I don't know if this is even possible, but I'd really like some way to fool iTunes into thinking my Z is an iPod. This would make syncing songs and playlists a heck of a lot easier, and to add to the temptation, iTunes 4.9 is going to have support for downloading and syncing Podcasts.

This probably wouldn't be easy. But if there's even a remote chance of it happening, I'd really like to know.

It should be possible (though it may be difficult, or it may not).

I think the iPod connects via USB (I don't have one), is it a basic mass-storage connection, or something proprietary? If it's mass-storage it'll be fairly easy to try to work out what iTunes looks for to determine that it's an iPod, if it's proprietary then it would probably still be possible, but a major pain as you'll probably need to modify the Zaurus-side kernel module which handles the usb-connection.

That's my guess anyway.


Si

I think that iTunes and iPods uses some digital right management and that it might not be as easy.

This Wired article says there's an open-source Winamp plug-in called ml_iPod that gives Winamp all the abilities of iTunes, such as syncing and sorting.

If someone can dissect that plug-in, would it hold the clue to circumventing the DRM restrictions or proprietary ID of the iPod?

Somewhat off topic, but I'd be really happy with an mp3 player for the Z that has some of the features of an iPod, even without access to the same content. Important features missing from the Z's mp3 players that I've tried (xmms, mediaplayer, mediaplayer2, and something else...) are:

1. Random play

2. Sort/Select/Play by categories (genre, artist, preferred, least played, most etc.)

3. Saved playlists (ie, last played, high preference/low preference, genre, etc.)
stored on (or associated with) different media. For example, I store music on CF
cards, and it would be great if each card had it's own info, rather than just a single
playlist organized by song title (ie., directory listing)

4. The ability to lock the keys, so that the arrow keys don't change the volume/song
accidently.

5. Repeat (by playlist, not by individual song).

If you did get iTunes seeing the Zaurus as an ipod, if you bought any music from the itunes store you would not be able to play them, as they contain DRM and use Apples AAC codec.

That's what Hymn is for.

Personally, I don't really care about playing the four tracks of DRM music I bought from the iTunes store. It's the playlist syncing that's more important.

I never understood why so many companies spend so much time/money trying to incorporate watermarks and other security features into digital music. I mean if you can play music on one device, you can re-record the music via line-in on a computer without all the fluff.

I don't download MP3's or iTunes, so I guess that I must not understand something...

Without going too far off topic, yes, I'm an Apple fan, but no, I don't support their DRM policy on iTunes/iPod -- or anyone else's, for that matter. If you buy a song, whether online or on CD, I believe it should be wholly yours to do with as you please and play on any device without restrictions. But that still hasn't stopped me from buying a few tracks at the iTunes Store and eyeing an iPod (which also plays non-DRM MP3/AAC files) from time to time.

As I understand it, Apple's DRM is a token gesture to placate the record companies, all of whom insist that it exist in some form before taking part in this new business model. And in any case, it's the lesser of two evils, the other being Microsoft and its hypervigilance when it comes to DRM on Windows Media files or Napster's rental scheme.

If anyone wants to take this much-debated topic further, we should probably open a new thread in General Discussion.

Uhh, just burn it as a "music cd" then re rip it as an mp3.

They're looking for a solution more direct without so many between steps. Also, imagine having hundreds of songs ... that's quite a bothersome thing to deal with, plus the degredation in quality issues.

That's exactly it, Ken.

iTunes, for those who don't seem to have used it, has some really cool features that allow you to decide what songs you want on your iPod and get them there easily. Instead of hunting through your entire music collection for files and transferring them via drag and drop, iTunes allows you to build playlists and sync them to the iPod with one click. Plus, for the new iPod Shuffle, there's a re-encoding option that takes your 17MB file encoded at 320kbps and puts it on your iPod at 3MB 128kbps. Until storage prices drop considerably, that's a necessary feature for my Z.

At the moment, I have to sort through my music collection (17,000 songs) and decide what I want to listen to. Then I have to put those tracks aside and reencode them at a lower bitrate because of storage issues. Then I have to delete the existing files from my SD card. Then I have to drag the new files to my Z. Altogether it takes about ten steps when it could be reduced to one. Hence my request.

DRM is a tempting tangent, but isn't really the issue here -- it's more like iPod ID, or how iTunes identifies the attached device as such and interacts with it.

The easiest thing to do is to use an ftp-client to log into your Zaurus and upload whatever songs you want. Thats pretty much what I do when I want to put music on the zaurus.

Just to be more clear, use iTunes to generate a playlist that you think you'll want to here. Make a temp folder on your desktop, select all the songs in that playlist and drag it to that temp folder, then use a decent ftp-client ot log into the Z and upload that temp folder to a memory card or whatever... if you have DRM'd songs you would of course have to un-DRM them with hymn and use some other utility to make them into mp3s.

EDIT: I actually just re-read your post and saw that you were already doing exactly that... can I suggest using smart playlists to help with your 17,000 songs

A laudable aim, I agree, however some of the features you want are already present.



This is certainly supported by xmms - there's a little button on the gui you need to press.



This would be useful, however I wonder how much storage would be required for the database which records the most/least played info.



Multiple playlists are possible afaik with all of the above, however you'd need to save them in the default location (under ~) and load whichever one was for the card you've put in.



I just close the lid



Again, this would be an interesting thing to have. Take a look at opie-mediaplayer2 and make some changes to it,


Si

It might be worth checking out the Sharp player for the C3000, its in the feed for the Cacko Rom.

I really like the playlist stuff it has and I belive that it will play AAC (which I never use).

Only problems is that its closed source so I can't take it with me to an X based rom and it won't play Ogg

I don't think I even *know* 17,000 songs

If you're really keen to do something like this then contacting the author of this software is something you should do.

According to this website he has managed to create a plugin for winamp that purports to be able to allow the user to:



The project is open source so I would imagine that you should be able to extract the relevant information from this software allowing the Zaurus to act like an iPod.

EDIT: Now I've re-read this post I realise that you've already found this software

Good luck dissecting it!

Probably easier, as the above software is for Windows (and there's no source available as far as I can see), would be to look at gtkpod (http://www.gtkpod.org/about.html) which ml_ipod says provided some of the source.


Si