How do I make my iPod work on both a PC and Mac?
This question has come up a few times via the contact form. This is actually one of the most frustrating things about iPods to me. If you format you iPod for a Mac it will only work with a Mac. So say you have a Mac at home and a PC and work, you cannot connect the iPod to your work system. However if you format your iPod on a PC (FAT32) your iPod will work with both a Mac and a PC, which I am seeing is pretty much the norm even for die-hard Mac geeks. Another practical benefit of this is that when you put your iPod into Disk mode the storage will work with both Mac and PC.
Now what I find REALLY frustrating is Apple’s response to the issue. Instead of fixing the problem, they simply state that they do not support using a Windows formatted iPod on a Windows system, even though it works perfectly fine. WTF? Although my wife has an iPod, I personally have a Cowon player (X5L), I love it. Not only is the sound quality better than an iPod, but it uses USB mass storage out of the box, so I can connect it to my Windows, Mac and even Linux box with no problems. It also supports FLAC and OggVorbis, it is just a much more open system than Apple. Don’t get me wrong I like a lot of Apple products (love my iPod Touch…it it only had a freaking disk mode), but I think their control freaks and some of their monopolistic and controlling practices are starting to make Microsoft look like the good guys.