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[natsumi]

I'm about 2 0r three days behind on lj right now, so I feel bad asking for info when I'm not keeping up with everyone's lives, but I need info. Specifically info from everyone who has an ipod. The library is trying to determine whether it would be helpful or not to install itunes. Ipods are becoming popular enough that people have started asking

Comments

[bonelesspuppy]

You don't need to log into iTunes, the basic program, if all you want to do is work with your music and playlists. I'm not sure how log-ins are handled beyond that because I still don't have an account with the iTunes store (lazy), but I think you just hit "Check for purchased music" and plug in your username/password there.

What might be a pain is that, in order to buy music from the store and then transfer it to an iPod, the computer on which you download the music has to authorized as one of that particular iPod's computers. This can be done very easily through iTunes, and you can de-authorize the computer through iTunes, as well. So you'll have to get people to authorize and de-authorize their iPods if they want to use the store. I think.

I need to play around with iTunes anyway and get my account set up, so if no one has the information you need, I'll be the guinea pig.

[bonelesspuppy]

Oh, and, yes, you do need iTunes to move music on/off an iPod, regardless of whether you use the store. I don't think I really made that clear when I was rambling.

[bonelesspuppy]

Thanks Joelle. I know everyone's crazy for apple, but their site really isn't organized for simple information. I'm reading through the troubleshooting guide to try to answer questions, and it's frustrating. So far I have learned that ipods have to be formatted for either pc or mac (much like floppies). So a random user with a mac at home can't stop by the lab to pick up a song.
The issue of whether different ipods could use the same computer was one that I wasn't finding an answer to, so thank you very much for that. Although I shudder to think of having to keep track of whether the last user followed directions or not each time someone logs off. Maybe I'll suggest to my boss that we only put itunes on specific computers.

[natsumi]

Oops, that was me, I forgot to log back into lj.

[natsumi]

So actually, if a user doesn't de-authorize, the next ipod plugged in won't work with itunes at all, or just won't be able to purchase music through the store. If we have itunes, and someone puts in one of their own cd's and adds their songs to itunes, does the next person at the computer have access to those songs? That could become a sticky copyright issue in a public computer lab.

[bonelesspuppy]

If I user doesn't de-authorize, it just cuts into their pool of authorizable computers until they de-authorize (I think you get something like 5 computers you can have going at once). You can definitely run multiple iPods on one computer.

If one user rips a CD and puts the music on his or her iPod, you might have to delete it from the hard drive manually before the next person uses the computer. You could have the next person's iPod sync with the computer to clear the old music out and put all their music on, but this is awfully time-consuming.

You might be able to find better information about managing this sort of thing if you can hunt down any websites run by libraries that run iTunes, but my guess is that it would be better to have just a few machines that run iTunes and then keep close tabs on them. I bet someone, somewhere on the Internet has written programs to automate this-- it's just a matter of finding them, I suppose.

[natsumi]

Have any idea of where to look? I suppose we can post a sign asking people to delete their stuff after they leave to avoid copyright liability by the library, but most people ignore signs. And I'd hate for the lab to get the reputation of being a hotspot for free music.

[natsumi]

Okay, from what I've read, syncing is a "one way street" as apple phrases it. Apparently you can sync itunes to the ipod, but not the ipod to itunes. So syncing won't do any good in our case, if I understand it correctly. Because they won't be able to put their library on our computer. As I also understand it, if they have auto-sync enabled on their ipod, it will automatically delete songs that are no longer in the library from their ipod when they connect. So hypothetical situation: the library computer itunes library has Britney Spears on it and no Shakira. A person plugs in their ipod, and autosync happens. They have Shakira and no Britney on their ipod. Will it wipe off their Shakira, and automatically upload the Britney?

[bonelesspuppy]

I might be confused on that point-- I can't recall for the life of me what I did when I transferred my music collection from my laptop to my desktop. I think you're right here.

My understanding is that, in your hypothetical situation, the person's iPod would lose the Shakira and acquire the Britney. You can prevent that fairly easily by turning off the autosync in the iTunes program (I'm almost certain that the sync settings are stored in the program, not on the individual iPods). You might be able to use the Parental Controls in the more recent versions of iTunes to prevent people from turning the sync option back on, but I haven't updated iTunes in ages and am not sure on this point.

I'll tinker around tonight after class and see what I can find.