February 22, 2004
ipod
I've finally caved in, after checking out / coveting my flatmate's new ipod. So: what message should I have laser-engraved on my iPod?
The 40 gig seems like the best value, at $12.50 per gig (compared to $20/gig for both the 20G and 15G models). And it would free up a lot of disk space for the music stuff i've been doing.
Also, the linux on ipod people finally got firewire & dual-boot (can choose linux or apple's firmware ) working. The remaining roadblock to working as an audio player is that they can't decode mp3's fast enough -- they need code that splits the decoding between the two cores to boost the performance. Sounds just like our problem at work, eh? Maybe i can help?
Here's a few app ideas off the top of my head: "Tivo for the radio" where I could pre-record, say, BBC Newshour every morning so I don't miss the news when I wake up too late (sadly the iPod FM tuner got cancelled), FLAC and OGG support; roving encrypted home directory, keystore; iPod-to-iPod file-swapping over firewire.
P.S. I think I'll pick the engraving pictured here if no one has a better suggestion.
Posted by cce at February 22, 2004 04:49 PM | TrackBackI'd be more worried about blowing away the existing UI -- does the linux one behave the same way? When I h4x0red my car MP3 player it was ok because it preserved the already-nice UI and just added some features... somehow I feel like the iPod linux effort is not going to be sensitive to the subtleties of the user experience. What I really want is a patch for my empeg car player so I can play AAC files... how's that for backward?
Posted by: Mike at February 22, 2004 08:26 PMyeah, that's why it's good you can choose whether to load linux or the apple firmware at boot time ... you can always go and use the apple firmware for their UI, and just do file-copying or other weirdo features in linux. or, someone could make a comparably nice UI for the linux side -- that would be work though, and i think people are working on that already.
if you can go in and hack your empeg, you can get it playing AAC... it'd take some doing i guess?
Posted by: chris at February 23, 2004 02:17 AMthe iPod linus effort is not going to be sensitive to the subtleties of the user experience...sounds like words of wisdom from an HCI major. (not that I have any idea what the words mean)
Posted by: at February 23, 2004 06:22 AMoops...forgot to post my name. not that anyone would have any doubt who the above post was from. :-))))
Posted by: mike's mom at February 23, 2004 06:23 AMwith a roving encrypted filesystem, you could use the little ipod buttons to select files to queue up for transfer, and the ipod could export a virtual filesystem (appearing to the host machine as a USB mass storage device) containing just those files. then you wouldn't have to trust the host machine to do decryption -- it'd all be done on the ipod.
omg, now i see the point of making the ipod programmable. god bless free software.
Posted by: ben at February 23, 2004 03:28 PMAs an HCI major myself, I too have grown bitter about open source programmers' ability to make decent enough UIs.
Man, you're making me want an iPod. I re-ripped my Ogg albums as mp3 because the Ogg plugin for iTunes sucks and that was easier than fixing it.. so now there's only a couple hundred reasons not to get an iPod ($). I want one. :(
Posted by: Julian at February 23, 2004 05:48 PMFirst of all, call me you fuck!
Second, there is already a TiVo for the radio (for Macs) but not for iPods. [http://griffintechnology.com/products/radioshark/] I think you could probably hack it to work for iPods, right? Of course, I know nothing.
Posted by: manning at February 25, 2004 04:26 PM