's screen reader built in
(it's called Voice Over). That will read you the song files,
playlists, and do a bunch more apparently. There is a solve all for
older iPods too, up to generation 5.5. It's called rockbox, and
although it's something like the main speakup voice, or the orca for
ubuntu voice, it does the same thing, and it makes the older iPods
accessible. You can go to www.rockbox.org to check out the system,
it's an entire firmware replacement for the iPods, and not just a
screen reader.

As for other differences, you can get iPods up to like 180 GB now of
storage, which you can't do with many (or most of) the other players.
I don't know wat all the iPod supports, but that is where you need
iTunes. You make you playlist, or sync your iPod on iTunes, and it
transfers all of your music, no matter which *supported* extension, to
the iPod in a certain (M4A I think) format.
I hope that helps explain the differences a little.
On 10/26/09, Georgina Joyce <r2gl at o2.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi All
>
>
> Could someone explain in simple terms what Itunes and Ipods are all
> about?  How different is it from using a standard mp3 player and putting
> files into different directories?  Yes you can buy electronic copies of
> music from itunes but will they only play on an Ipod?  Are there Ipods
> that are accessible now?  Do these linux Ipod tools make storing and
> choosing music easy?  I'm guessing Itunes and Ipods  don't handle in any
> shape or form with vorbis ogg files?
>
> In short, how accessible is an Ipod and Itunes from the linux platform
> and what are the advantages over a standard mp3 player?
>
> Many thanks.
>
> --
> Gena
>
>
> four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
>
>     * The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
>     * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your
> needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
>     * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor
> (freedom 2).
>     * The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements
> to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access
> to the source code is a precondition for this.
>
> Richard Matthew Stallman
>
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