Why iPod requires internet access ?

[Hussein Baghdadi]

It is a MP3 player.
You have your songs in the hard disk, you can tranfer them to the iPod.
Why the internet connection (assuming I don't want to buy songs from the iTunes store) ?
[ April 26, 2007: Message edited by: John Todd ]

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

If you don't want to use the iTunes store, I don't think you'll need an Internet connection. If you read somewhere that it's a "requirement", it's not a "can't use it at all" kind of requirement.

[Jim Yingst]

Another optional use of an internet connection is when you convert a CD to mp3 (or m4a) using iTunes, it looks up the track names using an online database. You can still do the conversion without an internet connection, but you have to type in track names yourself. Or accept defaults like "Track 1", "Track 2", etc. You can also look up the correct names later when you do have a connection.

[marc weber]

There are also periodic software updates, if you're interested in these.