Question: What if you want to listen to music while your iPod is plugged into a computer?
Say you want to listen to your iPod at work, but discover that your iPod’s battery is dead. If you’re like me, you probably have a perfectly good computer at your desk with perfectly good USB ports which can be used to charge your iPod. (If you’re also like me, you won’t have the AC adapter handy, because, like, what fun would that be?)
The problem: when you plug an iPod into a computer’s USB port, Windows will grab hold of it, and mount it as a USB drive. When this happens, the iPod will not play music — it will ony display the “Do not disconnect” message and bozo sign. The basic issue is that an iPod will function as either a music player or a USB drive, but not both simultaneously.
The solution: plug the iPod into your computer’s USB port. Once Windows mounts it as a drive, go to My Computer, right-click on the iPod’s drive letter (or icon), and choose Eject. Windows will then unmount the iPod, allowing it to function as a music player, but it will still be on the computer’s USB bus, allowing it to charge.
Don’t forget to use Safely Remove Hardware before pulling the plug when you leave for the day!