PodWorks updated to 2.9.3

Dunno, I've never used either.

But if you look at Version Tracker you'll see this guy's main selling point seems to be that many similar programs get their information by reading the ID3 tags from the music files. By contrast, PodWorks author says his program "reads its data directly from the iPod's internal database, resulting in nearly instantaneous display of your song list".

If he does get the relative speed he claims, I suppose the question has to be is that speed worth $8 to you? $8 doesn't sound like a lot to me.

Frankly, if your hard disk dies and you haven't got it backed up with Time Machine (or however else), so that you lose your iTunes library, you can get your music back off your iPod simply by copying the whole iPod_Control directory back to the new hard drive. That directory's hidden with a Finder flag, but you can see it from the command line. Since you can do that, there's actually no need to see what files are on the device: you just dump the lot back out again.

However, I'd guess the program makes an efficient piracy device for those so minded, since they could use it to rummage through a friend's iPod and take only what they want. It's not surprising Apple hides the iPod_Control directory, really. I guess they don't want to make such rummaging too easy or they could end up in court.

LOL, good one :D