Thanks to an article I’ve read on Lifehacker (the self-sustaining iPod) I’m now intensively using my 20GB iPod as an external Hard Drive. But there’s more on it. Let’s take a closer look at “what’s on my iPod“.
That’s DooM, isn’t it?
Ok this is VERY optional for all of you “normal” people out there. My iPod is running Linux. To tell the truth it’s pretty useless to me… but I downloaded a port of DooM (called, guess what? yeah: iDooM) and now I’m going around tellin’ my friends “LOOK! I’ve got DooM running on my iPod!” and they all say “Wow! How cool is that?!?”.
I can choose what OS to boot simply by soft-resetting the iPod. Holding the rewind key while there’s the apple logo will boot Linux (and let you “play” DooM).
Here you can find more info about iPod Linux project. Just be careful not to burn your own device :P
No iTunes? Party anyway!
Everytime I need to share an mp3 with a friend of mine (suppose I am a composer and I carry my own tracks on my iPod for instance) I simply cannot connect the iPod to his notebook, install iTunes and download the songs. You just can’t do that. So what? So get rid of iTunes and start using other smart software.
To play mp3s directly from the iPod I use PodPlayer. It can be run directly from the iPod itself and will read its database letting you play songs like you used to do in iTunes.
To rip mp3s to my iPod i use CDex and then vPod to update the song database. Like PodPlayer, these two apps sit in a directory of my iPod. No need to install them. No setup. No nothing… just grab ‘em, unpack if necessary and run them directly from the apple device.
Those 3 little apps are all you need to rip, encode and play mp3s from any computer.
Personally I’ve installed ml_ipod on my desktop computer as well: it lets you play, add, remove, copy, sort, rate (and so on and on…) mp3s on the ipod directly from winamp (directly from the media library! kewl!). Don’t think I’ll ever need iTunes anymore.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
After all the iPod can be a useful tool for “serious” people too. Suppose you don’t want to play DooM nor listen to the music… you just want a portable office in your pocket. I’ve got the right stuff too.
PortableApps.com got an interesting, growing selection of free, portable software that can be run directly from you iPod without the need to be installed.
I’ve downloaded the Suite. Containing Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird; OpenOffice, FileZilla, Gaim and more…
Now I need a launcher menu
Get PStart then. It lets you run any kind of software present on your iPod. You simply configure it once and it saves everything on an XML file. No registry keys. No Installation. Once again a simple app that run directly from your iPod.
Other stuff I got on my portable MP3 player
I like to carry my UltraVNC software with me and my KeePass database of passwords with the KeePass executable. I’m able to retrieve any password should I ever need it and I can connect to my desktop PC via the VNC software.
I’ve also configured PStart to open other interesting folders on my iPod with a single click, like the documents folder or the Photos folder.
The next step
Trying to figure out what will it be the next big thing with portable stuff for iPod? Maybe a portable Linux distro that can boot directly from the connected iPod… but I heard that this one is a sure way to fry your portable device’s HDD.
If you have an iPod (or just a USB Key / drive) filled with useful stuff worth mentioning, please leave a comment! I’ll be more than happy to test some new stuff ;)
7 Comments
And that’s why your iPod is much more superior to my Creative Zen Micro 5GB.
ahah
Man I really don’t know how it works for the Zens… I mean the MP3 stuff. On the iPod side you are restricted to use iTunes. I thought that Zens could simply read mp3s by draggin’ and droppin’ them inside the device (so no need to run all that stuff I wrote about here).
…and I thought you could use it as an external hard drive too (like an usb key for instance). I really don’t remember if that’s an HDD or a memory chip… anyway if you cannot use it like an external drive… well… it’s only half as useful as my iPod is (go read the title of this post for instance).
There’s another thing to say: iPod can count on a more widespreaded user base. So no wonder that we see linux, doom and all that stuff running on it. More people using it = more chances that some geek is thinking about hacking it and developing a new app for it.
‘nyway have fun with your Zen! With the right music it can be a killer tool as well :D :D :D
Yeah, you can drag&drop files (MP3 or random files) into the Zen but there’s no third party tools and/or utilities for Zens. But that’s what you said… iPod is much more widespread and it’s more trendy, I guess.
Anyway, I fixed the phone jack not too long ago (I didn’t use it almost for an entire year) and started to use it again on a daily basis so it’s like having a new MP3 Player. Oh, and it has a *very* powerful sound! :)
So get a pair of “in-ear” phones. Those little toys can keep your device volume very low while delievering extremely powerful sound directly inside your head!
I got a pair of cheap KOSS: costed about 20€ but they do the job!
They save your hearing and your device’s battery life.
Niiiiiiice :D
Any online seller?
mmmh… try on google then…
“koss in ear phones”
I took ‘em at the local mediamarkt (meadiaworld).
At first the tones seem too low but then you get used to it and after a while you understand that this only makes the sound more “powerful”… with a great, deep presence. You won’t go back to the normal phones after a few tries with these ones.
Thanks, I guess I’ll give them a try :)