hi all,

i've been trying to make sense of all these posts on this website about using the new 30GB iPod's on a windows machine with USB. most of them seem to say that you need an update from apple which isnt out yet. apple itself says that too.

well you dont. it will work with just the USB/Firewire combo cable. the name that apple has given for this cable is stupid and confusing to someone who's never dealt with Apple before.

here's the deal.

Buy the Apple USB/Firewire Dock connector cable from apple.com's shop, and you are all set to connect your new ipod to your pc. you dont need firewire. forget all those posts about needing firewire to charge etc. they are just confusing you.

you connect the single end of the cable to your dock. then connect the firewire end to the AC Adapter's port. Then connect the USB end of the end to your PC's USB port. If you have XP, your new usb device should be automatically detected. open up windows explorer and make sure that it shows up as a drive.
if it doesnt, click on the "safely remove hardware" icon in the system tray and try inserting your ipod in the dock again.
it will work.

then launch ephod. it will ask to rebuild the directories. do it. after that simply point ephod to your music files folder and it will start copying files.

once this is done, remove the USB device from your system using the icon in the system tray, remove your ipod and start listening.

simple.

if you've read this post so far, then you will realize that i didnt install anything from the apple cd that comes with the ipod. you dont need anything with a usb connection.