[torifile]

When you have a problem with your iPod, Apple computer or other hardware, Apple offers person to person, technical support over the phone. And although you will likely end up spending several times what you paid for your iPod on iTunes music, customer support for iTunes is practically non existent.

Because a $2000 computer and a $.99 song should get the same level of support. Sure.

Apple also offers a discussion board on it's website. Here you will find a myriad of subjects to sift through concerning various problems and fixes. Apple will also refer you to this board for iTunes issues in lieu of giving bona fide, personal, technical support. You can spend hours fruitlessly searching different topics using keywords and still not find your answer.

If you can't find what you're looking for on Apple's discussion boards, there's always an option to start a new thread. And people like me post regularly over there, giving much better answers than you would get on the phone with a level 1 tech support person.

This widespread glitch left many longtime users as well as those who had just gotten iPods as holiday gifts with nothing to listen to.

Last I checked, you could put songs from your own CD collection on the iPod. Lemme check again... yup. Still can.

Many iPod owners are still waiting for their settlement checks from the Apple iPod battery fiasco from YEARS ago.

That has nothing to do with Apple. That's the good ol' American legal system at work.

With content pushing hardware sales, iTunes is becoming the tail that wags the dog.

Huh? iTunes downloads has not changed a thing about the way Apple designs its hardware.

When the bottom of this inverse model fails (iTunes), everything else comes crashing down.

So my computer will stop working if the iTunes music store stops working? Wow. That's scary! I'm glad you told me!!! Thanks!

The sound snippets do not always reveal the main riff, hook, chorus, vocals or enough of a part of the song that really matters, for consumers to make an informed decision. Sometimes listeners are left with little more than a repetitive beat on which to base their buying decision. More focus on representing critical parts of songs in iTunes samples is sorely needed.

WTF are you talking about here? I've never thought that the preview was uninformative. In fact, it's helped me make very wise choice when it comes to deciding among several versions of the same song.

However, many people will not gamble on downloading a song they are not sure they like. The loss of potential download revenues to Apple and the artists they represent can be huge.

Wait. Up above you go on and on about how big the iTMS is getting and here you're saying that it's doing poorly? Get your story straight. And if you're right about this statement, then what the hell are you complaining about since the iTMS is doomed to failure?

iPod owners also have to deal with the fact that Apple designed it as a "one way" device. Music gets in but it doesn't get out. Your computer's hard drive may unexpectedly crash one day. Or you may experience a malfunction that otherwise causes you to lose your computer's music library. This happens more often than you might think. Unfortunately, you cannot use your iPod to reconstitute your music library.

There is an obvious need for this measure. Remember this:

It's only fair to the artists who work so hard to create music that it be given a respectable chance to be heard and purchased.

You think that if it were simple to get music off an iPod, people wouldn't do it all the time?

Or so Apple would have you believe. As you desperately seek an answer to replacing your lost music, what Apple Technical Support Personnel will not voluntarily tell you that is that there is a simple way to get it back.

And that's the reason we have the internet. There are ALWAYS ways to figure something out if you know how to ask or whom to ask.

What a waste of time. I can't believe I spent all this time reading and responding to such drivel. At least I got paid for it.