I started on Christmas day, and haven’t yet finished transferring my entire CD collection to my brand-spanking-new 20GB iPod. What a great gift – thank you, Rachel. However, as this was totally unexpected and therefore a complete surprise (although a fantastic one), I’m feeling slightly unprepared for the responsibility that is iPod ownership. I have some questions.

What’s the best solution for using the iPod in a car? At the moment I have an old cassette tape converter from my MiniDisc player, which works although the quality is average and the mechanical noise from the tape drive in my hippo is a little annoying. I’ve seen devices with FM radio transmitters, such as the iTrip, but I’ve not spotted them for sale anywhere in the UK, which suggests they may not be licensed for use here (although that’s not necessarily a problem). Are these things any good? What is your experience?

At the moment I’m using iTunes for Windows to manage my pod. Seemed like the obvious choice, and it integrates well (obviously). Are there better tools out there that I should be looking at? I keep getting this weird problem where instead of listing my pod as ‘Drew’s iPod’, I get an iPod icon with a label of ‘Files’ and none of my music within. Why so? The only way to get my beloved pod back is to reboot the box. Ick.

Another odd thing – I’m guessing I should be able to see my pod as a removable drive in Windows Executor Explorer, but I don’t. This may be related to the ‘Files’ thing, and may indicate that I need to reinstall the drivers. I’ll give that a go unless anyone has any better suggestions?

All the same .. mmmmm iPod loveliness. They’re even more beautiful and appealing that the promotional material makes out. There’s no way to describe the feeling of scrolling down the Artists list and seeing nothing but the music you love, or playing through in Shuffle mode knowing that whatever song comes next, it’s one you want to hear. I love my iPod.