How to make external devices (like iPods, etc.) NOT mount as connected drives when plugged in via USB to a Mac?

Question

If I plug my iPod (or a thumb drive or whatever) to my Mac's USB port, the device appears as a icon representing a connected drive on my Mac's Desktop.
This is normal, expected behavior.
HOWEVER, in some cases, I'd prefer that the device not "mount" as a connected external drive.
With thumb drives or external USB drive, of course, I want them to "mount" so I can transfer files on or off them -- that would be the only possible reason to connect an external drive like that.
But with other Apple devices like iPods or iPhones, there are TWO possible reasons to connect them to a Mac: either to "sync" them or transfer files on/off them; OR, to simply recharge the device's battery. (Or, both sync and recharging functions at once.)
For those people who use their Apple devices in ways that require transferring files (i.e. most people), then having the device "mount" as a connected device is a desirable behavior.
But in my circumstance (and I bet there are a lot of people in a similar circumstance), I have no need or desire to transfer any data to or from my device every time I plug it into my Mac: I'm plugging it in SOLELY to recharge the device's battery.
Specifically, in my case, I have a 6th-gen iPod Nano, and I use it exclusively as an FM radio and a pedometer. I don't have any mp3s or songs or any other external files loaded on it, nor do I plan to add any in the future.
The only reason I ever plug it into my Mac is so that I can recharge the iPod's battery.
But the "problem," which is a minor one I admit but a problem nonetheless, is that every time I connect the iPod to the Mac, the iPod appears as a "connected drive" icon on my Mac's desktop. Which means that I'm not supposed to just unplug the iPod  when I'm done -- first, I have to find its icon on the Mac Desktop, and then drag the icon to the Trash, to "unmount" it -- and only then can I freely unplug the iPod without getting an error message telling me that I shouldn't just disconnect connected drives without first properly unmounting them.
This would be bothersome enough if I only had to do it once per connection, but in the case of the iPod Nano, there's no way to tell how recharged it is while it is in the act of recharging, so that to see if I'm "done," I have to unplug it, check the battery status, and if it's not fully charged, re-plug it back in. So that each time I recharge it, I often have to unmount the drive several times, depending on how impatient I am.
There has to be a way to prevent the mounting of the drives of devices that one is connecting simply for the purpose of recharging. But how?
Strangely, I also have an old iPhone, and when I plug that in for recharging in the same way, it DOESN'T appear as a connected drive on the Desktop. I'm not sure how I managed to do this, but long ago I must have changed some setting or preference for this to happen. And by now I've forgotten what I did.
I'd prefer that I could change the "mount/don't-mount" setting on a device-by-device basis -- i.e. make it such that this particular iPod doesn't load, but perhaps a different iPod would load -- but if that's not possible, then is there a way to stop ALL iPods and iPhones from loading as connected drives when plugged in?
(I'm not talking about appearing as connected drives within iTunes -- I'm talking about appearing as an icon on the Desktop in the Finder.)
And please don't tell me to just buy a wall charger! I prefer to recharge off my computer if possible, using the charging cord that came with the iPod.
I presume there's some simple setting to toggle this on or off, but I haven't yet found it. Any clues would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Well, I already know about that Finder Preferences option, but that is not what I'm looking for. Why not? Because I still need CDs and DVDs to appear on the Desktop and mount properly! If I uncheck the "CDs, DVDs and iPods" option, then I lose the ability to access CDs and DVDs, which creates a whole new problem for me. What I want is to not mount iPods only -- actually, what I really want is to not mount this particular iPod -- but if that level of specificity is not possible, then I want to exclude just iPods from mounting, without also condemning CDs and DVDs (or whatever) to invisibility.
Also, I was confused by the way the Preference is worded: It says "Show these items on the Desktop," with a series of options to check. But this phraseology seems to mean that the unchecked items will still "mount," they simply won't appear as Desktop icons. One would still have to "Eject" them using a menu command, rather than dragging the icon to the Trash -- right? Or am I mistaken, and is the Preference Pane simply badly worded, and when they say "Show these items on the Desktop," what they really mean is "mount these external devices as connected drives." So that if a category is unchecked, then they won't load as external drives at all?
But if so, then what purpose could possibly be served by inserting a CD or DVD that is not recognized by the computer? And if it isn't recognized, then it would seem that there would be no way to ever Eject the CD or DVD disk. Right?
Thus, if I uncheck that Finder Preference box you suggest, one of two outcomes will result:
-- Either CD, DVDs and iPods are still mounted, they just won't appear as icons on the Desktop; but they would still need to be Ejected via a menu command, which doesn't solve my problem.
-- Or, CDs, DVDs and iPods are not mounted or recognized by the computer at all, which means that if I insert a disk into the disk drive, it will get stuck there forever, since there's no way to Eject it, since the OS doesn't recognize that it's even there. Which is thereby a new problem.
Either way, I'd have a problem! Or...? Clarification, anyone?