Non-iPod Compatibility with MacOSX & iTunes?

[mweier]

Hey - I know everyone here loves iPods & whatnot but I've got a chance to get a free piece of hardware from a client I've done some work for & he doesn't have access to iPods through his wholesalers... I'm interested in having a portable storage/MP3 solution but unclear as to how supported (if at all) iPod knockoffs (such as the GateWay, iRiver, Creative, etc.) are with Mac OSX.

Has anyone used any of these with OSX? Do they synch with iTunes? Or are they simply mounted as Hard Drives? Is there any online resource/review which discusses them while keeping Mac users in mind?

Thanks!

 

[mdnky]

Get whatever is the most expensive one, then E-Bay/sell it and buy an iPod.

 

[MBHockey]

Get whatever is the most expensive one, then E-Bay/sell it and buy an iPod.

The only one i know that will work with OS X is the Rio karma. It's not as well built as iPod, but it has some more very useful features and two times the battery life. The interface with OS X is a java app. It will not appear as a hard drive on your desktop, and the only way to put data on it is to have the java app installed where you are putting stuff on it and installed on the computer where you are taking stuff off it.

Personally, i would get an iPod. Do as the previous poster says. Get the most expensive one he's got, and sell it on eBay. It may sound bad, but since you did the work for him, who cares?

 

[btoneill]

The two Virgin Pulse players, VP-01 and VP-02, have an iTunes plugin. I have the VP-01 and it works great with iTunes, altho these are both flash based players.

Brian

 

[mweier]

excellent point mDonkey. Don't know why I didn't think of that... (a side note: you've got SPARC spelled wrong in your sig).

We'll see if the client actually comes through with anything but I think I'll either take your advice or else get a standard firewire external harddrive...

At the risk of a slight topic shift, are there any known firewire or USB2 harddrives that aren't supported by mac? It seems really hard to research this stuff since so many hardware sites are win-centric...