I have a new iPod Shuffle 4G (Happy Birthday!) and so far have been unable to use it because I cannot find an iTunes alternative that works on the 4G Shuffle, and I will not have iTunes on my computer.

I have been using Copy Trans Manager with my 2G shuffle, but CTM states that it does not work on the 4G, and they are correct.

Sharepod seems to be one of the more common alternatives, and it will load tracks into my iPod, but they will not play. Instead I get a recorded message from the iPod itself saying I must sync with iTunes, and nothing else plays. (I can open the Shuffle with Windows Explorer, find the tracks and play them on my computer.)

Does anyone know of an iTunes alternative that will work on a Shuffle 4G?

tanstaafl.

Mediamonkey supports the Shuffle 4G
http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Compatible_Devices#Apple
As to how good of a product it is....I don't know.

If it lets me add and delete tracks from a Shuffle 4G it's good enough!

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

tanstaafl.

You could try DoubleTwist or Songbird.

Songbird likely won't work. The iPod support is no longer maintained by the developers, and the open source community hasn't extended it much. The last version of Songbird to even support the iPod addon is 1.3, and Songbird is now at 1.9. The wiki here doesn't list anything above the iPod shuffle 2g.

Ah, wasn't aware. It was certainly my second suggestion for a reason, and I think DoubleTwist came in and destroyed it. Besides, Songbird was never that great anyway. It was merely an alternative to iTunes when there weren't many good ones.

Who do they expect is going to use their product? I suppose they have Android phone customers. I still don't understand how that project is still going though. It's seemed for a long time like they were just spinning their wheels. I try it at least once a year and it usually takes me only about 2 minutes before I uninstall it again. I'm not really liking iTunes and I wish more than anything Apple-related that they would scrap it and start over with multiple apps. But even with twice the issues, I'd still use it in a heartbeat over Songbird, even if SB supported every iDevice perfectly.