iPods for Windows should be 100% compatible or else return it.

Don't pay money for this software; it's a joke.

"xplay or musicmatch", i used music match for the first 9 months of owning my ipod and i liked it alot, but i noticed that when trying to save some songs or add some songs to my ipod, it would select some of the songs and not move them. it also would mess up the way the song was written so the ipod wouldnt be able to read it and play it. xplay has worked flawlessly as just a program for adding songs and removeing them. it does not change the format of the song and it does not make my ipod skip songs the way music match does. music match messes up the ipod, thats all there is to it!

"Needs improvement - not necessary at all with new iPODs", If you just bought or are thinking of buying a new model iPod , save your money - you dont need this at all. A lot of people have touted XPlay as better than Musicmatch but I disagree. Most people try Musicmatch and don't bother to download the tutorial files which show you in detail all the great options available in MM. I have both and to be fair, xPlays only advantage with the older iPods was that you could use a Mac iPod on windows pcs with XPlay. Now that Apple has introduced the 30 gig and smaller iPod, its not necessary as there is not a Mac or seperate windows Ipod anymore. Whatever you computer you use, Apple has included both iTunes and MM, and the newest ipod recognizes the computer you plug it into, eliminating the big need for xPlay. So since the MM and iTunes come included free with the iPod I recommend saving your money because there is no real need for xPlay unless you have an older Mac iPod that you want to use on a Windows pc. That is the only good reason for purchasing xPlay. Please take the time to learn Musicmatch - the supertagging feature is great and there are a lot of neat features I haven't listed as well. Enjoy your iPod and see my review of the newest 30 gig model.

"What this product could really do", I'm a PC user. Don't hate me. It's what I work with and the platform I develop for. I'm using a new XP laptop at home and have been dumping many of my CDs onto it to listen to. The format I chose to save them as is WMA. It sounds great and creates files that are half the size of MP3s, saving drive space and making file management easier.

Numerous products (MP3 Players, iPod-like Jukeboxes, etc) are accommodating WMA format. I realize that this is a proprietary Windows format and it doesn't make sense for Apple to support it on the iPod. But why make a product like XPlay.. which should enable me, the Windows user, to use an iPod.. without supporting my habits?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems this product doesn't offer the ability to convert WMA files to MP3 on-the-fly before transferring them to the iPod. That would be truly useful. That would be a product made for the Windows user. THAT would encourage this PC-user to buy a Mac product. The iPod is cool. I'd love to have one. My PC has FireWire so I could take full advantage of it. It, and this software, just unfortunately don't meet my needs.

I'm looking at a Creative Labs Nomad Zen instead, which doesn't feature the PIM software that the iPod does, but is cheaper too. It would be nice if the iPod could support my Outlook Contacts and Calendar as well. I haven't seen anything that says whether or not this is definitively true. (The PC Support on the iPod site is 1 paragraph long)

UPDATE: I use iTunes.

"Suggest Getting A Mac", just a friendly suggestion. look into getting a mac computer. its easier, more reliable, and much faster. i have a 10 gig ipod and a powerbook and the ipod runs PERFECTLY and oh so fast. just a suggestion to make life easier and much more fun.