Although there are clearly unethical reasons for imitate medicine now from an iPod to a estimator , there are licit single , as well . As I explain just over a class ago :

Another situation — one in which I ’ve find myself on several occasions — where there ’s a legitimate reason for such copying is if your music is on your background Mac , but you ’re on the road with your iPod and laptop computer ; if you want to copy some of your iPod ’s music onto your laptop and listen to it from there , you postulate a way to do so .

Unfortunately , there ’s no “ official ” way of perform such a task . So it ’s in this circumstance that I ’ve frequently recommended Senuti ( ) , which provides an easy - to - use , iTunes - like port for transferring your medicine from your iPod to your information processing system . In fact , Macworld liked Senuti so much that we named it as one of our 2005 Eddy Award winners .

iPodDisk mounts your iPod in the Finder

However , a couple workweek ago , my colleague Jonathan Seff showed me a fresh alternative to Senuti that takes a unlike , but likewise easy , approach : iPodDisk 1.3 ( ) . Whereas Senuti runs as a standard program — one that tight resemble iTunes itself — iPodDisk is essentially invisible : It simply “ mounts ” your iPod in the Finder , where it show up just like any other FireWire or USB hard drive . ( Your iPod must have disk employment enabled , via its predilection duologue in iTunes , for iPodDisk to work . In fact , what you really see in the Finder aretwoversions of your iPod — one that take care like an iPod , and one that looks like a web bulk ; the latter is the iPodDisk rendering . )

Of naturally , if you ’ve ever look inside your iPod in the Finder , you know that not only can you not surf your music collection on it , but you ca n’t even see your music Indian file . ( If you ’ve read up on the matter , you know that your music is in reality in a numeral of invisible folder , with inscrutable single file name that make them nearly impossible to work with . ) The magic of iPodDisk is thatitsFinder volume presents your iPod ’s audio recording ( and video ) content in a elbow room that make it easy to surf :

You see folder for Albums , Artists , Genres , and play list ; open one of these folders display your iPod ’s contents in the appropriate file / folder power structure . For deterrent example , the Genres folder display a pamphlet for each writing style you have in iTunes ; within each genre brochure are pamphlet for each artist in that genre ; within each artist brochure are albums by that creative person ; and within each record album folder are the tracks on that record album .

Your iPod, seen through iPodDisk

you could also use the Search field in Finder windows to quickly determine picky track , artists , record album , etc .

To copy music from your iPod to your hard ride , you use the Finder ’s familiar puff - and - drop , just as you would with any other file . When you ’re stop , ejecting iPodDisk ’s iPod intensity quits iPodDisk ; you’re able to then eject your iPod itself .

mark that iPodDisk exploit only if your iPod isnotlinked to the iTunes Library on the computer on which you ’re working . This make sense , since you would n’t need to use iPodDisk if you were on that reckoner — you would already have direct access to the original music filing cabinet on your strong private road . ( In fact , when I seek to habituate iPodDisk with an iPod link to computer on which I was working , I had problem ejecting the iPod at all — OS 10 claimed that the iPod was “ in use ” even though iPodDisk had n’t mounted the iPod . )

iPodDisk genres

A more significant drawback is that I have n’t been successful in getting iPodDisk to work with the iPod shuffle ; Senuti , on the other hired man , act just all right .

That drawback aside , iPodDisk is an splendid tool for get your euphony off your iPod and has earned a place on my hard effort — decently next to Senuti . I still prefer Senuti for some things ; for example , Senuti lets you browse like iTunes and even lets you listen to track . But iPodDisk ’s Finder - like drag - and - bead interface is perfect when you know precisely what you ’re reckon for .

iPodDisk works with Mac OS X 10.3 ( Panther ) and by and by .

iPodDisk genre browsing