I think Apple are playing a dangerous game by, in my opinion, deliberately not providing Windows Vista support for all of their products including the iPod and iTunes. My own experiences with iTunes and Vista so far have been so bad, that I’ve decided to stop using iTunes and switch to Windows Media Player permanently.
Now that I’ve made the switch to Windows Media Player 11 I really can’t believe that I didn’t make the move sooner. Windows Media Player 11 is a great media player in it’s own right and I was already using it as my player of choice to watch videos.
But, what makes it stand out for me is that it is fully integrated into the other services I use to play my media. It’s libraries and playlists are directly accessible from my Xbox 360 running Windows Media Center (which is fantastic in Vista), and also from my Xbox’s running XBMC. Whereas, with iTunes I had to manually sync my playlists every week, so that the other devices were accessing my latest songs.
The only problem I had previously was iPod support, but I’ve been using the MGTEK dopisp plugin that allows me to sync my Windows Media Player library with my iPod like any other mp3 player. It even syncs my playlists which is my key requirement as this is how I manage my vast music collection.
The plugin costs $14.95 and I’m still in my 30 trial period. If I continue to have no problems then I’ll happily get my paypal ID out, as it’s a price worth paying to escape the shackles Apple constantly try to put me in.
