Apple iPod

XPlay: What To Expect

The explorer interface makes the iPod appear as a drive letter when connected to the computer. To access your music and copy files, all one needs to do is enter the "XPlay music" folder on the iPod's hard drive. Here one has access to the MP3 files stored on the unit. Songs can be displayed grouped under albums, artists, or not at all, depending on what you want to see. Once again, this information comes strictly from the ID3 tags and not from the filename.

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Clicking on the "Albums" folder brings up a list of every album stored on the iPod device. Selecting one of the albums listed brings the user to a list of tracks and songs on that album. The "Artists" folder operates in a similar way.

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Copying songs to the iPod is as easy as clicking from the PC and dragging to the "Songs" folder listed in the iPod under the "XPlay music" folder.

MP3s can also be copied to the iPod using Windows Media Player version 7. When the iPod is connected to the computer, Windows Media Player sees it as a portable device. Files can be played off the unit or copied from the PC to the iPod.

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Of course, since XPlay is not even in a beta or alpha form yet, there are still some limitations to the software. Perhaps one of the most bothersome limitations is the inability to delete music files from the iPod once they are already on the unit. Clearly, it is one thing to expand to a database and another to strip information out of it. An internal beta build of XPlay does include the ability to delete music files from the iPod and should be made available shortly. Another limitation is that playlists can not yet be created and used on the iPod. Like the issue with deleting files off the iPod, the current internal build of the software allows for the creation of playlists. The reason these items have not been implemented in the technology preview yet: Mediafour wanted to get the product just to work on a communication level with as many machines as possible before attempting to add extra features.

Other features to be added to the final version of XPlay include a more robust interface, the ability to accept playlists from a multitude of playlist creators, and (cross your fingers) a firmware updater. Mediafour is currently talking to Apple in an attempt to bring a firmware updater to XPlay and the company seems optimistic that eventually one will find its way into the final product one day. The company is also very open to user based feedback and is concerned with what PC iPod owners want, so who knows what the future holds.

One feature that will not be added is the ability to copy files from the iPod. Apple designed the iPod as a one-way device when it comes to music, meaning that it was only designed to accept MP3 files but not to send them back to a computer. Apple's iTunes software does not allow the user to copy MP3 files from the iPod to a Macintosh, and in a similar manner Mediafour's XPlay software will not allow the user to copy MP3 files from the iPod to any PC. Copying MP3 files off the device is not a difficult feature to implement, but Mediafour decided to respect Apple's wishes with the iPod and maintain the copy protection feature.

XPlay has been met with quite a bit of excitement, since many PC enthusiasts were eager to get their hands on the iPod but were worried about compatibility with Windows. Since XPlay's announcement, their technology preview versions of XPlay get "thousands" of downloads each week and site traffic has increased 5 fold. Serving as the only product that brings the iPod to Windows, we were not surprised at all with XPlay's popularity.

The final version of XPlay is scheduled to be released on February 26th of this year, with a street price that promises to be "under $40."