Floola is a small, cross platform app that can copy music files, video files, and playlists to and from your Ipod on any computer without having iTunes installed.
You can also use it to manage your audio collection straight on the Ipod, including editing or deleting files and or artist/album/genre information, as well as creating playlist and/or playing your Ipod-resident music files.
It can also manage Motorolla phones that are supported by iTunes.Here’s what you need to know about this software:
- Yes you read it correctly; finally a free iTunes replacement that can move video files to and from the Ipod
- Installation is a breeze, and involves simply moving the Floola executable into the Ipod from within the Windows file system. Note that you have to (a) enable the Ipod as a portable hard drive (Ipod will appear in ’My Computer’), and (b) switch off the Auto-sync option in iTunes (to prevent iTunes from erasing the files you independently copy to your Ipod with Floola). To uninstall, simply delete Floola from the Ipod.
- Installing Floola on the Ipod itself means that you could copy files to/from your Ipod on any PC; just plug it in, run Floola, and you’re on your way.
- Search functionality allows you to immediately find the songs, videos, artists, albums, and/or genres you’re looking for.
- Tag/information editing of your songs is possible, including adding Lyrics to your songs (you can upload these your type them in yourself inside Floola).
- Other services offered by Floola: finding duplicates and, managing notes on your Ipod .
- Can show song/album artwork; also supports loading artwork for your tracks/albums from the hard drive.
- Supports last.fm (not sure what this is about – an online music community).
- Ipod repair: the first thing Floola did once I got it installed and running was tell me that my Ipod needed repair and proceed to fix it. I must say, however, that I wasn’t aware of any problems before the fix, and did not notice any changes after.
I am ecstatic about this program, simply because of all of Windows’ free iTunes replacement programs, Floola is the only one that can move video files to/from the Ipod (neither Yamipod no’r Sharepod do this at the time of this writing). This also means that, unless you want iTunes’ online music store services, you can go ahead and uninstall it from your system (note that Floola and iTunes CAN coexist). If I could wish for anything it would just be the ability to download track/album artwork from an online resource.
Compared to iTunes, Floola is lightweight and much more straightforward. Its also fast, and offers a ’fast mode’ for very large libraries. Although it is still in beta and may contain some bugs, Floola is already my iTunes replacement of choice, and I highly recommend it.
Version tested: b29
Go to the download page to download the latest version. The program home page.
