02.26.08
Alternative to iTunes
I installed an alternative to iTunes called VLC, and I love it. It is small, clean, has no spyware, no advertisements, and it loads super-fast. It also plays every major codec and streams Internet radio easily. You can download it here. Why did I ditch iTunes? More after the jump.
First off, iTunes gets in my way too much at work. We built our own phone system for our office, which runs on Asterisk. It is great. One of the nice things about Asterisk is that it emails my voicemails to me as .MP3 files. I can then listen to them on my smartphone, and also on my laptop right from Outlook. Since I have push email using Exchange, the SECOND I get a new voicemail on my phone at work, that voicemail shows up as an email on my smartphone - uber great for making me more responsive to customer voicemails.
The problem comes when I wish to open those .MP3 files in outlook, and the gigantic iTunes fires up to play them. What a pig of a program (iTunes). iTunes if great if you live and die by your iPod, but when it is your default media player, it is too bloated for everyday work.
So VLC is great. Super lightweight. If you want your media player to look nice, another alternative is the GOM player, which is also very nice. It’s also nice to have some Internet radio links handy in your browser or Intranet, that will open VLC player and just start streaming. If you are new to Internet radio, check out shoutcast.com to find stations that you like. You can then link to the stations directly as a bookmark and open them up in VLC.
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