Against the day that I might (might) get an iPhone, i (sorry, I) installed iTunes onto my trusty Dell 6400 laptop and started on a whim to convert my music collection, all encoded as wma (Windows Media Audio) files, to the approved format.
After more than 24 hours, I am up to track 877 out of a total of (gasp) 4194. To paraphrase Captain Oates, this could take some time.
What’s more, the process seems to have taken up all the (not small) processing power of my laptop, such that it seems to have uninstalled my wireless modem, as if it had never been. I hope it comes back when my computer finishes the music conversion process. If it doesn’t several frantic and possibly thankless calls to some remote call centre will ensue.
Thank goodness that there are several other computers I can use chez Gee in the meantime, and that I can do everything I need, more or less, on my fabulous Asus Eee – whose Linux OS is, I have to say, a lot nimbler than uncle Bill’s. (But try to access Skype on it, even with the button that says ‘Skype’ – don’t get me started).
PC? Mac? Open Source? A pox on them all for wishing mutually incompatible file formats on we users, who just want to play a merry tune on our way to work. Harumph.
PS – in the time it’s taken me to compose this post, the computer has reached track 885.
I highly recommend getting an iPhone. I love mine, which is my first ever Apple product.
But you just use it to get chatted up by men in stetsons, don’t you?
Apple’s refusal to acknowledge WMA files really irritates me. They are the only MP3 player manufacturer that doesn’t, which means their players have half the capacity of anyone elses – plus, as Henry says, you have to go through the painful conversion process. Grrr.
Thanks for that sympathy, Brian! 48 hours in and it’s up to track 1600.
The guy in the stetson couldn’t have cared less about my iPhone. He just cared about the threat posed to the Alberta beef industry by mad cow disease. The other PIs, though, are still talking about the iPhone…
I have an ipod touch. It looks just like an iphone and sometimes I pretend to myself that it really is an iphone, or at least will be one soon.
I was seduced by the iPhone when a colleague demonstrated it to me. I am not a techie person, so what I liked most was that it was so intuitive to use. And I have never seen any piece of equipment that looked so BEAUTIFUL (except for my Hammond organ of course). Hence the pain I am currently undergoing. 2100 wma and wav tracks converted to iTunes, just past the halfway mark. Puff. Pant.
So, converting all those mp3 files to work with Iyutnes. How to you go about that? (I probably should read more in the help section of my macbook/ipod but it seems too easy not to ask here.) I realised that all my lovely, legal, music files are in wma format and therefore will not be played on the new ipod…..
Why do you have legal music files?
mp3 files will work okay – just wma files. However, I am happy to report that for reasons best known to itself, the conversion engines got past the ’L’s (Led Zeppelin) and once into the ’M’s (Mozart, Motorhead, Metallica) sped up about fivefold and completed the job today … and (phew) my wireless modem, she work once more.
sorry, my mistake, they are of course wma files. Ah well, I’ve looked into it and it seems like I would get the best quality on my precious little macbook(and ipod) if I rip the cds again. I guess I can do that for the few that I have with me… the other ones seem to be the lovely problem of pc to mac and wma to itunes. * mutter * I knew I’d regret this mac thingy….
Cath> because I like buying cds and have the cover and all that? (How this sentence can make me seem obsolete and muchmuch older than I am, I only laugh at :) ) Seriously, I mentioned that part since the ripping and converting sometimes is harder if you start with a “non legal” file.
@ASA,
Check out the rather excellent open source Audacity
Gramham> Thanks! I’ll see what happens when I get home ;)
@Claire: I have an ipod touch. It looks just like an iphone and sometimes I pretend to myself that it really is an iphone, or at least will be one soon.
A friend of mine got a new iPhone which lived for about a month. He now has that SIM card in a pay-as-you-go phone and $600 iTouch LMAO