Sorry posted to wrong forum initially.
I just got a 3rd gen 15GB Ipod and have compiled a library of mp3s to add to my player. Here are my questions. (Keep in mind, i'm using Windows XP) Please try and answer in question order if possible, I would really appreciate any clarifications you can give.
1) Why does it seem that every time you click sync on the "Portable Plus" window in musicmatch which shows the "attached portable devices" it reloads all of the songs back onto the ipod again. For example, i'll drag 100 files into my ipod. It will spend a few minutes copying the files and be done with it. Then if I hit sync, it will do the whole thing over again. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of syncing? In a perfect world, the ipod should only copy new additions to the list of 100 into the ipod and not the stuff that is already on the ipod.
2) Why is it that the ipod will charge through firewire on a mac but not firewire on a PC??? Isn't the firewire spec independent of platforms? Is my firewire busted?
3) Speaking of charging, i've heard that the charge indicator is only a timer. (even worse, it has no indication of time left to completion, whats it for~?!?!?!?! Lithium Ion is a smart battery, the ipod should just say complete when complete, it should not restart if you unplug and replug the power adapter) After a full charge, if I unplug the power adapter and then plug it back in again, it starts charging again, or atleast the charge indicator goes on again for another 4 hours, not necessarily charing any more. Then when it's fully charged, i find it really dumb that you must remove the ipod from the dock to shut it off. Otherwise, it will sit on the dock and have "Charged" with a battery showing FOREVER!!! What's up with that? It's gonna eventually burn into my screen if I let it sit with the same image over night every night.
3) Then... why is it that the battery dies very quickly, less than 4 hours, when sitting on the dock connected via firewire. Is the hard drive constantly spining while connected to the pc? There's a little icon on the upper left corner than keep flashing (I think it's a "Hard drive activity" indicator) as long as it's connected. That is also very dumb if true. The only way to make a playlist is to have the ipod docked so that I can drag parts of the library into different playlist folders. Unfortunately, after spending a few hours organizing, the battery is dead from running on the dock!!! Also, what's up with music match and it's method of displaying information? All of the songs on the ipod are displayed by "Song Title" only. You can not organize the mp3's any other way. So if I have a punk group that I want to organize, I will have to sift through 3700 songs titles just to find each song by the artist. Even file name arrangement would be better. Arggh, Am I dumb or is music match dumb, or is the ipod dumb? Do Mac users have these limitations?
4) Why can't I shut off my ipod while it's sitting on the dock connected to the pc. Here's what i tried, place it into the dock (it makes connection to pc) and hold the play button, NO luck. Go into music match, and "eject" device, and then hold play button, NO luck. Take ipod out of dock and hold play button. OK, now it works. What's the point of a dock if you can't leave your ipod in it????? Is mine broken? One way I can get it to shut off in the dock is to have the dock connected to the power adaptor instead of the PC. Then i can hold the play button and shut it off. Of course, then problem 3) reoccurs where the battery meter will stay on forever after the timer is up.
5) Finally, are you not supposed to be able to access the ipod while it is connected to the pc? Mine constantly says "Do not disconnect" when docked. Arrgh, so many little issues that make it a bitch.
Thanks for all your input, once again. Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to be as detailed as possible.
-teng3
I just got a 3rd gen 15GB Ipod and have compiled a library of mp3s to add to my player. Here are my questions. (Keep in mind, i'm using Windows XP) Please try and answer in question order if possible, I would really appreciate any clarifications you can give.
1) Why does it seem that every time you click sync on the "Portable Plus" window in musicmatch which shows the "attached portable devices" it reloads all of the songs back onto the ipod again. For example, i'll drag 100 files into my ipod. It will spend a few minutes copying the files and be done with it. Then if I hit sync, it will do the whole thing over again. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of syncing? In a perfect world, the ipod should only copy new additions to the list of 100 into the ipod and not the stuff that is already on the ipod.
2) Why is it that the ipod will charge through firewire on a mac but not firewire on a PC??? Isn't the firewire spec independent of platforms? Is my firewire busted?
3) Speaking of charging, i've heard that the charge indicator is only a timer. (even worse, it has no indication of time left to completion, whats it for~?!?!?!?! Lithium Ion is a smart battery, the ipod should just say complete when complete, it should not restart if you unplug and replug the power adapter) After a full charge, if I unplug the power adapter and then plug it back in again, it starts charging again, or atleast the charge indicator goes on again for another 4 hours, not necessarily charing any more. Then when it's fully charged, i find it really dumb that you must remove the ipod from the dock to shut it off. Otherwise, it will sit on the dock and have "Charged" with a battery showing FOREVER!!! What's up with that? It's gonna eventually burn into my screen if I let it sit with the same image over night every night.
3) Then... why is it that the battery dies very quickly, less than 4 hours, when sitting on the dock connected via firewire. Is the hard drive constantly spining while connected to the pc? There's a little icon on the upper left corner than keep flashing (I think it's a "Hard drive activity" indicator) as long as it's connected. That is also very dumb if true. The only way to make a playlist is to have the ipod docked so that I can drag parts of the library into different playlist folders. Unfortunately, after spending a few hours organizing, the battery is dead from running on the dock!!! Also, what's up with music match and it's method of displaying information? All of the songs on the ipod are displayed by "Song Title" only. You can not organize the mp3's any other way. So if I have a punk group that I want to organize, I will have to sift through 3700 songs titles just to find each song by the artist. Even file name arrangement would be better. Arggh, Am I dumb or is music match dumb, or is the ipod dumb? Do Mac users have these limitations?
4) Why can't I shut off my ipod while it's sitting on the dock connected to the pc. Here's what i tried, place it into the dock (it makes connection to pc) and hold the play button, NO luck. Go into music match, and "eject" device, and then hold play button, NO luck. Take ipod out of dock and hold play button. OK, now it works. What's the point of a dock if you can't leave your ipod in it????? Is mine broken? One way I can get it to shut off in the dock is to have the dock connected to the power adaptor instead of the PC. Then i can hold the play button and shut it off. Of course, then problem 3) reoccurs where the battery meter will stay on forever after the timer is up.
5) Finally, are you not supposed to be able to access the ipod while it is connected to the pc? Mine constantly says "Do not disconnect" when docked. Arrgh, so many little issues that make it a bitch.
Thanks for all your input, once again. Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to be as detailed as possible.
-teng3
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