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The iPod Gets WiFi, Sort Of
thecounterfeit writes "Engadget has a story on Pocketster Pro, a new application that lets you add WiFi to the iPod. The catch? You have to connect it to a Pocket PC with both USB Host capability and WiFi first, but once it's up and running you can wirelessly swap tunes with any other similarly equipped iPods."
I've been a big fan of large size Mp3 Players, but I always wanted to be able to go up to my friend and zap him the latest albums I got, then also recieve all the albums he had...If a TI-83 can do it, then the next gen ipod should also!
For The Best Jazz/Hip-hop fusion > COlD DUCK
Let's see - my iPaq with wifi gets maybe 1.5-2 hours of playtime.
Add USB usage and that's gotta drop - at least a little.
Add processing for data transfer.
Add external battery.
Call this a novelty, I will.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Why don't we just connect iPod to a iBook, which conects to a AirPort? This will keep everything in the same franchise :)
As far as I'm aware, there's no way to connect two iPods directly to each other. If you could use a small USB hub and a pocket PC to bridge the two, I could see that being a lot more useful than having two PocketPCs, each equipped with wifi adapters.
Just a thought.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
If wirelessly beaming songs between iPods is popular, wouldn't Apple develop something to fill the need rather quickly?
Do all these 'Get-Around-Something' companies just try to make a quick profit before the "Real Slim Shady" comes into play? Or do they actually have a bright future?
With either a Mac or Windows laptop, the iPod can be mounted as a drive and then shared... which is all that's really going on here anyway. That's just functionality of the OS, no extra software needed.
Of course, this is Slashdot where we like to do things the hard way...
The catch? You have to connect it to a Pocket PC with both USB Host capability and WiFi first, but once it's up and running you can wirelessly swap tunes with any other similarly equipped iPods.
What are the odds that 2 out of the 14 people who actually buy and use this device will be in range of each other.
But it brings up the question... who owns both an iPod and a Pocket PC?
OK, I own an iPod and would actually like it to stay off of the contraband list. While I am in favour of a paradigm shift in the way music is distributed and artists are compensated (do we really need to make millionaires out of artists like 'Ms Spears' and the record execs who create those monsters?) pirating music is not going to get us there. I've seen a number of posts already that seem to indicate that copying of music (without payment or compensation) is just fine and dandy.
What's wrong with taking a long stroll through the city and having your 802.11/Bluetooth device capturing all files that are of broadcast interest? Right now, quite a bit. No matter how overpriced the current products are (even $0.99 / song @ iTunes is robbery, esp for 128 DRM'd MP4's) there are still laws that govern how we can obtain and use them - whether we agree with those laws or not (NOTE: I'm in the US, so YMMV). Using a device like Pocketster Pro to actually copy music without payment is no better than shoplifting at FYE or Best Buy.
Now, if Apple or someone else could make an adapter for the iPod to work with the new 802.11 multimedia extensions in devices like Apple's AirPort Express, then there is only the issue of potentially violating the rules about how large an audience or what the venue is when playing a song this way.
Heck, I'd settle for just a Bluetooth or FireWireless or Wireless USB rig on the iPod so I don't have have to connect it up (though one will have to charge it at some point) to put my songs on it.
But please don't give the RIAA any more ammo to declare my iPod a concealed audio weapon!
Mind the gap...
otherwise Microsoft or someone will buy it all up and ruin it.
A company far more evil than Microsoft has already done this.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Plenty of people like the PocketPC because it has an interface superior to the Palm, and the OS is less buggy. I'm a long time Apple user and I think PocketPC is one of two things M$ has ever done right. My last PDA was a PocketPC, my current is a Treo, but my next will be a PocketPC again. Palm sucks.
This post is coming to you from my OS X iBook.
You can bet the RIAA is having kittens right now!
Because bluetooth has a ridiculously low transfer speed, and would be nearly useless in this situation. Bluetooth earpieces for the iPod would be a great idea, however, if they could get the frequency response good enough to not piss people off.
Ahem. A monopoly is a company that has attained the majority of the market in a segment of the economy and uses its position as the market leader to supress potential competitors.
The RIAA is not a company, they don't sell products -- it's an independent organization created by the 5 major record labels and many independents to protect their shared interests. And last I checked, 5 companies is significantly more than the 1 company required for a "monopoly."
Furthermore, they're not exactly doing anything anti-competetive, at least nothing effective. The last dozen or so CDs I bought at my local record shop were all independent artists with no influence on the RIAA. The shop, incidentally, is owned by TransWorld and closely tied to Ticketmaster and ClearChannel -- but they have no problem selling me non RIAA-cds, and for less money ($10-15). Price fixing collusion is bad, but by definition collusion requires two companies...so it can't be monopolistic, and it's not anti-competetive because LOTS of artists sell their albums in stores and online for WAY less than the average CD cost reported by the RIAA.
The "problem" with RIAA cd prices isn't that they are anti-competition, but that the RIAA members know they have music you want, and they know they can charge a lot for it and still make money. So that's what they do. Kind of unfair, but not illegal, not anti-competetive, and not monopolistic.
Nice joke and all. But it's not accurate.
Hey freaks: now you're ju