Mediafour Corp. has updated XPlay, adding support for the new iPod for Windows.
With it, the iPod appears as both a portable music player and as a normal hard drive on Wintel systems. Integration with Windows Explorer allows users of such systems to access and manipulate songs, playlists, artists and albums as they would other files and folders on a PC hard drive.
The XPlay 1.0.3 update, which is free for all XPlay users, enables Windows users to work with the Windows iPod just as seamlessly as with the traditional iPod for Mac OS, according to Brian Landwehr, president of Mediafour.
“Since Apple’s announcement of the new iPod, and especially since it began shipping, we’ve been swamped with requests from XPlay customers to make XPlay work with the new iPod for Windows,” he said. “XPlay now works with all iPod models.”
At July’s Macworld Conference & Expo in New York, Apple announced Windows versions of their popular iPod device. Similar to the Mac version, iPod for Windows includes a 4-pin-to-6-pin FireWire adapter. See our July 17 article for details.
Mediafour is hoping that Windows iPod users will use XPlay as a complement or replacement for MusicMatch Jukebox, which is provided by Apple as a part of the iPod for Windows package. XPlay is also still the only commercial product that enables the traditional Mac OS-oriented iPod to work fully with Windows, Landwehr said.
XPlay users can create and organize their playlists, change equalization settings, trim song start and stop times, and tweak other song information, including song title, artist and album. They can also use the tool to synchronize the contents of the iPod with the music collection stored on a PC’s hard drive
XPlay has a suggested retail price of US$29.95. To use it, you’ll need Windows XP, 2000, Me or 98SE, any model iPod, and an available FireWire port.