Ipods and Itunes - What are they all about?

[Jason Miller]

That is true, but like you said, all you have to do is check a box on
iTunes, or on iPod or whatever. The only bad thing with that is that
you have to run OSX 10.4 or later with Voice over, or Windows with
JAWS 8/9 and the $75 scripts or JAWS 10 alone to make iTunes
accessible. There is also the "Hey sighted person, would you mind
checkign this for me please?" thing too.

What I did forget to mention is that Rockbox, the iPod firmware
replacement for iPods and other mp3 players supports a much wider
range of media. I think that it supports anything that isn't
proprietary. A.K.A. no protected content, or m4a stuff. I know that
you can get mp3, wav, ogg, and some of the other "standardized"
formats, and I think you can get vorbis and there is a much larger
list on the wiki page for it.

The big iPod craze for the sighted world is mainly just the namesake
though with the status symbol. "Oh look, I have an ipod and you only
have a sandisk." You can get a couple of other media players that hold
nearish the capacity of the larger iPods, but they can get just as
expensive as an iPod. For the smaller capacity iPods, you can get
better quality and just as much storage if not more for a cheaper
price. Unfortunately for the other mp3 players, if you don't have one
that is rockbox compatible, you can't get the speech on it.

I guess for the VI and blind world, that a new iPod is probably the
best way to go if you don't want to be bothered by hunting down
Rockboxable players, and you want speech. Unfortunately, no one else
seems to have that as even a thought in their head to push something
"off the shelf" with speech for a decent price. Yes, there are things
for the VI/blind world, but they are so damned expensive if all you
want it for is music or basic audiobooks, then they aren't worth it
(example - Victor Reader Stream for $349.99 and that is probably the
cheapest device out there, and has absolutely no internal storage, so
you need to buy SD cards).



On 10/26/09, David Poehlman <david.poehlman at handsontechnologeyes.com> wrote:
> actually, mp3s and wavs are supported by itunes transfer to ipod and
> maybe another file format or two.  also, in order to get voice onto
> the ipods other than the ipod touch, you have to get it put on through
> itunes and even on the touch to enable it, you need to do it with
> itunes but this just requires checking a box because everything is
> there.
>
> On Oct 26, 2009, at 2:46 PM, Jason Miller wrote:
>
> 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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