iTunes Alternatives for iPods (and Windows)

Now don't get me wrong, iTunes is a great program. In a few respects even better than Music Match Pro. But it has some warts.

For instance... I sync up my iPod at home. Then at work I hook it up there. iTunes comes up and deletes songs from the iPod that I don't have on my work computer. That's a pretty big wart.

Anyway, five years ago I registered some shareware Windows software called Notmad from Red Chair Software. It was alternative software to work with my Creative Labs MP3 players. The I got an iPod and registered Anapod from the same company.


In a nutshell, here's what Anapod does. Without iTunes, it lets you copy music, movies, audiobooks, photos, contacts etc from your Windows machine to your iPod... AND BACK. Yes, I can sync up my iPod at home, plug it in at work and copy the songs from my mp3 player to my desktop computer. Apple doesn't seem to have any plans in place for the loss of your music, whether purchased or in plain MP3 format other than buying the music again. It's entirely possible that at some point, your only copy of your legally owned music might exist only on your iPod.

Anapod offers much more though.. maintenance utilities for repairing corrupt iPod databases, removing entries for files that really aren't there and more.

Even better, you can stream music to your computer from your iPod and to go one step further... if I remember correctly, you can do this from other networked computers than the one to which the iPod is docked.

I've recommended Anapod to a number of people over the years.

Now for the wart.

I have two iPods. An HP 40GB and an iPod Photo 80GB (bought a week before the 160GB iPod Photo came out of course.) When connecting an iPod to Anapod the first time, you have to "authorize" it by entering the transaction code from when you purchased the software. Red Chair keeps a record of this along with the Device IDs of the iPods you've worked with. This makes sense as you are allowed or even expected to run Anapod on a number of computers.

A friend back east had the battery wimp out in her iPod Mini. The mini contained her only copies of 196 songs. If she sent it to Apple for the $50 battery replacement, she'd get a refurbished mini in return, minus her songs. So she mailed it to me. I bought a new battery and installed it for her. And in the process torn the mini ribbon cable that connects the shuttle wheel to the main board of the Mini.

So I buy her a new iPod. I connect her old mini to my work computer and Anapod. "Authorize" her mini and copy her music to her own folder on my hard drive. No, I do not do this professionally. It was just a favor for a friend.

I hook up the new iPod I just bought her and go to authorize it. When I enter it the transaction code, it tells me that I've already used it. ??? Yeah, no S#$T Sherlock. I searched Red Chair's site today and can't find ANY PLACE that says there's a limit on how many iPods you can use with their software. So I filled out the form to unauthorize her old iPod. It made me pick a reason from a list... options where "Replaced Under Warranty", "Lost", "Stolen". Luckily there is a comment box. Hours later I'm still waiting for an answer via email. And if I authorize THIS one, I'll just have to unauthorize it later as I doubt it'll ever see my computer again.

Not all is lost though. I found PoddoX! PoddoX is very similar to Anapod though it doesn't yet have as many features. OTOH, it is a single file Windows executable of about 100K, has no registration, authorization and is 100% free of charge! I downloaded it, unzipped it, copied it to my utilities folder, double clicked on it and selected the files to copy to the iPod. The picture at the top of this entry is of the PoddoX program.

UPDATE:
When on the Red Chair Software site, if you go to Anapod, then at the bottom of the page, click "Help and Support", then "thinking about buying" then "ordering and policies", there is no mention of a limit on how many iPods you can use with Anapod.

If instead of "thinking about ordering" you clicked on "A registered user" there's nothing on it either. This is what I used for my post.

I just stumbled across a mention of a limit though. You have to click on the "Store" link from the Anapod page. Then on "Policies and FAQ" which is different than "Ordering and Policies".


One of the items on the FAQ:

"What if my family has multiple iPods? If there is more than one iPod in your family's household, simply purchase the Universal Edition. Universal Edition may be used to cover iPods belonging to family members within a household (i.e. spouse or children), within reason.

Obviously, your purchase does not cover iPods that belong to other people such as friends, co-workers, roommates, or strangers; they need to purchase their own copy of Anapod Explorer."

So, "within reason" means two iPods according to Red Chair Software.
www.redchairsoftware.com/store/anapod.php will take you to the FAQ.

Links in this entry:
www.apple.com/itunes/
www.redchairsoftware.com
www.redchairsoftware.com/store/anapod.php
www.poddox.com
Apple iPod 80GB and 160GB models from Amazon (I get a small commission if you buy from these links.)