is there a "drag n drop" ipod alternative mp3 player ?

an iPod does exactly what you need, it works with PC and Mac, charges with USB and normal power supply, it holds 30gb, 60gb, and 80gb of music,
you can plug your iPod in to other computers and download music onto them, (I do with my parents, and brothers computers)

 

As long as you set it to "manually manage my music" as opposed to "automatically sync my music" you should have no problem connecting it to multiple machines.

 

You do this through iTunes or in disk mode?

 

Although all of those machines still need iTunes (which is of course available as a free download).

 

... and since you can use the iPod as a USB disk you can as well carry a copy of iTunes on the iPod to wherever you are going

 

mac vs pc

heya,

seems to me that it is not as simple as you're suggesting -- you can charge your ipod at any computer with a usb -- however, to the best of my knowledge -- and experience, if your ipod is mac formatted, you can't update your library from a pc.

However, I seem to recall (haven't tested this) that a pc formatted ipod can use both.

Mike

 

Macs can read and write Windows formatted iPods, yes. Windows formatted iPods use the FAT32 filesystem.

 

Windows can read OSX file systems through the use of 3rd party software.

I believe new iPods come formatted already for Windows. So long as you don't click "Restore" in iTunes or format the iPod you'll be fine!