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50 Fun Things to Do With Your iPod

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the ipod-mania-continues dept.

Ant writes "Jason Kottke's Web site has compiled a list of 50 fun things to do with your iPod besides listening to music with those white earbuds: From the article 'In the four years since its introduction, the iPod has proven to be a versatile little device. Despite a relatively closed architecture, hackers have found their way in. Content creators and software makers put information at your fingertips when you're on the go. Would-be designers have added to the fashionable stylings of the now-ubiquitous white ear buds. Hardware makers and enthusiasts have augmented the iPod with new add-on gadgets. Here are a few dozen things you can do with your iPod besides listen to music.'"

10 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Old List by JoshDev · · Score: 1, Informative

    This was posted in May at http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/50-th ings-to-do-with-your-ipod-103817.php

  2. A bit disappointing by carou · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's actually only 44 things in the list, and about half of those are duplicates of each other (perfect for /. then...)

  3. Re:45-50 by kfg · · Score: 2, Informative

    The best sarcasm is informative.

    KFG

  4. Number 28...FYI by IAAP · · Score: 2, Informative
    FTFA: Get religion

    Take the Book of God anywhere with BiblePlayer, listen to the Quran on your walk to the office, or discover the wisdom of the Torah on the train.

    And you can also get meditation instruction, Dharma talks, etc... - Here ...FYI

    I like to learn about Asian philosophy.

  5. Emergency Boot Drive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use my iPod for music, audiobooks, podcasting, and storing notes. But one other thing I use it for is an emergency boot drive.

    I cloned my start-up disk onto my iPod minus unecessary files and use it as an emergency boot drive. If I need to repair/maintain the start-up disk, I can do it with my iPod which has all the utilities I need. I've repaired my friends' Macs this way too. It's faster and more flexible than booting from CD.

    Plus, I often simply boot from my iPod when I'm using my school's Macs or friends'. (With permission, of course.) I get to run my apps with my environment which I can sync back and forth with my Mac.

    Unfortunately, now that all iPods no longer support FireWire, this will be my last iPod that can be bootable.

    1. Re:Emergency Boot Drive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Apple has slowly phased out FireWire support on iPods starting with the Shuffle, the nano, then the 5G iPod.

      Many iPod fans, including me, were not happy with that decision.

      The theory as to why Apple chose USB 2 over their own FireWire support for iPod are:

      - FireWire was never as popular on the PC side. And even if a PC has a FireWire port, it's sometimes the 4-pin version. iPod needs the 6-pin version to be able to charge from FireWire.

      - Both recent Macs and PCs support USB 2.

      - Since the Shuffle was USB 2 and the nano for reasons stated above, it would be logical to make the 5G iPod and thus the entire iPod line USB only to further simplify things.

      - By removing the FireWire chip which is bigger, more complicated, and more expensive than USB controller, Apple can shave production cost and further reduce size of the iPods.

      Apple has not abandoned FireWire completely. It is still the ideal choice for streaming audio and video from camcorders and audio mixers as well as connect ands power portable external drives. FireWire 800 will start to replace FireWire 400.

  6. Might as well pimp mine... by aftk2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Since it didn't make it.

    iPod bartender and iPod bartender shuffle

    (I think something similar did make it, but mine is free.)

    --
    concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
  7. Re:iWhine by hawaiian717 · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is what you need, recommended by MacAddict Magazine (Dec 2005): http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?produc tId=2102669&cp

    --
    End of Line.
  8. What You Talking About by Greyfox · · Score: 2, Informative

    My ipod has never seen the inside of itunes. Every single song on it was loaded with gtkpod. Breaking my old Palm address file into files 1 per address didn't take long -- awk did it in a line of code. I can put backup files on it too, though that's of limited use since my Windows machine at work can't read the Apple-formatted drive. It's still a handy 60 gig drive I can just happen to listen to music on, though.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  9. Re:Stealing Cars? by slim · · Score: 2, Informative

    More to the point, cars use a challenge-response protocol, so that they're not susceptible to replay attacks:

    KEY: Hello, I am a key. Please let me in.
    CAR: Hmm, what do you get if you encrypt this random number with our shared secret?
    KEY: I get this number.
    CAR: Yep, me too. I'll open up.