iPod shuffle: Move music, not data
Jon Gruber over at Daring Fireball explains why he thinks Apple dropped the ball with regard to the iPod shuffle's ability to double as a data drive. (You'll need to scroll down past the post entitled "FireWire Hysteria," unless you want to read his take on Apple's decision to stop including FireWire cables and other assorted peripherals with its new round of iPods. It's an interesting read in itself.)
We're a three 'pod family...one 40 gig, one mini and one shuffle...and none of them have ever been used to transport or transfer data. I'm not saying it won't ever happen, but probably not with the shuffle. I've got a perfectly serviceable 1 gig Cruzer (thanks, Gene!) to handle those duties, so this disk formatting issue just isn't on my radar screen.
Technorati tag: iPod
Brian, good summary of my operating philosophy.
However, all of this begs the question of what's going to happen when somebody records a song entitled, say "Love + Hate = Life / Death"? Do song titles have to meet data file label conventions?
Posted by: Eric at March 3, 2005 11:26 AMLooks like they don't.
I have a song on my Windows box called "What Gives, My Son?" - the question mark is illegal in Windows filenames. The name of the song's file is "13 What Gives My Son_.m4a", but in iTunes (on Windows, remember) it appears as I expect it: "What Gives My Son?"
(Curious that the comma is missing in both places, even though it's legal in filenames...)
So, Apple has solved this Windows problem, too, even on Windows itself!
I think the problem discussed on Daring Fireball applies only to files outside of the (invisible) music folder on the Shuffle. Looks like you can count on iTunes/iPod to handle the song names. So your song is a go, Eric! I can't wait to hear it! :-)
Posted by: Brian (formerly bb) at March 3, 2005 12:46 PMOK, but I'm still working on some of the math... ;-)
Posted by: Eric at March 3, 2005 12:52 PMI don't have an iPod, so are the .m4a files similar to .mp3 files in that they have Song, Artist, Album, etc tags that are then displayed via the software? If so, that's probably the reason the song shows correctly on the iPod, even though the file name does not contain the ?.
Posted by: TexTiger at March 3, 2005 12:59 PMYep, .m4a is pretty much the same as .mp3.
Posted by: Eric at March 3, 2005 01:11 PMAbout the publisher
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I agree with the principle behind Mr. Gruber's disappointment - but the real-world effect of it is minimal. Maybe it's the Unix geek in me, but I only ever use letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores in my filenames...
I look at it this way: Apple makes the most "compatible" computers out there - by default they can read disks and files from other platforms. When I choose to use "compatible" filenames (omitting things like accented characters or bullets) I'm doing the same thing.
It makes my life easier. Just like the Mac itself does.
Posted by: Brian (formerly bb) at March 3, 2005 11:04 AM