4. Using XPlay

If you are a fan of the Windows Explorer application and its whole paradigm of navigating through your file system, then using XPlay will be a piece of cake. XPlay essentially integrates into the windows explorer and let's you treat the iPod as a drive on your system and you can then remove or copy mp3's to the folder. The iPod shows up as an icon with a preassigned drive letter. Clicking on the drive letter shows a variety of options to search content. Under the XPlay music folder, you can search music using:
1. Playlists
2. Albums
3. Artists
4. Songs

The iPod shows up as a drive	iPod seen through Explorer

After clicking on the method of looking through your music collection, the right hand pane of your explorer window will reveal the music files. You can rearrange your icons to deliver a number of views that are consistent with the Windows Explorer ideaology. You can select mp3's from your iPod and have it play from the drive through your speakers on your PC.

Album List	Artists List

Listing Songs in Detail View	Listing Songs in Icon View
Listing Songs in List View	Listing Songs in Tile View

Operating the folders is essentially all drag and drop. Want to delete music? Select the files and delete. Want to add music? Just select your files and drag it to the music folder. Again, anyone who has ever used the windows explorer will find this XPlay integration a breeze to use. It should be noted that you can use the SendTo menu options but sending a directory of files will only create a new folder from the root directory of the iPod and not in the music folder itself. I find this a bit annoying because I was hoping that the XPlay would have the smarts to know to move a folder full of mp3's to the XPlay music folder.

Sending a folder to the iPod	Copying a file to the iPod

On the down side - those looking for an interface similar to what Apple delivers in iTunes - forget it. XPlay is not about providing a separate application with a new interface to work with. It's about using what is familiar to windows users and adapting the iPod to fit into this model.

5. Issues

Unfortunately all is not perfect in using the iPod with Windows. There are a number of users who have had problems with transferring files to the iPod through the firewire interface. The most common error that has been received thus far has been the cryptic error "write-behind data lost". Upon receiving this error, there is almost no way to continue usage of the link that was established between Windows and iPod via the XPlay. Since I was using the firewire port on the Creative Labs Audigy, I thought that I would not run into this problem - how wrong I was!! In my first major transfer of files totaling 400 MB of music, I got the error in about 10 seconds. To my dismay, I could not figure out a way to get around the problem. Mediafour has a whole support page on this problem. You can find the link at: http://www.mediafour.com/support/xplay/writebehind/ I tried all the various solutions and unfortunately not of them worked. It should be noted that this is not a problem with the XPlay software itself but rather a problem with the way firewire is communicating with the iPod. Given that there are so many different firewire manufacturers in the PC world, it's not surprising to see a problem or two. Here's a picture of a tool that can be used in one of the Mediafour solutions:

Luckily I had another PC with an Adaptec Firewire card and lo and behind - as Mediafour recommended on their support page - it worked! Using this firewire card, I was able to easily transfer 1GB of music in one shot. No problems here! Unfortunately I do find that music transfers on my PC is slower than using my iMac. I did not run any benchmarks on the actual amount of time taken but I hope to provide some timings later on.

Summary

Aside from this somewhat major problem, the XPlay is a wonderful add on for anyone who wants to use the iPod on a windows system. I have personally not tried the MusicMatch option that Apple now provides for the Windows iPod models. If you have used it - share your thoughts! I actually am not thrilled at the thought of using a mp3 software player/library program to use my iPod. I like the XPlay option since it integrates cleanly into the Windows explorer and allows me to easily manipulate files using mouse movements. If you stick with what Mediafour recommends for firewire hardware, then you'll find the XPlay a great utility for bridging the iPod and Windows worlds. If you have comments or suggestions or questions - please post in our forums.

Pros:
Easy to Install
Cheap in price
Easy to Navigate (if you are a familiar windows user)

Cons:
Problem with some firewire cards
No separate GUI for newbies

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