Anapod Explorer...?

For the first time in my LIFE I actually paid for a piece of software without really trying it. I found this program called Anapod Explorer, since using iTunes now and in the past has been an experience from beyond Hell for me.

Suffice it to say, I spent four hours last night with three different file recovery programs trying to recover the 350 MP3s that iTunes made disappear off my hard drive without an apparent trace. Good thing I got them all back - I would have had to rerip all that Aerosmith.

Anyhow, this program is pretty spankin'...it integrates the iPod into Windows Explorer so it looks kind of like a drive, with the playlists, genre, artist, album, etc as directories of sorts. It allows drag-and-drop to AND from the iPod, and syncing is super stable and works flawlessly (I've heard of people having trouble with iTunes and XP when it comes to syncing the iPod).

The program also has a built in web server that lets you browse your iPod via internet explorer, which makes it easy to use for someone who DOESN'T know much about Windows Explorer...it puts a list of all the songs on your iPod in IE as links so you can DL them just like you'd download any mp3 off of a website.

Anapod mass sets tags, detects and removes duplicate MP3s when syncing, allows sync between Outlook and the iPod contacts, etc etc.

What programs have you guys used other than iTunes to work with your iPods? I tried Ephod and it was not at ALL what I wanted. I'm a WinExplorer whore who uses said application to do pretty much everything in Windows.

Sorry for the long post; hope it wasn't too off-topic...just wanted to see what else people were using.

I've never had an issue with iTunes, but that sounds pretty whacked what happened to you. Glad you got your MP3s back.

Suffice it to say, I've only ever used iTunes because it's worked for me.

WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I'm just glad I had the software I needed to recover most of my music...otherwise I'd be one unhappy camper. I hated iTunes back when I gave it a whirl just as an audio/media player. I can't seem to pull myself away from Winamp 2.9.

Congrats!

Winamp ownz.

I might look into that Anapod thing...sounds sweet D

Try the trial if you want to test without buying - it only lets you upload one file at a time to your iPod but you can see how it integrates with XP and how the options and stuff work. I think syncing is also disabled but I'm not sure. I think it actually was worth the $25 just for the Explorer integration...I'm too used to managing my computer with that as opposed to pretty much anything else out there.

And yes Winamp Classic is by far the best media player I've used. Winamp 5 is just too bulky.

there's a whole bunch of other programs too, check out http//www.ipodlounge.com they have some reviews on them

yeah, i hit up that site awhile back..I looked at xPlay and wasn't impressed with the features it provided, plus Anapod was $5 cheaper and it works on any computer with the software installed.

I use Ephpod, because I don't need that kind of integration--I keep all my stuff tagged and organized in a very specific way on my hard disk so the only feature I need is syncing. I can see the usefulness of Anapod, though, for a lot of users.