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There is plenty of demand for an iPod SDK, and has been since day 1:

http://www.alteringtime.com/log/archives/96
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/21/macgamesip od/index.php
http://www.ipodhacks.com/modules.php?op=modload&na me=Forum&file=viewtopic&forum=2&topic=1806
http://lists.apple.com/archives/studentdev/2001/Oc t/msg00437.html
...and so on.

Apple has their reasons for not releasing an iPhone SDK, same as they have their reasons for not releasing an iPod SDK. I assure you that not knowing the demand has nothing to do with it.

So, how do you transfer to an OpenZaurus then? Please enlighten me, twitter. If it requires any special software, you automatically fail.

By Compact Flash or SD and any music player or program that can write to such.

You can transfer from iPod to computer using EphPod and GTKPod. You can plug your iPod into your PC without "self destructing", you either don't have iTunes installed so it won't do anything or you click the "Don't Replace" button when iTunes pops up. So long as you didn't buy your music from iTMS, you can move it around as much as you like.

That all sounds so easy.... for you. No, I don't believe you over what I read in Wikipedia and what people who own the device have told me.

Twitter, you've never used iTunes, you've never used an iPod and you are babbling on about something you only superficially know about from Wikipedia.

That's true. A brief overview of how iPod works is enough for me to not want one. People I know have failed to push the right button at the right time and had to go through a "restore" process he described as a pain in the ass. I'm not giving my money to a company that makes things hard for me and I don't need to. The briefest of google searches pulls up all sorts of problems on iPod besides trying to make it work with free software.

• Having to format the hard drive or lose battery life.
• One of many copy and restore programs, because iTunes apparently does not do what users want.
• A failed restore
• Apple's trouble shooting recommendations.

SHUT THE FUCK UP. Let people who actually know what they are talking about participate in this discussion, you go and sit in the corner and talk to yourself.

No. The discussion I started here is about how people like you reject the iTunes music store. Why don't you tell me about how cool DRM'd music is and how long you have been looking forward to it? Tell me what a cool company Apple is and how all of their stuff does exactly what you want, without modification and how happy you are with your non free iPod. No? tell me about how easy it is to work with Apple and how supportive they have been of GTKpod and others.

Having double the storage is not enough to beat the ipod. Hell, its not even the looks. Does it have an AAC codec to beat the ipod? Does it have the clarity of output like the ipod earbuds? The current iPod AAC codec is the best of the breed. iPod emerges as the top AAC codec in test

I can tell by experience that most electronic equipment in Europe complies with FCC regulation (to number some on my desktop: cordless phone, wireless mouse and keyboard, router, monitor, USB DVD recorder, speakers...)

On the other hand - it's getting more and more common for portable devices to be released as US-version and UE-version. For example, European iPods have a so called volume cap. ROKR was initially released on American market only, etc. So... generally you are probably right, but it's not that simple.

What a toolish Microsoft fanboy Thurott has always been.

http://www.ipodhacks.com/article.php?sid=578

Oy.

The desktop most certainly can deliver mobility, contrarty to the article's statements.

The trick is to use a portable hard drive to carry a user profile with you. Then, any capable desktop becomes your desktop.

Apple did this but for unknown reasons nixed the feature from iPods years ago, just days before it was launched. Perhaps it muddied the "music only" nature of the device.

Still, it is a great idea - one I welcome Apple to revisit.

Home on iPod was a feature slated for inclusion in OSX 10.3 Panther - it was the opportunity to have an encrypted home directory, containing application settings, documents and apps in a partition on an iPod's internal drive.

When connected to a supported Mac, the OS would allow the user to log in with their usual login and password, giving a seamless M
the feature was apparently scrapped as desktop usage was too stressful on the iPod hard drive

Cute try, but you haven't seemed to figure out the difference between marketing specs and actual tests. Yes, marketing says they should last about 500 cycles so heavy users should generally get about 2-3 years out of them. (Obviously some people will get more.) But the reality is that many people have much less actual time with them and have even sued over it.

As for the total hours, sure some people can get up to 12 hours (often only in the first year) on the generation 4 and 5, but if you read some of the above you'll see some as low as 4-5 hours, and often 8 hours is a typical normal accomplishment. You'll even notice some of the above links report the iPod mini is supposed to get 12 hours but testing suggests it only gets about 7 hours.

We can argue about actual numbers and conditions like crazy, but the point is that real people are getting less than the marketing suggests and a good number have general battery problems.

As far as replacement, yes, you can crack it open yourself using 3rd party battery sources, but a proper battery replacement (they aren't made to be opened) costs $99 from Apple (see above link).

Even more importantly, the actual dollar and length of life is not really the main issue. The point is that iPods have battery problems. It's easy to find all over the internet. While this isn't a big problem with some people, it certainly means that not only "dumbfucks" (as the grandparent post said) have objections to the iPods and there are legitimate reasons to believe that they aren't the best.

Their hard drives aren't designed for booting OSes from. Too much seeking will fry them.

This sounds right for older iPods, but I'm not so sure this applies to the latest batch. There have been specs passed around via forum threads that claim that the Toshiba drive used in iPods has a 20,000 hour MTBF (mean time between failure) -- which is a far cry from the 300,000+ MTBF for desktop drives. However newer (Gen 4) iPods use the Toshiba MK4004GA, which has a 300,000 hour MTBF, just as good as a laptop drive.

As far as I know, you are correct about Gen 1 and Gen 2 iPods (I'm not sure about Gen 3).

If the mac mini is designed as the machine that we hook up to our HDTVs (I currently have a modded G4 cube doing that for now.)

And assuming (this might be a stretch) that the "Asteroid" box is really a HD video box (Jobs said it's the year of HD) and that my iPod Photo has the hardware already to play movies then Apple will have a perfect set of distribution/watch on HDTV/carry on iPod. A formidable concept.

Apple is putting into place the exact pieces to create the iTunes store for movies. With Steves experience in the film business (Pixar) he already has more connections than he did with the record companies and now he has a track record, no, he has written the book on legal downloading.

Napster is talking abut dilly-dallying around with the concepts that Apple is preparing the major groundwork for.

No no you have it all wrong, that abrasive static you hear is not mind control. The supposedly superior ipod suffers from design flaws. Apple will need to focus on improving their quality control before they will be able to tackle mind control.

blakespot

iPod has been a savior of Apple. The hardware has actually been driving sales of downloaded music and this fact has not been unnoticed by the business world. Hence the term, *iPod killer*.

Users typically spend a bity of time creating, transferring their music titles to the pod. But what happens at the end of the hard drive life? I wonder what steps a typical user has taken to backup their 40/80 Gb of music?

Will they be tempted to save their 40Gb to hard drive before any hardware problems occur? What is the MTBF of the iPod? [www.ipodhacks.com, iPod Boot Disk Burnout, 20,000 hrs]

Will the cost offset the user disatisfaction? Or will enough users purchased the next version with suitable upgrade of their music lists?

Some people even document their crimes http://www.ipodhacks.com/

iPod Hacks has an article about developing Quicktime applications for iPod. Pretty interesting stuff.

...as mentioned earlier here on /.

blakespot

Apple is setting their sights too high (the original iPod was only bought by the most diehard Apple fans)

Uh, no.

First of all, the original iPod was only meant to work with Macs, so your attempt to denigrate it by saying that "only diehard Apple fans bought them" is completey asinine-- Mac users were 100% of the target market!

Second, your assertion is also completely wrong. The original iPod was a huge hit, and plenty of Windows users were quickly clamoring for Apple to provide a Windows-compatible model. Some Windows users bought Mac-only iPods and went to work getting them to talk to their PCs. There were quite a few apps written to accomplish this, like EphPod and xPod (later renamed xPlay, IIRC).

~Philly

blakespot

Hey, genius.

The evidence doesn't really support your claims. There are many people hacking the iPod every day. There are entire sites about it.

The iPod works seemlessly with Microsoft Windows. Apple even ported their jukebox program over to it! Does that really sound like a company whose motto is "Interoperate And Die!" Jesus.

Why is it that you're lambasting Apple for this particular decision (heavy-handed though it may be), but you haven't raised your voice in protest over their lack of WMA inclusion? Oh, right...they have a vested interest in promoting their own file formats...WHICH IS WHAT THEY'RE DOING RIGHT NOW!

Look...it's hard to laud Apple for this (though some people are trying). I'd much rather have had them do nothing. But really...who cares? Real was stupid to try it.

well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time...

I've been watching the iPod applications list for an offline web browser. I think a generic app like that would be better than these one off apps like class schedule viewer and wifi hotspot directory.

IPod Apps

iPod Hacks.com

Check it.

Not as hilarious as the iPod port of DOOM (!!)

DOOM Ported to iPod

Finally.

blakespot

blakespot

blakespot

Otherwise, I'm going to install Jaguar to my iPod and boot off that when I want some "Cate Archer" sneaking action.

You might consider checking with Apple first to see if it will screw up your warranty.

iPodHacks warns that booting off your iPod might be considered "abuse" by Apple if you have problems later.

blakespot

External FM transmitter adaptors are widely available from Radio Shack and the like.

A survey of reviews will inform you that most people are quite disappointed in their sound quality:

• Dr Botts
• Comments on several models
• another one

Basically, the impression I get from comments I've seen about these it that they work OK if you have no other option, but if you can at all manage a miniplug-to-RCA, or even a cassette adaptor, they'll sound better.

Buying a WinPod (or getting a MacPod and using the WinniePod Updater to make it a WinPod) allows you to use it on both Mac's and Wintel machines.
It's well documented at Ipoding, IpodHacks, IpodLounge, and the EphPod Forums that a Mac can read a WinPod. Thus, it works on both, and utilities are available to get your calendars and contacts on.
The only thing you give up with this arrangement is the ability to use "smart playlists"- at this time, the EphPod folks are trying to figure out why a FAT32 Ipod doesn't seem to write back how many times you played a specific song.

Previously the refurbished price for the 5GB iPod was at 299$US, and now all the 5GB iPods have dropped to this price.

With a price of 299$US, a 5GB hard disk and approximately 10 hours of use, you cannot go wrong. In addition to that, xpod has been created for use as a linux client for the ipod.

As of yet, support for Ogg Vorbis has not been created, but once it has, you will be sure to see it at http://www.ipodhacks.com

-David

Previously the refurbished price for the 5GB iPod was at 299$US, and now all the 5GB iPods have dropped to this price.

With a price of 299$US, a 5GB hard disk and approximately 10 hours of use, you cannot go wrong. In addition to that, xpod has been created for use as a linux client for the ipod.

As of yet, support for Ogg Vorbis has not been created, but once it has, you will be sure to see it at http://www.ipodhacks.com

-David

As I type this reply on my Toshiba 200MMX laptop in Galeon 1.2.something or another (don't remember what fonts I am using -- but they are not to bad). I am sitting on the couch using some wireless lan card from CISCO that cost about 1/10 what an airport would (the hub is in the basement somewhere). I have "The Road Warrior" playing on the TV next to the couch. I am importing pictures from my cameras Compact Flash card connected to my PCMCIA slot and rotating the ones taken sideways using Gimp 1.something or another -- as soon as I am done transfering the pictures off the CF card -- I am going to delete them and copy over 256 Megs of MP3 files to play on my Nex II portable. (Software cost for this whole setup was $0)

I read this article and I don't buy the "Linux is useless on the Desktop" crap. There is always alternatives -- the only caveot is to be careful when you buy your hardware.
People who live in glass houses....yadayada

I enjoy using Chimera sometimes (an OS X "Cocoa" browser based on the gecko engine, like Galeon), but sadly am often forced to use IE given certain sites' leanings towards IE as far as non-platform-independent page layouts. I would not like to lack IE as an option, at any rate. Also, you say your wireless card costs 1/10 what my AirPort card costs. I paid $100, you must've paid $10. Good buy. I do have an actual AirPort Base Station which cost me $300. I could've gone with one of many others, and almost went with the LinkSys, but on two wireless review sites, I found that the AirPort fared better as far as range than the LinkSys, and I assumed I may have problems with range with either and would be forced to place the base station on the 2nd floor, in plain view, rather than hidden away up on the 3rd floor computer room. The AirPort looks far more acceptible for an item in plain view. But, happily, the range is such that I am able to leave it up on the 3rd floor...but I've featured it a bit more prominently than I might were it less interesting looking an item. :-)

And yea, I watch DVD's on my TV as well. But I can watcth them on my BSD UNIX based laptop and desktop, while you cannot, running Linux. I don't think that placing a laptop near a TV negates the advantage of OS X being able to play DVD's.... And as for MP3's, I hear you about liking to take MP3's on the road. I have a frequently changing 1000 songs on my iPod, and move MP3's to the unit at a rate of one album's worth of music in less than 10 seconds across FireWire. It's great stuff. (I like the iPod so much I run a website about it --> iPodHacks.com.)

And it may be simple preference, but I find Photoshop 7 to be more conducive to my getting the results I'm looking for than Gimp. (But I do have Gimp, compiled under OS X, using a rootless X-Windows server I've got installed, in case I want to use it.) Your cost for the software was $0. I paid many hundred $$ for Photoshop 7, but I need the app. OS X came with my machine. It retails for $125 though. That's perhaps the best deal as far as "bang for your buck" in software that I've seen in 20 years of using computers.

And I don't claim "Linux is useless on the desktop." I simply feel that in the face of the existence of OS X in this world, that Linux's viability on the desktop is much more in question. You saved $$ on the software -- but how much $$ is the time needed to cope with that desktop arrangement worth to you?

blakespot

There was this product awhile back that was kind of an integrated low-level sound synth and sequencer/drum machine for the normal, 4-color gameboy. It was only available in europe, and you could make these REALLY funky tiny little techno tunes on it. Very aphexy. Does anyone remember the name of this, or have a link?

I would probably have more fun with a sequel to that, than this... but that's just me. That being said, this soundpro thing is an absolutely amazing work of engineering. I mean, LOOK at that thing.. it's tiny, it has a 512 MB upper ceiling, it's mac-compatible, and it's CHEAP. And this part really impresses me:

Besides playing songs in the standard MP3 and Windows Media Audio formats, the SongPro device will also play a proprietary SongPro Audio, or SPA, format that will use the Game Boy's screen to display lyrics and pictures.

That makes me happy.. it's always cool when people try to push a device like the Game Boy to the limit of its abilities, rather than just saying "well, we have an mp3 player in it, that's impressive enough on its own, lets stop here". -_-

I wonder how hard it would be to create a gameboy version of Vib Ribbon and then stuff it inside the SongPro II along with the mp3 player? ^_^ Eh, that's probably pushing it.

That being said, I dunno. If you just want a handheld thingy that plays mp3s and games, i still say-- i've said this on slashdot before-- it might be worth a shot to try to hack the iPod to have a first-gen gameboy emulator on it :) I still have no idea if that's POSSIBLE, but by all accounts the iPod has an ARM chip, a 4-color lcd screen and some buttons. I'm not certain that reverse-engineering the iPod's firmware would be more difficult than designing a system that stores 512 MB of mp3s in the backslot of a Game Boy :) Is this relevant? Is this? Anyway, if you could get it to work, that would be way more expensive than gameboy+songpro, but a MUCH nicer form factor than this lumpy songpro thing :)

Busterman will rise again

WinPoding forum at Ipoding.com

Apple Ipod Forums

Ipodhacks

IpodLounge forumss at IpodLounge.com

Everything Ipod-accessories

Chimera, as it evolves, will arguably be the Mozilla incarnation to use. Yet another amazing gemstone of technology made possible my Apple and Mac OS X.

blakespot -- iPodHacks.com

I have always considered the best feature of Mac OS X to be the lack of support for Notes/Domino, coming in well higher on the list than the robust Unix underpinnings, elegant interface, etc. I simply cannot exaggerate my dislike for Notes/Domino. I had a CS degree and had done some C development professionally, but no web app development when I accepted the Notes/Domino development position. I swear, if I had not discovered Linux+Apache+MySQL+PHP with some codeplay on my own time, it would have taken YEARS for me to have grasped the coherent flow of a web application. Domino with its "agents" (which won't handle dynamically generated fields), @formula, and document-based DB model is the most obfuscated example of the web app development model that I could posibly imagine in my widlest and most esoteric musings. It is with great trepidation that I witness the ushering in of this foul beast, borne of the minds of a band of seething madmen from Lotus. And Notes as a e-mail/PIM client sucks as well. It made it into a special in-depth section of the Interface Hall of Shame: http://www.iarchitect.com/lotus.htm It is a dark day for OS X indeed. blakespot -- iPodHacks.com

it might have been clever when this guy did it a couple of months ago, but it's not clever anymore.

For anyone that has an iPod or is just interested in hacking them, goto iPodHacks.com. It can give you some ideas of what the iPod is capable of.

C|net Editor's Choice

New York Times Review

Business Week Sweet Music

Wall Street Journal Review

LA Times Review

PC Magazine 5/5 Rating

But more to the point, who has played the cell-phone style hidden game on the iPod? With new hacking sites popping up all over, has anyone found a firmware update that gives them any more games yet? Or playback of even more media formats or other abilities? Of couse it will soon have Windows compatibility and people have been booting off their iPods since the beginning, but lately I've seen someone modifying it for use as a simple address book, people trying to get it to work under *BSD and Linux, and development of a new graphic EQ for it. Anyone else made cool hacks?

This is not accurate. Runnning Debian/PPC with kernel 2.4.13-ben0 on my G4 Powerbook, the sbp2 driver is able to identify the iPod as a Firewire disk. Make sure you've got the CONFIG_MAC_PARTITION kenel option enabled -- the iPod uses the MacOS partitioning scheme.

See iPod on Linux or ipodhacks.com

ieee1394: NodeMgr: hotplug policy returned 0xfffffffe
ieee1394: Device added: node 0:1023, GUID 0000000002002f0d
ieee1394: sbp2: Driver forced to serialize I/O (serialize_io = 1)
ieee1394: sbp2: Node 0:1023: Max speed [S400] - Max payload [0x09/2048]
scsi1 : IEEE-1394 SBP-2 protocol driver
Vendor: Model: Rev:
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 9780750 512-byte hdwr sectors (5008 MB)
/dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0: [mac] p1 p2 p3

Considering the "protection" is making the folder "invisible" I don't think this is going to be a hard thing to do. The harder part will be writing drivers for the PC to mount FireWire drives (not common on that platform from what I understand) and read/write HFS+ formatted volumes (no idea if software to do this exists at all).

Check out iPod Hacks for a lot more info.