After looking around a bit I installed Clementine.  The user interface is really awkward - the whole assumption is that you want to build playlists, and I simply never do that - and it's missing some features (like multi-threaded podcast downloads, or even a download queue).

But it works.  I installed it, told it to import my 2TB of iTunes content, and a couple of hours later everything was there and playable (except, I'm assuming, for my DRMed audiobooks).  All completed while iTunes itself was still struggling to load.

It uses 1/4 the memory of iTunes, and works about 20x faster.  Even searching for podcasts on the iTunes store is 20x faster in Clementine than it is in iTunes.

I have to assume that iTunes works for someone, but when you've collected a couple of decades worth of music and seven years of podcasts under it, it becomes an exercise in futility, and it's been getting worse with each new release, until with 11.3 it became entirely unworkable.

Clementine may be something of an ugly duckling, but I'll take an ugly duckling over a turkey any day.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Thursday, July 31 2014 08:26 AM (+rSRq)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, July 31 2014 01:23 PM (PiXy!)

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Well, it uses up 600MB of memory and a CPU core, which might be considered something.  So let us say, it does nothing useful.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tuesday, July 29 2014 09:43 AM (+rSRq)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, July 30 2014 02:09 AM (2yngH)

Posted by: Eric at Wednesday, July 30 2014 09:18 AM (d7gLI)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, July 31 2014 01:51 AM (PiXy!)

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My Nexus 7 suits my needs perfectly for reading and playing Kairosoft games at home, and when I take one of my (rare) trips to see my family, it can come along with me.  Not a problem.  Which reminds me: I need to buy a new backpack before October; the old one got left outside and died.

My Xperia Z Ultra is fine as a take-anywhere mini tablet with plenty of room for music, videos, files, and stuff.  Not quite right for reading entire novels, but far better than the typical 4-5" phone for checking email and browsing the web.

My Nexus 5, though, isn't quite right.  It's too big to sit comfortably in my shirt pocket, too small to do anything complex (it looks tiny next to the Z Ultra), and doesn't have enough storage to make a good media player.

I think the right thing to do is to replace it with something like the Xperia Z1 Compact, which is a good bit smaller and will work with a 128GB micro SD card just like the Z Ultra.  I haven't filled up the first card yet, after days of determined downloading.  With two, I can put my audiobooks on the Ultra and music and podcasts on the Compact and get twice as much of everything and still have room left over.

The Z1 Compact is a mid-range device at a mid-range price (albeit with a high-end CPU and camera) so it won't break the bank, and I'll avoid ever suffering a repeat of yesterday's fiasco.*

And that means I can finally leave my 160GB iPod to rest.  It still works fine; that thing is built like a brick.  But it's kind of clunky by 2014 standards.

Posted by: RickC at Saturday, July 26 2014 09:57 AM (0a7VZ)

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Remember the time your favourite teddy bear got a bit on the grubby side so mum put it through the wash and all the stuffing came out and all you got back was a sad pile of damp fur?  With eyes?

Yeah, that.

But at least it was clean!

I followed that with the purchase of an original retina iPad (i.e. the iPad 3) which is a very nice device that I never use.  And a Nexus 10, which is a very nice device that I almost never use.  And then the 2013 model of the Nexus 7, which was better than the original in every way and which I used constantly until last week when it died.

Boo.

Double and triple boo, because firstly I'm taking some time off work and have a chance to catch up on my reading, and I used my Nexus 7 for reading, and secondly, Google Australia are completely out of stock and I can't replace it.

I do have the two other tablets and a very very large phone, so I'll survive just fine, but it's quite noticeable how well the Nexus 7 fills its niche when you're looking to replace it with something else.  There simply isn't anything, from any provider, for any price, that can fill its role as well.

But we're getting there, slowly.

When the original Nexus 7 came out I made a wishlist of seven points I wanted to see corrected in a newer version:

1. 32GB or more of flash storage.
2. A micro SD slot.
3. Fix the colour levels.  (Colours on the original Nexus 7 were not exactly vibrant.)
4. Make the screen even sharper - go to 1920x1200.
5. Micro-HDMI out.
6. Stylus.
   
7. Help Kairosoft get Game Dev Story fixed on Jelly Bean.

We shall see.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tuesday, July 22 2014 08:45 AM (RqRa5)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, July 22 2014 02:07 PM (2yngH)

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Coming soon.

Maybe.