Slashdot Mirror
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."
In a related story, an iPod can carry 490 passengers from New York to Sydney, Australia. The catch? You have to put it inside a Boeing 747 ....
How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
somebody ping the RIAA!
The thing only works with Pocket PCs? How ironic is that? Apple's latest brainchild, co-opted by Windows CE hackers, to do something so geeky that only Unix nerds would want to do it... my head is spinning. Part of me says "Wow, this is cool", but an equally large part says "EW, Windows!"... I'm so lost and confused.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
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.
You'll be clubbed to death by any Apple evangelist who sees you doing this...
Too bad the Apple Newton didn't come with WiFi... ;)
I've always wondered why iPod doesn't come with bluetooth? I don't see a reason.
SoniqCast's Aireo player already has 802.11b (11Mb) integrated already. Interesting option to download files to it while it's sitting in your car. Interesting quirk however, is that it doesn't take DRM-protected files. SoniqCast says they're working on it. Good think I still have all my P2P files...
While the iPod can play copy-protected files, the protection that Apple uses currently allows protected files to play on an unlimited number of iPods.
The iPod can, however, also play unprotected MP3s and AAC files.
Why don't we just connect iPod to a iBook, which conects to a AirPort? This will keep everything in the same franchise :)
Apple products working with Microsoft products? What vile heresy is this?
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...
An inevitable evolution of bluetooth phones is going to be P2P. Tell your phone what you're looking for, go for a walk on campus, or have coffee at starbucks, and it'll be there when you get back home. The phones eg. P800 can already be used for listening to MP3s, and they can be programmed in Java and C++, it's only a matter of month till we get fully integrated Bluetooth P2P.
This is not a signature.
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.
Will we start seeing hotspots (intentional or otherwise) allowing iPod users to exchange files?
Imagine a pseudo-P2P service run by hotspots installed (or infected) with the P2P apps......
If you either A) use unprotected MP3s or B) use iTunes to rip CDs to AAC format, its all unprotected.
iTunes simply outputs standard old M4A files, not the copy protected ITMS ones.
"Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
Forget file-swapping, and give me an iPod that can stream music directly to airport-express... I really believe this is what the next-generation iPod will be. Battery life will be a bitch though. In 2 or 3 revisions we probably even have Airport-express-extreme which will do audio AND video, and the assorted iPod capable of streaming your photos, mpegs and mp3s to your home cinema. This will be the day I buy another iPod.
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
a full-fledged computer can barely do acceptable voice recognition after hours of training (or not, depending on your tolerance for error). It's going to be a while before you can "tell your phone what you're looking for."
Unless you meant typing it on the phone's chiclet-keyboard. Eww...
...it's called, uh.. a radio. You guys should try it. It cost me like a tenth of what my iPod cost me, and already has some sort of integrated wifi. I've listened to like a million songs and didn't pay for ANY of them! I don't know how Kazaa is gonna survive in the face of this new technology. I just hope it stays underground, otherwise Microsoft or someone will buy it all up and ruin it.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
There are many audio equivalents to goatse. I might be into wireless music swapping were it not for the fact that I could count on all of my associates sending me the same crap I can hear on any clearchannel station.
Wireless music swapping promises me nothing more than clearchannel without the ads (which isn't much better). The entire feature as envisioned by hundereds, if not thousands, of ecstatic individuals is entirely asinine to me.
he said he had a second gen not a third gen ipod. ie the ones that had touch pad scroll wheels. the docks are only for 3rd gen ipods.
If you've got a PocketPC and Wifi, just keep your music on your home computer, and run a streaming server, to stream the music to your PocketPC.
One of the iPods must have iPodLinux installed, which should include firewire support, as well as SBP2 support. Compile this as a module, and then connect the two iPods together with the Sendstation Pocketdock if they are 3G, or just a regular 6pin to 6pin FW cable if they are 1st or 2nd generation. Put the other iPod into firewire disk mode, and the one running linux should be able to mount it and access the files. This is incredibly impractical, as typing on the iPod requires turning the scroll wheel until the right character appears (incredibly annoying), and also very slow. However, it just goes to show that it _is_ possible for iPods to share files with just minimal extra hardware.
This is about as elegant as adding WiFi to your lawnmower... by running over a PocketPC with the lawnmower.
Old people fall. Young people spring. Rich people summer and winter.
On the other hand, I think Palm's user experience knocks Pocket PC out of the water. I am very much a fan of their interface design. They built the Palm organizer from start to finish to simplify use on the go, and the fact that they broke into a market where Apple tried and utterly failed is enough to earn my respect.
May I recommend Piloting Palm, ISBN 0471089656? It's an excellent look into the planning that went into engineering the first Palm Pilot. It's written by two Palm executives, so there's probably some bias, but then again, I doubt you'd be able to find neutrality from Microsoft, either.
Remember, not everybody wants to carry a full-featured computer around in their pocket. My Tungsten C does everything I could possibly need to do away from a computer.
There's no reason why a similar hack couldn't be used to swap songs between two Rio Karmas. Remember, the Rio Karma comes with enough connectivity options to make a grown man weep (usb, ethernet, RCA). And with the Karma, you can do it out of the box without any 3rd party add-ons.
Why is this special?