Section 8.2. Your Digital Player and Your PC

8.2. Your Digital Player and Your PC

Some players strike up an easygoing relationship with your PC. Plug the player into your PC's USB port, find the player listed as a drive in My Computer (Start My Computer), and drag songs onto itjust as youd copy files into folders.

But don't be surprised if that doesn't work. Because unfortunately , most players start their PC relationship with a rigorous set of rules. For instance, some players show up in My Computer as a drive, but let you delete their songs only, not add them. Some finicky players won't let you add music if it's stored in folders ; they insist that you copy each song's file directly into the device.

Figure 8-3. Since its birth in 2001, the full-featured iPod has moved through five generations. Each added storage, usually an increase of 5 or 10 GB, and slightly different features. This photo shows the penultimate version, which comes with 20 or 60 GB of storage.
The iPod introduced the scroll wheel design found on all future iPods. You navigate a list of menu items by moving your finger to the wheel's left or right; press the wheel's left or right side to move through side menus , and press the center button to choose your selection. You can also view photos on its color screen. And as you play music, the player displays the matching album cover. Apple's iPod Camera Connector lets you dump photos directly from your digital camera to your iPod, ensuring you never run out of memory at Disneyland. The iPod imports photos from iTunes, as well as from Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Album.

If your player won't let you drag songs onto it from My Computer, you have three options: learn the player's bundled software, if it came with any; use Windows XP's Media Player; or, if you own an iPod, use Apple's iTunes.

The next two sections describe how to manage your digital player's songs with either iTunes or Windows XP's Media Player.