Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPod Genius: Are you using it - your take?

Are you using/liking Genius?

  • No Way - Privacy 1st!

    Votes: 11 10.3%

  • Yes, it's Great!

    Votes: 43 40.2%

  • Not sure yet...

    Votes: 26 24.3%

  • Experience: I think it works very well.

    Votes: 33 30.8%

  • Experience: Don't think it's all that 'smart'.

    Votes: 15 14.0%
  • Total voters
    107
roland.g

roland.g

macrumors 604
Original poster
Apr 11, 2005
7,572
3,407
I am always a little skeptical of new things like this. I like the new grid mode, however, wish that it had 4 options because I like the list view separated by Album with artwork that was in 7.x and now the grid/iPhoto event style has replaced that entirely unless you go into an artist, then all albums by only that artist are presented that way.

Anyways, on to the Genuis. Like I said, when the Ministore came out, I always hid it, as I for one am not a fan of data being sent to anywhere. It just feels like spyware. Which Macs don't have! So with the Genuis, again I wonder is this a good thing or not. Curious to see what other people's opinions are, if you are using it, and how well it is working.

You can vote for more than one in the poll.
 
I'm not going to use the grid mode, as it is not as good as coverflow. Genius playlists are fun though, sync them with the iPod, and you get music you rarely listen to fitting nicely in a playlist

edit: the grid mode actually looks pretty nice if you zoom in max
 
The Genius playlist's are kinda cool.

The Genius store suggestions not so much, I have noticed an improvement since last night though. Which makes you wonder if the data being added is really helping. Looks like it is to me, maybe in a month or two it'll be making good suggestions as it learns more peoples taste's.
 
genius playlist rating - 9/10
genius sidebar rating - 0/10

I love the genius playlist. It's my new best friend.
I immediately hid the genius sidebar.
 
Another feature that gratuitously requires an iTunes Store account. No thanks. :mad:
 
I'm loving the playlist side of Genius. I can see myself using this is the main way I listen to music now.

As for the sidebar for recommending songs to buy from the iTunes store - I've got this hidden for now and expect it to stay that way, I have Last.fm for recommendations and that works flawlessly.
 
dizastor said:
genius playlist rating - 9/10
genius sidebar rating - 0/10

I love the genius playlist. It's my new best friend.
I immediately hid the genius sidebar.
Click to expand...

Same for me. The Genius playlists are working pretty well for me. But the iTunes Store Genius sidebar is recommending stuff I've already bought, so, I've stopped using it for now. I'll bet Apple will be making a lot of iTunes refunds because of that bug.
 
dizastor said:
genius playlist rating - 9/10
genius sidebar rating - 0/10

I love the genius playlist. It's my new best friend.
Exact same experience here.

It's picking songs I haven't heard from in years (or sometimes ever) that are matches for the playlist. LOVE IT!
Click to expand...
 
roland.g said:
e I like the list view separated by Album with artwork that was in 7.x and now the grid/iPhoto event style has replaced that entirely unless you go into an artist, then all albums by only that artist are presented that way.
Click to expand...

Go into the list view. Click the 'Album' column heading until it says 'Album by Artist', click the 'Artwork' disclosure triangle on the top left of the columns. Then you get pretty much the same as the old album view don't you?

On the Genius playlist thing I've quite like it, seems good at recommending stuff I'd never think to listen too. Don't think I'd ever use the side bar though. It's still not a patch on 'Recommended Radio' on Last.fm though as that plays stuff you don't have which is much more interesting.
 
Works also with movies?

I'm wonder if Genius will also work with movies...
It would be fun to see what iTunes will suggest me after sniffing/tagging my movies let's say "Hard adult content" genre :rolleyes:
Probably some "Classics" :p
PS: Genius playlist seems OK. Genius purchases suggestions: Waste of time and space. Hide it

2 :apple:TV + classic iPod + iPod Touch 2nd gen + nano 3rd gen + iMac G5 + shuffle 1st and 2nd gen
 
Not sure about the recommended playlists - they don't seem to adapt well to my pretty eclectic tastes; the sidebar is infuriating and intensely dislikable, in fact, I have disabled Genius for now. Will check it again (hopefully without that silly sidebar).
Cheers
 
I'm not going to use it, I get all my recommendations from last.fm, and I'm happy with it, so I'm not going to bother with Genius. Not to mention that 80% of the songs in my library aren't on iTunes...
 
Cordeiro said:
I'm wonder if Genius will also work with movies...
It would be fun to see what iTunes will suggest me after sniffing/tagging my movies let's say "Hard adult content" genre :rolleyes:
Probably some "Classics" :p
PS: Genius playlist seems OK. Genius purchases suggestions: Waste of time and space. Hide it

2 :apple:TV + classic iPod + iPod Touch 2nd gen + nano 3rd gen + iMac G5 + shuffle 1st and 2nd gen
Click to expand...

Please don't tell us you put your pr0n in iTunes and sync it to your Apple TV and worse :eek: iPod iTouch myself special edition.
 
Well, for me it is not entirely working yet, it works fine as described on iTunes, but I still can't get it to work on my iPod touch (1st gen). First it was telling my that I had to enable Genius in iTunes (I had), and then after I fixed that problem by turning Genius off and then on again. Now it tells me for every song that "This song does not have enough related songs to create a Genius Playlist." I can't fix that problem for the life of me, I might do a full restore at the end of the week when I have time, but until then I don't think I will use Genius until I can use it on my computer and my iPod.
 
Maybe not so gratuitous...

cube said:
Another feature that gratuitously requires an iTunes Store account. No thanks. :mad:
Click to expand...

who knows what the algorithm is they use but perhaps it looks at country data (hence the need for an iTunes account).

i don't have any problem with them knowing what i've got musically on my ipod. if they were copying Contact info, I think we should all be a bit more worried (quite a bit more!!!).

if you "acquired" some dodgy MP3s, it's not likely they could learn/do anything about it since anyone could have created the metadata like that (there's no "pirated" metadata flag, is there? lol).

PS. It took a few "syncs" to get Genius feature onto my touch. Not sure why. It was working fine on the Mac for word go. Once it was working, it's great - let's you sort of set the tone of what you want to listen to without the hassle of crafting a proper playlist. I guess it's like the Shuffle - you get that random playness to shake your day up without something too unexpected popping up. It would be nice though to choose how many songs you put into the list.
 
wbeasley said:
if you "acquired" some dodgy MP3s, it's not likely they could learn/do anything about it since anyone could have created the metadata like that (there's no "pirated" metadata flag, is there? lol).
Click to expand...

The day iTunes can detect pirated music and refuses to play it is the day a lot of people will stop using it :)

It's impossible, torrents / P2P programs don't give files any tags of any kind. Can't see it happening either.
 
roland.g said:
I am always a little skeptical of new things like this. I like the new grid mode, however, wish that it had 4 options because I like the list view separated by Album with artwork that was in 7.x and now the grid/iPhoto event style has replaced that entirely unless you go into an artist, then all albums by only that artist are presented that way.
Click to expand...

If you go to the List View, then View | Show Artwork Column (or Apple G). This should give you the view you are looking for.

LanPhantom
 
wbeasley said:
who knows what the algorithm is they use but perhaps it looks at country data (hence the need for an iTunes account).
Click to expand...

And what the hell would the country in which I live or where my credit card is from have to do with any recommendations? Such association would be simply stupid. And even if they wanted to do it, there would be no need of an account for just that.
 
I have had to go for unsure yet

I have many playlists setup that I use with Party Shuffle, not sure that the new genius playlist offers anything better

Genius sidebar though has been hidden, I liked the Mini Store but not impressed with this, at least it will save me some money as I dont see any links to the store now
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back