Manage your iPod or iPhone without iTunes

Xilisoft iPod Magic allows you to transfer DVDs, music and video to your iPod or iPhone, without the need for iTunes.

Billed as a three-in-one device management app, Xilisoft iPod Magic lets you rip audio and video from your iPod to your PC, copy files from iPod to iTunes, and transfer files from your PC to your iPod. The software even lets you convert non-iPod file formats on the fly, before transferring them to your device.

Thanks to a clear, well-designed interface, Xilisoft iPod Magic makes it easy to manage files on your iPod or iPhone. The contents of your Apple device are displayed in the main window (sectioned into audio, video, podcasts and photo). There are three large buttons underneath to add files to your iPod from your PC, export files from your device to the PC and for exporting to iTunes. Alternatively, you can simply drag and drop multimedia to and from Xilisoft iPod Magic. The app even supports batch transfers.

Ripping a DVD to your iPod/iPhone is very easy with Xilisoft iPod Magic. Just load the disk, hit the icon and the movie will be transferred to your device, or to iTunes, in the correct iPod format. In fact, any (well, almost any) video or audio that you transfer using Xilisoft iPod Magic will automatically be converted to the correct format. And quickly, at that. The program comes with a a neat preview window so you can see the video as it’s transferring.

On the negative side, some users might find Xilisoft iPod Magic to be a bit sluggish and unresponsive at times. It often takes a very long time to build your audio library into the window. The iTunes integration is far from perfect and a number of times Xilisoft iPod Magic managed to crash iTunes as it was trying to export music into it.

Putting these glitches aside, Xilisoft iPod Magic makes for a useful way to move music and video between your iPod and your PC.