Contemplating iPod 3G 10gig purchase
I've done some research on it and it looks to be pretty darn sweet. Humor me here, I can't tell if this is misinformation or what, so I decided asking you guys would be a good idea.
I read that in "firewire drive mode" you can store songs that you can retrieve from another computer, but can't play those songs back on the iPod itself. Supposedly if you upload your music to the iPod with iTunes/MusicMatch/EphPod, then you can listen to the music but can't move it off on another computer.
My question is: why? I work on many different computers: my home PC, my work PC, and the lab computers at school. I am simply making copies of it for my own use wherever I am. If I'm going to shell out a premium for this device, I don't want it to try to tie my music to any particular computer. Yes, basically I want it to act as a portable hard drive, which it isn't designed specifically to do -- but its something it COULD do!
Is this true? If it is, Is there any way around this? I am angered when companies simply disallow things because they 'might' be used for unlawful purposes.
Thanks for your time.
[1184 byte] By [
antareus] at [2007-11-9 13:02:26]
# 1 Re: Contemplating iPod 3G 10gig purchase
Firewire disk mode has really nothing to do with playing back music on the iPod itself.
I'm pretty sure it just enables you to go into your iPod through Windows Explorer as if it were an external hard-drive, which in a sense, is.
If you wanted to place songs on an iPod to listen to, you need to use a special program designed to do that. iPod isn't really capable of drag-n-drop yet.
Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure that's what it means.
P.S. - If you plan to use it as a portable hard drive also, I suggest you create a folder for all your "other" stuff on there to just keep things in order.
Tekron at 2007-11-15 14:15:41 >
# 3 Re: Contemplating iPod 3G 10gig purchase
You don't need to put it in firewire disk mode. That is essentially a troubleshooting feature to be used when the iPod isn't being recognized automatically by your computer.
Here's how it works...
1. When you connec the iPod to your computer (any computer) it will be recognized as an external hard drive. You can navigate it, copy to it, what ever you want. It'll just show up as another hard drive.
2. Here are the issues about taking music off of it and getting music onto it:
a. All the tunes are stored randomly (and typically renamed to numbers, depending on what program you use to upload), in 20 folders. So, once you copy the music to the iPod it's difficult to copy the music off because you don't know where the tunes are located. If you install software on the other computers that you are connecting to (such as ephpod or whatever), you'll be able to use those tools to copy the tunes off.
b. If you want to copy tunes/files to the iPod that's no problem, you just copy them in My Computer or whatnot. But, remember, unless you use an uploading program, you won't be able to listen to those tunes. The iPod's internal database needs to be updated.
This may sound confusing, but remember, it depends on what you want to do. Copying to it: no problem, just remember w/o software it won't play the tunes. Copying from it: more difficult, but can be done.
Adam
# 4 Re: Contemplating iPod 3G 10gig purchase
Excellent, thanks for the clarification!
I guess I will throw Ephpod or whatever the lightest program is that can let me get music off the iPod onto the disk portion and if I have to move playable music off to another PC I can load it immediately.
Thanks again.
