iPod question: using the iPod with two computers (a Mac AND PC)

Hi all-

A friend is having her 40th soon and her friends and family, including myself, got together to buy her aa video iPod.She has two boys under five, so uploading her CDs to her iPod will be tough (no time), therefore we decided that since I have a similar music collection I would upload as much as I can into the iPod before shipping it to her (i'm in FL, she's in NY). When I plugged it in this morning it "optimized for Mac OSX" , and I chose the "manual" over "synch" setting to use it as drive. My question; since it "optimized for Mac", will it be able to talk to her PC? Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks!!

wont that blow away everything on that ipod?

About authorization and deauthorization
You can listen to music you purchase from the iTunes Music Store on multiple computers. When you play a song you've purchased, your computer becomes "authorized" to play music purchased using your Apple or AOL account. (Authorization is a way to help protect the copyrights on the music.)

Once you authorize five computers to play your music purchases, you can't listen to music you've purchased on a sixth computer until you deauthorize one of the already authorized computers. When you deauthorize a computer, you can't listen to any music that was purchased using your account on that computer. To authorize or deauthorize a computer, your computer needs to be connected to the Internet.

If you're selling a computer or plan to no longer use it, make sure you've deauthorized it before you no longer have access to it.

Each computer can be authorized to play music purchased with multiple Apple or AOL accounts. For example, if each member of your household has an Apple account and you share one computer, each person can choose whether to authorize the computer to play music purchased with their account. Similarly, multiple users can share the same computer and account and thereby use only one of the authorizations for the songs purchased with that account.

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The tricky part is the friend will be on the Mac account. Very akward as you live far from each other. Better to get her the iPod plus some iTunes gift cards.

about Macs & PCs- http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60920#faq7
Question: I have both a Mac and a PC. Will my iPod work on both?
Answer: No, not at the same time. iPod is configured for either Mac or PC. You can use the iPod Updater to restore iPod to work with a Mac or a PC (depending on which version of the updater you use). See "Restoring iPod to factory settings" for more information. Note: Using the iPod for Mac on a PC, or using the iPod for Windows on a Mac, is not supported by Apple. FAT32 is the format used by Windows, and while some FAT32 iPod models may work with your Mac, Apple only supports using the iPod shuffle in FAT32 format on Mac. For more information see the iPod shuffle Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
Question: Can I use an iPod formatted for Mac on a PC, or an iPod formatted for Windows on a Mac?
Answer: It is not possible to use an iPod formatted for Mac with Windows. This is because Windows does not support the HFS Plus file system and therefore will not see the drive.

You can convert an iPod formatted for Windows into an iPod for Mac by using the iPod for Mac Software Updater on the Apple website. Note that once it is reformatted, it will only work with Macs. You need Mac OS 9.2 or Mac OS X 10.1 or later to reformat an iPod for Windows into an iPod for Mac.

Note: Using the iPod for Mac on a PC, or using the iPod for Windows on a Mac, is not supported by Apple.

:hi: :loveya: :hug: :pals: :woohoo:

http://macs.about.com/od/ipod/a/copy_via_ipod.htm

Now that you have the songs you need from the Mac on the iPod, your next step is to copy the songs on to your PC. The ability to copy songs from your iPod back on to your Mac or PC is not supported in iTunes. Fortunately there are many third-party applications available that enable you to do this. See Copying Songs from Your iPod to a Mac or PC for a list of Mac and Windows utilities.

Download and install the utility of your choice. For instructional purposes the example below uses PodUtil. Make sure you read the accompanying PodUtil help file before you begin.

To copy songs from your iPod to your Windows PC:

1. Connect your iPod to your PC
2. Make sure disk mode is enabled. To check this, go to iTunes – Edit – Preferences – iPod and make sure the Enable disk use option is checked (grayed out is OK)
3. Open PodUtil
4. You will be presented with a window displaying your playlists on the left, the music in the selected playlist on the right, a Playing box on the bottom left and settings for copying on the bottom right
5. Click to select the songs you want to copy
6. Click on the Choose... button at the bottom and choose the folder to which your music will be copied
7. Click on the Copy Settings... button to choose how PodUtil copies your music. If the Sort by Artist and Sort by Album boxes are checked, PodUtil will organize the copied files by Artist and Album. If you have iTunes 4.5 or later you can have PodUtil add the copied songs to iTunes and rebuild your playlists
8. Click on the OK button
9. Click on the Copy button and PodUtil will copy the selected songs over to your PC. If you enabled the Add Songs to iTunes option it will add your songs to iTunes at the end.


Good luck!