I named this “Part 1″ because I have many complaints about Apple, as in the snooty computer company. I wouldn’t care enough to post about them if they didn’t offer 2 great products. It’s just the fact that they have 2 superior products (iPod and Final Cut video editing software) that I am involved enough to really get annoyed with the way Apple does things. Everything else about Apple really gets under my skin. I’ll try to keep this one short-ish (I failed, so I put sub-headings in the post). It has to do with what I just spent the past hour of my time trying to figure out.
What I’m After
This has to do with my iPod…more specifically, with one of the most horrible applications ever spewed into the digital world: iTunes. One quick note, if somebody is reading this and knows of a better solution, PLEASE let me know of an alternative.
A while ago, I bought a large collection of audio CDs by a religious author of whom I have grown quite fond. His name is Truman G. Madsen. Shortly after buying the discs, I ripped them to my computer in mp3 format, the most universal compressed audio format around. So now that I have a nice new iPod (my old one died after only 5 years of very infrequent use, which is really a joke, VCRs typically last much longer) I figured I’d use the neat new Audio Books section to listen to Truman’s dissertations. Boy was I in for a surprise!
The Problem
I started by moving the files to my iPod using iTunes. Then I selected the files and looked for a place in the “Get Info” menu to set them to audio book files (since I could only drag the files to the iPod, not to a specific area). That option didn’t exist. I then turned to the iTunes help menu…no help. So I went to Google. The only solution I found (which I found in around a dozen different places) was quite the opposite of Apple’s claim of how “it just works.”
The Solution
Here’s what I found out, step by step, that I have to do to get this to work:
- Put the mp3 files into the iTunes library, the one on my computer, not my iPod.
- Change the import settings to import songs using the AAC format.
- Convert the mp3 files to aac files (hooray, I get to double compress the files since I have the CDs in storage).
Here’s the fun part!
- Now, rename every aac file extension from .m4a to .m4b. Apparently that makes the files show up in iTunes as audio book files (nice and easy, since most people don’t even know what a file extension is).
- Add the newly converted and renamed files to the iPod. They will now show up in the Audio Books area.
Now, to me, that seems a bit more tedious than being able to drag the files directly into the Audio Books area within iTunes. I don’t know, call me lazy, but that seems like it would make the most sense. After all, there is an entire area devoted to audio books with its own little icon and everything. Wouldn’t it make sense to be able to drag files into that area? If only I was smart enough to figure that out, maybe Apple would let me do it.
How I Would’ve Done It
I’ll now make a comparative step-by-step list of how I think it should be done, just for comparison’s sake.
- Drag mp3 files into the Audio Books area of the iPod contents within iTunes.
That’s not entirely true, I would have it set up to do it without the use of iTunes, but that is simply inconceivable.
Why I’m Mad at Apple
The fact that I couldn’t find anything about how to add my own audio book CDs to my iPod within Apple’s help files tells me one thing that I already knew about Apple, but for some reason, thought they may have lightened up on: If you are willing to pay Apple a lot of money, they will let you use their products in the way they decide you should use them on your own computer. Now isn’t that awesome? All I get when I use Windows is a choice of what software I would like to use to do whatever it is I want to do in whatever way I want to do it. I guess Windows doesn’t realize I’m too stupid to realize that the way I want to do it isn’t the cool or trendy way in which I should do it.
Sarcasm
Thanks Apple! If I ever get rich enough to use only your products, maybe I’ll be able to run my computer just like everyone else with an Apple so I can be trendy and awesome!
Conclusion
Because in the end, I like things to work the way I think they should work (yeah, I’m a PC user, not a Mac user, I think for myself), I will most likely spend the time to re-convert those files, rename the file extensions, and put them on my iPod so I can pretend that Apple isn’t trying to ruin my brain.
If I post deeper into this series, you may see a recurring theme of how I feel that Apple is pure evil for 2 reasons. First, they require large sums of money to stay true to their products and be able to get full functionality out of the things for which end users have already paid. Second, they make it very difficult to customize the way their products work. I believe that is because they figure most people are too dumb to know what they want and might break things, so they just tell you that their way is the cool and groovy way to do it.
The End…for now.
Yes, I am getting a new phone! The bad news is that all my contacts are in my old phone, which is at the bottom of Lake Minneola, FL. That means I’m in need of many phone numbers, so if you know of any phone numbers, feel free to give them to me! I wouldn’t suggest putting your number in the comments here, but if you read this blog and know me, chances are you’ve already seen one of my other requests for numbers or you have my number and can send me a text or some other message to let me know your number. That was a long sentence!