As most of you probably know, Apple chooses not to provide an iPod user with a supported method of extracting music. This is a, ahem, feature. The purpose is to avoid piracy. I can accept that, really I can, but I don't have enough space on my hard drive to hold all that music and sometimes I want to, say, burn a CD for my car. Make a mix. Make a backup incase something bad happens.

For the last couple of years I've experimented with several solutions for this problem, from perl scripts to software that actually costs money. Although I did find some shareware, for a price, that worked quite well, I'd rather use freeware if I can. So I experimented and experimented, and then I found YamiPod. YamiPod has a quality user interface and a host of quality features.

It's a standalone application that runs on OS X, Linux, and Windows. You can import playlists and music from the iPod to the iTunes library or into specific folders. You can remove duplicate tracks. You can search your library. You can export a list of the music on your iPod. Speaking of, expect me to do that some time soon.

Anyway. If you have an iPod, I strongly suggest you check this out.

All of that being said, this software is still in development so if you have a way to get a backup before trying it out, do so. Better safe than sorry, and all of that.