Theory of MacBook Air + iTunes

Question

The MacBook Air's max hard disk is 80GB, the same size as the currently-bulging HD in my 2001 laptop. Maybe the Air can't fit the current 120GB or 160GB 1.8" drives because they're thicker.
However, 25GB of my 80GB is the iTunes music folder, so here is my theory:
Get an 80GB iPod. Enable half of it for hard disk use. (Buying a 160GB iPod and backing up the laptop onto it (*) seems like a bad temptation since I would take both on the road.)
Copy my iTunes folder to the HD half of the iPod.
Copy everything else to the new laptop.
Tell the laptop's iTunes to use the external iPod HD for its library.
Pant, grit teeth, tell iTunes to sync the iPod, which in this case means sync one half of the iPod with the other half.
Use a separate hard drive to back up both iTunes and laptop.
Besides the occasional syncing of the iPod with itself, the main other problems (both a matter of hassle, not impossibility) are:
1) If I acquire music, especially iTunes DRM'd songs, on the laptop while without the iPod.
2) if I want to take some music with me on the laptop without the iPod, i.e., treat the laptop as an iPod to the iPod's iTunes.
Apple created this problem by making a laptop smaller than an iPod(**). I hope they come up with a better solution. Something like, letting the iPod hold and play from a single master iTunes library, and letting the laptop hold a selected subset plus import cache.
--Steve
(*) "Verbing-preposition NP preposition NP." How common is that?
Backing up the fork lift onto the trailer...
(**) "Changed the center of gravity,
Made it slippy..." --Passenger (U2+Eno), "Elvis Ate America"
Message was edited by: Mac-Guyver

Answer 1

Meg--
I'm not talking about reformatting or repartitioning the iPod's disk, just using the ability the iPod already has to make part of its storage available as an external disk for the Mac. It sounds like a partition but it's not.
The trick I am thinking of is, set the iPod to use half its space for file storage, and store the Mac's iTunes library there (rather than taking up space on the laptop's too-small HD).
Chris--
If I manually manage music on the iPod, and erase all music off the laptop once it's copied to the iPod, that means
a) I have to do that for every new group of songs,
b) There are various ways I could make a mistake (or the iPod could malfunction) and I would loose some or all of my music
c) Mainly, I would lose most of the features of iTunes: smart playlists; burning CDs; making backups; editing, processing or sharing song files, etc.
By "syncing the iPod with itself," I mean, having the iTunes library stored on the iPod as external file storage, then syncing iTunes with the iPod. That would make copies of the files from the iTunes library half of the iPod, onto the music storage half of the iPod. The point is, iTunes would handle this automatically and all my syncing and playlists would work exactly like they do now.
Chris, you also say, "Why have an external drive at all? The idea of the Mac Air is to minimize what you have."
I don't know about other people's ideas, but my goal is to minimize the weight while keeping what I have. My 80GB disk is full and Apple doesn't offer a bigger one in the Air. Something's gotta give.
My idea is this: I don't usually play music on my laptop on the road. Usually, I take my iPod in the car and leave it there. I can shave 25GB off my laptop if I store my music somewhere else. iPods come with three or six times that much storage. That's more than enough to store my iTunes library twice.
Devin--
Yes, I could use (part of) an external HD at home for iTunes. USB hub might well end up part of the picture. But using the iPod as both external drive and iPod does use fewer wires. Other possibilities:
I could keep a separate computer for iTunes at home.
Maybe there is non-Apple software I could load onto the iPod so I could store one copy of the iTunes library there and play from it. Would have to convert all the .aac's to .mp3 though.
If the Air had (or would accept) a 160GB disk it would be okay for a couple years.
If Apple modified iTunes, the iPod could be the music hub and the laptop would be a satellite. And the iPod wouldn't need to store two copies of every song.
If they did that and the iPhone came with 40GB and Verizon support I could swap my Treo for an iPhone and not gain too much weight.
But for me, as I think about the Air, this is the best theory I can come up with. I thought I would post the idea here in case someone else is in the same pickle.
Message was edited by: Mac-Guyver
Message was edited by: Mac-Guyver