1:00 AM
Paul B
I used to work at a company where one of the senior systems engineers had a massive music collection saved in his iTunes Library. To protect the iTunes database he saved it on the company network share that was backed up to tape nightly. One of the biggest things that he was preparing for was the limit of iTunes instances one can use with their iPod. You know, because Apple is so DRM happy and proprietarily anal.
If my former colleague had heard of SharePod, he may have not needed to be so paranoid about his iTunes Library. That is because SharePod doesn't need iTunes, and will allow him to backup his music safely to a regular file folder that can be used anywhere! In fact, one can use this as an alternative to iTunes for managing their pictures and music on their iPod's and iPod Touch devices.
From their about page, here is a list of features:
- Add & remove music and videos from your iPod
- Add, remove and edit playlists
- Add & remove album art
- View and backup photos
- Copy music, videos and playlists from your iPod to PC
- Import music/videos into your iTunes library, including playlists and ratings
- Tag editing
- Drag n' drop to and from Explorer
- Simple, clean interface
- Quick to load and use with no unnessary complicated features
- Support for iPhone and iTouch (Thanks to Nikias Bassen, Paul Sladen, Jonathan Beck, and Christophe Fergeau for making this possible)
They go on to say:
SharePod was designed from the start to be lightweight, quick and responsive, it has all (well hopefully most...!) of the features you need and none of the features you dont.
If you've been looking for a viable alternative to iTunes to manage your music lists on your iPod, then you may have found it. Know of any other similar software? Know of something better? Let us know in the comments.
del.icio.us tags: free, open source, alternative, to, itunes, sharepod, backup, ipod, touch
