Any advantage to a iPod touch over usb drive

Hi,

I need to get a new music player and was thinking about an ipod touch. Is there any advantage to an iPod over a usb drive in our cars?

Thanks,

Jerry

Yes. Two:

1. The integration is much better, album art, superior navigation, etc.

2. You use iTunes to organize your artists/albums/songs/Playlists and avoid all file management issues.

BJ

I actually just switched from using my iPhone connected via USB to just using a 32GB USB flash drive. Since all of my artwork was embedded in the files, I don't think that I lost anything. Unlike using the hard drive, the USB drive supports album art and as far as I can tell uses the same navigation (voice control, playlist, search, etc) as when I use my iPhone (I do have tech package). I still use iTunes for all music management, playlists, etc and use a free program called doubletwist to get the files from itunes to the USB. It does a great job of moving the playlists and not duplicating files on the drive. I just plug it back in my computer and it syncs any changes. It really isn't any extra work.

You will lose any BMW Apps functionality of course if you care about that but that assumes you would have internet access available for the touch.

Mark

I think the only drawback worth noting is having to connect the usb stick to your computer for new files/songs. Whereas the ipod could connect to your wireless network and files can be added while the ipod stays in your car.
(Unless you live in a big mansion and you need a horse and carriage to drive to your garage )

The only difference I see when I plug my 32GB USB drive is that my mixed CD's don't play right through, there is a half second gap between the songs. If I use my iPod, the transitions are seamless.

Thanks for the replies. I don't use iTunes now and really don't want to install it. Is there another application for Windows that can manage playlists and retrieve the album art and integrate it so that it is displayed on the car's screen?

Jerry

The app I mentioned earlier - DoubleTwist - is Mac and Windows and it meant to be an iTunes replacement and be used to sync with Android phones. I am not really using it that way so I can't really endorse it for that but I can say that it put the music files and playlists on a USB flash drive in a very nice way that the car is happy with. I would give it a try since it is free. It is buggy though and certainly not has mature and polished as iTunes. I don't know if DoubleTwist can grab album art or other metadata directly and embed in your files. If you are ripping Music from CDs, whatever encoder you are using probably will though. If you are buying digital files, the art should be embedded in them. If you are downloading illegally or using whatever old files you have, then you may need to seek out another program to clean your files up first.

Originally Posted by jerrykur

Thanks for the replies. I don't use iTunes now and really don't want to install it. Is there another application for Windows that can manage playlists and retrieve the album art and integrate it so that it is displayed on the car's screen?

Jerry

I've used MediaMonkey, which is free and pretty feature rich. You can use it to organize your music collection, make playlists, and it has a decent auto-tag + album art embedding function.

My set up is my iPod stays plugged in to my car 24-7. Since the IOS allows for updates with a wireless connection you really don't need to manage your music through your computer tethered to the iPod. One advantage to using a USB stick instead is not having to worry about the overheating of your iPod on hot summer days when your car is parked in the hot sun while your at work.

Using an Ipod allows you to play Apple Lossless files. If your music library is already in Itunes in that format it will save you from having to convert everything. USB drive will only support MP3, WMA, and WAV files.

Since the car does not support Apple Lossless that says to me that the DA conversion happens in the player via the USB connection. Is that better or worse? Can't say but it is another potential difference.