Here is review I searched out on this superb tool of convert movies to ipod.

      “ I am so excited to find an easy and inexpensive way to watch movies on my iPod, the only high-tech thing I have. No doubt, a lot of movies to iPod converters are queuing up for me in Google. But as careful as I always am, I first searched some pieces of reviews on converting movies to iPod from some “insider” sites and took time to chew them over, and finally decide to use the free trial of PQ DVD to iPod Converter Suite, a software continually praised by other users. After trying it on several DVDs and video files in my hard drive, I have to admit that this movies to iPod conversion tool is a clean, and very easy to use. You will never be annoyed by audio, video or spyware problems as long as you finish the output settings in the right way. The speed I care most, due to my impulse for batch conversion, is super fast, and I even wanted to convert all movies I can imagine to my 30GB iPod. Though other softwares for movies to iPod conversion may be good too, but I’m too lazy to lift my finger to try. Whatever, give it a try, and try converting your favorite movies to iPod, you may want to keep the software as well as the converted movies forever.”

via http://www.coolsoftreview.com/2008/04/09/a-superb-tool-of-converting-movies-to-ipod/

Back in 2005 I was suddenly (and inexplicably) struck by the urge to see if I could modify a gramophone (or phonograph, as I believe it’s referred to in the US) to be compatible with devices like my mp3 player or anything else that takes a 3.5mm jack. On investigating, I found a reproduction gramophone for sale on Ebay for £30 (about $50), and in a fit of ‘what-the-hell’ ended up ordering one. With the delivery of one extremely large box I had my gramophone.

Fortunately, I found I was able to produce an excellent result with far less effort or complexity than I had anticipated: if you have a few basic tools, simple components and soldering skills (oh, and a gramophone) you should have no trouble with this build. See below for my reasons and experiences, a summary of how it was built, and an analysis of the final product.

Why?

There are various ways to rationalise it - for instance, since it makes use of mechanical amplification rather than electrical, it doesn’t need batteries or a plug and saves power. In reality, though, I made it because it was fun, and because I liked the idea of adapting an archaic tool to a similar, modern problem. Plus, a gramophone horn has a certain character and style that impersonal speakers lack.

First Attempt

Unfortunately, graduation combined with my usual procrastination to mean I put off the project and eventually led to me doing a fairly shoddy job, which I was never happy with. The initial build was considerably simpler than the final version presented here; while I was thinking about how to construct it, a friend pointed out that the size of a headphone speaker that I’d dissected was roughly equal to the size of the opening to which the soundbox is normally attached. The quick application of some copper tape, araldite and silver paint later and I had a very basic working system. The problem was, it looked pretty ugly (I’d done my bets to sculpt the araldite, but it still looked remarkably like a blob), and the volume left a lot to be desired.

Not being particually proud of the result, it was only a matter of time before I decided to try again. Step one involved several hours with a heavy file to remove the araldite and everything else I’d added, which put me back at the starting point determined to do a better job.

Design and Build

For my proper design, I decided to focus on modifying the soundbox. The way the model of gramophone I have works is that the the record turns, causing a needle held in a groove to vibrate. These vibrations pass up the needle to the soundbox. Inside the soundbox, the end of the needle’s holder is connected to a thin metallic membrane about 4cm across; this is the first stage of amplification, as the vibrating needle causes the membrane to vibrate as well, producing faint sound waves which are amplified by the resonant quality of the small metal casing around the vibrating membrane. The soundbox is connected to the brass horn of the gramophone, which further resonates and amplifies the sound into what is that is then projected into the room.

My gramophone came with an HMV soundbox, the top plate of which is held on by three small screws. Removing these gave access to the inside, which I proceeded to gut, removing the tympanic membrane and snapping off the needle holder by wiggling it back and forth until the metal fatigued and broke, which left me with a hollow metallic container with a somewhat jagged hole at the bottom. At this stage I did some initial tests, confirming that a speaker inside the now-empty soundbox would give me sufficient volume without any additional amplification.

Obviously, I needed something to create sound, replacing the tympanic membrane. Fortunately, Maplin sell some nice thin mylar speakers, and I found the 55mm one suited me nicely; it’s be larger than the original foil disc because it has a solid frame and sits snugly inside the soundbox (whereas the foil could only be held in place by the needle holder, not touching the sides to avoid damping any vibrations), about 5mm closer to the front than the original membrane.

The next step was to smooth and enlarge the hole through which the needle-holder had entered; it was already quite large, so it didn’t take too much work with a small file to smooth it off. I also filed down the thread on the 3.5mm mono jack I planned to use as the input, so that it fitted snugly into the soundbox, leaving the connector poking out nicely.

Since the soundbox had some fretwork at the back and I didn’t particually want the wiring to be visible, I glued a circle of kitchen foil to a larger circle of paper, and glued it to the bottom so that the metallic foil was visible through the metal fretwork. A couple of pieces of carboard glued together provided a platform on which to rest the speaker (which otherwise had a tendency to rattle inside the box when closed up).

I recommend soldering a pair of wires to the jack before soldering/glueing the jack in place (you can push them through the hole as you slide the jack in); I didn’t, which required a degree of dexterity with a hot soldering iron (and some swearing) when it came to attaching said wires. I held the jack in place with the liberal use of superglue before slotting it in, bending the arms outwards so that they would resist any force pulling the jack outwards, and adding a couple of dabs of solder to make sure it wouldn’t budge. The only thing left was to solder the wires to the speaker, screw the top back onto the soundbox, and christen the project by digging out some Elgar for the occasion.

Volume: The volume is mostly good, though not quite perfect: if you plug in an iPod you were previously listening on headphones, then the volume from a meter or so away is a little less loud than when you had the earbuds in - you need to increase the volume a couple of notches to get it back to the same level. It’s only noticeable if you’re doing a direct comparison, though; the gramophone is perfectly able to fill a room at medium volume setting, and maxing out the volume on your portable player produces a suitably impressive racket. The loss is probably due to a decrease in the resonant properties of the soundbox caused by swapping out the tympanic membrane for a speaker. Without adding electronic amplification (which would pretty much ruin the whole point), the only way to increase the volume for a given input is to change the gramophone itself - my one is a cheap reproduction; a different horn might give more volume.

Sound quality: There is a notable difference between the sound produced by the gramophone and a normal speaker; while it’s hard to characterise the exact difference the music from the gramophone does seem slightly ‘flatter’, perhaps because the horn is amplifying the midrange more than the extremes. It’s not unpleasant, though, and definitely gives the output its own tone.

Looks: The final product looks very fine indeed - one advantage I hadn’t anticipated is that when not plugged in the protruding jack rests on the turntable rather like the needle would in a real gramophone (though to play it it has to be turned sideways to make room to plug in a device or extension cable). The only downside is that I’ve found the jack has a tendency to scuff the felt on the turntable, which has left a small but noticeable bare patch; I’ll probably add a discreet piece of plastic to rest it on at some point.

Extensions

Since I’m happy with the result I probably won’t make any modifications beyond this (though I can’t quite rule out a completely new project including a music player build into the base with some sort of archaic display and controls). There were a couple of ideas I had during the build that I discarded as unnecessary that others might want to incorporate:

Active Amplification: When I first started, I was concerned that I might not be able to get the volume I needed for a practical build (particularly with my original setup, where a portable music player needed to be turned up to its maximum volume to get a respectable sound out of the thing). If this had proved to be the case I anticipated adding a small amplifier inside the case, pulling the recharging component from a cheap wind-up torch or radio to power the amplifier (since the turntable is wound up with a detachable crank slotting in through the side). Fortunately it wasn’t necessary, so I didn’t have to dismantle the beautiful clockwork turntable drive.

Volume Control: Until quite a late stage I toyed with including a simple volume control sticking out of the back out the soundbox using a potentiometer. While it would have been a simple addition in the end I decided it was unnecessary since I’d just keep it turned to maximum (and none of the potentiometers I had on hand had a narrow enough knob to fit through the grill).

Conclusion

Overall I’m very pleased with the piece - it looks great, works well and was a very simple build, all things considered. One advantage this design has is that because only the soundbox has been modified it can be used with any gramophone sized to take an HMV soundbox without any need for modification or damage. The only problem now is that it’s pretty big, and takes up rather a lot of space in my flat.

via  http://www.r-hansen.com/tech/gram.html

In this episode we show you how to charge your iPod (or other mp3 player) for up to 20 minutes using electrolytes derived from Gatorade or Powerade which are then stored within the cells of an onion.

You will need:

1. 1 White onion
2. 2 cups of Gatorade
3. Screwdriver
4. iPod and USB cable

Disclaimer: This and other videos produced by HouseholdHacker are controlled experiments performed by professionals and unless you are an expert should NOT be attempted at home if you don’t know what you are doing!

via http://www.householdhacker.com/?p=7

iMuffs headphones from Wi-Gear improve sound, work wirelessly with most iPods

In the world of iPod accessories—4,000-plus and counting—the ones worth the money are those that improve the listening experience. I have two for you today, one that will be great when the bugs are worked out and a pair of headphones that makes iPod portability even better.

Let’s start with the almost-there product. “Almost” because it worked with some iPods I tested, but not all. I often won’t write about a product proving unreliable, but I really like what this does and, more importantly, I believe that the people building it will soon get it right.

It’s called miShare, and the simple, rectangular gadget is smaller than a standard iPod but bigger than the redesigned Nano (affectionately dubbed the “fatty”). At both ends there is a 30-pin adapter to connect two iPods to transfer songs from one to another.

And it works, mostly.

Plug an iPod with the music to share into the source end. Let’s call this the “pitcher.” (Hey, baseball season is here!) At the other end, plug into the “catcher” iPod to receive the music.

Unfortunately, my 80-gigabyte iPod did not work as a catcher. But as a pitcher, it sent songs to my fatty. With the fatty, I was able to share music—as a pitcher and catcher—with a colleague’s iPod.

That’s why I love this little gadget. It’s designed to swap music between friends, so you can share iPod playlists and tips on new artists. This is very convenient and fast; songs move over in seconds.

There are a few reasons why I had trouble with some iPods.

First, it will not work with the Touch and the iPhone, yet.

Second, the catcher iPod must be in “manual” update mode. When you plug your iPod into a computer to sync it, the default setting is for automatic updates, but it is easy to switch to manual. In manual, whenever you add music, movies or photos to your computer and want it on the iPod, you instruct the iPod to pick up that content.

But changing this setting on my 80 gb iPod didn’t fix my problem.

Third, the miShare developers—two guys working from a Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment—are working out some bugs. My big iPod, for instance, has too much data on it, causing transfer problems. But the fatty, which can hold up to 8 gb worth of content, did not have that issue.

This issue and some others—you can share video and photos too, but not seamlessly—will be addressed in a software upgrade set for release in a few weeks, said co-founder Nathaniel Wice. He called my issue an “intermittent problem” related to the iTunes database.

Another update will follow to address compatibility issues with the Touch and iPhone.

Wice called the development of miShare, which runs on the open-source Linux platform, a “constant” work in progress. “Designing something that’s easy to use is a process.”

When it works, it is easy to use. The device has one function button. Just make an “on-the-go” music playlist on the iPod and press the function button. The songs move over.

But not all songs. To address the obvious legal issues of sharing music between iPods, songs protected by digital rights management software—primarily those bought at Apple’s iTunes store—won’t play on the catcher iPod.

Some people might question the ability to share music so freely, but this is a legal device designed for one-to-one sharing. It’s not a piece of file-sharing software where thousands of people can get a copy of a song.

Despite the early flaws, I recommend miShare. It will only improve, and the software on the device can be upgraded so you won’t have to buy another. It is sold for $100 at www.miShare.com, and discussions are under way with a major brick-and-mortar retailer, Wice said.

A sound enhancement

Regular readers know I often recommend iPod buyers improve the sound with new headphones.

The iMuffs do that plus provide a great wireless connection via Bluetooth. They are made by Wi-Gear and can be bought on the firm’s site, Wi-Gear.com.

The model I tested sold for $150 and paired easily and quickly with each iPod I tested, except one, the iPod Touch. Wi-Gear has introduced a new model, the $180 MB210, which works with the Touch.

I also tested the iMuffs on a TV-playing phone, the Verizon Voyager, and was quite pleased that I could watch live games from the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament while listening with the iMuffs. Beautiful.

So, yes, these work with music-playing phones, except the iPhone. That’s Apple’s fault because it didn’t include a profile in that music phone for stereo Bluetooth headphones.

You might think the price for these headphones is high, but the iMuffs ship with a Bluetooth adapter for the iPod. That’s usually a $40 item sold separately.

Via  http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-mon-tech-buzz-ipod-mishare-imar31,0,7036862.story

As may know right now the newer iPod’s are encrypted. This stops everyone from developing any software for the iPod. To try to fix this please sign the following petition . It will only take 15 secs at the most and this could save the iPod modding community. Check out the iPodLinux and RockBox projects http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/FreeiPod

via http://digg.com/apple/Free_the_iPod_so_iPodLinux_and_RockBox_can_continue

Requirements:

PQ DVD to iPod video converter software runs on PC (Microsoft Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP). (No Mac OS version has been planed yet) A standard DVD-ROM drive is required to rip/transfer DVD to iPod movie. iTunes software is required to copy/sync iPod movies. Supported iPod: iPod Touch (8GB/16GB), iPod Video (30GB/60GB/80GB), iPod Classic (80GB/160GB), iPod Nano (4GB/8GB)

Warning! This is just a joke, do NOT attempt. You will impart Serious Damage to your iPod

Tired
of your old iPod? Want to upgrade to something with a GPS navigation
system? Don’t spend all that money, just hack your iPod!

Step 1: Fill a small basin with water, get your iPod and a STRONG magnet

Step 2: Stroke the iPod lengthwise with the magnet in one direction

Step 3: Place the iPod in the water basin, whichever way it’s headphone jack points is north!

How it works: By stroking the iPod with the magnet, you polarize the
iPod so that it responds to the earths magnetizm. Whichever way the
iPod points is Magnetic north!

via http://00110111×3.net/blog/JoshuaB86/Turn-your-iPod-Navigation-System

Creatures of habit that we are, we sometimes get into a gadget rut, forgetting that our iPods are probably capable of a lot more than what we do with them. So far, I’ve used mine for listening to music and podcasts, watching movies (which isn’t my idea of film appreciation), and receiving RSS feeds. But I didn’t know what I was missing until I stumbled across “100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better” from the Online Education Database (OEDb).

Many of the suggestions are free, while some have a low-cost fee. There’s not a loser in the bunch, and they come from some far-flung places on the Web.

Some are tutorials:

• Learning Podcasting: If you want to create your own podcast to share your skills or expertise on a particular subject, read this in-depth introduction to podcasting from Wise-Women.org.
• Podtender 3.0: This software program will teach you how to make all kinds of tasty cocktails for your next party.

Some are applications that make learning easier:

• iGadget: Make your class notes, presentations, study guides and other materials iPod-friendly by using iGadget. You’ll be able to move documents and files back and forth between your iPod and your computer easily and securely.
• YouTube to iPod Converter 2.6: This free converter lets you watch educational videos, TV clips and more on your iPod so that you can review for tests, contribute to class discussions or add them to a presentation.

Some are for lifelong learners:

• Journeys: Take walking tours in cities like Salzburg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris and ancient Rome by downloading iPod-compatible guides from this site.
• Free Classic Audiobooks: Find books like Herman Melville’s Typee, Huckleberry Finn and Swiss Family Robinson in iPod-friendly formats here.

And some are meant to augment other studies:

• Stedman’s Medical Terminology Flash Cards:This set of iPod-friendly flash cards will help any healthcare, nursing, pre-med or medical student prepare for an exam.
• Teach Kids Valuable Lessons With Free Sesame Street iPod Videos: Lifehacker writes about the six free Sesame Street videos offered on iTunes, perfect for introducing your child to technology and other educational basics.

Get through those 100 and you’ll find another 50 at kottke.org

via http://www.gatlineducation.com/education-trends/?p=396

A Japanese researcher has developed a new method to control the iPod.

It uses your eyelids.

Sensors clipped to a pair of glasses or headphone detect movement in the user’s eyelids. Different movements trigger different iPod functions. Close one eye and blink the other to skip songs. Close both eyes to pause the song. Etc etc.

Apparently the system can differentiate between accidental and purposeful blinks.

It’s pretty safe to say this won’t make it out of the testing labs.

Yeah, we’ve reached the end of history.

via http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/03/04/control-your-ipod-with-your-eyelids/

The people at FlyTunes.fm sent me an email asking me to review their application for the iPhone/iPod touch. This was a pretty exciting email for me to get because it means that people are visiting Public Radar, and reading our articles. I quickly went to FlyTunes and did a review on the product — just in time for our weekly Apple Tuesday special.

Setting up FlyTunes is super easy. They sent me a registration link, I clicked it and typed in my email address, password, sex and zip code. That is all there is to it. They sent me a conformational email with information on how to log into FlyTunes.

What exactly is FlyTunes you ask? Well it is a free version of satellite radio that works on your iPod touch and iPhone. This is great for people who use satellite radio, but do not want to pay the monthly fee.

I couldn’t get the actual audio to play on the iPod touch — maybe that was because of the poor internet connection. However, it seems that the FlyTunes Application is best for people who own the iPhone — as they will always have an internet connection. The iPod touch is only connected to the internet when near a wireless router.

The idea of FlyTunes.fm sounds very promising — but it is more of an iPhone application than a Ipod Touch Application. One thing that they are working on to improve iPod touch functionality is that they will eventually allow you to record radio-casts and play them back at a later time.

via http://www.lockergnome.com/jfcapasso/2008/03/04/ipod-touchiphone-application-review-flytunesfm/