ipod Qs, platform format, etc.

[allen]

i've never owned an ipod.
if i get one, and want to be able to connect it to my friends' itunes, can i get it to connect to both mac and pc OS's? should i have my ipod formatted to mac or pc?

what's your take on that fancy zune thing?

[christopher_wolf]

You will have to jump through hoops to get it to connect to a different "library" if it has already been connected to one. So having it connect to your friend's iTunes after it has sync'd with your version might be a little difficult. There are, however, programs like Ephpod, Anapod, and even a plugin for Winamp that can get files onto and off of just about all the iPods correctly and quickly without having to pair it with a music library.

[skitty4gzus]

as long as your going pc-pc or mac-mac it isn't that big of a deal. Whatever computer you set it up on will update automatically and not be too hairy, but when you connect the same ipod to another computer(say pc-pc) you have to manually transfer files from iTunes to the ipod. You dont need any fancy software to do this as i do this on my pc and my thinkpad back and forth. I haven't got it down to a perfect science quite yet as I've only done it a few times now.

[allen]

thanks,
the cross platform i was mostly worried about though...
say if i owned both a mac and a pc?
or wanted to copy music from a friend that had a mac and i own a pc.

[skitty4gzus]

Im sure with one of those crack softwares you can cross platform, but i wouldn't recommend it. as it stands though cross platform swapping does not work.