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Apple Businesses

iTunes for Windows Breaking Older iPods 683

Posted by Cliff from the danger-will-robinson! dept.
evil_liam asks: "In our office we've been running an older 5gb iPod with both Macs and PC's (using Xplay), but when we installed iTunes for the PC the iPod stopped working. Songs and playlists transfer over fine, and you can see them and play them in iTunes, but you can't listen to them on the iPod, itself. It shows the song details and so forth, but skips through the tracks, playing 0 seconds of each one until it finishes. This only applies to tracks added since iTunes was installed. No amount of reformatting, or rolling back firmware seems to work. When I called Apple, they stated that they simply don't support the use of the older Mac iPods on PC's and are not responsible, even though they admit that it was their own software that caused this. We're not alone, see this thread at Apple. I'm not quite suggesting that this was deliberate, but they are aware of it and don't seem to care." Does anyone have ideas on possible fixes for the afflicted iPods?
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iTunes for Windows Breaking Older iPods More

iTunes for Windows Breaking Older iPods

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  • Apple approved fix (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:51PM (#7477076)
    Buy a newer iPod.

    • Re:Apple approved fix (Score:5, Funny)

      by Kethinov ( 636034 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:52PM (#7477084) Homepage Journal
      Better fix: don't use Windows.
      • Better fix: don't use Windows.

        I knew it wouldn't take long for someone to blame Apple's fuck up on MS.

        • Re:Apple approved fix (Score:4, Informative)

          by black mariah ( 654971 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:35PM (#7478733)
          It's more of a "It wasn't designed for Windows use to begin with" thing than a "MS sucks" thing.

    • Re:Apple approved fix (Score:5, Funny)

      by morelife ( 213920 ) <f00fbugNO@SPAMpostREMOVETHISman.at> on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:53PM (#7477605)
      Buy a newer iPod.
      -anonymous slashdot coward

      Buy a newer iPod. Sucker.
      -S. Jobs

      Buy a newer iPod. Sucker.
      -B. Gates

      Apple's DRM is illegal and unconstitutional. Buying a newer iPod will not remove the infraction.
      -D. McBride

  • Apple always said... (Score:5, Funny)

    by KirkH ( 148427 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:52PM (#7477086)
    ...that the iTunes store was a way to sell more iPods. Now we see what they meant! :)

  • My opinion.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by cK-Gunslinger ( 443452 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:55PM (#7477114) Journal

    Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com]

    eBay it and get a walkman. =P

  • Not Bashing... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TheGax ( 572856 ) <jeff,meyer&gmail,com> on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:56PM (#7477125) Homepage
    But from talking to my Mac using friends, this is SOP for Apple. Try running iTunes on some older version of MacOS... probably won't work. Or try installing OSX on older hardware, same issue. They don't stick with older hardware or software.

    • Re:Not Bashing... (Score:2, Informative)

      by BitGeek ( 19506 )
      Misrepresentation.

      Apple supports older hardware. You can run Panther and the latest version of iTuns on older hardware. You just can't run the current version of iTunes on an old version of the operating system because it makes use of the Safari web rendering stuff that didn't exist in the older version of OSX.

      This is not unusual and not a problem.

      OS X works on a much wider range of hardware than Apple promised it would and officially supports.

      For instance, I have it running on an old beige G3 thats r

    • yes, you are bashing.. (Score:4, Informative)

      by SethJohnson ( 112166 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:09PM (#7477245) Homepage Journal


      I run the Mac OS X Jaguar on my B/W G3 450mhz box just fine. I bought that computer in 1998. If I had an iPod, I expect it would work ok. I don't, though. I have an old Rio500 that iTunes supports even though the company that made the Rio500 doesn't exist anymore.


      And you know what? iTunes is a superior interface for uploading songs to the Rio than the software that shipped with the player or the Real Audio player.

  • Perhaps you should have read the manual or the FAQ (Score:5, Informative)

    by Fux the Penguin ( 724045 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:56PM (#7477131) Journal
    Question 7: I have both a Mac and a PC. Will my iPod work on both?
    Answer: No, not at the same time. iPod is configured for either Mac or PC. You can use the iPod Software Updater utility to restore iPod to work with a Mac or a PC (depending on which version of the utility you use). See technical document 60983, "iPod: How to Restore" for more information.

    Note: Using the iPod for Mac on a PC, or using the iPod for Windows on a Mac, is not supported by Apple.

    Question 8: Can I use an iPod formatted for Mac on a PC, or an iPod formatted for Windows on a Mac?
    Answer: It is not possible to use an iPod formatted for Mac with Windows. This is because Windows does not support the HFS Plus file system and therefore will not see the drive.

    You can convert an iPod formatted for Windows into an iPod for Mac by using the iPod for Mac Software Updater on the Apple website. Note that once it is reformatted, it will only work with Macs. You need Mac OS 9.2 or Mac OS X 10.1 or later to reformat an iPod for Windows into an iPod for Mac.

    Note: Using the iPod for Mac on a PC, or using the iPod for Windows on a Mac, is not supported by Apple.

    • Exactly correct. (Score:4, Informative)

      by jet_silver ( 27654 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:03PM (#7477200)
      I had this problem with my Windows-formatted iPod after trying to mount it, exactly once, on a Mac. The cure is to restore it. It doesn't seem you do any permanent damage this way.

    • Re:Perhaps you should have read the manual or the (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kaan ( 88626 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:09PM (#7477249)
      Using the iPod for Mac on a PC, or using the iPod for Windows on a Mac, is not supported by Apple

      This point needs to be emphasid a lot, because it is the key issue here. As far as I know, Apple has had this policy for all iPods since day one. So who's to blame, Apple for saying "use a Mac iPod on a Mac, and use a PC iPod on a PC", or the user who didn't listen and did what he wanted? Yes, it stinks that some people used to do this without problems, and now they're not so lucky. But the bottom line is that nobody should ever have used a Mac iPod on a PC in the first place.
      • Yes, it stinks that some people used to do this without problems, and now they're not so lucky. But the bottom line is that nobody should ever have used a Mac iPod on a PC in the first place.

        If I understand correctly then there's a "Mac ipod" and a "Windows ipod"? I've browsed the apple store and certainly not had this distinction leap out at me. If Apple is relying on people reading this fine print in order to avoid buying "the wrong kind" of ipod, I'd say that it's Apple responsibility to do far bett

      • But the bottom line is that nobody should ever have used a Mac iPod on a PC in the first place.

        Damn straight!

        They should have simply bought two iPods. Damned techno-anarchists, trying to deprive poor Apple of another $400!


        Regardless of what Apple may have claimed since day one, generally getting something "for PC" or "For Mac" only meant which drivers it included. If you could connect it to the same type of port and run it driverless, you could use it on either. Ethernet-connected "Apple-only" PC

        • Re:Perhaps you should have read the manual or the (Score:4, Informative)

          by Ironica ( 124657 ) <pixelNO@SPAMboondock.org> on Friday November 14, 2003 @06:10PM (#7477735) Journal
          Regardless of what Apple may have claimed since day one, generally getting something "for PC" or "For Mac" only meant which drivers it included. If you could connect it to the same type of port and run it driverless, you could use it on either. Ethernet-connected "Apple-only" PCL6 printer? Yeah, right, whatever, smoke s'more, Jobs.

          Does anyone remember buying pre-formatted 3.5" floppy disks? They would say "for Mac" or "for Windows" on the box, right? Again, poor driver support, right?

          The iPod is a drive... it's formatted in the file system appropriate to the machine it's used on. Has nothing to do with the drivers or ports. Sure, there's some software for the PC that will let you use your HFS+ formatted, first-generation iPod with it... iTunes isn't of this variety.

          Even the newest iPods have to be formatted for Windows before they are used under Windows. But the included software does that for you now.
          • Again, poor driver support, right?
            The iPod is a drive... it's formatted in the file system appropriate to the machine it's used on. Has nothing to do with the drivers or ports.

            Perhaps I look at this somewhat differently, as a firmware engineer (y'know, one of the guys who writes drivers for a living), but I still call it a driver issue.

            Rather than forcing users to reformat their iPods as either FAT32 or HFS, Apple could have taken the simple step of writing an Windows driver to add HFS support. No fu

    • Why the hell are FSs incompatible anyway? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cryptochrome ( 303529 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:32PM (#7477454) Journal
      Would somebody please tell me why they can't make a filesystem (or filesystem family) that preserves the basic functionality common to all filesystems but supports all the bells and whistles (resource forks, metainfo, etc.) needed to keep the various operating systems happy and can therefore be used with multiple machines with different OSs without jumping through hoops? I'm not saying every machine should use the same FS, I'm just saying there should be a basic standard that allows full functionality for any one OS and basic functionality for any given OS. And if there is one, why isn't anyone using it? It's not like this is an unusual issue - (CD/DVD)(+/-)(RW)s, floppy/zip disks, and portable drives of all kinds have had this problem for as long as I can remember. Why should finding/reading/writing/indexing a string of bits or grouping a bunch of files in a heirarchy readable to any machine be so troublesome?
  • Apple hates bad PR. Once all the Mac sites [macsurfer.com] pick this up, the pressure will mount and Apple will likely release a fix.

  • Not surpising... (Score:5, Informative)

    by bigbigbison ( 104532 ) * on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:57PM (#7477133) Homepage
    After all this is a MAC ipod on a WINDOWS machine. They never intended this particular ipod to be used on a windows machine. So why should they support the use of it? Yes subsequent ipods are designed to be for windows, but the one in question was not. Therefore, I do not see what anyone can expect of them. It would be nice if this mac designed product worked with their later newer windows designed product, but I do not see them under any obligation to do so.

  • Hmmm. (Score:5, Informative)

    by cmjensen ( 30043 ) * <cjensen@acm.org> on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:58PM (#7477146)
    Nothing in the link supports the allegation that "they are aware of this and don't seem to care." In the linked article, they just "we don't support your PC."

    Also in the linked discussion board, it seems like multiple problems are being reported as a single problem. For example, one guy reverted to old iPod software and still had problems. Another guy has problems only with music downloaded from iTunes. Another guy only has problems with CDs he ripped.

    Every consumer device has issues and flaming mad customers. The real question is, is the problem widespread. The other question is, why has Cliff posted three "an Apple consumer is having a problem" articles in the last couple of days (the first two seemed to be pretty damn stupid and non-widespread to me).

  • Accurate? (Score:5, Informative)

    by SlamMan ( 221834 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:59PM (#7477150)
    What is this, unsubstantiated rumor day on apple.slashdot? Sorry to hear about your iPod problems, but its hardly verified when the thread you link to is one you created and posted most of the comments on. The gus next to me at work has a 5GB thats works fine on with the Windows version of iTunes, and I haven't heard anything else like this from other friends or other discussion groups. Odds are you're specifically got borked.

    Call tech support again. I've always found them quite helpful (at least the AppleCare ones) when i've had hardware issues. Or take it to an Apple Store, heard good things about them ebing willing to bend over backwards to help out.

    • Re:Accurate? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by reiggin ( 646111 )
      Mod parent up. He's exactly right. The same guy posing the "problem" also created that thread. Cliff, do you do any research and check any details before posting any story related to Apple? This is 3 for 3. Cliff the "Let-Me-Turn-apple.slashdot.org-Into-A-FixIt-Forum " Slashdot Editor.

  • Unworthy of Slashdot (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Arkham ( 10779 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:01PM (#7477172)
    Is this really worth posting to the Slashdot home page? I'm an Apple user, and even to me this seems to be something worthy of posting to the MacNN/ArsTechnica forums, but not to the slashdot home page.

    Slashdot is not tech support.

  • But I thought Apple wanted people to switch? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by oliverk ( 82803 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:01PM (#7477173)
    Of the 8 posts on apple's site, most of them seem to think that Apple has done this intentionally. Let's be clear--Apple has NOTHING to gain by pissing off the Windows user base. Their entire strategy hinges on positive experience with Apple products that encourages people to switch and have that experience with every interaction. I would be surprised if the actual interactions with Apple have been all that negative (yes...I'm saying that some people may be aggrevated and exaggerating). My interactions with Apple (as a Mac user) have always been reasonably positive, whether this be for sales, technical support or developer relations.

    It's silly to think they're trying to sabatoge the Windows base. And if some phone rep blew it...well, that's clearly a problem but I just don't see this as anything more than one person's screw up.

  • Warranty? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bahamat ( 187909 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:02PM (#7477180) Homepage
    I don't have an iPod so I don't know how long the warranty lasts, but if it's still under warranty return it to the retailer or manufacturer as defective.

    As many of you who have worked in retail know, it hardly matters if you smashed it with a hammer. They'll take it back.

  • Before you rush to blame Apple. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Raven42rac ( 448205 ) * on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:03PM (#7477193)
    What part of "not supported" was not understood? I am sure that Apple will do something to rectify the situation. Hope they had a backup of their music. Wait a second, a MAC-only 5GB IPOD? Not a "Mac-only unless running iTunes on a PC running Windows, then it is ok" iPod. Why does it not surprise me that running a first-generation Mac-only IPOD on a Windows machine causes problems? Maybe the part about it being "mac-only", and "not supported on PC", as well as being "mac-only". (The repition was purely intentional). This seems to be the user's fault, not Apple's. So if I put a BMW dashboard into a VW, will I be able to get mad when it does not work. All I am saying is do not rush to blame Apple on this one, this seems to be a PICNIC issue to me.
    • There's a large step between "not supported" and "use the windows itunes and say hello to your new 400$ paperweight". The simple fact that it rendered the ipod useless for music playback, and that it put the device in a non-reversible state is a big issue.

      One of two things should have happened :
      A: Ipod should not have let programs do something to damage it or
      B: Software should detect if it's an older Ipod and not do whatever it did to screw it up.

      In your analogy, if we put the VW dashboard back and fi
    • I think a better comparison is plugging a 120 V device into a 220 V socket. But its still the person's fault doing the plugging, not the maker of the deivce or the socket.

  • *Sigh* Just a little research kids... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:03PM (#7477195)
    reformat your ipod from Mac to PC... [apple.com]

  • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Not really on topic, but Windows is like that about everything. Does the Windows bootloader acknowledge any other OS except a Windows one? Of course not. Booting Linux is simple, but don't plan on seeing it provided on a Windows installation anytime soon.
      • You can boot other OSes from the Windows boot loader easily... you just need a copy of the boot sector (first 512 bytes) in a file at the root of the C:\ drive. See here [wlug.org.nz] on how to configure NT Loader to boot Linux.

  • There's hope... (Score:4, Informative)

    by AIX-Hood ( 682681 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:05PM (#7477212)
    I ran into similar problems. I've also got an older 5gig Mac iPod that I was using with Xplay. After I suffered through the win2k bug which replaced core system files and forced me to do a win2k repair install, I got iTunes up and running well. After a short while though, when I plugged my iTunes into another machine and said 'yes' to the 'resync to this machine instead of the existing profile', it suddenly stopped working at all. I could bring up the iPod and use it as a drive, but no matter what I tried, iTunes would no longer recognize it. When I tried the latest windows flasher, it wouldn't see it either. What finally worked was to bring it to a PC that had never seen any iPods or iTunes before, and using that to flash the iPod back to factory defaults. That finally worked and when I brought it back to my original machine it suddenly saw it and initialized it without a hitch. I've been holding off on getting a new iPod for exactly the reason that Apple only cares about the first sale. Once they have your money you're dirt to them until the next time they want to sell the big ticket item. Luckily mine will keep going for a while longer now.
  • I mean, they seem to have known of the glitch ahead of time, can't they just check the type of IPod connected? If it's nor compatible, ITunes simply won't connect to the older IPods... problem solved and IPods saved.

    I'm not an IPod user, so illuminate me if I'm on the wrong track...

  • Deliberate ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tmark ( 230091 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:06PM (#7477230)
    I'm not quite suggesting that this was deliberate

    Well, the breaking may not have been deliberate, but their refusal to support their customers is most certainly deliberate . And is it more than a coincidence that fixing this problem isn't going to sell many more iPods, is it ?

  • Exactly why I can't spend $300+ on an iPod (Score:3, Insightful)

    by swb ( 14022 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:07PM (#7477232)
    A vendor gave me an Intel Pocket Concert 128MB MP3 player about two years ago, and its now very nearly a boat anchor. Intel stopped selling them and has ceased development on drivers. The version of software still available from Intel supports XP, but what about the next iteration/service pack from Redmond? I didn't pay for this device out of my pocket, but if I did I'd be kind of pissed that it's very nearly unusable due to software on the computer.

    And that's what scares me (next to breaking or having stolen) about an iPod -- what happens when Apple says "Sorry, we don't support you" as few as two years down the road -- are you just SOL? Time for another $300+ to buy another one?

    I'd have a little more faith in these things if they were primarily 1394/USB disks with firmware. Put MP3s and playlists on them, voila, it will play them, and did not have a closed interface with proprietary software that the vendor may or may not decide to support or fix, rendering an otherwise functional machine worthless.

    • Re:Exactly why I can't spend $300+ on an iPod (Score:4, Informative)

      by be-fan ( 61476 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:11PM (#7477273)
      iPod's *are* just 1394 disks with firmware. You can plug it in and it looks just like a firewire harddrive. The iTunesDB file that the iPod uses to index files is proprietory, but is very simple and has been reverse-engineered by several programs (gnupod, ephpod, gtkpod, myPod, guipod, xplay, etc). The iPod OS gets the actual song information from ID3 tags. This is one major reason I bought the thing --- it has nearly perfect Linux support and no DRM.
      • The iTunesDB file that the iPod uses to index files is proprietory[...]

        It still is dependent on software to put songs on there. Just because there's a whole garden variety of third party applications still means you're dependent on special applications to put songs on it.

        I want to copy songs there with Explorer/Finder/etc. I *don't* want to rely on ANY software (other than the device's firmware) to make those songs playable.

        • How an iPod works (Score:4, Insightful)

          by 2nd Post! ( 213333 ) <gundbear@p[ ]ell.net ['acb' in gap]> on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:53PM (#7478842) Homepage
          The iPod has 32mb of ram.

          Into that ram it loads an index, a database, containing all the song information on all the songs: The metadata, the ID3 information, the playcounts, the volume and EQ settings, the ratings, the notes, the extra album info, comments, everything.

          It is *because* of this file, this index, this database, that the iPod has a UI par exellance, the most usable, friendly, fast, and efficient UI on any MP3 player.

          All iTunes does, in copying music to your iPod, is create a bunch of *normal* folders (which the Finder can do) onto the iPod, and copy the iTunes generated (no even encrypted!) database file onto the iPod (which the Finder can do as well). It's all regular HFS+ or FAT32 files, no voodoo, no magic.

          So no extra software is necessary to make the songs playable, but extra software is necessary to make the iPod usable.

          If this doesn't make sense, download iTunes, import several thousand songs into it, and use it (ID3 tags, metadata, and everything) for a week. This is *exactly* how the iPod works. Without that very same data used in iTunes, the iPod would be useless (try manually navigating 8.000 songs in a flat, unstructured, list!). iTunes generates several hierarchies through which you can navigate your iPod:

          Artists->Songs
          Albums->Songs
          Songs
          Genre->Alb ums->Songs
          Composers->Songs
          Playlists->Songs

          All iTunes does is *generate* those structures. You need *something* to generate those structures. Of course, the standard response to the iTunes/iPod naysayer is "I want to create my own genre/artist/album hierarchies in The Finder/Explorer damn it!"

          Yeah, feel free, I guess. Me, I enjoy letting iTunes do it for me, and all I have to do is 'click, click, scroll, click' and enjoy.
        • You're method wouldn't work, not if you want the iPod to appear as a hard disk to the PC.

          There needs to be an index of all the MP3 files on the disk for the iPod firmware to use. The UI needs to use the index to show all the song listings. So you need to build this index one way or the other. You can either have the host PC build it, or have the iPod build it itself from the files that are on the disk.

          In order to use your method, you'd have to have the iPod build the index itself. That means that every ti
  • If you're using XPlay [mediafour.com] to operate your iPod in a manner that Apple says it doesn't support in the first place, why are you griping about/to Apple?

  • File a bug report. Flash firmware. Don't complain. (Score:5, Informative)

    by javaxman ( 705658 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:11PM (#7477267) Journal
    If you register on the Apple Developer Center, you can file a bug report.

    Join ADC [apple.com]

    Bug Apple [apple.com]

    Very little at Apple actually happens without a report in this "RadarWeb" bug tracking system of theirs. Think about it- this is how actual engineers have actual tasks/problems assigned to them, except maybe when Steve says "make it so".

    Of course, as you're perfectly aware, you broke your Macintosh-only iPod while trying to use it on a PC, something you were rather clearly warned against doing when you bought the device. Did you complain to Sony because your Betamax tape player was screwed up by a VHS tape, too?

    So why are you complaining about it on Slashdot, anyway ?

    I'm willing to bet you could fix the problem by installing the most recent iPod firmware update, if you were willing to try that and weren't just trolling.

  • How is this news? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TSServo ( 105188 )
    This post links to a thread on the Apple discussion boards with 11 posts (at the time that I wrote this) in it. How exactly is this a news article?

    How does a thread with 11 posts become generalized on Slashdot as iTunes for the PC is breaking all 5gb iPods?

    There is something known as journalistic integrity, one piece of which involves not misrepresenting or overstating a single piece of information.

  • iTunes for Windows has been out for what, a week? How about some patience, people? I think Apple deserves the benefit of the doubt--they will make a good faith effort to fix it.

    This seems to be another cry of "wolf," like the earlier story this week about Apple not providing security fixes for older OS versions. What happened in the end? The next day, Apple said that the allegations were untrue and that security fixes were coming out.

    Stop getting all your news from the Drudge Report...

  • My iPod is awesome but I couldn't get it to work properly with my PC until I:

    - Got the charging USB 2.0 cable, OTW a full battery lasts about 15 min during sync.
    - Uninstalled Apple's crap drivers and software, and installed EphPod. EphPod works thru the standard USB storage interface, lets you copy music off of the iPod, and access the contacts, notes, etc. All Apple's software does is restrict the user, crash and fail to detect the iPod intermittently.

    My friend recieved an iPod as a gift, and it got co

  • Simple Problem, Simple Solution (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BensonLeung ( 667506 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:30PM (#7477437)
    There is no reason for people to be getting angry at Apple for "breaking" the older iPods. The problem, having owned an iPod and taking that most of these people are using XPlay to get a Mac iPod to work with PC iTunes, is that the Mac iPod is still formatted HFS+

    The simple solution is to back up the data from the iPod, and format it using Apple's software updater on their website.

    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120 236

    Then start over with iTunes. Should work. The only reason its failing is because they initially tried getting it to work with a file system hack (Xplay). Using the PC updater above for iPod 1.3 will make the iPod into a PC 5 GB or 10 GB or 20 GB iPod ( the hardware is absolutely the same be it PC or Mac compatible, just the software is different ) and Windows iTunes will work properly with it.

  • Duh. (Score:5, Informative)

    by NaugaHunter ( 639364 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:33PM (#7477457)
    About the only thing that can be laid on Apple's feet is that iTunes should refuse to attempt to connect to the iPod in question. Nothing reported suggests that the iPod doesn't still work with the Mac, which is all it was sold to do. In fact it specifically says do NOT use it with Windows. XPlay is an unsupported hack, so as far as Apple is concerned the iPod in question never worked with Windows, so the fact that it still doesn't now really isn't an issue.

  • Get thee to eBay! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by belgar ( 254293 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:40PM (#7477515) Homepage
    /me will watch for 5GB iPods to proliferate on ebay in the next month. Yay me!

  • Gee. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ultramk ( 470198 ) <ultramk@pacbel l . net> on Friday November 14, 2003 @05:44PM (#7477537)
    Ok. let me get this straight. So you're using software (Xplay) that's completely unsupported by Apple, and in fact, has nothing to do with Apple, in order to use a product (the 5gb iPod) which specifically was sold as being Mac-only, on a Windows machine.

    It didn't work. It broke your iPod. Now you want Apple to fix it. You're mad because they won't.

    Every product is sold with instructions detailing how it is to be used. You did not follow the instructions. Seems pretty straightforward to me. It's not like you didn't *know* that using that version of the iPod with Windows was unsupported, you just chose to ignore the fact.

    Interesting.
    • "When I called Apple, they stated that they simply don't support the use of the older Mac iPods on PC's and are not responsible, even though they admit that it was their own software that caused this."

      Or there's:

      "but when we installed iTunes for the PC the iPod stopped working"

      Now we don't even bother reading the article posted directly above our replies? He's saying second-party software worked perfectly (Xplay) but when he installed Apples own iTunes software the players stopped working. Bad Apple

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