XPlay 2

Monday, October 04 2004 @ 10:16 AM EDT

XPlay 2

As an iPod user whose primary computer is a Mac, but who often needs to (well, wants to) transfer files to and from a Windows system, I recently spent some time looking for a way to do just that. What I found was XPlay 2, which is a Windows application described by the vendor as "the first product ever to provide Windows connectivity for iPods, and as the only product ever to provide Windows integration for Mac-formatted iPods." Basically, XPlay 2 is a Windows Explorer integration that gives you access to your iPod. Yes, including a Macintosh formatted iPod. Using XPlay 2, you can perform such interesting operations as dragging and dropping music files to and from your iPod, drop vCard (contacts) and iCal and vCal (calendar) items onto your iPod. Oh, and full access to your iPod as a hard drive. Installation and setup was extraordinarily painless. Very professional and entirely seamless. After setup, it was simply a matter of plugging in my iPod and double clicking the "Explore my iPod with XPlay" desktop icon to begin. While I was mostly interested in hard disk access, I was fairly impressed by the music navigation (see screen shot below). An attractive, understandable way of navigating my music collection using the Windows Explorer metaphor. Beyond navigation (of the music collection, that is) and the expected abilities like copy, delete, rename, etc of songs, XPlay 2 lets you edit tag information on individual songs using the normal right-click/properties operation. Is this an "essential"? Definately, if you have a Mac formatted iPod and want to use it on a Windows system. Even if you're a Windows user only, though, you should find this application remarkably useful. There are lots of features in XPlay 2 that I haven't spent time on (like the iPod showing up as a portable device in Windows Media Player) just because I was interested in a specific purpose. There is, however, a full 14 day trial where you can try out all of the extras for yourself. Pros Complete access to your iPod without using iTunes Professional installation and general high quality throughout Great attention to detail Fast operations Excellent Help Cons Price of $29.95 feels a little high - but then again, you're paying for quality Synchronization between iPod and iTunes is one way only - from iTunes to the iPod. In other words, you can't use XPlay 2 to facilitate using your iPod to synchronize your music collection between two different desktop systems I was unable to get the iPod to "Eject" using the XPlay 2 "Stop my iPod" option and instead had to eject the drive itself under My Computer.

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xplay from amazon.com

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how to share an iPod, March 17, 2005

Reviewer:   Todd Steinwart "...todd" (Carrboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews

An undervalued feature of this software is its ability to let you read and write a Mac formatted iPod in Windows, both through its native XPlay interface and iTunes for Windows. Granted, the extra translation layer (borrowed directly from their MacDrive software) slows the process down a little but the flexibility is well worth it if, like me, you have both Macs and Windows machines. (NB: If you use MacDrive you don't need XPlay to access a Mac-formatted iPod in iTunes for Windows - that capability comes built in.)

I don't care for the native XPlay interface personally: why make something look and act like Windows Explorer when Explorer is only marginally functional? but more importantly, XPlay doesn't support Smart Playlists, to which I am addicted. I use it strictly for its cross-platform capability.

Overall I am happy with this software. It stays out of the way when I don't need it and works seemlessly when I do. If you're running Windows ME/2K/XP and have a Windows-formatted iPod I'm not sure what its value is, but if you're running and older version of Windows or (like me) want to share an iPod between a Mac and Windows, XPlay is indispensable.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Why can't all software be this powerful and easy???, February 1, 2005

Reviewer:   Steve Cross "Stevie" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

I installed it and that is all there is too it. Within a minute of installing XPlay I was transfering music to my iPod. It was as easy as using any other disk on my Windows XP computer. I can do everything I did with iTunes, but it just feels better, more "Windows" with XPlay. It really is one of the easiest programs I have ever used.

Also, a friend of mine uses XPlay with his Windows Me system. With XPlay we were able to copy music off his iPod and save it to his PC. Pretty cool!!!

I was leary when I first read reviews on here about both XPlay and Mediafour as a company. I am not sure what experience others had on here, but for my money this is a first rate program.

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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Poor documentation, arrogant customer support, December 22, 2004

Reviewer:   Richard Down (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

I have been buying software for computers for almost 20 years now, and this is one of the worst experiences I've ever had with a software purchase. Despite the fancy "iPod family" packaging, there is no manual in the box. The support info on the CD is skeletal, as is the website. Upon calling Media4 customer support, the individual I talked with knew next to nothing about the XP operating system - even though the program is marketed to both Windows and Mac users. There is better freeware out there that actually does what, as far as I can tell, Xplay only says it does.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Sweet as candy, October 27, 2004

Reviewer:   AMG - See all my reviews

"Good show!", I say. The program does what it claims to and more.
My old 98 computer can use the iPod and that is pretty cool.
I like being able to copy music from my iPod onto my computer. It makes downloading music at the office and bringing it home a lot simpler than FTP'ing the songs, remembering to grab them off the FTP, et cetera. This way I can also play the songs my new songs on the commute home too.

Slick stuff. If you haven't tried it you don't know what you're missing.

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PopUpCop 2.5

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PopUpCop 2.5 Editors' Rating Full Review Readers' Rating 0% 0% Rate this product List price £11 Check Prices

Full Review

Robert Vamosi October 18, 2004

Full Review

Robert Vamosi October 18, 2004

Sometimes pop-up windows serve a purpose, such as providing additional information or linking to an external Web site. But most of the time, they just litter your desktop with annoying adverts. Thankfully, PopUpCop 2.5 stops all kinds of ads -- animation, audio files, pop-ups and even cookies. You can download a trial version of PopUpCop 2.5 here -- it costs $19.95 (~£11) to buy. In order to remove all of the ad-serving software that's already installed on your PC, you'll still need to run either Spybot Search and Destroy or Ad-aware, but PopUpCop 2.5 can protect your desktop from future ad-serving software, annoying pop-ups and malicious scripts. If you use Internet Explorer, PopUpCop is a more complete choice.

Once you've download PopUpCop 2.5, it automatically installs on your Internet Explorer toolbar and waits there, ready to stop pop-up windows the next time you launch IE. PopUpCop doesn't require you to reboot to get started after installation. For $19.95 (~£11), which is comparable to other ad-stopping products, registration includes all users of a single computer when entered by a user with administrative authority.

PopUpCop's IE toolbar is clean and easy to understand. A police badge icon on the left opens a drop-down menu of configuration and technical-support options. A slider bar in the middle lets you quickly select preconfigured low, medium or high protection settings. A stoplight on the right of the toolbar indicates Java or ActiveX advertising script activity on a Web page. Finally, a handy display at the far right shows you at a glance the features that you've turned on or off.

Click the PopUpCop badge icon, and a drop-down menu displays your configuration choices. And this program gives you more choices than any other pop-up stopper currently on the market. PopUpCop lets you choose to allow all pop-ups, require the program to ask about each pop-up or simply disable Web features such as Java and ActiveX scripts, images, animation, background music and Flash movies. And as if these controls weren't enough, PopUpCop lets you customise its treatment of mouse scripts, useless warning dialogues, and window frame resizing. You can even customize PopUpCop's own setting controls; for example, you can remove options from the configuration panel.

With PopUpCop, there's no need to wonder which pop-ups got killed on a given Web page. The PopUpCop stoplight on the toolbar turns from green to yellow to red to indicate that the program suppressed either a pop-up or a script timer used to deploy a pop-up. Mouse over or click the stoplight, and PopUpCop indicates the presence of a cookie, a mouseover or a conventional pop-up.

Beyond its basic ability to stop Web page advertising, PopUpCop includes Xguard, a tool to fend off ad-serving software that installs on your hard drive. You may still want to run Ad-aware to remove any existing ad-serving software, but Xguard keeps future ad-serving programs off your system. Internet Explorer itself already alerts you just before a Web site loads such scripts onto your computer, but it doesn't describe the scripts themselves. Xguard, on the other hand, says it provides all the available information about the control and its publisher, including info on how to remove the control. PopUpCop's Xguard feature even stops the new InVue ads, such as those found on Yahoo or GeoCities sites, which sit atop Web pages. So far, none of PopUpCop's competitors can stop these ads.

In addition to PopUpCop's online help pages and adequate FAQ, EdenSoft, the maker of PopUpCop, offers free email technical support but, unfortunately, no telephone support.

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