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However, it would be virtually impossible for Apple to convince the RIAA/MPAA to allow them to even SELL (license?) the content available at the ITMS (which, anyone would admit, is what drives iPod sales), without some sort of DRM. This does not make Apple the RIAA/MPAA's biotch, however. It is just a market reality.

If you take a look around at other DRM schemes, you will soon come to the conclusion that FairPlay(tm) is by far the least-restrictive.

Similarly, the extra code (and database space!) required to keep track of who's 'Pod can "trade" what with what other 'Pod would make iTunes FAR less problematic for most users.

However, this is all a red herring. There are several 'Pod-trading warez out there, like the beer-free senuti , that allow fairly painless 'Pod-"x" Mac 'Pod-"y" transfers in a very iTunes-like manner.

Maybe that will help.

We all go round to the drummer's house to have a jam, we all have our ipods with us. Now - we should be able to pool all our music together. But try doing it using iTunes - its on the verge of impossible

in fact most ipod owners are afraid to plug their ipod in to someone's computer in case all the files are delete

Yeah...someone should really write a shareware or freeware program that allows you to copy music off your iPod onto your hard drive. You'd think with all the people with iPods, someone would have thought to write software like that.

Send her a card/present in the mail with a DVD archive of her MP3s. Along with that, send her a CD with the following program:

http://wbyoung.ambitiouslemon.com/senuti/

Then write her the following instructions:

1) Use senuTi to copy your songs to iTunes from your iPod.
2) If your iPod doesn't have any songs, copy them off the DVD into iTunes by dragging the MP3s.

Merry iChristmas

Not sure if this helps --- on macintosh, try senuti http://wbyoung.ambitiouslemon.com/senuti/ I used to offload an ipod full of stuff into a new iTunes library.

That's miserable. Get Senuti and keep that on the iPod instead. It lets you pull whatever tracks you want over to any machine you connect it to. Reads and sends to playlists, etc. Works great. Completely free.
If you're on Windows, I don't have much sympathy, but there's probably something like that on Versiontracker.

If you're using a mac, just copy Sentui on to your iPod. Then when you go to another computer, you can just open Sentui and copy all the music (or a few tracks) on your iPod to the host computer's iTunes library. It's brilliant for moving your music to work or giving your friends a few tracks. (Oh that's illegal. umm... not for that then. riiiight.)

I mentioned it above, but I put it on the box I run. Feel free to try and crash it.
Here

Or Here
Just trying to help

If you have a mac anyway. It actually reads the iPod internal database and puts the files into the proper subdirectories, just like the original iTunes Music folder... not that digging through strangely named subdirectories to find your music is hard... this just removes that step nicely. It also plays the tracks off your iPod directly, if you'd like.

Senuti link.

The only problem with doing a copy like that is that it doesn't bring across your playlists, play counts or ratings. Also, songs that are .wav's do not have their meta data brought across as they cannot contain any.

Neither of the programs listed in the article seem to do either, and as a developer of this exact type of software, I know how valuable it can be.

Here are some of the options I find worthy (Mac OS X only):
- iPodRip - I wrote this, so it is a plug for me. Recovers everything. Ten unrestricted uses, so feel free to download it, recover and delete it.
- PodWorks - Cheaper than iPodRip but it contains restrictions. Does not recover all meta data.
- Senuti - Does not recover playlists or any meta data. Free, although if you wanted to recover for free, simply use iPodRip and throw it away.

In the end for most users it is all about ease of use and trust. You can't ask the developer of terminal or the Unix command line for assistance, but you can ask the developer of an application. You also may not feel safe in a CLI, where as a GUI can provide that comfort zone. Those apps only require a single button press and that gives users peace of mind.

In addition to the iPod Photo, which comes in 40GB and new 60GB flavors for $499 and $599 respectively, there's also:

- iPod U2 Special Edition ($349)

- The Complete U2, a digital box set of every song ever recorded by U2, plus some crazy and rare recordings, available in November for $149 via the iTunes Music Store, with a $50 certificate towards it with the iPod U2 Edition

- iTunes 4.7

- QuickTime 6.5.2

- iPod Updater 3.0.4 (2004-10-20)

- iPod-focused Apple Store: iPod Store

- EU iTunes Music Store added to 9 more European nations, with over 700,000 songs

- iTunes Music Store is coming to Canada in November

- Press releases

Other cool things: in addition to its dock, the iPod Photo can also even output video via its own headphone jack with a special 1/8" AV cable, and the 220x176 65536-color screen also displays album art while playing, as well as color games, etc! (Don't have much/any album art? Get it!)

While Steve Jobs talked at length during the presentation about why Apple isn't doing video on a portable device itself for reasons of battery life, device/screen size, weight, etc, now that this device has video output capabilities, I think it's a clear sign of the direction; that is, future devices - or future firmware - being able to output video content to an external monitor/projector. Imagine this: your iPod dock, already at your entertainment center. The iTunes Movie Store (or, your own iMovie content). H.264/MPEG AVC (Microsoft WMV9/VC-1 has hit some snags in its bid for standardization). Download a movie, sync to your iPod. Drop the iPod in its video dock at your TV (or ANY device that has video inputs). Done. And a LOT cleaner and easier than having a whole separate computer that needs to be maintained as a part of your entertainment center. Add 802.11g with things like AirPort Express to the mix, and who knows what might come...