With the recent release of iTunes 10.5, you can store your music and TV purchases in iCloud and get them on your iPad, iPhone or iPod any where and anytime. However, its speed and performance still hasn’t been updated in any meaningful way so that many Apple devices fans think it as a clunky, slow and bloat software and try to search for alternative ways to manage their Apple devices content easier.
This passage rounds up Five free alternatives to iTunes for easily managing your iPad, iPhone and iPod:

Alternative 1: CopyTrans Manager

CopyTrans Manager is a free iTunes replacement to fully support the iPad, the iPhone and the iTouch.It is designed for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 and portable so that you don’t need to install any program and just take it with you on your iPad, iPhone, iTouch to use on any PC on-the-go.

CopyTrans Manager works with a range of models:
iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S up to iOS 5
iPod Touch, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G up to iOS 5
iPad 1 and 2 up to iOS 5
iPod Nano up to iPod Nano 5G
iPod Classic, iPod Video and iPod Photo
iPod Shuffle up to iPod Shuffle 4G
iPod Mini
Now reads Mac formatted iPods (HFS+)

Alternative 2: YamiPod

YamiPod is a iTunes alternative freeware for you to efficiently manage your iPod. It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation in Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. YamiPod is now available in 28 languages including English, French, German, Italian and so on. With YamiPod, you can copy music to iPod and move music from iPod back to your computer.

Alternative 3: gtkpod iPod Manager

gtkpod iPod Manager is a free iTunes replacement for Linux users, which supports all iPod models and supports various file types. With gtkpod, you can add MP3, WAV, M4A (non-protected AAC), M4B (audio book), podcasts, and various video files (single files, directories or existing playlists) to your iPod and create, modify playlists. gtkpod has the ability to modify ID3 tags and refresh ID3 tags from file.

Alternative 4: Songbird

As iTunes alternative software, Songbird is a intergration of desktop Web player, a digital jukebox and Web browser. it supports add-ons and skins feathers, for example, with Last.fm Radio Add-on, you can listen to tracks based on your Songbird, scrobble your last.fm labrary, or tune in to your friend’s favorite songs. And Songbird is a cross-platform and open source software. Some of the most popular handsets in the world are fully supported by Songbird like Samsung Captivate, Epic 4G, Vibrant, Fascinate and Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Alternative 5: Winamp

With Winamp, you can listen, watch and manage music, video, podcasts and internet radio on your desktop and devices. Winamp is for people who like to customize, tinker and tweak: offering the widest range of extensions, skins, and services to add to your experience. And Winamp allows you to significantly customize your experience with over 6,000 add-ons (skins, plug-ins, online services and visualizations) created by a loyal development community. The Winamp Media Player is used worldwide and comes available in 16 different languages.

Author Bio : Conielben is a blogger who works for Software Review which is a technology blog.

Wondering how to setup iOS 5′s new iMessage service on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch? Using iMessage you can send text messages, photos, video and much more to other iMessage users around the world, all over your existing data connection. That’s right, no texting plans or charges needed! Here’s how to get started.

Let’s take a look at the iPhone first

• First off ensure your running the latest iOS 5 software
• Select settings
• Select Messages
• Turn the toggle switch for iMessage to on

• You should see a message saying “Activating”
• You can now enter your receive to addresses, this can be an email address (Apple ID) or just your iPhone phone number, or both. The phone number part should already be filled out
• If you have an Apple ID and want to use that as well as your phone number, enter it here

• Once completed you will now have an active iMessage account on your iPhone
• You can toggle various options on and off such as read recipts etc
• Also you have an option to send as an SMS if iMessage data connection is not available

That is all you need, you now have iMessage set up on your iPhone!  

Now for the iPad and iPod touch

Setting up iMessage on the iPad and iPod touch is slightly diferent as these devices do not have any telephone number associated with them.

• First off ensure your running the latest iOS 5 software
• Select settings
• Select Messages
• Turn the toggle switch for iMessage to on
• A new box will open asking you for an Apple ID

• If you have an Apple ID, enter it here
• If you don’t have one, select Create New Account
• Once completed you will now have an active iMessage account on your iPad or iPod touch

Ok now we have iMessage set up there are a few things to consider. If you only have one device then you are fine. If you have multiple iOS 5 devices then you will need to think about how you want them to work. Do you want separate iMessage accounts for each device? More than likely, you would want one account that stays in sync across all of your devices. If you want separate iMessage accounts for each device, you will need to create separate Apple ID’s for each device, these can be created for free in the iMessage original set up screen. Just select Create New Account.
If you want to have all devices use one iMessage account then you need to input the same Apple ID details into each device iMessage setup page.
That should be all you need to get started with iMessage!