While there are some tradeoffs, on balance the Rhapsody player has leapfrogged MMJ+10. and is on a par with iTUNES for usability and has some added functionality and flexibility.
One of the major advantages of iTunes that may have slipped your notice is the ability to generate "smart playlists"-- that is, playlists that are generated from your local music colletion based on criteria that you specify. This (essential, IMO) feature is replicated fairly well in RealPlayer, but not in Real's Rhapsody client, perhaps just a matter of time. I suggest you also include the new Yahoo Music Engine in your comparison of jukebox programs, as it appears to be as "open source" as these things go, with a open plugin architecture that seems to be focused thus far on replicating iTunes functionality, but can be expected to advance the state-of-the-art in the future:
plugins.yme.music.yahoo.com
Yahoo Music Engine and RealPlayer (not sure about Rhapsody) are able to mount the iPod and transfer mp3's to the device. Apple is hoping that the theoretical $50 that the average user has invested in iTunes downloads will serve as "lock-in" to the iTunes player itself, but if hundreds of dollars of investments in cassettes and LPs didn't prevent me from buying a CD player in the 80s, what's $50 :) ? Personally, I don't feel that either iTunes or the iTunes Music Store represent compelling reasons to continue to use our 2 iPods. Rather, the real lock-ins are my wife's car (BMW) and my aftermarket stereo (Alpine with iPod adapter). My advice for those considering an mp3 player is to size up their accessory needs, and determine if the iPod accessories are things they would want. If not, then get a PlaysForSure device, because compatibility with the portable subscription model is something I envy, even as a long-time iPod user. |
