The Gadgets Page

I have been very happy with iTunes. As long as I don’t let it reorganize my music files, I’m pleased as punch with it. It takes some time to load, though, and I don’t feel comfortable just leaving it running in the background. If you aren’t quite as happy with iTunes as I am, you might be interested in some software to manage your iPod. That’s what Mike at iPod Managers did. You can see his full review here:

• iPod Managers: Manage my iPod without iTunes

Mike did an in-depth review of each of the programs, but here is a quick overview from his weblog:

vPod: Really cool and original but very limited: 8/10
Load Time: less than 1 second

PoddoX: Pretty limited at this stage, but certainly the tool that best corresponds to what I was looking for when I started this comparison test, 10/10.
Load Time: less than 1 second

CopyTrans Manager: Apparently released just some days ago, but extremely promissing according to its speed and look and feel, 5/10 for the moment but will definitely get 10 when more stable.
Load Time: 3.2 seconds

Winamp: Perfect for Winamp fans (like me). A bit old-fashioned for the others. Two thumbs up for me, but you would probably give 7-8/10.
Load Time: 6.5 seconds

Ephpod: Sucks, 4/10.
Load Time: 7.5 seconds

Floola: Excellent interface, really user-friendly, very pleasant way to add songs to the iPod. Unfortunately, much too unstable at this stage of development. To be watched carefully, as it would get 10/10 if working.
Load Time: 1.5 seconds

Yamipod: Impressive for a free tool, simple, light, smart, portable. Too many features for me but will rock for most users, 9/10.
Load Time: 4 seconds

iPod Copy Manager: The two panes interface is an excellent idea but this tool is so buggy at this point that it cannot be used to manage an iPod on a regular basis yet. 1/10 for the moment, would easily get 10/10 if more stable, (much) smaller and, most of all, when it will feature a decent iPod navigation.
Load Time: less than one second

Songbird: Except if you have a very small amount of songs (less than 100), the listing of iPod songs is so slow that this application cannot reasonably be called an iPod manager at this point. Let’s hope the Songbird team will improve this as soon as possible. In the meantime, 1/10.
Load Time: 4.4 seconds

I had no idea there were so many people trying to compete with a free program from Apple. Since they added Smart Playlists (which are very much like the AutoDJ that I loved so much on MusicMatch), I have been so happy with iTunes that I never even considered looking for different software, despite the long load time (9.2 seconds). I guess Adobe Photoshop has trained me to expect long load times over the years and iTunes isn’t enough to push me over the edge looking for buggy software.