Accessing your iPod’s (again, pre-2007) music and transferring it to your Mac is similar to the process of doing so on a PC. Like the PC method, you have to set your iPod to manual transfer and open it from the Finder (the Mac equivalent to the Windows Explorer). Whilst browsing the iPod in the Finder, you will find yet again that the iPod_Control folder is missing from the listing.

In order to reveal the iPod_Control folder and the music contained within, you’ll have to use the Terminal utility, which can be found in “Applications” under “Utilities.” Once there, you have to type:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

Once this command is complete, you should find the iPod_Control file along with the Music folder back in the iPod finder window. From there, repeat the steps for iTunes listed in the PC section, and you’re all set to go!

So, you’ve got an iPod touch or another post-2007 model iPod, you can’t use the method listed above, but you’ve got 13,000, songs that you want, nay, you need, back on your computer. Rest easy, as all hope is not lost; there are a number of software solutions available for iPod music recovery. The methodology will vary from program to program, but we’ve provided a few popular examples for you to check out.

iPod-to-Mac

There are both free and paid software solutions for PC and Mac. While some lengthy Google searching will provide you with a variety of programs with varying levels of functionality, we’ve found that the major differences between paid and free transfer programs are style and features. Paid programs are generally more user friendly and can retrieve more data from the iPod, such as playlists, play counts, etc.

Free Software:

• Senuti (Mac OS X – 30 Day Trial)
• SharePod (Windows)
• iRip (Mac OS X)
• YamiPod (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux)

Paid Software

• Pod-to-PC (Windows — $19.95)
• Im Too iPOd Computer Transfer for Mac (Mac OS X — $29.95)

Your iPod is more or less a portable hard drive, and retains those gigabytes and gigabytes of audio files that were previously stored in your music library. Although your most beloved tracks may have been eviscerated on your PC or Mac, they live on in your iPod, and retrieving them is a lot simpler than you might think.

During the tumultuous time after a comprehensive loss of information, an attempt to connect your iPod to your Mac or PC will result in iTunes prompting you to format your player and resync the player to your freshly drained music library. In layman’s terms, what this means is that iTunes is recognizing that your Lady Gaga and Rhianna-filled music collection of yesterday has been cleaned out, and a new empty library has taken its place. Subsequently, iTunes assumes you want to replace your iPod’s music with the new Gaga-less one — a fresh start, if you will. Of course, this is not the case. You want your 13 remixed versions of “Pokerface” and you want them now.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to get you back on your music-loving feet, and depending on which methodology you choose, all they require are a little patience and time.

For this guide, we are going to assume that if you’ve suffered a critical loss to your computer’s hard drive, you’ve gone ahead and restored your system. If you haven’t, do that. We could tell you how, but that would take too long and distract from the true point of this feature. In any case, once you’re back up and running, the next step depends largely on which type of computer own – Mac or PC. While extracting music is possible on both operating systems, the processes differ drastically. Outside of the methods below, all you will need to accomplish a full transfer of data is your iPod and a transfer cable.

When attempting to recover music from an iPod to a Windows-based PC, there are two opposing strategies, and which you will have to use will be determined by the specific iPod model you have. If you have an iPod model that precedes the models released in 2007, you can either manually transfer the data from your iPod to your PC, or you can use downloadable software. On the other hand, if you’ve got a post-2007 model (i.e. iPod touch, iPod Classic, etc.) you’re going to have to use program of some variety, a few examples of which can be found on the next page.

Not sure when your iPod was made? Find out!

For our pre-2007 iPod-owning, Windows-using friends, here’s how you bring your music library back from the dead:

In order to manually remove files from your pre-2007 iPod, you must first enable the manual management function. There are two ways to do this, the first (and simplest) way is to plug in your iPod and select “Manually Manage Music and Videos” from the “Options” portion of the summary section. Alternatively, you can put an iPod with a click wheel into disk mode manually with the methods found here.

WARNING: When you plug in your iPod, iTunes will prompt you with a message that reads: “This iPod “(iPod name)” is synched with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPod and sync with this iTunes Library.” Under no circumstances should you select “Erase and Sync,” this does exactly what it says it does – erases your iPod. Instead, hit “Cancel.”

Once you’ve selected “Manually Manage Music and Videos,” hit “Apply” and again, reject the “Erase and Sync” prompt. At this point, it is safe to close iTunes. Now comes the fun part, locating your iPod and finding the musical treasure contained within. If you followed the aforementioned instructions, you should now be able to find your iPod listed in “My Computer” along with any other external storage devices attached to your computer.

If you browse the iPod in Windows Explorer, you’ll find folders for calendars, contacts, notes, etc., but no music. In order to gain access to the music file, you have to turn on hidden file viewing in the Windows Explorer. To do this, select “Tools” from the top menu and then “Folder Options.” From there, select “Show Hidden Files”

Now that you’ve been given hidden files eyes, you can now find a folder called “iPod Control,” which contains the “Music” folder. Inside you should find an array of confusingly titled folders, and within them, music files with names comprised of a mix of letters and numbers. These may not look like it, but they are your beloved Lady Gaga remixes. From there, all you have to do is copy the music contained in each folder into one new folder on your desktop. Once the transfers are all complete, open iTunes, designate a new iTunes Music Library folder on your computer, which can be done by selecting “Preferences” from the “Edit” menu and clicking the “Advanced” tab. From there, you’re going to want to select “Keep iTunes Media Folder organized” – this tells iTunes to reorganize all of those oddly titled files once you add them.

Once you’ve added the files back into iTunes, you’ll find that all of the artist and song name info are all preserved. This is due to the fact that each file has song date embedded in them.

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Windows only: If all you really want out of your iPod experience is the ability to load music, movies, and podcasts onto your iPod without any bulk or bloat, portable and free CopyTransManager is a speedy iTunes-alternative.

Click on the image above for a closer look.

You can use CopyTransManager to manage your iPod, iPod Touch, and iPhone. All major functionality, sans things like access to the iTunes stores and ripping CDs, is present in CopyTransManger. You can create and edit playlists, import artwork, edit track information, search and synchronize your music, and even store CopyTransManager on your iPod to access it wherever you can access portable applications.

CopyTransManager is available as a stand-alone portable application or part of the CopyTrans Suite which includes CopyTrans (allows you to repopulate your iTunes library from your iPod) and CopyTrans Photo (photo syncing between your iPod and PC).

CopyTransManager is free, Windows only, and portable.

Well it has taken awhile, but Flickr has finally decided to get with the times by releasing their long sought after iPhone app. Prior to the app, iPhone users were stuck dealing with Flickr’s mobile-optimized website for browsing pictures, while image uploads were handled through the email application. You would think that a company known for online photo services would’ve jump on the Apple bandwagon with the launch of the first iPhone, but better late than never we always say.

Upon opening the app you are treated to a slideshow of photos pulled from your Flickr contacts, along with a very easily accessible upload button that is conveniently placed on the main page. During the upload process you can manage which photo set to place the new image in, give it a name and description, add tags and tweak privacy settings. Commenting on photos is a breeze and the design and look appears to be everything we would have wanted out of a native Flickr app.

Pick it up now over at the App Store. -IGN