PC users join the iPod party

When Apple's well-received iPod hit the market last November, the majority of computer users were excluded from the party. The revolutionary new hard disk-based MP3 player worked only in partnership with Apple's iTunes and only on FireWire-equipped Macs -- no Windows systems.

Luckily, entrepreneurial software developers took up the challenge and delivered not one but two programs to rescue stranded PC users. But can either application prove as seamless a partner as iTunes?