Sarah Tew/CNET Recently the subject of people's least-favorite software came up. Instead of the usual suspects -- Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Norton Antivirus -- I was surprised by the unanimous response of a mixed group of Mac and Windows users: 'iTunes stinks' (or words to that effect). Apple's media software doesn't earn a spot on my personal list of adventures in bad coding (which is dominated by products from Microsoft and Adobe), but I rely on the program primarily because of ancillary products: the iPhone, iPad, iCloud, and iTunes Match. I was struck by the between the program's five-star rating by CNET Editors and its two-and-a-half-star rating by users. I looked at two very different iTunes replacements: the free for Windows (also available are $25 and $50 Gold versions) and PixiApps' for Mac OS X and iOS. Ecoute's page on Download.com indicates that the program costs $8 after a 15-day free trial, but the states that the Mac version is free due to 'sandboxing issues for the Mac App Store.' The iOS version of Ecoute costs $2.99.

Shipping software for mac. How to access iTunes U course content on your Mac or PC computer using the iTunes application. - University of New Orleans Office of Instructional Technology.

(An alternative to iTunes for transferring media from a Windows PC to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod is the free.) All your media-file information at a glance The first time you run MediaMonkey, the program prompts you to register (optional) and to make the program the default for playing various media file types (deselect some or all of the preselected types to retain your current default player). If you change your defaults, iTunes will prompt you to change them back to that program the next time it opens. Next, MediaMonkey prompts you to select which locations on your computer you want it to scan to discover your media. The current user's Music folder is selected by default.

MediaMonkey prompts you to choose the folders to scan as the program discovers the media files stored on your computer. Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET The option to scan for new media files at startup is selected by default; you can choose to scan for files continuously. Click the Options button to make other changes, such as enabling a password-protected Party Mode. MediaMonkey lets you create a Party Mode that locks down your PC to prevent unauthorized access.

Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET MediaMonkey's main screen has the multiple panes of Windows Explorer and File Explorer: a folder tree in the left pane, and folder contents on the right. Categories in the left pane include Music, Classical, Video, Playlists, Net Radio (Shoutcast and Icecast directories), and Web (five popular music retailers).

The chunkiness of the main MediaMonkey window takes some time to get used to. Stacked above the iTunes-like list of songs are small panes that sort your library by genre, album, and artist. On the far right are two Now Playing panes. The playback controls at the bottom of the screen include a mini volume bar and buttons for shuffle, auto-DJ, equalizer controls, and playlists (although not your iTunes playlists). MediaMonkey's multipane window sorts your library content and puts playback controls in a row at the bottom of the screen.

Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET MediaMonkey's scan of my system discovered 5,074 files using a total of about 25GB of storage. The iTunes library on the PC has 5,191 files and just over 26GB of total storage (note that both libraries include many duplicate titles -- not MediaMonkey's fault). My favorite MediaMonkey feature is the small playback controller that pops open when you hover over the program's icon in the Windows task bar.