Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Do You Need a Mac to Have an iPod?

Do You Need a Mac to Have an iPod?
By Henrik V Blunck

Apple produced both the Mac in the forms of either iMacs or MacBooks (along with the Mac Mini for multimedia purposes) and the iPod. Therefore, some think you must have a Mac to get the full use of your iPod. This article should help shed some light on the subject.

First of all you need to identify which iPod you have:
  • iPod Shuffle
  • iPod Nano
  • iPod Touch
  • iPod Classic

With the first two types of iPods you don't have any screen. These iPods are purely for sound files - music, podcasts etc.

With the last two types of iPods, you have a screen which means you can play multimedia files such as videos, quick time videos etc. The iPod Touch has a touch screen where you can also run a multitude of programs.

How Do You Get Content for Your iPod?
The important tool you need is iTunes. This program is automatically installed on a Mac computer, but Apple has also created a Windows version which enables you to download things for your iPod when using other operating systems. iTunes can be downloaded for free from Apple's website when you click iTunes in the top menu, and then choosing the green button "Download now".

What you do is you simply connect your iPod to a USB-port on your computer, and then iTunes will do what is called a synchronization of content on your iPod with multimedia on your computer. The first time you connect your iPod you will be given the option of whether to synchronize all multimedia files or only files you specify. What fits best is dependent on two factors: what you need to bring with you - and the amount of memory you have available.

Once your files are synchronized, you click the arrow next to the iPod - and you can then remove the USB-cable from your computer.

Be Mindful of Updates
Some few have advocated using other tools to transfer files - and they are welcome to do so. But I would highly recommend using iTunes because it's free, and fully ensures your software (the so-called firmware) is fully up-to-date since this is checked automatically every time you connect your iPod. Having the latest firmware ensures full functionality of your iPod in much the same way as you would also update drivers for your sound card when new versions become available. This ensures that any bug found - and repaired - by the Apple team is also removed from your iPod. Content you have downloaded to your iPod will remain on the iPod, and firmware only occupies a very small amount of memory, a few megabytes.


I thank you for reading this article, and would recommend checking out my blog on Apple Macs over at http://www.blunck.dk/loves-apple-mac/
If you wish, you may follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/henrikblunck


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