Hackszine.com: iPod Archives

Archive: iPod

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May 8, 2007

The End of Vista/iPod Incompatibilities?

Good news from the Windows Vista Team:

Today we're publishing at the Microsoft Download Center a recommended final compatibility update for users of Windows Vista and the Apple iPod; this same update will be automatically available via Windows Update on Tuesday 22 May. The release is for users worldwide and works with the latest version of Apple iTunes to correct an issue that caused some iPods to become corrupted when ejecting them using Windows Explorer or the "Safely Remove Hardware" function in the System Tray.

KB 936824 - Link

Related:

iPod & iTunes Hacks - Link

April 7, 2007

Upgrade Your iPod's Drive and Firmware for FLAC Playback

Rockbox is an alternative (open source) firmware that will run on many iPods. One of its cooler features is that it supports several audio codecs such as OGG, AC3 and everyone's favorite lossless codec, FLAC.

What's also interesting about Rockbox--and this is slightly less talked about--is that it handles gapless playback really nicely. Instead of pausing or fading between songs, Rockbox will start the next song immediately after the previous one ended. This is great for playing back audio taken from electronica and live/concert CDs that blend one track straight into the next.

My friend Justin went about upgrading his 4th gen iPod to use Rockbox the other day and he ended up upgrading his iPod's hard disk and battery as well, in order to accommodate playback for all the larger FLAC files he's been encoding. Thankfully, he put together a nice little howto which documents the whole process, including the tinfoiling of his new drive (above photo), which eliminated an EMI issue that he encountered with the new disk.

Resources:

April 6, 2007

Ditch iTunes - iPod Shuffle Database Builder

"This little program enables iPod shuffle users to finally get rid of all that iTunes or other complicated playlist management stuff. Due to the simple structure of the shuffle (compared to the »big« iPods), it is possible to use the player almost like any other USB flash MP3 player: You simply copy MP3 files onto it. You only need to run the Database Builder program after you added or removed files from the iPod" -Link.

I like iTunes for a lot of things. It's great for managing my music and video library, and it's a nice interface for desktop playback.

What I don't like is that it wants to reformat my Shuffle every time I am on a different computer. I don't want to be shackled to iTunes and its opinion of where and how I should listen to my music. The database builder will let you move files to and from the Shuffle on your own terms, with whatever machine you are at, using any OS you wish.

March 9, 2007

Tricks For Saving a Dead iPod

If your iPod decided to take the dirt nap, there may be a few tricks, short of buying a new one, that will put you back in tunes. Hackszine pal Sam writes:

I recently discovered by 1. Simply opening your ipod 2. Disconnecting your drive 3. Turning the ipod back on and letting it boot until it gives you an error 4. Turning off the ipod 5. reconnecting the drive and 6. Turning the ipod back on will fix it....

I have no idea why this works but i have had 100% success with 3 ipods; 4g; 3G; and ipod mini.

There's also a pretty comprehensive list of things to try for whole range of common iPod problems over at CrunchGear. One that caught my attention involved sandwiching a business card between the case and the disk, thereby placing extra pressure on the drive case (which was presumably warped from heat). Oddly enough, it seems to have worked for a lot of people, and it makes me wonder if this might work as a temprorary fix for dead laptop drives as well.

Links:

How-to fix an iPod that won't boot -Link.
Drive disconnect iPod fix -Link.

February 15, 2007

Vixy.net: Online FLV-to-MP4 Converter

Here's an online service that will transcode FLVs for you into several common formats, such as AVI/DivX, MOV/MPEG4, 3GP, etc. I've only had a chance to try it on a couple videos, but it seems to work well. You can submit a YouTube URL or a direct link to an FLV and it will kick out a recompressed version that you can easily play on your desktop, iPod or PSP. -Link.

They've also released the trasncoder source under the LGPL, which you can grab over at sourceforge and use in your own transcoding project. Nice! -Link.

Related: