01-02-2008, 06:06 PM
I Googled also and the best sites for this kind of thing... (e.g. http://www.macfixit.com/, http://www.macosxhints.com/) failed to provide a workaround.
Since Windows XP SP2 and later are supported, my only guess is that the support is there on Windows due to the iPod being FAT formatted in Windows. When used on the Mac, the filesystem for the iPod is different (hfs?). It is even possible that the new Nanos use a different filesytem than previous Nanos when used on a Mac and they would thus need a different filesystem driver which is unavailable for Panther.
If Apple would have had to disable some of the Nano's features to permit it to work in a limited way under Panther, I can see why they would chose to have it not work at all. From Apple's point of view, it is better to have the device work perfectly for al of the supported configurations than imperfectly and have the device look bad and harm word-of-mouth advertizing.
It would be better, of course, if they could have found a way to make it work for all customers with a recent iTunes installed, but I think the reason it doesn't work has a technical foundation behind it.
Since Windows XP SP2 and later are supported, my only guess is that the support is there on Windows due to the iPod being FAT formatted in Windows. When used on the Mac, the filesystem for the iPod is different (hfs?). It is even possible that the new Nanos use a different filesytem than previous Nanos when used on a Mac and they would thus need a different filesystem driver which is unavailable for Panther.
If Apple would have had to disable some of the Nano's features to permit it to work in a limited way under Panther, I can see why they would chose to have it not work at all. From Apple's point of view, it is better to have the device work perfectly for al of the supported configurations than imperfectly and have the device look bad and harm word-of-mouth advertizing.
It would be better, of course, if they could have found a way to make it work for all customers with a recent iTunes installed, but I think the reason it doesn't work has a technical foundation behind it.