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Wireless Networking Businesses Media Media (Apple) Apple Hardware

The iPod Gets WiFi, Sort Of 206

Posted by michael from the wozniak-too-busy-speaking-at-conferences dept.
thecounterfeit writes "Engadget has a story on Pocketster Pro, a new application that lets you add WiFi to the iPod. The catch? You have to connect it to a Pocket PC with both USB Host capability and WiFi first, but once it's up and running you can wirelessly swap tunes with any other similarly equipped iPods."
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The iPod Gets WiFi, Sort Of More

The iPod Gets WiFi, Sort Of

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  • In a related story (Score:5, Funny)

    by YankeeInExile ( 577704 ) * on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:30PM (#9670735) Homepage Journal

    In a related story, an iPod can carry 490 passengers from New York to Sydney, Australia. The catch? You have to put it inside a Boeing 747 ....

  • Quick (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    somebody ping the RIAA!

    • Re:Quick (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ThePDW ( 764788 )
      You can bet the RIAA is having kittens right now!

    • Re:Quick (Score:5, Funny)

      by sploo22 ( 748838 ) <dwahler.gmail@com> on Monday July 12, 2004 @12:57AM (#9671910)
      PING www.riaa.com (68.163.90.10) 56(84) bytes of data.
      From 68.163.93.162 icmp_seq=1 Destination monopoly unreachable
      From 68.163.93.162 icmp_seq=2 Destination monopoly unreachable
      From 68.163.93.162 icmp_seq=3 Destination monopoly unreachable
      From 68.163.93.162 icmp_seq=4 Destination monopoly unreachable

      Control-C

      • Re:Quick (Score:3, Insightful)

        by dasmegabyte ( 267018 )
        Ahem. A monopoly is a company that has attained the majority of the market in a segment of the economy and uses its position as the market leader to supress potential competitors.

        The RIAA is not a company, they don't sell products -- it's an independent organization created by the 5 major record labels and many independents to protect their shared interests. And last I checked, 5 companies is significantly more than the 1 company required for a "monopoly."

        Furthermore, they're not exactly doing anything

        • Re:Quick (Score:3, Informative)

          by zurab ( 188064 )
          RIAA is not a monopoly - you are right; they are a cartel [wikipedia.org]. RIAA members do not fix prices for consumers - they don't sell directly to consumers (unless you are a part of some "11 CDs for the price of 1 plus 'shipping'" club). RIAA and its members fix wholesale prices to stores - i.e. they are not competing against each other on the pricing basis. One of the reasons, as I understand it, is that they want to keep more small stores on par with big businesses so they can have more outlets for their products whi

  • This is too fucked up. (Score:5, Funny)

    by JessLeah ( 625838 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:31PM (#9670747)
    The thing only works with Pocket PCs? How ironic is that? Apple's latest brainchild, co-opted by Windows CE hackers, to do something so geeky that only Unix nerds would want to do it... my head is spinning. Part of me says "Wow, this is cool", but an equally large part says "EW, Windows!"... I'm so lost and confused.

    • Re:This is too fucked up. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SpooForBrains ( 771537 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:39PM (#9670800)
      to do something so geeky that only Unix nerds would want to do it
      Oh yes, transferring twelve new CDs from your mate's iPod to yours wirelessly. Clearly something only "Unix nerds" want to do.

      • Re:This is too fucked up. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:53PM (#9670882)
        But it brings up the question... who owns both an iPod and a Pocket PC?

        • Re:This is too fucked up. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by metalligoth ( 672285 ) <metalligoth.gmail@com> on Sunday July 11, 2004 @11:01PM (#9671255)
          Plenty of people like the PocketPC because it has an interface superior to the Palm, and the OS is less buggy. I'm a long time Apple user and I think PocketPC is one of two things M$ has ever done right. My last PDA was a PocketPC, my current is a Treo, but my next will be a PocketPC again. Palm sucks.

          This post is coming to you from my OS X iBook.

          • PocketPC Interface (Score:2, Interesting)

            by Baricom ( 763970 )

            On the other hand, I think Palm's user experience knocks Pocket PC out of the water. I am very much a fan of their interface design. They built the Palm organizer from start to finish to simplify use on the go, and the fact that they broke into a market where Apple tried and utterly failed is enough to earn my respect.

            May I recommend Piloting Palm, ISBN 0471089656? It's an excellent look into the planning that went into engineering the first Palm Pilot. It's written by two Palm executives, so there's

          • Re:This is too fucked up. (Score:5, Interesting)

            by iamacat ( 583406 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:19AM (#9672448)
            Plenty of people like the PocketPC because it has an interface superior to the Palm, and the OS is less buggy

            This could go either way. Why should programs I close on PPC just hang around in the background until I run out of memory and kill them through Start/Settings/System/Memory/Running Programs?

            But mostly both Palm and PPC suck, especially when it comes to developing software. Sun 3 with a 68K processor, 8MB of ram and 100MB hard drive was a usable development machine with a standard C++ compiler - exceptions and all, on-"device" debugger, an easy to use UI toolkit (XView) and lots more. For todays 400Mhz XScale PDAs with 256MB RAM, I would settle for an equivalent functionality from remote. But no, we get crippled compilers (CE), ridiculous heap sizes (Palm) and tedious UI programming (both, although .Net is making a dent).
            • Why should programs I close on PPC just hang around in the background until I run out of memory and kill them through Start/Settings/System/Memory/Running Programs?

              Because Pocket PC applications take a long time to load and most people won't have more than four or five of them? The PocketPC was designed to operate like an appliance. Hardware buttons perform functions, they don't merely open programs. You can't have that kind of insant-on interface if you're loading programs all the time on a machine wi
        • Since PalmOS is pretty much a rag, there arent many alternatives for a *useable* PDA, but WinCE..

    • Re:This is too fucked up. (Score:5, Funny)

      by 0racle ( 667029 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @10:03PM (#9670937)
      Unix nerds would alreay be doing it with a very small shell script.

  • share!~ (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 2057 ( 600541 )
    I've been a big fan of large size Mp3 Players, but I always wanted to be able to go up to my friend and zap him the latest albums I got, then also recieve all the albums he had...If a TI-83 can do it, then the next gen ipod should also!

  • Holy battery drainer, batman! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Shoeler ( 180797 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:32PM (#9670754)
    Let's see - my iPaq with wifi gets maybe 1.5-2 hours of playtime.

    Add USB usage and that's gotta drop - at least a little.

    Add processing for data transfer.

    Add external battery.

    Call this a novelty, I will.

  • The catch? (Score:5, Funny)

    by yawhcihw ( 171760 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:34PM (#9670763)
    You'll be clubbed to death by any Apple evangelist who sees you doing this...
  • people dont' start swapping the music equivalent of goatse...
    And watch out for the RIAA on the subway!

    • Re:Let's just hope (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DeltaSigma ( 583342 )
      There are many audio equivalents to goatse. I might be into wireless music swapping were it not for the fact that I could count on all of my associates sending me the same crap I can hear on any clearchannel station.

      Wireless music swapping promises me nothing more than clearchannel without the ads (which isn't much better). The entire feature as envisioned by hundereds, if not thousands, of ecstatic individuals is entirely asinine to me.
    • You mean audio that makes your insides want to become your outsides?

      I can give you that. :)

  • Newton... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rgb465 ( 325668 ) <gbk@insDEGASightbb.com minus painter> on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:34PM (#9670765) Homepage
    Too bad the Apple Newton didn't come with WiFi... ;)
    • Too bad the Apple Newton didn't come with WiFi... ;)

      All we have to do is wait for the next generation Newton. Oh wait, nevermind......sighs.
    • There are Newton drivers for some 802.11b cards. However, the lack of cardbus slots on a Newton makes adding USB or Firewire impossible.

    • Re:Newton... (Score:5, Informative)

      by pyrrhonist ( 701154 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @12:01AM (#9671650)
      Too bad the Apple Newton didn't come with WiFi... ;)

      It didn't come with it, but the good news is, you can run a Newton with WiFi!

      You can do it two ways:

      I'm currently using a Farallon PN595 hooked up to a wireless ethernet bridge, so I have access to my contacts and notes through NPDS [npds.free.fr] using a web browser.
    • Too bad the Apple Newton didn't come with WiFi... ;)

      The very first time I saw wireless ethernet was on a Newton.
    • Why oh why is Steve Jobs against reviving the Newton? I recently got an emate cheap on ebay. While it is slow as molasses and hardly more than a toy for me at this point, I can see what they had in mind here and it is brilliant -- it makes me really wish Apple would revive it in some way. It is light and sturdy and it looks really cool. They could easily make something like this with a modern processor like the ones in recent palms, wifi, usb, and some basic software tools. Updated NewtonOS would be co

  • Question (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've always wondered why iPod doesn't come with bluetooth? I don't see a reason.
    • Yeah, for this at least, bluetooth makes much more sense than wifi -- especially since lots of Macs come with it (and all have it as a built-in option).
    • I've always wondered why iPod doesn't come with bluetooth? I don't see a reason.

      cost? they're fairly expensive to begin with, before you start adding alternate interfaces...
      • Buetooth chips are pretty amazingly cheap, and it would be SOOOO cool, I'd love to use a bluetooth headset/remote and use isync wirelessly. Hell, you could even use your iPod to control your computer for presentations.

        I really hope bluetooth makes it into the next iPod.

    • Re:Question (Score:3, Insightful)

      by dave420 ( 699308 )
      Because bluetooth has a ridiculously low transfer speed, and would be nearly useless in this situation. Bluetooth earpieces for the iPod would be a great idea, however, if they could get the frequency response good enough to not piss people off.

  • Aireo 802.11 Interface Works Today (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wyngarth ( 705424 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:36PM (#9670776)
    SoniqCast's Aireo player already has 802.11b (11Mb) integrated already. Interesting option to download files to it while it's sitting in your car. Interesting quirk however, is that it doesn't take DRM-protected files. SoniqCast says they're working on it. Good think I still have all my P2P files...
  • I've got a 2nd gen iPod. Is there any way to talk to a firewire device from a PocketPC?

  • iPod + iBook (Score:5, Insightful)

    by powerpuffgirls ( 758362 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:42PM (#9670816)
    Why don't we just connect iPod to a iBook, which conects to a AirPort? This will keep everything in the same franchise :)
    • Perhaps because a 12" iBook is about 5 pounds, while a pocket pc is on the order of 5 ounces?

      What would really be better is using a Palm OS PDA, or if Apple came out with something like a "Newton II"
    • Because apple is fascist in not letting you get your music off your iPod, without downloading extra stuff or writing your own scripts... anything else? :-P

  • Heresy (Score:4, Funny)

    by supercytro ( 527265 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:44PM (#9670831)
    Apple products working with Microsoft products? What vile heresy is this?

  • It might be more useful if... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by proxima ( 165692 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:45PM (#9670836)
    As far as I'm aware, there's no way to connect two iPods directly to each other. If you could use a small USB hub and a pocket PC to bridge the two, I could see that being a lot more useful than having two PocketPCs, each equipped with wifi adapters.

    Just a thought.

    • There is a way to connect two iPods (Score:5, Informative)

      by gotr00t ( 563828 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @10:58PM (#9671240) Journal
      Since Firewire is a peer to peer protocol, unlike USB being host and client, it is technically possible to connect two iPods together and share files. An implementation does exist, but its described as being "slow and buggy"

      One of the iPods must have iPodLinux [sourceforge.net] installed, which should include firewire support, as well as SBP2 support. Compile this as a module, and then connect the two iPods together with the Sendstation Pocketdock [sendstation.com] if they are 3G, or just a regular 6pin to 6pin FW cable if they are 1st or 2nd generation. Put the other iPod into firewire disk mode, and the one running linux should be able to mount it and access the files. This is incredibly impractical, as typing on the iPod requires turning the scroll wheel until the right character appears (incredibly annoying), and also very slow. However, it just goes to show that it _is_ possible for iPods to share files with just minimal extra hardware.

      • All Sony notebook and desktop computers have TCP/IP over firewire driver for Windows. It works VERY well and is not "slow" nor "buggy". Just because Apple hasn't figured it out dont mean it dont exist.
        • Actually, I don't recall mentioning Sony anywhere in there, or TCP/IP over firewire. Moreover, Apple was the developer of Firewire, so I would guess there isn't anything they haven't "figured out."

        • Re:There is a way to connect two iPods (Score:4, Informative)

          by EvilFrog ( 559066 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @11:53PM (#9671605)
          Firewire is an Apple technology, and networking over it is part of the specification. It was Apple that figured it out to begin with. It's the user-made implementation that's "slow" and "buggy". The reason why Apple hasn't implemented this is because it would piss off the RIAA if they made it any easier for people to share files, and a moderately healthy relationship with the RIAA is necessary to keep iTMS running. This is the same reason why they make the music files on the iPod invisible when you mount it on your computer, and why music bought from iTMS has DRM.

        • All Sony notebook and desktop computers have TCP/IP over firewire driver for Windows. It works VERY well and is not "slow" nor "buggy". Just because Apple hasn't figured it out dont mean it dont exist.

          Actually, Panther also supports TCP/IP over FireWire. It works VERY well, and is not "slow" or "buggy". It works with any FireWire enabled Mac, iBook or PowerBook.

          You see, they are actually talking about connecting two iPods directly through FireWire, without a computer in the middle. Connecting computers

      • Re:There is a way to connect two iPods (Score:4, Interesting)

        by mrchaotica ( 681592 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @11:45PM (#9671557)
        It's too bad nobody has come out with a little box with a firewire controller, disk controller, and just enough logic to do a one-way sync. If you could make it cheap enough (and perhaps build in an uplink, so it could act like a firewire hub or something) I could see it selling (however, IANA Market Analyst)

  • Crystal Ball of Real Slim Shady? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by powerpuffgirls ( 758362 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:47PM (#9670847)
    If wirelessly beaming songs between iPods is popular, wouldn't Apple develop something to fill the need rather quickly?

    Do all these 'Get-Around-Something' companies just try to make a quick profit before the "Real Slim Shady" comes into play? Or do they actually have a bright future?
    • Sometimes Apple takes over a 3rd-party idea, but only if they think they can give it an Apple flavor (e.g. Dashboard vs. Konfabulator). Other times they do something a little similar, but in a completely different way (e.g. virtual desktops vs. expose, iTrip vs. "iPod your BMW").

      This time, however, I think they won't even touch it -- other companies have nothing to lose, but Apple could concievably lose support for iTMS if they piss off the RIAA (and this might piss them off).
    • You don't have to be authorized to play a song bought on iTunes, on an iPod. In other words, if you bought a song on iTunes Music Store, and put it on my iPod, I would be able to play it. I wouldn't be able to play it on my iBook or PC or whatever, but there is no DRM checking on iPods. So super easy song swapping on iPods might not be such a desireable thing for Apple. At the very least, it would probably force them to add DRM checking to iPods equipped with file swapping abilities.
    • " If wirelessly beaming songs between iPods is popular, wouldn't Apple develop something to fill the need rather quickly?"

      Yes, unless they thought it would damage their standing with the record labels who's acceptance they require to make ITMS successful.

  • Why not just connect it to a laptop... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:47PM (#9670853)
    With either a Mac or Windows laptop, the iPod can be mounted as a drive and then shared... which is all that's really going on here anyway. That's just functionality of the OS, no extra software needed.

    Of course, this is Slashdot where we like to do things the hard way...
    • Because it's smaller. If you're carrying around a laptop why not just have the files on your hard drive anyway?

  • An inevitable evolution of bluetooth phones (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ehack ( 115197 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:48PM (#9670855) Journal
    An inevitable evolution of bluetooth phones is going to be P2P. Tell your phone what you're looking for, go for a walk on campus, or have coffee at starbucks, and it'll be there when you get back home. The phones eg. P800 can already be used for listening to MP3s, and they can be programmed in Java and C++, it's only a matter of month till we get fully integrated Bluetooth P2P.
    • a full-fledged computer can barely do acceptable voice recognition after hours of training (or not, depending on your tolerance for error). It's going to be a while before you can "tell your phone what you're looking for."

      Unless you meant typing it on the phone's chiclet-keyboard. Eww...

    • An inevitable evolution of bluetooth phones is going to be P2P. Tell your phone what you're looking for, go for a walk on campus, or have coffee at starbucks, and it'll be there when you get back home. The phones eg. P800 can already be used for listening to MP3s, and they can be programmed in Java and C++, it's only a matter of month till we get fully integrated Bluetooth P2P.

      I tend to doubt that. Bluetooth has been out for a time. Besides, it's too slow and the range is too limited. In your walk scenario,

  • The odds... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ElGuapoGolf ( 600734 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:52PM (#9670874) Homepage
    The catch? You have to connect it to a Pocket PC with both USB Host capability and WiFi first, but once it's up and running you can wirelessly swap tunes with any other similarly equipped iPods.

    What are the odds that 2 out of the 14 people who actually buy and use this device will be in range of each other.

  • iPod Exchange Provider (Score:5, Interesting)

    by powerpuffgirls ( 758362 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:52PM (#9670879)
    Will we start seeing hotspots (intentional or otherwise) allowing iPod users to exchange files?

    Imagine a pseudo-P2P service run by hotspots installed (or infected) with the P2P apps......

  • Forget file-swapping (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ElGanzoLoco ( 642888 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @09:59PM (#9670921) Homepage
    Forget file-swapping, and give me an iPod that can stream music directly to airport-express... I really believe this is what the next-generation iPod will be. Battery life will be a bitch though. In 2 or 3 revisions we probably even have Airport-express-extreme which will do audio AND video, and the assorted iPod capable of streaming your photos, mpegs and mp3s to your home cinema. This will be the day I buy another iPod.

    • Re:Forget file-swapping (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      don't forget it! imagine a future where a lot of people own ipods. you're sitting on a bus and you get a "knock." another ipod user activated a "wireless knock" to check to see if anyone on the bus had an ipod, and it found you. you accept this "knock" which lets him browse your songs, and you can browse his as well. you swap a couple of songs and move along, perhaps w/o knowing who you just exchanged songs with. illegal? maybe, but fucking cool!

      • Re:Forget file-swapping (Score:4, Funny)

        by pyrrhonist ( 701154 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @11:40PM (#9671518)
        you accept this "knock" which lets him browse your songs, and you can browse his as well. you swap a couple of songs and move along, perhaps w/o knowing who you just exchanged songs with.

        Then you play one of the MP3s which you got off his ipod, which exploits a buffer overrun in the ipod's MP3 codec. When the bus passes by a WiFi hotspot the exploit's embedded P2P server connects to thousands of users worldwide. As you step off the bus, you get a "knock" on the back of the head from the RIAA's jack-booted shock troops who arrest you for being a terrorist.

        But it's fucking cool!

  • I Have Something Even Cooler... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bfg9000 ( 726447 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @10:11PM (#9670980) Homepage Journal
    ...it's called, uh.. a radio. You guys should try it. It cost me like a tenth of what my iPod cost me, and already has some sort of integrated wifi. I've listened to like a million songs and didn't pay for ANY of them! I don't know how Kazaa is gonna survive in the face of this new technology. I just hope it stays underground, otherwise Microsoft or someone will buy it all up and ruin it.
  • Similarly equipped? In the range of 11b, isn't that going to be all of...well, you?

    As if you weren't lonely enough ;)
  • What about running uCLinux on it, and plugging in a USB WiFi stick?

  • If you have a Pocket PC and Wifi, skip the iPod (Score:3, Interesting)

    by harlows_monkeys ( 106428 ) on Sunday July 11, 2004 @10:40PM (#9671152) Homepage
    If you've got a PocketPC and Wifi, just keep your music on your home computer, and run a streaming server, to stream the music to your PocketPC.
  • This is about as elegant as adding WiFi to your lawnmower... by running over a PocketPC with the lawnmower.
  • I can run my iPod as an external harddisk on a pocket PC giving the iPod all the capabilities of the PC .. (wow, really!?!)

    Some would say that you have just added extra space to your pocket gizmo and that's that .. It's not like the iPod suddenly gets WiFi, now is it?

    There is no news here, move along ...
  • screw the ipod, I need sunglasses with a builtin MP3 player! [engadget.com] 128 megs ought to get me through most of my bike rides...

  • not ipod specific (Score:2, Interesting)

    by rizzy ( 24400 )
    There's no reason why a similar hack couldn't be used to swap songs between two Rio Karmas. Remember, the Rio Karma comes with enough connectivity options to make a grown man weep (usb, ethernet, RCA). And with the Karma, you can do it out of the box without any 3rd party add-ons.

    Why is this special?

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