Ultimate iPhone Review — Will It Blend?

I've been enjoying the Will it Blend videos forever. There's something about a labcoat clad crazy man putting things like marbles and soda cans into a blender and after reducing them to powder, warning you not to breathe in the particles. Well today they ask the ultimate question of the latest over-hyped internet sensation Will the iPhone Blend? Fans of these videos can probably guess the answer... and this story made my morning. I've been waiting for an excuse to link these forever. If you haven't seen these, you're in for a real treat.

It always seems to

As well as being fun, its an amazing ad for the company, everything they but into their blenders ends up as toxic dust!!!

Re:It always seems to

Go look at eBay item number 170129995323. You get the iPhone remnants, a blender, a DVD, and an autographed T-shirt. Not bad, if you're in the market for a blender or are into pulverized electronics.

Crowbars don't blend....easily.

Many moons ago I worked at a sawmill, the wood chipper would get blocked on a regular basis and required a crowbar to unblock it. I was not the first person to try and blend the crowbar. These (accidental) experiments demonstrated that crowbars don't blend easily, but you can slice the end off one if you have several tons of flywheel behind the blade.

Re:It always seems to

As well as being fun, its an amazing ad for the company, everything they but into their blenders ends up as toxic dust!!!

Yes, because I really want my spaghetti sauce to become toxic dust. I think I'll take a blender that doesn't make everything toxic.

Re:It always seems to

And in case the PP didn't get it, the iphone ends up as toxic dust because it is made of toxic dry materials. If you just put a piece of wood in, you'd end up with ordinary (not toxic) dust, and if you put spaghetti sauce in you won't end up with any kind of dust unless you use a lot less water than normal people do.

Re:It always seems to

Minor clarification: The fully assembled skyscraper would also be harmful if you inhaled it.

Re:It always seems to

Can they blend one of their own blenders? Wow, meta headrush.

Re:It always seems to

Amazingly, the dust still had to be sent to Apple to get the battery out.

Fun?

As well as being fun ...

Fun? I was, actually, rather revolted... It always saddens me, when things break irreparably. I once felt depressed for a week after accidentally dropping an old hard-drive on the floor — it worked before, but broke due to my sloppiness...

To do this sort of thing on purpose, with a shiny, new (and beautiful!) piece of high-tech electronics is a sin. To enjoy watching it is perverse, in my humble opinion...

Re:Fun?

To me, it's a terrible waste of money and technology. My parents would have gone mad if I had ever deliberately broken something as expensive as that.

Rich kids with too much free money to spend...

You do realize this is an advertisement, right? He's spending $500 on an iPhone, plus production costs, in order to sell what's likely to be thousands (possibly tens of thousands) of dollars in blenders. Not exactly a waste.

Gotta admit, that blender is quite good...

I don't think I've seen anything stop it from blending.

Great for kids!

My kids and I spent nearly an hour looking at all of these last night. Sam kept exclaiming "That's totally awesome!" Even four year-old Emma enjoyed the blending of the Barbies.

I assume the whole thing is a viral marketing deal for the brand of blender, but it's so beautifully done. My wife and I decided that it was pretty obviously marketing towards men. Women might enjoy chopping up a rake or two, but men's eyes grow wide and they get a funny grin whenever you start tossing in glow sticks, marbles, iPhones, and other fun things.

The other thing of note is that he probably should have been wearing a respirator for some of these tricks. The marbles in particular were very nasty. Breathing in small amounts of glass smoke is incredibly bad for your lungs. That's why they banned asbestos, after all.

Not that great

My kids and I spent nearly an hour looking at all of these last night. Sam kept exclaiming "That's totally awesome!" Even four year-old Emma enjoyed the blending of the Barbies.

You do realise you're going to have to keep your blender under lock and key for the next 12 years right?

Re:Great for kids!

Asbestos has nothing to do with glass

While I'm sure folks appreciate your safety message, please don't try to practice chemistry at the same time. Both glass and asbestos are silicates, and are indeed chemically related. The danger from asbestos is that, even though it's inert, inhaled crystals that fall within a narrow range of size lodge deep within the lung tissue and cause scarring that can lead to further complications.

In fact, inhaling glass dust can lead to silicosis, which is just as devastating.

Too bad...

I've seen a couple of these. Pretty good.

Now... They need to do a Nintendo DS or a PSP. I'd love to see them do one of the bigger consoles, a la smashmy____.com, but I don't think they'll fit.

Sell it on eBay...

Assuming this [ebay.com] is real, he wasn't just joking at the end.

Re:Sell it on eBay...

I like how it says "Product: iPhone Condition: Used" :)

Server

Looks like the server has been blended as well. :)

This guy's a liar!

I checked eBay... Nothing!

Not everything blends!

The one with the crowbar is incredibly frustrating... It would have been quite fun to at least see them try!

Direct link to youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI [youtube.com]

Just in case the server 'blends'...

Innovative and Groundbreaking

Sure the innovative and groundbreaking iPhone will change the face of blending forever. Never before could you blend a full featured implementation of Apple's award winning Safari browser.

The iPhone is pretty tough

Notice how long the screen kept going. Even after the blender had started shredding the phone... the screen was still working. Impressive.

-----
Übergeek Necktie T-Shirt [prostoner.com]
Funny Shirts @ ProStoner.com

Re:The iPhone is pretty tough

I use LiPos on my RC helicopters. If the battery is broken or punctured, they tend to start a fire...

Actually, I think you've got it a bit backwards. Puncturing a lipo is how you deactivate them when you want to throw them into a landfill (though you really should recycle them instead of tossing them). That's completely safe as long as the cell isn't fully charged, and even then, it's not that dangerous.

When a lipo cell has an overcurrent failure, part of the cell vaporizes (puffed cell failure). In particularly bad failures after heavy use (low voltage, abusive current loads, etc.), the vapors can ignite from the heat of the cell. When this happens, the cell wall is guaranteed to fail, and then you get the green flames of death.

But just poking a hole in your lipo won't start a fire. I also fly RC helis (T-Rex 450).

Regards,
Ross

Let me be the first to say...

... that I have never before seen anything so awesome in my entire life.

Moon landing? Berlin Wall? Not even close.

Totally... frickin'... sweet.

Li ion-Polymer battery

I don't have an iPhone, but I guess it uses a Li ion-Polymer battery. Otherwise, I would expect to see an explosion.

Surprisingly durable

Of course it blends (everything blends in these vidoes), but I was impressed by how long the iPhone display remained active in the slow-motion review.

WM5 Phone

Do you know I watched this on my Windows Mobile phone and seems to have broken it the video just keeps looping over and over I'm not certain but I think the "happy" midi tune plays every now and again

Will it Blend - Live Cat

It's amazing/disturbing what people will do in video responses on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W13Wj34Lpt3 [youtube.com]

Obi Wan:

I felt a great disturbance in the intertubes, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

the real Ultimate Review

Cute, but if you want a real ultimate review of the iPhone, get your butts over to ArsTechnica [arstechnica.com] to read their incredibly comprehensive iPhone review [arstechnica.com]. They cover just about everything you could want to hear (including some brutal stress testing that culminates in the iPhone being flushed down a toilet) and the following discussion has some good follow-ups by the authors.

Yeah, maybe a shameless plug, but it is the best iPhone review I have seen so far.

Re:the real Ultimate Review

Well that's as maybe, but its the ultimate review for *that* particular iPhone!

1913 Webster definition of ultimate is rather apropos:

3. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further
            division or separation; constituent; elemental; as, an
            ultimate particle; an ultimate constituent of matter.
            [1913 Webster]

Way to Enjoyable

Ok that was way to enjoyable to watch an iPhone be blended. I was actually trying to stifle a laugh at my desk. This is the first I have seen a Will it Blend video so now I have to go find the rest of them. :)

The ultimate end to this blending thing

"We found the Holy Grail"

it blends

"Cure for cancer"

blend it

"Kids, in this cage is the last living mouse lemur on Earth."

where's that outlet?

iSmoke

only when someone sets me on fire.

I'm surprised that BlendTec hasn't come out with the iBlend.

$599 smoothie

Good god, that's one expensive smoothie! Have to admit, though, it put up a pretty good fight in those first few whacks!

I don't quite enjoy it so much

I can appreciate the novelty of grinding up old junk like golf clubs, marbles, etc. But trashing a new piece of electronics for the novelty value? Not so much. There are sites out there like Smashmyxbox where pranksters would go to the effort to buy the latest and greatest novelty and then smash it in front of fans waiting in line. I could respect it more if it were an act of social commentary but it's basically a frat prank video intending nothing more than a Nelson Ha-ha! The laughter I hear from the cameraman on the video is no different from the laughs directed at people in serious pain. The youtube video I'm thinking of in particular is the kid trying to do a trampoline basketball dunk. He wasn't trying to do something intentionally dumbass like riding a skateboard down a handrail or get a fluorescent bulb smashed across his bare back, he just bounced too high, got his foot caught in the rim, and felt it wrench as his whole body went the other way. I wouldn't be surprised if he broke something there. But instead of a genuine gasp of horror and a dropped camera, we get giggles and a tight focus on a boy screaming in pain. Holy fuck, isn't this fun?!?!

When will they blend a

mouse?

Had to be said:

- I think that voids the warranty.
- I don't think Apple will replace the battery on that one.
- So now they are stuck with a 2 year AT&T plan and don't even have an iPhone.

Shredding LiPos

I really like the idea of shredding a highly reactive Lithium Polymer battery in a container secured by your own hand. I can't wait for the "Will shotgun cartridges blend ?" video ! P.

Will "Will it Blend's" servers melt? Yes!

/. does its own version of "will it blend" with servers. Will they melt when pummeled with traffic from around the world? In this case, yes.

Just add water

Service is probably better than my current with this iPhone. Just add water and poof....wet dust.

That is the question

I showed this video to a friend of mine yesterday. I told him the basic premise of the website and what to expect when he got there. This friend of mine is a bit of a faithful Apple fan, to be sure.

The phrase "Someone should be shot for that" came up during the resulting discussion. Great times!

Ultimeta iphone review

"It is just a phone!"

Hey, I was even nice enough not to mention all the crap you have to put up with if you buy one...

Finally...

an interesting iPhone story!

Blend a Book

Preferably the Holy Bible, or the Koran or Dianetics. But if they blend a Koran I guess we will be seeing a follow up episode, "Will Tom's decapitated head blend for the glory of Allah". If he blends a Bible then I guess the pope will just get pissed off and bitch about it. If he blends Dianetics he will get his ass sued by the "Church" of $cientology.

Maybe he would be better off blending the latest Harry Potter book when it comes out, but then he might piss off Dumbledore and Tom would get turned into a blender, doomed to spend the rest of eternity blending things that shouldn't be blended.

Tom Dickson Jr is a genius

Lots of people complain [slate.com] about the fawning praise lavished on the iPhone by a credible press. Tom Dickson is the only person I have seen yet who was shrewd enough to co-opt this for his own gain. It's like he established a hype resonance field--taking all the iPhone puffery, squaring it, and making it his own. I'm guessing he didn't wait all night to score those two iPhones. He probably picked a couple up off eBay for two grand; that he's willing to blow half that on a 10-second video clip testifies to how much more he's getting in return.

Tom Dickson Jr., I salute you.

Well, somebody saw this coming

That's funny, I just saw a comic [thebulletpoints.com] about this on Monday. Who would have though this would be such an obvious thing to do? (OK the WIB version is funnier...)

but why?

watched only one video of the will it blend series a month or so ago.. I would need to ask the question why blend? alright I get the reason if someone opened it up but blending .. nope! well if the come up with a hammer and put up the videos will they be called 'will it break?' but yes there you go .. not watching another one of those will it blend videos..

democratization and increased value

You Tube has not just democratized film production, but also increased the value of advertisements. With high quality viral advertising like this, I actually feel that the video deserves my attention. With television ads, I often feel that they invade my attention and are unworthy of it.

So..

In WoW terms, he disenchanted it and got some arcane dust?

Oh its not so bad

I've been breathing that stuff for a while and nothing has ha *THUD*

(he wouldn't just type thud, would he?)
(maybe he was dictating)
(oh shut up)

Re:Oh its not so bad

(he wouldn't just type thud, would he?)

It is generally accepted that computer crashes, dropped connections and death is represented by the "NO CARRIER" stamp (line noise optional). For example:

Hey guys - I'm currently installing a nitrous oxide system on my chainsaw and I'm wondering what happens if I turn this mixture adjustment screw^%$#^%%^&

NO CARRIER

Re:Oh its not so bad

King Arthur: [about the inscription on the rock] What does it say, Brother Maynard?
Brother Maynard: It reads, "Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Aramathia. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the holy grail in the Castle of Aaauuuggghhh...
King Arthur: What?
Brother Maynard: "The Castle of Aaaauuuggghhhh"
Sir Bedevere: What is that?
Brother Maynard: He must have died while carving it.
King Arthur: Oh come on!
Brother Maynard: Well, that's what it says.
King Arthur: Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't have bothered to carve 'Aaaauuuggghhhh'. He'd just say it.
Sir Galahad: Maybe he was dictating it.
King Arthur: Oh shut up!
Sir Robin: Well does it say anything else?
Brother Maynard: No, just "Aaaaauuuugggghhh".
[knights making groaning sounds]
Sir Bedevere: Do you think he could have mean, 'Camaaaauuuuggghhhh'?
Sir Galahad: Where's that?
Sir Bedevere: France, I think.
Sir Lancelot: Isn't there a Saint "Aaaaavvvveeeesss" in Cornwall?
King Arthur: No that's Saint "Ives".
Sir Lancelot: Oh, yes. "Iiiiiivvvveeessss"!
[All knights saying, "Iiiiiivvvveeessss"]
Sir Bedevere: Whooooouuuuaaa!
Sir Lancelot: No no no, it's "Aaaaauuuugggghhhh" from the back of the throat.
Sir Bedevere: No I mean, "Whoooouuuuaaa!" as in surprise and alarm.
Sir Lancelot: Oh, you mean like, "AAAHH!"
Sir Bedevere: Yes, that's it. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Re:Oh its not so bad

Truly dedicated /.ers have their browsers hooked up to a dead man's switch, so that if they are incapacitated, they automatically submit whatever is currently in the "Post Comment" field. A sort of "L4st Psot!!1!!," if you will. Here, let me demonstr1-0$%#$I)%^%)#%

NO CARRIER

Re:As funny as the videos are....

At least it's entertaining, even if it is blatant advertising. Seeing an iPhone turned into black dust is strangely satisfying.

Re:As funny as the videos are....

That's the entire point. It's supposed to be an advertisement. But it's a lot better than most of the adverts you see on tv these days.

Re:As funny as the videos are....

After recently purchasing a $85 blender that bit the dust on a box of frozen strawberries, this is just the kind of advertising I appreciate right now.

Re:As funny as the videos are....DUH

It's not "like an advertisement", it's nothing BUT an advertisement. And it's sure nice to see a company advertising it's products in a funny, entertaining way that also nicely shows off the products' capabilities, without fluff.

Re:As funny as the videos are....

Of course it's an advertisement! But hardly a "waste" of a good product -- links on digg, slashdot, and all the mac sites to boot for under a grand is the cheapest ad campaign ever.

If you're looking for wasteful advertising, try the Olympics.

Re:As funny as the videos are....

As someone who work at an ad agency, let me say, I would be freaking thrilled to come up with an idea half this good. Not only do these clips entertain the viewers, they also highlight what's excellent about the product being sold. Compare that to something like the Subservient Chicken [subservientchicken.com], which is entertaining but really says nothing about Burger King's product.

I hope Blendtec sticks with whatever agency/marketing intern came up with this concept. It's solid gold.

Re:Spoiler

What is all that black stuff anyway? He has blended electronic stuff before but what was left was never that black IIRC.

Re:Spoiler

It's pieces of the iPhone's evil, black heart.

Re:Spoiler

No, it just spews a black cloud of overrated whenever the marketing hype wire in the iphone is severed.

Re:Spoiler

...and here I thought it was just the ashes of all those kittens Apple cremates daily, after using them to make sacrifice to Steve Jobs. They have to hide the remains somewhere (that pile is getting awfully big back behind the Cupertino offices...) What better place to stash kitten ash than in consumer products that seem to be flying off the shelves. It is also well known that kitten ash is a vital component in making sure that LCD screens shine brighter while reducing battery draw. How, you ask? Well, since all kittens are innocent, and their cute little souls remain attached to their earthly remains for some time, the cremated kitten tends to glow quite a bit when in the presence of an electrical field, due to electromagnetic reaction against the lingering kitten soul.

It's cheaper than the standard backlighting, easier on your battery, environmentally friendly, and is super quiet (except for the occasional barely-discernible "mew!" at startup). Now if it weren't for all those damned moralists out there, I could have one of those 25" LCD's that're augmented by kitten ash that the State Department refuses to import! Sure, color calibration is a bitch (cats are somewhat color-blind), but once it's all set up, you get a peaceful soft glow that is very easy on the wattage.

(seriously though - I think it's prolly the battery contents, which could be reacting with either a metal or some other subtstance in the iPhone's makeup.).

(...and yes, I own and use a Mac @ home).

(...and yes, I have two cats living @ home with me. Whether they fear me or I fear them - I leave up to you to decide).

/P

Re:As funny as the videos are....

They kind of piss me off, too. It's always a waste of a good device/product.

How is that? I thought it was an excellent use of a blender. The blender survived just fine.

The REAL spoiler

The real spoiler is in the slow motion bit. Listen closely & you can distinctly hear the iphone death cry 'Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan'.

iPhone. The Shatner of cell phones.

Re:As funny as the videos are....

OK, mister grouchy-pants.

Re:As funny as the videos are....

Also, it's like an advertisement.

I'm amazed by how many people can't recognize a blatant advertisement when it's staring them in the face. It's not "like" an advertisement, it *is* an advertisement.

Nobody smashes stuff for entertainment purposes!

Absoloutely nobody [wikipedia.org]

Re:waste?

yes

Re:Spoiler

I couldn't hear the sound at the office, but it was so great when everything turns to black dust and fills the container. I sent it to everyone in the office that doesn't read /.

Re:Maybe he should blend

had to post it AC huh? couldn't actually post it with your username? What do you fear sir? That your asstarded comment might be linked to you in some way in the future?

Re:And the video is down

Heh, wow. I haven't seen anything get Slashdotted in awhile.

Re:Spoiler

If you watch the "crowbar" video, where they actually do a bunch of cell phones, you can clearly see some small explosions. Of course, the iPhone uses a lithium-polymer battery, not lithium-ion, so it's unlikely to explode anyway.

Re:And the video is down

At least last night the video on the website wasn't hosted on YouTube. It's up on YouTube, but that's a lower res version.

Re:What ever happened to

lol no it wouldn't.

NOT Blend?

I looked thru the site but has anything NOT blended? Those are some tough blenders, I did see one clip with a crowbar, but I didn't want to watch all the videos.

looked at another way

Doing this once and publishing video of it results in a massive savings in resources compared to each person who wants to see this happen having to do it themselves. Think how many wasted iPhones and non-food-safe toxified blenders would be created if even one in ten thousand people who watched this video had instead simply heard about it and decided to try it themselves.

Re:Maybe he should blend

WASTE YOUR GOD DAMNED MODPOINTS

Waste? Quite the contrary, my friend. Posts like yours were the reason mod points were created.

Re:Best use

I'm sure Steve Jobs will cry himself to sleep tonight because of your incisive critique.

Re:Best use

For the record, I have spent perhaps 2 hours tops using an Apple Computer. So I'm no expert. However I have been quite impressed by what I have seen of OSX.

It is important to remember the target markets of Apple: New or fairly inexperienced computer users, and certain specialist markets (like video editing).

1. interfaces are oversimplified and prevent real work from being done in many cases pertinent to me.

The interfaces are simplified, but often the powerful features are there, you just need to look harder (not in all cases of course). Hiding certain powerful tools helps new users immensely as it prevents them from accidentally Messing things up. The more powerful stuff is more hidden. For example the calculator has a very nice scientific mode, and apparently even has an RPN mode. Yes, the stock calculator program supports RPN! That is surprising. Often power stuff can be used by holding down one of the keyboard modifying keys (shift, option, etc.) while clicking. Other times there are keyboard shortcuts. It may not be easy to discover some of these, but they are often there. After all, open the terminal app, and you have a full BSD system (unless you chose not to install it). I will admit the not being able to discover some of the advanced things easily is not great.

Oversimplified interfaces ensure that people never learn about computers, and is analagous to using a calculator in a third grade arithmetic class. the interfaces should rather focus on being well-designed, capable, and efficient with a good balance of learning curve and power, not entirely focus on being "simple". this way, work will get done efficiently, the population will know a little about computers instead of none, and so on.

The target market has generally has little computer knowledge, and often little to no interest in learning very much. Lets face it, most people who use the computer to browse the web (go to very specific sites and/or watch YouTube videos), email, and basic word processing don't have much need to understand RAM, File systems, etc. Understanding that there is a limit to the storage space of the computer is useful, but that is about it. Also note that simple is often efficient (although of course not optimally efficient, and not always efficient).

3. oversimplified and unintuitive hardware. cd-rom drives that don't have an eject button at the OBVIOUS location, where you put the freaking cd in. cases without power buttons.

I will agree with this point completely. The CD-drive thing especially. I know the Macbooks have obvious power buttons, as does Mac Pro. The Mac mini has a clearly marked power button on the back. However, I have never been able to find a power button on the iMac.

4. badly-designed hardware. slot-loading cd drives that scratch disks, don't eject disks, and have no easy way to manually take them out in emergency. batteries that cannot be replaced by the user, on iphone and many ipods.

I have little to no experience with the hardware being bad. I will say that the batteries not being removable appears to have everything to do with Steve Jobs sense of aesthetics. A battery cover would look terrible in his opinion, and besides it could get lost.

5. badly-designed hardware as a marketing tactic to get people to spend more on tech support (batteries, being the biggest culprit).

I'm strongly doubting this. Originally Apple did not have a battery replacement program. This appeared to be because Steve Jobs honestly believed most users would choose to buy a new iPod model for its new features, etc. before the battery wore out. Further I think they already were selling OEM batteries to third party repair shops, who could then replace the battery. Apple appears to be fully co-operative with third party repair shops, but of course, makes no guarantees on behalf of those shops. Also remember that for the cost of replacing the battery

What?

interfaces are oversimplified and prevent real work from being done in many cases pertinent to me.

What? This is Unix. You can do whatever you want. Please provide examples detailing where the UI prevented "real work from being done."

2. oversimplified interfaces ensure that people never learn about computers

GAH! I hate this argument. It's so fucking stupid. What you're basically saying is that you want to force people to use unusable stuff just so that they are forced to learn. This is insane. Nobody does that! It's like asking for cars to have no electronics because due to all the electronics, people don't have to learn about how an engine works.

Look, if you have a choice between something that is hard to use and something that is easy to use, picking the hard item is not smart. It's stupid.

3. oversimplified and unintuitive hardware.

Where by "unintuitive" you mean "not matching what I've learned while using another system." So not only do you want to use the hard-to-use system because it forces you to learn, you also want every other system to behave like the hard-to-use system.

4. badly-designed hardware. slot-loading cd drives that scratch disks, don't eject disks, and have no easy way to manually take them out in emergency. batteries that cannot be replaced by the user, on iphone and many ipods.

Never heard about the slot-loading drives scratching disks. The batteries are somewhat annoying, but you can replace iPod batteries on your own, and frankly, I've never wanted to replace a battery in a cell phone or an iPod, so I don't really care. You get something in return, too: Better design.

5. badly-designed hardware as a marketing tactic to get people to spend more on tech support (batteries, being the biggest culprit).

What? Is this conspiracy theory day?

6. proprietary hardware. the "apple display connector". non-standard usb cables on some keyboards. non-standard earphone jacks on the iPod instead of simply having standard mini USB connector and standard 1/8" jack connector separately so any cable from your closet can be used to transfer data.

Apple goes with proprietary if they think they can significantly improve upon the open solution. They've done it less and less often recently.

7. bad looks. i hate white hardware. okay, this is just my opinion, though.

Few Apple hardware is white anymore.

8. non-intuitive software. for one, the easiest way one can think of using an mp3 player on windows is to shove it into a USB drive, have the drive pop open as any thumb drive would, drag mp3's into it, and eject it. but nooooooo you have to either install iTunes or get some hack that updates the iPod DB. sheesh.

Uh. What. Manually dragging your MP3 files on a MP3 player that is mounted by Windows is more intuitive than just plugging it in and letting it sync automatically? Using Windows to manage your portable music player is more intuitive than using your music management application? I think you should consider the possibility that your definition of "intuitive" does not match most other people's definition of "intuitive." I would guess that using your hard-to-use system has kind of destroyed your calibration in that area.