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The iPod Gets WiFi, Sort Of

Posted by michael on from the wozniak-too-busy-speaking-at-conferences dept.

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."

10 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Holy battery drainer, batman! by Shoeler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  2. Re:This is too fucked up. by SpooForBrains · · Score: 4, Insightful
    to do something so geeky that only Unix nerds would want to do it
    Oh yes, transferring twelve new CDs from your mate's iPod to yours wirelessly. Clearly something only "Unix nerds" want to do.
    --
    "The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
  3. iPod + iBook by powerpuffgirls · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why don't we just connect iPod to a iBook, which conects to a AirPort? This will keep everything in the same franchise :)

  4. It might be more useful if... by proxima · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  5. Crystal Ball of Real Slim Shady? by powerpuffgirls · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

  6. Why not just connect it to a laptop... by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

  7. The odds... by ElGuapoGolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:This is too fucked up. by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But it brings up the question... who owns both an iPod and a Pocket PC?

  9. Re:I Have Something Even Cooler... by Holi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  10. Re:This is too fucked up. by metalligoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.