Pocketster Pro Lets You Share Your iPod's Tunes

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.simeda.com/pocketster-ipod.html' target='_blank'>http://www.simeda.com/pocketster-ipod.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"If you've come to this page, you probably already know what Pocketster does. Just as a refresher, Pocketster is an application that allows your Pocket PC to be discovered by other Pocket PCs in the area or by any PC running a Zeroconf (a.k.a Rendezvous) discovery stack. You can also discover other Pocketster users anywhere on your wireless LAN. Pocketster includes a web server (that you can use to publish information) and a music preview utility that allows you to stream music files from nearby Pocketster users. More details and screenshots can be found at <a href="http://www.pocketster.com/">http://www.pocketster.com/</a>. Pocketster Pro (the advanced version of Pocketster) takes the idea a step further and adds an iPod Module. The module enables you to publish your iPod playlists and have anyone in the area listen to previews or download tracks wirelessly from those playlists."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040710-PocketsteriPod.jpg" /><br /><br />OK, that's pretty darn cool -- the idea is to use a USB host-enabled Pocket PC to access and share the files on the iPod. It's not going to be very practical, battery-life wise... but <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7144">W?BIC!</a> :D

[ricoks]

Will this allow, then for HUGE storage medium for the PPC???? :D
i mean, if you can stream, then i assume you can access the files as well, and thebn you have, what, up to 40GB!!! 8O
..............or am I missing something :?:

Ryan

[drazvan]

Yes, that is correct, you can use the iPod as storage (all 40GB of it in my case :) )

Cheers,
Razvan

--
Razvan Dragomirescu
Chief Technology Officer
SIMEDA GmbH
www.simeda.com

[OSUKid7]

With this type of USB Hosting capability, how long can it be until we can plug in a 300 GB USB HDD into a Pocket PC? :mrgreen:

[sponge]

What do you mean not very practical in terms of battery life? USB port doesn't take *that* much extra power, and the iPod has it's own battery that powers the HD.

[TinMan]

What do you mean not very practical in terms of battery life? USB port doesn't take *that* much extra power, and the iPod has it's own battery that powers the HD.
"The module enables you to publish your iPod playlists and have anyone in the area listen to previews or download tracks wirelessly from those playlists." [Emphasis added.]

Surely you can agree that sharing wirelessly will affect battery-life.


-Mike

[arebelspy]

And the sharing of these files is somehow legal because it's a close up network and not p2p? I doubt it.

-arebelspy

[OSUKid7]

And the sharing of these files is somehow legal because it's a close up network and not p2p? I doubt it.Yeah...really doubt it's legal. :|

[Janak Parekh]

What do you mean not very practical in terms of battery life? USB port doesn't take *that* much extra power, and the iPod has it's own battery that powers the HD.
I mean that the iPod's battery drains very fast when used as a standard hard drive. The iPod uses heavy caching to give you its rated life.

And the sharing of these files is somehow legal because it's a close up network and not p2p? I doubt it.
You're making an assumption of what it'll be used for. For, say, household listening, I don't see how the legality is in question. As it stands, you can use a desktop or just the iPAQ to share files in the same fashion, so why not question its legality?

--janak

[ruindpzzle]

you mention usb hosting, how do i make this possible with my PPC? are all PPC's capable of this, or are their only certain models? excuse my ignorance, i'm so excited at this possibilty. thanks for your help.

[Janak Parekh]

you mention usb hosting, how do i make this possible with my PPC? are all PPC's capable of this, or are their only certain models? excuse my ignorance, i'm so excited at this possibilty. thanks for your help.
Some models have it built in - Toshibas and ASUSes in particular. iPAQs do not. For those that don't, there are CF solutions. (There are currently no SD solutions...)

--janak

[Mark Johnson]

And the sharing of these files is somehow legal because it's a close up network and not p2p? I doubt it.Yeah...really doubt it's legal. :|

The RIAA/MPAA lobbyists, lawyers and "advocates" have done a disturbingly thorough job convincing both legislators and much of the public that "Peer-to-Peer File Sharing" always means "piracy" and that's really sad. Yes, it is true that a VERY large percentage of P2P activity is piracy, but the way people are trying to attack TECHNOLOGY instead of BEHAVIOR is interfering with both the legitimate current potential uses and the possible paradigm shifts in media distribution.

I've worked for years with my church denomination to make our sermons available in mp3 format. There are hundreds of Calvary Chapel churches that regularly make this "content" available for download each week from their websites. We have missionaries on foreign countries who would love to be able to meet with each other in "ad hoc" situations where they could transfer several gigabytes of their favorite sermons from their ipod to another missionary's ipod. Not only can you NOT do that with the iPod (as Apple "intends" you to be able to use it) but even worse, when you load mp3s onto it, you have to do it through iTunes and cannot "offload" them to another PC. This is exactly the same thing you experience with the Rio, the Creative Labs, Dell units, etc. The ONLY thing that even comes close to what we need is the Archos Jukebox series as it will, at least, show up as a generic Mass Storage Device, in Windows Explorer, WITHOUT drivers or software, on any recent Windows PC with USB. This is great as it lest us use the Archos as a "mule" from one PC at a home church in California to a recipient church in Russia, but it still doesn't solve the constant problem that we need to be able to do this away from any PC, just as two devices sharing files while sitting at a cafe or on a plane ride, etc.

My simple point is that while there is a great deal of piracy, there are some incredible LEGITIMATE uses of file-sharing technology like what we are seeing with this project. The developers are to be applauded, not (as senator Orrin Hatch wants) criticized, and threatened with legal action. The Hollywood/RIAA/MPAA lobby has been amazingly effective in making people think P2P is some sort of evil scourge that must be stamped out. What they completely (intentionally?) fail to notice is that there are a LARGE number of groups out there (like churches, non-profits, garage bands, etc.) that WANT to give their content away. With things like the "Inducement Act" (recently introduced by Hatch) they are trying to "uninvent the wheel" so that this small oligopoly with a stranglehold on music and video content can retain their dominant position.

[Janak Parekh]

We have missionaries on foreign countries who would love to be able to meet with each other in "ad hoc" situations where they could transfer several gigabytes of their favorite sermons from their ipod to another missionary's ipod. Not only can you NOT do that with the iPod (as Apple "intends" you to be able to use it) but even worse, when you load mp3s onto it, you have to do it through iTunes and cannot "offload" them to another PC.
I agree with most of your post, but this is actually untrue. ;) The iPod stores any music copied to it in \iPod_Control\Music, and can easily be accessed. While the filenames are difficult to parse, the content is there in the format you had it, and if you want a program to simplify the "copying off" of the music, use something like EphPod (www.ephpod.com), which is free and can name the files appropriately.

But yes, what worries me about the RIAA is that they're looking to restrict P2P technology development. From a research standpoint, P2P is exciting for solving increasing numbers of problems, and while I can't condone any illegal use of it... Pocketster's just a combination of Rendezvous and a web server. With mini-webservers that essentially serve a P2P function, what do you classify as legal or not?

--janak

[johncruise]

Some models have it built in - Toshibas and ASUSes in particular. iPAQs do not. For those that don't, there are CF solutions. (There are currently no SD solutions...)

--janak

Uhurm... of course, don't forget the Casio E-200 (not entirely built in... you need to use the cradle/pc card unit adapter/serial adapter) and Casio E-300 (built in -- same as Asus)

[Janak Parekh]

Good points on both counts. ;) An adapter is typically needed for all of the Pocket PCs currently on the market. One or two were coming out with actual USB ports on the device, but I don't think they ever made it to market...

--janak