wanna be iPhone convert

Yes (Maybe).

Apple will take aac,mp3, wav, alac, m4r audio. NO wma, ra, au.

Wants qt, mov, mp4 video. NO avi, wmv, mpg(?).

If you have lots of contents on those other formats then you will have to spend time converting them.

You MUST use iTunes. There is an iTunes Windows.

Then the iPhone will work for you, but you can't go halfsie, you must BELIEVE else you end up fighting it.

You HAVE to metadata your audio files properly from the getgo, ID3 tagged.

You have no other option than to use iTunes, it got quirks, but plenty of us put up with it. Works if you don't fight it.

There is a rigid synching mechanism that you must follow, you cannot open the iPhone device and drag&drop stuff to it like a thumb drive.

Never owned an iPod? that's pretty much how the iPhone works.

 

No, you don't. Luckily there are many alternatives.

 

Yes Einstein, there are ALWAYS other ways, but OP specifies NO HICK UPS, NO TIME.

 

Then don't use iTunes. The iPhone has been PC free since iOS 5.

 

Exactly, I don't use iTunes at all.

 

So that's it? Don't have to use iTunes. Period. Stop?

No details, no links, no personal cell# so you can be contacted 24x7?

 

You haven't heard? We've been able to activate the iPhone without connecting to iTunes and use iCloud for syncing and backups for some time now. Google "iPhone PC free."

 

The only alternative would be to use a third party app like Google Play Music, but if he wants to use the native music app then he will have to use iTunes at least initially.

To the OP, the above is pretty much correct. You will have to sync your music with iTunes and convert to compatible formats. Using windows PC will not be a problem.

iTunes definitely has it's quirks but it's ok if you just go with the flow. After that, you can use icloud and iTunes Match.

 

I started using Google Music earlier this year when I had my HTC One. Google released their music app for the iPhone a few months back and it works REALLY WELL. I'd suggest giving that a try(this is even easier if you're already a Google Music user, just install the app and sign in) before you start converting all your music and playing around with iTunes.

 

Don't go in thinking this will fix everything. Apple has its share of problems too. Right now I'm trying to figure out why my music won't transfer to my iPhone. I don't do any clouds. Most of my music is purchased from a music store. Everything is uploaded as an MP3. I will figure it out


Go ahead and download iTunes. Start looking around. Check out some videos on Apple site and youtube to get you started. Right now you will see a lot of Apps and music for free downloads. Its not bad as some people think. Those that hate iTunes as those who just hate period. iTunes uses a database like mentality… if you go in thinking that then you should be fine. It would help if you keep your stuff organized. Make sure the songs have the artist, album, genre, and year listed..this way when you make a Smartlist (query) it will go over smooth.