[Tfug] iPods

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Don,

--- On Tue, 9/1/09, Don Freeman <DFreeman at pagnet.org> wrote:

> I spent some time last night playing
> with the file system on my 30gig iPod.
> You CAN copy files to it via drag and drop BUT it appears
> the iPod software uses some kind of database to manage them.

Yes.  It is fairly trivial to hack together a new "database"
to represent what you have now loaded onto the iPod; or, in
my case, to select among those things that are present on the iPod
that you would like to now hear (the Shuffle has no user interface,
per se).

> So the bad news is that while you
> can copy them, you probably can't play them. However, if

But, did you connect the iPod to a machine that doesn't have
iTunes (or any other iPod specific software -- even Linux
variants)?  I.e., does it *look* like a "USB mass storage
device" or does it havesome other interface protocol (e.g.,
many cell phones -- motogorilla being a prime candidate -- do
not *just* look like a disk drive but, instead, have an active
interface).

In other words, could you plug *you* iPod into *any* USB
enabled computer and "see" it as a disk?  (I can with the
shuffle but haven't yet played with the "mini")

> you are willing to
> tolerate windows, there are many alternate desktop
> softwares available to
> manage the files other than iTunes. Just Google iPod
> software. I wasn't able
> to find any Linux versions though. :( 

Ideally, I want something *small* that can reside *on* my iPod
that I can invoke once the iPod is installed in a USB computer
without having to require *any* software on that computer!
I.e., I can do this with the shuffle, currently.  E.g., I
can walk up to someone else's computer, plug it in and
manage the tunes on the shuffle without requiring anything
of that computer besides CPU cycles.