I went out today and bought a 10GB iPod, having failed to do so at the weekend because MicroAnvika couldn't answer my questions about PC/Mac operation, and PC World were out of stock after I'd done the research for myself.
The answer to the question, for those who are interested, is that no one should buy a Mac iPod. With the PC one, you get extra PC software (the Mac equivalent comes with the Mac) and a six-pin to four-pin Firewire adaptor, which will be handy if I ever want to switch back to PC for some reason. I had to reinstall the software to convert it from PC to Mac, but I had to do that anyway to downgrade it from version 1.2.2 (which has volume limits set by EU regulations) to version 1.2.1 (which doesn't). Not that I plan to damage my hearing by cranking it up to 11 through the ear-buds, you understand, but I might want to use it to drive something else some time, and need higher volume settings.
In fact, if you don't want to reinstall the software, the PC iPod works fine with OS X (though not, I understand, Classic) without reinstalling, except that you don't get a pretty iPod icon on your desktop, but just a generic mounted drive icon. I thought about installing the PC software version 1.2.1 so that I could use it as a Firewire drive on PCs as well, but I couldn't be bothered.
More on its performance when I've actually had a chance to try it out. At present I am charging it, syncing my address book and calendar onto it, syncing my iTunes library onto it, ripping a CD in iTunes (about twenty to go) and copying a 420MB file from the PC to the Mac over the wireless network. Try doing all that simultaneously on a Windows machine while also updating your blog.
Posted by mikeplokta at January 20, 2003 07:29 PM | TrackBackActually, I'm not sure - having used both Mac and PC versions, I'd say that PC owners are actually better off getting a Mac version and a copy of XPlay. Data transfers through Music Match are at least half the speed of XPlay (and possibly slower).
I do understand that the latest builds of XPlay support Windows, but I haven't tried that with Mary's yet. The 20GB I plan to buy this week is definitely going to be a Mac version.
If only because I get to use Xpod with it. I've yet to find a similar tool for the Windows version. Xpod meant that when Charlie was down the other weekend I was able to pull the entire contents of his iPod onto my TiBook in about 20 minutes...
Posted by: Simon Bisson on January 21, 2003 10:56 AM