SO YOUR IPOD went to that electronics graveyard in the sky, and you replaced it with a non-Apple player. But your music library still sits inside iTunes, complete with painstakingly crafted playlists that you'd rather not lose. Do you have to switch to another music manager and re-create your playlists?

Not if you download iTunes Sync (on the DVD). This free Windows utility syncs any iTunes playlist to nonApple players. Install iTunes Sync, fire up iTunes, and plug in your player. Right click the tTunes Sync icon in the system tray, and choose Co1ifigure MP3 Players. Click Add, give your player a name, and click the button next to MP3 PlayerSubFolder to Sync to.



One caveat: iTunes Sync currently works only with players that receive a drive- letter assignment when you plug them in-a category that includes phones such as the BlackBerry Pearl and the Motorola Razr V3. After selecting the desired sync folder on your player, choose a folder structure (indicating how you want copied songs to be organized) and the iTunes playlist you want to sync with. If you want more than one playlist, you can use iTunes' smart-playlist feature to cre¬ate a new playlist that includes the ones you want; you then choose that playlist to sync with your player.

After making those selec¬tions, close the config win¬dow, right-click the tTunes Sync icon again, and choose Synchronize MP3 Player. Click the Sync button and sit back while your playlist breaks free of its iTunes shackles.