iPod NoteReader Notes

An anonymous reader writes, "Apple has released a document on how to use the new iPod NoteReader." The highlights: you can link to other notes, or to tracks on the iPod, or to dynamically generated playlists. It handles 1,000 notes, up to 4K each, and caches up to 64K of notes in memory so the hard drive doesn't spin up. The notes are stored as text files in directories and can be organized by directory.

Comments

How to put a Wiki on your iPod

[august]

I wanted to point out a nifty piece of software- VoodooPad ( http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad.html ) which will export it's wiki contents to the iPod notes folder (in the latest version, 1.1 alpha).

It turns your ipod into a Wiki on the go... Here's a great writeup of the software from
Oreilly entitled "Wiki meet iPod"- http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3164

Disclaimer- I wrote the software.

-gus

Only on new iPods

[capmilk]

One should note that this functionality will only be available on new (red backlit buttons) iPods.

Re:It's gravy

[adso]

Meaning that's this is just an extra feature, surely not a selling point.

Carrying around a Palm (or any notebook PC) for me would be a waste, I'm not that organized (nor do I want to be). My iPod is first and foremost an MP3 player and secondly a FireWire drive to haul large files to and from work. Once in a blue moon I might actually need an address or write down an appointment, and it's a nice thing to have. Being able to put notes with links in them really doesn't affect me much, but it's just one more side ability the iPod has.

That being said I hope Apple doesn't expand the PDA abilities of the iPod too much. Trying to cram a bunch of PDA-like functionality in there (add-on keyboards and touch screens) would detract from what it does well- play music. If it ain't broke...

Older iPods?

[ElGanzoLoco]

I'm eagerly waiting for some über-hacker to hack the new iPod's firmware (2.0) in order to install it on the old iPods... I want to play with notes, and, especially, I want "playlists on the go".

I *think* (I'm taking a wild-assed guess here, so you can't tell I didn't warn you) the hardware is basically the same (except for that strange dock connector, but this is just firewire + line out with a strange form factor, isn't it?) so I think it must be quite easy to install 2.0 on older iPods (???).

Would someone be kind enough to upload the 2.0 firmware on some server? Google can't find anything...

Re:Older iPods?

[SandSpider]

See, I can't say I'd agree with the guess. I mean, it's not like apple hasn't upgraded the firmware in the past with new features and such. My guess from being in similar situations is that there's enough different between the two ipods that they would have to maintain separate code bases in order to maintain the functionality. When that happens, you can either double the number of programmers (I say simplisticly), or you can abandon the old code base.

But I saw a review of the ipod that made the same guess, and I say that it's a foolish guess. But then, I'm only guessing as well.

=Brian

Re:Older iPods?

[TwP]

it must be quite easy to install 2.0 on older iPods (??)

Version 2.0 of the iPod software was written by Apple. Versions 1.3 and prior were outsourced to another company (whose name I do not know). They are entirely different animals. This will also explain why Apple has not released an update for the older iPods that provides the feature set of the new iPods -- they don't want to pay the outsourcing fees. And this will also explain the bugs in the new iPods (I sent mine back by the way).

Neat.

[PhoenixK7]

I just tried this out, and it works pretty much as described in the docs. One thing though: it takes a while for it to do the pattern matching. Generating a playlist of all the "indie" genre'd stuff in my library took like 5-6 seconds before "Now Playing" came up. Hopefully they'll speed this up a bit and also work out the couple of annoying bugs in the firmware :)

All around the new revs are great, though I've already manged to scratch the face and back in a few places. I wish they'd put some sort of scratch resistant coating on these things ala eyeglasses.

Good for museum applications

[shunnicutt]

One application for the iPod notes feature would be in self-guided museum tours.

A note you can read on the iPod screen that will link to an audio file or to another note? A self-guided tour unit that will sync changes automatically and charge via the same cable? A system that only requires one base computer to synchronize changes (connecting multiple iPod docks via a firewire hub or perhaps some third party will come out with a multi-iPod dock)?

I don't know how much museums pay for each self-guided unit they use currently, but the 10Gb model is $300.

Surely there must be other applications?

Re:Good for museum applications

[geekwagon]

Considering that Apple refers to the notes feature in its documentation as "Museum Mode" I would say this is exactly what they had in mind.

Stickies to iPod Notes

[gsfprez]

an automated app that would sync StickiesDatabase to your iPod notes would be just the shiznit.

yes, i'm waiting for Pudge to crank this out in 15 minutes in perl. ;-)

Re:It's gravy

[Fear the Clam]

I'm one of those people who uses a Palm just for appointments and a few simple apps. I'm still using my US Robotics brand Palm Professional that I bought in 1997. It does what I want except sync with iSync because it's not supported (grrr). So now, just to get everything integrated with the Address Book, I need a new(er) Palm, like a Zire.

I'd also like to have an MP3 player, and a way to transfer geneology files to my aunt's iMac (she doesn't have broadband), like a USB pen drive.

If an iPod came out that would let me do basic text entry -- something as simple as adding my next appointment to the calendar when I'm at the doctor's office -- I'd buy it instead of a Palm, because this single device would do everything I want.