Tangential to this thread, I recently started a job at a factory. They allow the production workers to listen to music through earbuds (in one ear only), but active phones are not allowed on the shop floor. This was frustrating to me because I have 50,000 songs stored on a 500 gigabyte micro-SD card in my phone. I have 2 old iPods that I can use, but I prefer not to use wired earphones, and the larger iPod's battery won't hold a charge anymore. I did some looking online for a suitable portable audio player with expandable storage and bluetooth connectivity so I could listen with my Galaxy Live Buds, but all I could find was cheap players with 16 or 32 GB storage and high-end audiophile players which could hold up to a terrabyte of music but cost an arm and a leg (the cheapest one I saw was $700 and they ranged upwards of $3000.   I grudgingly decided to get an iPod Touch (the only iteration of the iPod still made) with a 256 GB hard drive for $300 since it had bluetooth, even though I have no desire to buy into the Apple paradigm again. When I got it home and tried to set it up, it wouldn't recognize my Galaxy earbuds (even though the salesman at Best Buy said it would). After some googling, I found out that my particular earbuds are compatible with the iPhone and the iPad, but not the iPod touch (!). I briefly considered getting some Apple earbuds, but decided not to since I was really turned off by the interface on the iPod Touch, and I returned it for a refund. I looked online and found that I could have my old iPod's battery replaced at a Batteries Plus store near me for about $70. While doing research on replacing the battery myself I had found that it was really difficult and frustrating to do, so I took it to the Batteries Plus guy and will pick it up on Friday. One really interesting thing I found, though, is that there are people out there hacking their old iPods to put in larger capacity SSDs or SD cards, and even some adding Bluetooth capability. There are videos on YouTube if anyone is interested in how to do it. I may try it eventually, but for now I am using an old Sony phone that won't recognize a Sim card anymore. I can store up to 256 GB of music on an added micro-SD card and use the Bluetooth, and it also has WiFi, so I can stream music from Spotify and other services (but since it is so old and not supported anymore the Nugs app is incompatible). The app that I use for listening is called Poweramp and I find it very simple and easy to use, and it will play all the files that I have imported to the SD card from my iTunes library. all I had to do was load the iTunes Music folder onto the SD card from my computer and have Poweramp scan the card. I retains the file structure (artists, albums, songs, genres etc.) and even finds album artwork from online that I have not been able to add in iTunes.  Eventually I may decide to pony up for the high-end player that would be perfect for all this stuff, can hold 1TB on SD and will play just about anything you can throw at it, up to and including DSD and 32bit/384khz: the Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 (at $699, their "entry level" player). These days it seems there is no firm middle ground when it comes to non-phone music players.
-Matt Sohn
 Astell&Kern A&norma SR25

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Astell&Kern A&norma SR25

High-resolution portable music player with Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® (Crimson Red)
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    On Monday, November 1, 2021, 11:14:03 PM EDT, Abhimonyu Deb <[log in to unmask]> wrote:  
 
 There is a software called iMazing which lets you control the data on an iPhone, iPad, and/or iPod just as if it was any other data storage device.
It’s basically meant for backups but, IIRC, it’s excellent for bypassing iTunes and much, much more user friendly. I haven’t used it in a long time because I have been using iCloud instead for many years.
Caveat: iMazing is not free but the demo should give an idea of whether or not it will suit your purpose.

Best wishes,
Abhimonyu Deb


On Tuesday, November 2, 2021, 1:24 AM, Stewart Gooderman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Do I sound a bit naive for suggesting a consultation with an Apple genius?

DrG


> On Nov 1, 2021, at 7:33 AM, John Gledhill <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Apple I-pad question
> 
> I apologize for perhaps the wrong forum however, I am hoping someone who knows the answer can pass me his or her number and I will call offline.
> 
> 
> 
> About 12 year ago I digitized a few hundred cassette tapes and records for a gentleman after making him aware of online sources and yes he wanted his cassettes / records digitized.
> 
> Kept copies of all of the original 16 bit files and generated ACC or m4v and loaded the files to one of those old brick ipods with a 75 Gig HD (audio takes 45 gig) and a sleek nano device
> 
> I used I-tunes at the time and was dismayed by the way the ipods messed up (hashed, and hacked up the file names).
> 
> Fast-forward a decade and more. Customer who is old is still alive and very active. He has a good sense of humour. He brought me his old ipods and a brand new ipad and wants the audio loaded to the ipad and eventually his iphone 13.
> 
> Should be a no brainer. Except now we have cloud storage. He already has other music and albums on his ipad (and they don’t show up when connected to a pc with itunes). I guess I would have to sign in to his account?
> 
> My son also warned me about something called “syncing” where Apple decides to obliterate material on your device if you load material from a local drive. I told him there is no way a company could do this and be taken seriously let along convince people to buy their product.
> 
> Silly me. Even when I turn off automatic syncing in itunes and think about moving audio to the I-pad I see warning about only being able to be sync’d to one source. I stop at this point, as the material already on the ipad is not mine to erase.
> 
> Also worrisome was a pop-up about “trusted device” and only being allowed 5. I have used up two for him so far.
> 
> 
> A google search leads me to a couple of software applications that claim to allow me to add music to the ipad without erasing what is already there.
> 
> I wonder.
> 
> What computer OS would ever expect you to buy a separate programme to simply copy a file. What am I missing?
> 
> Even if I succeed, will this gentleman undo everything next time he accesses music on-line?
> 
> I really do not want to load 45 Gig to some cloud server so he can sync to that. This just seems ridiculous when the material is already on a local drive..
> 
> Ques) If I did put 45G on the icloud from a PC and used this load his ipad then what happens when he signs onto itunes from his iphone13 on a cellular network. Does he unwittingly have 45G of cellular network traffic arriving?
> 
> If anyone knows of a way to simply place audio files on an ipad (from a PC) so they will stay there, be playable, and will not erase what is already present then please pass me your telephone number.
> 
> P.S. The old brick of an ipod he had with the older battery technology and a hard drive was recharged and still works a week later.
> 
> The very sleek nano ipod he passed me was charged for a day and last 2 ½ min and now won’t recharge. Improved design for who’s benefit. And no, I am not advocating carrying gramophones in backpacks.
> 
> -- 
> John Gledhill
> BIT WORKS Inc.
> 905 881 2733
> [log in to unmask]
> www.bitworks.org