Apple just works?

[boochrisboo]

Kind of an inflamatory title but hear me out and you will understand why i left it.
I am an android user currently Motorola Droid Ultra Maxx (bigger Verizon Moto X) before that i had other Andoid phones. I know android understand it and know how to make it do what i want.
Now my wife is an Apple woman, she loves her Iphone 5 and her Ipad2 (she wants a Ipad mini now also.)

So she asks me to put some music on her phone for her while she is in the shower and a few episodes of True Blood. I am fairly competent with smartphones i though so i said no problem.
I plug the phone into my computer as i would my android device and look to just drop the music and video files into the media folder as i would on my android. Nope.
Why is it so difficult to do simple things on the iphone. People say it is so easy to use and i think i might not understand what that means because i find that whole syncing and uploading and downloading to and from itunes to be a pain in the *** not to mention very frustrating and time concuming, then again i dont know how to use it. I eventually just put the stuff on my phone (took two min)and had her take that to the gym.

Why does all things have to go through itunes? or is it just for control and standardization?
BCB

 

[taz323]

It works for me, ITunes , IPhone they work great together.

 

[Trees]

Kind of an inflamatory title but hear me out and you will understand why i left it.
I am an android user currently Motorola Droid Ultra Maxx (bigger Verizon Moto X) before that i had other Andoid phones. I know android understand it and know how to make it do what i want.
Now my wife is an Apple woman, she loves her Iphone 5 and her Ipad2 (she wants a Ipad mini now also.)

So she asks me to put some music on her phone for her while she is in the shower and a few episodes of True Blood. I am fairly competent with smartphones i though so i said no problem.
I plug the phone into my computer as i would my android device and look to just drop the music and video files into the media folder as i would on my android. Nope.
Why is it so difficult to do simple things on the iphone. People say it is so easy to use and i think i might not understand what that means because i find that whole syncing and uploading and downloading to and from itunes to be a pain in the *** not to mention very frustrating and time concuming, then again i dont know how to use it. I eventually just put the stuff on my phone (took two min)and had her take that to the gym.

Why does all things have to go through itunes? or is it just for control and standardization?
BCB

Having used Android, BlackBerry, and Windows phones in the past I can relate to the Drag and Drop approach.

Does the Manual Sync process describe what you're trying to do? iOS: How to transfer or sync content to your computer

 

[abazigal]

My answer to you would be because you came over from an Android device. I too had to spend some time figuring out how to work my Mac when I transitioned over from Windows. Likewise, my friends who switched over from iphones also have had to grapple with some of Android's perceived idiosyncrasies.

No idea about itunes. Some legacy artifact from the ipod days?

 

[Alex_Hong]

I suppose it's a matter of perspective. I started with iTunes early on in the iPod days way before iPhone came about. So all my music are already organized on iTunes, not to mention I buy my music there too. I found it a breeze to sync my phone with iTunes, and just select particular playlists that I want on my phone. It is easier to manage music and playlists on a desktop than on a phone. In comparison if I did the good ol' drag and drop, I would need to organize them again into folders, or playlists on my phone. And i do this with pretty much most phone that I have other than Android. BlackBerry has their sync client, so does Microsoft for iTunes. In this sense, it just works for me.

For music, ensuring that transferring of content has to go through iTunes, and users can't transfer files freely (from an iPhone), would please content owners. This is in my opinion part of the reason why iTunes has the largest collection of content than any other online media stores.

For videos it's a different story though, since I don't buy my video content there and iTunes is pretty picky about video formats, so in this instance, drag and drop would be incredibly useful. So I can definitely understand your point of view as well.

Nonetheless, if you are in the Apple/iTunes ecosystem, and you buy content from iTunes, it just works, and works pretty darn well.
If not, you're going to have to spend some time and trouble to get it working (install iTunes, load content, etc).

Frankly nowadays most of my content are in the cloud. I can't remember the last time I actually synced something to my phone. Most of the time I just "sign-in" to services and subscriptions, and my content appears.

 

[BlackBerry Guy]

It's all a matter of perspective and what you're use to. We have to appreciate that not everyone uses their devices the same way, or have the technical know how that most of us Mobile Nations forum members do. As someone who's grown up on Windows, file systems and menu trees, drag and drop is easy and convenient. But for someone like my parents, a central hub iTunes like approach is probably easier to use and would work better for them.

This is really just a case of flexibility vs simplicity/ease of use. Having file system access gives you the ability to add, delete, and move things around anytime you can plug into a PC. But at the same time, there are greater chances of an undesired result - media moved to the wrong location, files being doubled up, something accidentally deleted etc. Using something like iTunes does limit one's flexibility, but it provides a consistent experience every time, and takes away some of the "complexities" that may be involved with file system access. That's why people say it just works.

I own BlackBerry, Apple, and Android mobile devices, along with being a Mac and PC user. The best approach I found was to embrace each one's distinctive identities and philosophies, instead of constantly trying to compare between them and saying "My Android can do this, why can't my iOS or BlackBerry device do that" or "I wish Mac can do this thing PC does". Instead of being frustrated at what each of them are not and can't do, you'll learn to appreciate what each of them are and can do.

 

[pr1nce]

It's just a matter of personal preference.

 

[Massie]

You can set it up either way--to sync things or to manually add/delete. Your wife's was set to sync; if it was set to manually manage you'd be able to drag and drop.

Both options have their pluses and minuses, just depends on how you like to do things.

 

[anon(4698833)]

Everything doesn't have to go through iTunes, it's just a very organized and well polished way to do it, once you have it available to you.

 

[Mellimel22]

Everything doesn't have to go through iTunes, it's just a very organized and well polished way to do it, once you have it available to you.

U say well polished I say it bogged down every pc I had it on.

Sent from my T-Mobile LG Escape running 4.1.2 using Tapatalk 2 now Free

 

[anon(4698833)]

U say well polished I say it bogged down every pc I had it on.

Sent from my T-Mobile LG Escape running 4.1.2 using Tapatalk 2 now Free

Runs flawlessly on my MBP...thing doesn't even break a sweat.

 

[Not Quite Right]

Works for me ...

 

[eve6er69]

I hate iTunes but I continue to deal with it on the rare occasion I want to add new content to my library.


Sent from my Gameboy Color

 

[Laughinghyena]

I don't care for iTunes. It's not on my PC either. I stream everything though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

U say well polished I say it bogged down every pc I had it on.

Sent from my T-Mobile LG Escape running 4.1.2 using Tapatalk 2 now Free

Define the "bogged down."

 

[FlashFlare11]

I prefer iTunes to Windows Media Player or any other syncing service (other than Outlook). I think it works well for my iPhone 3GS whenever I want to do a back-up or sync music. I can even take my iTunes library and sync songs with my Z10 through BlackBerry Link. I like iTunes and think it works.

 

[Eileen89]

It works for me, ITunes , IPhone they work great together.

Same here.

 

[Speedygi]

I didn't think iTunes bogged down any PC I had it on, to be honest. Only thing is I would really need iTunes Match to get all my music onto the cloud. The music files themselves ARE the things bogging down my computer instead haha...

 

[jmr1015]

I think if iTunes is bogging down your rig, it's long past time to update some hardware...

 

[mikeo007]

The problem is, you insist on trying to use the iOS device the same way you'd use an android device.

Quit trying to jam a square peg in a round hole!