Gordon's Tech: iTunes and iPod integration and oddities (the lost posting)

This is a recreation of a post I did on 11/1 that Blogger apparently lost:

Gordon's Tech: iTunes and iPod integration and oddities

Computer vendors have a tough time managing multiple users. Palm blew it completely, they never reconciled their view of the Palm Desktop with the multi-user nature of XP.

Apple has done a bit better, but they're far from perfect. Consider iTunes on one machine that syncs with 3 iPods, two belonging to one user and one belonging to another user. How should the system be setup? Assume the music is shared.

There's no good answer. Ideally the music would belong to a neutral user and each iPod would sync with a shared Library and local playlists. Alas, items from a shared Library cannot be added to local playlists, nor can they be synced to an iPod. If all users share one Library, however, the contact syncing doesn't work.

A basic design problem.

BTW, if one has a Nano and a 3G iPod one runs into an interesting conundrum. The 3G cable will charge both devices but won't sync the Nano, the USB cable will sync both devices but won't charge the 3G. Since I don't want to have too many cables dangling from my iMac, the USB cable will stay there to sync both devices but the firewire cable will go to cradle downstairs to charge devices.