Over the years these tastes have changed with Furby’s, Cabbage Patch Dolls and programmable robotics taking the top spots for children’s wish lists from Santa Claus.

This year though it would seem that Santa’s elves might have to seek alternative employment in a Chinese Foxconn factory.  New research released by Nielsen into what electronic devices children want has shown that the top three slots on children’s 2011 Christmas wish lists are dominated by Apple.

In the research they say that 44% of children aged between 6 and 12 want an iPad, 30% want a iPod Touch and a huge 27% want an iPhone.  I say huge as most people would hardly think of a child between the ages of 6 and 12 as the target demographic for a mobile telephone.

After this a computer sits in fourth spot and a non-iPad tablet (presumably Android) sits in fifth place.  In fact the list is completely dominated by technology that includes games consoles, portable and static, televisions, non-iPhone smartphones, blue-ray players and eBook readers.

There can be little doubt that tablets have captivated the minds of the young, because of the new and exciting ways they allow people to interact with the technology, be that zooming in on photographs or flinging birds at pigs.  It can also be argued however that the devices offer solitary play opportunities for children and don’t encourage them to build interactions with other children in the way that most people consider healthy.

The research also shows what children aged 13 and over are interested in buying over the next six months.  Again the iPad sits as the most desirable item with 24% of the vote and a computer bringing up second place with 18%.  Again this list is entirely dominated by technology though it is interesting to note that smartphones of all description, including the iPhone which held the number 3 spot for younger kids, are much further down the list in the teenagers age group with the iPhone sitting in seventh place and other smartphones and non-smartphone mobiles sitting in 8th and 17th place respectively.

At the end of the day it is parents who will make the final decisions, so we will no doubt expect stockings to be full of dolls, coloured goo and lego with perhaps a solitary computing or gaming device taking the top gift spot.  Children want what children want but this doesn’t ever mean that they will get their own way.

What have your children asked you for this Christmas?  Are you own family experiences a mirror of the Nielsen research or are your children after a bow and arrow set and a colouring book?

The program can perform a variety of tasks, its major features are the following:

• Transfer music, movies and photos to apple devices
• Backup music, movies and photos to computer
• Share iPod music and movies with friends
• Recover iTunes Library in case computer crashed

The software program requires that a version of iTunes is installed on the computer system, and that an Apple device such as an iPod, iPad or iPhone is connected as well. If the pre-requisites are met it will display information about the connected device on the start screen.

All it takes to transfer data from the Apple device to the computer is to select the data that you want transferred, for instance all music or photos, and click the transfer button. The program will automatically do the transferring and syncing with iTunes for you. Files can also be transferred from the computer’s iTunes library to an Apple device in a similar way.

One interesting option is the ability to share music, photos or videos with another Apple device. Just connect the two devices to the computer and you are able to share data between them directly. That’s handy for families with multiple iPods, iPhones or Ipads for instance, dorms, work places or other locations.

SyncPod For Windows Features

• Transfer music from apple device to computer – Transfer iPods (iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod touch, iPod shuffle), iPhones (iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS)as well as the latest iPad music files to computer.
• Transfer pictures from harddisk to device – Move your best photos and pictures from computer to your iPod or iPhone device and you can DIY your own screen saver.
• Backup movies from device to computer – Backup iPods (iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod touch, iPod shuffle), iPhones (iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS)as well as the latest iPad movies and videos to computer or harddisk.
• Transfer photos and pictures from device to computer – Transfer your iPhone photos to your computer in case you want to save space for your portable devices.
• Sync media files from computer to device – Transfer your harddisk movies or songs to your iPod, iPhone or iPad within few clicks.
• Share iPod Music and Movies – Share iPod, iPhone or iPad music or movies with friends freely by transferring your iPod, iPhone or iPad files to computer; it will copy them to your friends’ iPod or iPhone all by itself.
• Easy iTunes(iTunes 10) Library Transfer – Helps you transfer music, movies, TV shows and photos from your old PC to your new one, or from your old iPod to your new device when you just got a new one.
• Time saver and free upgrade – Transfer everything from your device to computer in a flash!
• Recover iTunes Library – Perfect solution to transfer your music, movies and photos back to iTunes in case your computer crashed.
• Support latest iTunes 10 – A lifelong technical support will be provided for every customer; also the automatically searching for upgrade always provides customers with latest version.

SyncPod For Windows Giveaway

We have 30 licenses to give away. Just let us know which Apple device you own for a chance to win a license.

In a press release today, the company said…

iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for the holiday season," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit."

iPad users can now run their favorite apps and switch between them instantly, while preserving iPad’s legendary battery life. Users can organize their apps with drag-and-drop simplicity using Folders, and Mail now features a Unified Inbox, fast inbox switching and a threaded message view.

Game Center allows iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users to challenge and play friends or be matched automatically with new opponents, showcase their scores and achievements, and discover new games their friends are playing.

AirPlay is a new feature for streaming music, video and photos wirelessly from iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to Apple TV®, transforming Apple TV into a great accessory for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. iOS users also will be able to use AirPort Express® and AirPlay to stream wirelessly to any stereo or powered speakers, or directly to AirPlay-enabled speakers coming to market in the months ahead.

AirPrint is a next-generation Wi-Fi print architecture that dramatically simplifies printing by completely eliminating printer drivers. A selection of AirPrint enabled printers including the HP Photosmart, HP LaserJet Pro and HP Officejet will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to any printer that supports AirPrint.

Despite the multi-tasking, probably the biggest addition in terms of actual usefulness is AirPrint which finally gives the iPad printing abilities, something that many commentators have said is the tablet’s biggest flaw.

Game Centre is clearly Apple’s response to Windows Phone 7 and its integration with Xbox Live, though there’s more than enough room in the market for these products to happy co-exist.  Indeed there are so many games available for the iPhone now that it would be a huge oversight not ot introduce a games centre.

The update is available to download now through iTunes (version 10.1) and is a free update for all the devices mentioned at the beginning of this article.  This must surely make it a must-have release.

The latest threat is another with Adobe’s name on it.  The company has already come under heavy criticism this year for major flaws in it’s Acrobat and Flash platforms, this new threat is more of the same with the Acrobat reader for the iPhone.

The BBC is reporting that experts are saying the threat has yet to be exploited and are urging Apple and Adobe to find a fix before it is.

The threat would affect all devices running Apple’s iOS operating system, the iPhone, ipod and iPad, none of which run anti-virus software.

Graham Cluley, a computer security expert with Sophos, told BBC News that the exploit used the same principle as Jailbreakme – a utility that lets iPhone 4 owners run non-Apple approved applications – although it uses the exploit in a benign way.

“It uses the same tricks as you do when jailbreaking,” said Mr Cluley.  “We always thought that Apple’s Mobile Safari would be the main vulnerability.  “At present, we have yet to see any of these exploits out in the wild, but it is only a matter of time,” he warned.

The method exploits a weakness in the Safari web browser to automatically open an infected PDF.  The irony of this being that so far the only way to secure yourself against it is to unlock your device and install unapproved software on it.

Neither Apple for Adobe have so far commented on the threat or said when a patch might be available.

Those that use a different software to manage their music are left with the option to add the music to iTunes as well to synchronize it with the iPod or to use a third party syncing software like Froddle Pod or Yamipod.

A major problem for iPod owners who use a different software program to manage their music and iTunes to sync it to the iPod is that they have to add the music to two programs instead of just one.

They naturally add the music to their primary music management software but also to iTunes since they need to use it to sync the music to the device.

sync itunes

The portable software SynciTunes has been developed for this exact situation. It allows the iPod owner to select a music folder for synchronization with iTunes.

Options like including subfolders or preventing volume changes in iTunes are selectable in the program interface to customize the synchronization.

SynciTunes will automatically remove songs from the iTunes library that do not exist anymore. It will also update iTunes tags automatically if songs have been updated outside of iTunes.

Do you own an iPod? What’s your preferred way of adding songs to the device?

My first exposure to Fedora was Fedora Core 1. That was a huge deal because it was the first time Red Hat Linux had split into enterprise and user grade operating systems. This was a remarkable move and one that has made Red Hat the undisputed king of enterprise level Linux. Why? With Fedora Red Hat has a community testing ground that helps to make sure their enterprise system is solid. All of the bugs that Fedora users report wind up getting fixed in Red Hat. And this is why, as Fedora matures, it is a robust, reliable, and secure as it is.

But are you ready for Fedora? In this article I am going to highlight some of the features that might sway you over to the one of the elder statesmen of the Linux guard.

Instead of going through the litany of updated packages and features. What I thought I would do, this time around, is discuss some of those features that makes Fedora 13 a good match for the end user. Any Linux user who is accustomed to the operating system could hop onto Fedora 13 and be happily plugging away. But what about the new user? What about that user migrating over from another operating system? What features would be a welcome change from the standard Linux distribution? Let’s take a look.

Printing

One of the issues that has plauged Linux for a long time was printer setup. Let’s take my particular printer for example. I have a Samsung ML1710 that usually required the manual installation of the Splix drivers. This printer is on a network so it always made it more challenging. Fedora 13 bypasses that challenge and now has one of the easiest printer setups you will ever see. Not only is printer detection automatic (even over a network), driver installation is automatic as well. With a few simple clicks my network printer was installed and printing. I did have to enter the root user password to make all of this happen, but any user can type a password…nothing special about that.

PackageKit Integration

Remember those days of opening up applications like Rhythmbox only to find it didn’t play your MP3 files – and then having to figure out how to get it to do so? If you are like me you do not recall them fondly. Things have changed quite a bit. Now PackageKit has been integrated practically (if not literally) everywhere so when an application has a need to install something it will be automatically detected and installed. So when you try to play an unrecognized format in your media player, PackageKit will come to the rescue.

New backup tool

There is a new backup tool included in Fedora 13 called Deja Dup (I have no idea where that name came from). This tool is ridiculously easy to use. Once set up the tool has two buttons: Restore and Backup. That’s it. Users can now backup their desktops (as they should be) like seasoned pros.

iPod/iPhone support

Now, out of the box, Fedora supports your iPhone and iPod Touch. No additional software necessary. Just plug that hardware in and it will instantly be recognized and you can manage your music and your photos (sorry, no app support).

Over all impression

I could continue on forever and a day about how Fedora 13 brings a world of improvement to the Fedora/Linux experience. But the best thing I can say is that Ubuntu better watch out or Fedora might well usurp it as the king of Linux for new users. And since Fedora is already one of the most popular distributions with experienced users…you get the picture.

If you have never tried Fedora do so now. If you jumped ship on Fedora some where around  Fedora 9, I’d say it’s about time you jumped back on the ship and enjoyed an incredible experience.

The motherboard manufacturers Gigabyte, Asus and MSI have developed a software update for Windows that will enable quick charging the Apple devices. The software update improves the charging speed by up to 50% and can even charge the device in multiple power stages.

Apple devices users who use Windows computer systems might want to head over to Gigabyte, Asus or MSI to download the new drivers that improves the charging time of their devices.

Gigabyte is the only company that is restricting the software to specific motherboards. Reports at Engadget suggest that it is possible to install the drivers on unsupported hardware as well as they are showing a video of a user who is using the Asus software on Sony laptops.

The process is a bit involved, but not too difficult. I will walk you through the steps, some of which are command based, and some are not. And without further adieu, let’s get to the installation and configuration. NOTE: As with anything, use caution and ALWAYS back up your data. It is never guaranteed that you won’t lose data. You’ve been warned. ;-)

The installation

There are numerous tools to install. I will be doing this on a Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop box, so you will have to adjust your steps according to your distribution.

The first thing to do is add a repository to your apt sources. Do this with the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmcenery/ppa

Now you need to update with the command:

sudo apt-get update

Once apt has completed the update issue the following to install the bulk of what is needed:

sudo apt-get install gvfs gvfs-backends gvfs-bin gvfs-fuse libgvfscommon0 ifuse libgpod-dev libgpod-common libiphone-utils libiphone0 python-iphone libplist++1 libplist-utils python-plist libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev libusbmuxd1 usbmuxd

Quite a bit to install eh? And it’s all necessary. Let that process complete.

Edit fuse.conf

The next step is to edit the /etc/fuse.conf file so that your user will have access to the gvfs file system. Do this by opening the /etc/fuse.conf file in your favorite editor and changing this line:

#user_allow_other

to:

user_allow_other

Save that file and you are ready to move on.

Fuse group

Now you have to add your user to the fuse group. To do this go the User and Group entry in the Administration sub-menu of the System menu. When this tool opens click on the Key button to unlock the tool for administrative purposes. Now click the Manage Groups button and then scroll down until you find the fuse group. Double click the fuse group and then click the check box next to the user you want to have access to the fuse group. Click OK and then close out all of the User and Group windows.

Log out

The next step requires that you log out of your desktop and then log back in. This will ensure that all changes have taken place. Once this happens plug in your iPhone (or iTouch) and see if it automounts to your desktop. There will be two devices mount. The first device will show up as a camera, the second as a phone. Once you see both of these, you know you are nearly done.

Gtkpod

Unfortunately there are some bugs in Rhythmbox that prevent the user from writing to the iPhone/iTouch. That’s fine because there is always Gtkpod. You will need to install this with the command:

sudo apt-get install gtkpod

Once this is installed you will find the entry for it in the Sound &  Video sub-menu of the Applications menu. Fire that tool up and you are nearly complete.

Figure 1

The last thing you need to do is to configure Gtkpod to mount your device. In the Edit menu you will notice a Repository/iPod Options entry. You have to configure your device as a repository for Gtkpod.

As you can see (in Figure 1) you have to configure where the device will be mounted. This is where it might seem a bit more complicated than need be.

Because of having to use gvfs, the mount point will be in ~/.gvfs/ and will be listed as the name of your device. You will have to open up a terminal and change into that directory to find out what it is called. In my case it was ~/.gvfs/Jack Wallen. So I would enter that in iPod Mountpoint configuration section.

The next option to configure is the Model. Make sure you select the correct model. Do so by clicking the drop down and choosing your model from the list. Once you have done this, click the Add button to add your new device repository. You can then OK the Options window and you are ready to load your iPhone.

Back in the main Gtkpod window click the Load iPod(s) button and eventually your device will show up. You can now add music to your device! Make sure, when you are done adding music, to click the Save Changes button.

Final thoughts

It’s taken long enough, but the ability to add music to an iPhone has finally arrived. The next step, hopefully, will be the syncing of apps and contact/calendar data. I have a feeling that’s going to be another long wait.

Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) is utilised on a range of devices, but especially so by Creative. Creative Zens (and their variants) utilise the protocol. Whilst the Creative NOMAD isn’t MTP, it too uses an awkward protocol not natively supported by OS X. The infamous Zune (in the eyes of an Apple fanboy) too uses MTP, however, Microsoft make it very difficult to transfer data to.

XNJB is a piece of software that provides a graphical front-end to a libnjb and libmtp: free and open source libraries that allow communication with devices like Creative NOMADs and Creative Zens. Unfortunately, neither support the Zune, due to additional restrictions Microsoft put in place. The libraries work on other POSIX operating systems, like Linux, but XNJB does not.

XNJB allows users to upload and download songs from their media players, for ID3 data to be edited and devices searched. All of this has to be done within the software; it is not integrated into iTunes or Finder.

The transfer of data felt a bit slow to me, but I expect this is primarily due to the messiness of my library and the nature of Media Transfer Protocol.

This software is, however, a useful tool when you first got the Mac. I do, though, doubt you could realistically continue to use a MTP device successfully with OS X. Naturally, you could use it inside Boot Camp or a virtual machine, but in my opinion, that too is not an ideal option.

Compatible devices are listed on their website.

Take the iPhone and Palm Pre for example, both have iTunes syncing, video and music playback, picture viewer as well as YouTube support. But owning a Pre and iPod Touch myself as well as using iPhone’s has taught me that a media player on a cellphone is more of a novelty for the music lover, rather than a necessity.

For one, there has yet to be a phone that lives up to the quality of music one would expect from an MP3 player. Just by doing a simple test with an iPhone vs. iPod Classic, Palm Pre vs. Zune or Sony Ericsson X! vs. Sony X-Series Walkman you will notice the difference not only in fidelity but also bass and range. For a casual person this might not be a biggie, but for those of us whose hard drives are stacked with albums it might be a difference like day and night.

Another problem with cell phones and music is functionality. Imagine a DJ carrying his iPhone to a party stacked with all the nights jam and half way through “Turn Me On,” he gets a ring from a friend who can’t find the parties location. While most of us are not DJ’s I’m sure those who dock their iPhone’s to their stereo system, no how frustrating it is when half way through the song someone calls, worse when it’s a telemarketer or some other person of shady character.

So yes, having a cellphone with an mp3 player is a nice novelty but for those who are concerned about battery life and music quality, it just cannot cut it. Thankfully technology is advancing and if we start seeing more phones with Snapdragon and Tegra processors, things might change. But for now, I’ll keep my mp3 player and cell phone as two separate devices thank you.

At least two of the processes seem to be connected to mobile devices like Apple’s iPod or iPhone which seems like a waste of system resources if none of these devices are owned by the computer user. To say it more clearly: Why would someone need to run these processes if they do not need them? The following paragraphs will show how to disable the three processes AppleMobileDeviceService.Exe, iTunesHelper.exe and iPodService.exe effectively.

Disable AppleMobileDeviceService.Exe

AppleMobileDeviceService.Exe is a Windows Service that “provides the interface to Apple mobile devices”. It does not therefor make sense to run this service if no Apple mobile devices are owned by the user. The easiest way to disable the service is to press [Windows R], type in the run box [services.msc] and press the [enter] key on the computer keyboard.

This opens the Services window which displays all Windows Services. Locate the service Apple Mobile Device, right-click it and select Properties from the menu. Click on the Stop button first to stop the AppleMobileDeviceService.Exe service from running in this session.

Now click on the Startup type menu and change the type from Automatic to Disabled. A click on the Apply button will complete the process of disabling AppleMobileDeviceService.Exe.

Disable iTunesHelper.exe

The ituneshelper.exe process is also running in the background all the time. This process is however started from one of the autorun locations. Getting rid of it is quite easy. Press [Windows R], type in [msconfig.exe] and hit the [enter] key on the computer keyboard.

Switch to the Startup tab on top of the window and locate the iTunesHelper entry there. Uncheck that entry to disable the autostart of it when Windows starts. A click on Apply will complete the process. You do not need to restart Windows at this time.

Disable iPodService.exe

This one is tricky. IpodService.exe is a Windows Service. The problem is that it will be launched by iTunes even if the service is set to be disabled. Closing iTunes on the other hand will not close the iPodService.exe from running in the background. Here is what needs to be done to get rid of this process as well.

Open Windows Services again by pressing [Windows R], typing in [services.msc] and hitting the [enter] key. Locate the service iPodService. It is described as “iPod hardware management service”. Right-click the service, click on the Stop button if it is running and set it to disabled in the startup type menu.

The second step is needed as iPodservice.exe will be launched by iTunes even if it has been disabled. Locate the file iPod iPodservice.exe on the computer hard drive. It is by default installed into Program Files\iPod\bin.

Delete iPodservice.exe from the /bin/ directory and create a new text document. Give the text document the same name (iPodservice.exe). You should now have a 0 Kilobyte iPodservice.exe file in the /bin/ folder. To test if the procedure worked start iTunes. If everything worked out fine iPodservice.exe should not have been started and should not show up as a process in the Windows Task Manager.

Verdict: Windows users who want to use iTunes but do not own an iPod or other Apple device can now disable unneeded processes from their computer system. It does not make sense having them run in the background all the time.

iWOW exists for Windows, OS X and iPods. On OS X, only an iTunes plug-in is available. On Windows, either an iTunes plug-in or system-wide software are available. The system-wide software can obviously be used to improve sound in all applications, such as games. On an iPod, a hardware-based adapter is available which plugs into the iPod to improve its sound. I haven’t tested the iTunes version.

The software or iPod adapter are unfortunately not free. The iTunes plug-in costs $40, the system-wide software costs $50 and the adapter costs $80. This sounds expensive but it sometimes included in bundles and discounts, MacUpdate for example offered it in their bundle.

SRS Labs, the makers of iWOW, claims to create ‘an expansive sound stage’ and to ‘restore audio cues that are buried in the original source material’. I personally don’t understand what that means, but have heard the sound quality it produces… even on my laptop speakers!

The software, at least on the Mac, is very easy to install. All one must do is run it. It is then installed in iTunes.

The question is whether or not it is worth $40. 51 reviews on MacUpdate give it 4/5 on average.

A few features like ‘auto-detect’ are missing in version 3, but were present in version 2. SRS Labs promise that this will be offered in an update in a few weeks.

The software will run on any PC with Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista installed. The only other requirement is an installation of Apple’s iTunes software. Pod To PC can copy music, videos and playlists from a supported device to the computer. Music and videos can be previewed and filtered on the iPod or iPhone prior to transferring them.

One interesting option is to automatically transfer all music and video files to the computer that are not already available in the local installation of iTunes. This makes it ideal to sync music and video collections. Could also be handy if you had to reinstall the operating system or iTunes on a computer after a crash to transfer all the music and videos back to the computer from the iPod or iPhone.

Duplicate tracks will not be copied. It is furthermore possible to copy full or partial playlists. All the related meta information such as ratings will also be transferred and preserved.

Pod To PC is an interesting software program for Windows users looking for a software to transfer data from an iPod or iPhone to the PC.

First things first, you’ll need to download the Linux binary of Floola from the Floola download page. Once you have the tar file downloaded unpack it with the command tar xvzf Floola-linux.tar.gz which will create a new directory called Floola-linux. Move into that new directory and, as the root user, issue the command cp Floola /usr/bin/. Copying the Floola binary into /usr/bin will allow Floola to be run globally.

Now you will need to mount your iPod. You can refer to my article Connect your iPod to gtkpod for instructions on the mounting procedure.

Once your iPod is mounted you can start up Floola. You will first have to configure the make of iPod you have connected. After you have the iPod type configured Floola will see the iPod and list all of data. Now on to the video download. Well, almost. Before you can actually get the video to your iPod you will need fmpeg installed in order to handle the conversion. Fmpeg can be installed by either doing a search for fmpeg in your Add/Remove Software utility or you can issue a command similar to urpmi fmpeg (for Mandriva) or apt-get install fmpeg (for Ubuntu.)

With fmpeg installed NOW it’s time for the video madness to start. With Floola open go to the Item menu and select Add From Web. A new window will open with a button for Add URL. Click that and a smaller window will open to copy and paste the Youtube video url and click OK.

Floola Add Video

When you see your Video listed in the Add From Web window select the video and click OK. This will start the process. Now it’s time to sit back and watch as the video downloads and then is converted. Depending upon the speed of your machine, this could take quite a while.

Once the video is converted a new window will open where you will need to click the Add button so the video is actually added to the iPod.

Adding File

Once you click the Add button your video will be transferred. But you’re not done yet. In order for your iPod to be in sync you will first close Floola and then unmount your iPod. With your iPod unmounted you are ready to enjoy your new video! You will be amazed at the quality of video transferred, it’s quite good.

And that’s it! Now you can have plenty of video goodness on your iPod with next to no effort.

Oh, and since Floola is freeware, you might consider donating to the author. If you do you will get rid of a 4-second nag screen upon closing.

The first thing you must do is make sure you have the applications installed on your machine. One reader pointed out that gtkpod had trouble with XMMS (which, I admit, is an old-school application). With modern distributions XMMS is not typically installed, yet gtkpod still defaults to XMMS being the default player on some distributions (Ubuntu and Mandriva for example). We’ll fix that.

Let’s first show how to get gtkpod running with a command line player. We’ll use mpg123 because it’s one of the more universal players. You can install mpg123 either from command line or from the Add/Remove Software utility. From the command line the installation would be something like:

apt-get install mpg123

or

yum install mpg123

One mpg123 is installed you can then fire up gtkpod for configuration.

From the Edit menu select Preferences to open up the configuration window.

Gtkpod Preferences Window

There are two lines to configure:

Command for ‘Play now’

Command for ‘Enqueue’

Both of these can be configured with the command. As you can see, in the figure above, my Fedora 10 default installation of gtkpod defaults to using XDG. This is an outstanding GUI application for use with gtkpod. But let’s make a simple change. Edit that line to read:

mpg123 %s

and click OK. Now go back to gtkpod, right click on a song and select “Play Now”. The selected song should start playing. Now here’s one issue with using a command line tool for playback: In order to stop playback you have to open a terminal window and issue the killall command. In our example you would issue the command killall -9 mpg123. Or you could wait for the song to complete. If you queue a number of songs for playback then you will definitetly have to issue the killall command to stop playback.

The same configuration holds true for an external GUI application. The good news about using a GUI application is that you can control the playback of the file much better.

Should you want to use XMMS for the playback of files you will most likely either have to delete the current XMMS (if you do not have mp3 support rolled into your current XMMS installation.) Say you are using Fedora. To change XMMS for mp3 support issue the following commands (as root):

rpm -e xmms (Only if XMMS is already installed)

yum install xmms-mp3

Now if you use XMMS as your playback application you would have xmms %s for your playback configuration.

Final Thoughts

Yes it’s true, it would be nice if gtkpod had a built in player. However, having a reliable application for syncing an overly-flaky, yet overwhelmingly popular music device far outweighs having to configure the application to use a working playback system.

First Steps

The first thing you need to do is to plug in your iPod and mount the device. Before you actually plug in the device there are a few tasks to take care of. The first of these tasks is to create a directory where the iPod will be mounted. As the root user issue the command mkdir /media/mp3. You can name this directory whatever you want. Once you have the directory created you can plug in your iPod. Now issue the command dmesg so we can find out where your iPod was detected. When dmesg has completed you will see output like:

sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 58605120 512-byte hardware sectors (30006 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 68 00 00 08
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 58605120 512-byte hardware sectors (30006 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 68 00 00 08
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sdb: sdb1 sdb2

As you can see my iPod was listed at /dev/sdb. So now we know what entry to add to /etc/fstab. As the root user again open up /etc/fstab and append the following line:

/dev/sdb2 /media/mp3 auto ro,noauto,user 0 0

NOTE: The above line will vary depending upon where your iPod was detected and what directory you created for mounting purposes.

With your fstab entry in place exit out of the root user and issue the command mount /media/mp3 (Where mp3 is the directory you created for mounting purposes).

If you issue the command ls /media/mp3 you should now see the contents of your iPod. And with the iPod mounted gtkpod should automatically detecte the iPod.

Fire it up!

Now it’s time to open up gtkpod. This will most likely be in your Audio/Video or Multimedia menu subdirectory of the Main Menu. If you do not find it you will have to install it. Most distributions do not include gtkpod by default. If yo open up the Add/Remove Applications utility you can find it doing a search for “gtkpod”.

Once gtkpod is open, so long as your iPod is mounted, it should detect the device and load it.

gtkpod main window

As you can see gtkpod is pretty much a no-frills means to sync your iPod in Linux. Using gtkpod is pretty straightforward: Click to add files or directories, click Save Changes (sync), click to Load your iPod. There is only one issue that you must know about. When you are done with your iPod you need to close gtkpod and then UNMOUNT your iPod! To unmount your iPod go back to the command line and issue the command umount /media/mp3 Where mp3 is the actual directory where you have mounted your device. If you do not unmount your device you risk losing your data.

Final Thoughts

Gtkpod is one of the most reliable iPod managing tools in Linux. Sure there are far better multi-media players (such as Banshee or Amarok), but their iPod support can be flakey at best. Give gtkpod a try. If you’re looking for a reliable way to sync your iPod in Linux, this might be it.

Recently though, I’ve decided to invest in an mp3 player. I knew about the standard players available but after doing some more research, I’m more confused than ever. So I decided to ask the tech-savvy readers at Ghacks to help me make my decision.

Now I’m looking at hard-drive based players with a minimum capacity of 60 GB. Here are some of my thoughts on the different players so far:

Apple iPod Classic: Good battery life (30 hours for audio) and file storage capacity (120 GB). I’m not too keen on it though because it’s very restrictive as far as supported file formats are concerned. I don’t want to spend hours just converting my videos. Also, I’ve read that new versions of iTunes place a lot of restrictions on the machine.

Zune 80/120: This one is last on my list. Battery life is decent but that’s about it. Video format support is really poor.

Archos: Not bad but not great either. Battery life and file format support is just about okay. Storage capacity is good. The player itself is a little on the bulky side as well.

Creative Zen Vision W: The sort-of runner up. Creative had decent battery life (13.5 for audio and 5 for video) and supports a good-sized number of file formats. However, the player doesn’t seem to support videos encoded with the H.264 codec or those in the Mpeg-4 format. Also, at 60 GB, it’s the lowest in terms of storage capacity.

Cowon A3: If I had to choose a player based on features alone, this one would be it. The A3 has 80 GB of storage and plays virtually every audio and video file format you throw at it. In fact, the only format that it doesn’t play is AAC file with DRM and Quicktime movies, both of which I don’t use anyway. Besides this Cowon’s A3 can be connected directly to both standard and hi-definition TVs and can even record from the TV. It’s perfect. The only drawback is the battery life. The official site says that the A3 can play 7 hours of video and 10 hours of audio. In practice, I have no idea how long it lasts.

So now I’m stuck between the Creative Zen Vision W and the Cowon A3. They cost almost the same. Should I be concerned about the lesser battery life on the Cowan? I assume I can also hook it up to an adaptor and play it when I’m at home. If I do take my player out, it’s probably not going to be used for more than 5-6 hours.

Please help me out with this. What portable media player do you use? Are you happy with the storage capacity, file formats supported, and battery life/ Any advice for me? Let me know in the comments.

Now imagine this scenario: what if you paid a yearly or monthly fee to an online store and in return you could download an unlimited number of songs. Not only that but these songs would be DRM-free so you only need to download a song once and you can play it anywhere you want and burn it to a CD multiple times.

A service like this is in the works from a site called Datz Music Lounge. Datz claims to offer unlimited music downloads in mp3 format for just 100 Pounds a year. That works out to around $160, based on the current exchange rate. As far as offers go, this sounds pretty good.

It’s not all hunky dory though. For starters, you need to be a United Kingdom resident to use the service. Other caveats are that you’ll have to have a special USB drive with the Datz software on it plus the software will work only on Windows for now. In addition, the site is currently only offering music from the Warner Music Group and EMI catalogues.

While on the surface of things it appears as if this is a win-win situation, I wonder how many people would be willing to pony up such a big amount as an advance payment. Also, with the plethora of free music sources available, does someone really need to buy music?

What do you think of the Datz Music Lounge concept? Are you in favor or against these kinds of services? How much money do you normally spend on purchasing music? Let me know in the comments.
Via Mediamemo

It’s easy to get cynical about the Zune, especially considering Microsoft’s promises about delivering an amazing iPod killing device three years back.

The original Zune was pretty ugly, far too bulky and came in an attractive poo-brown. It still sold a million units however and Microsoft stayed in the game to bring out the Zune 2. For me the problems with the original Zune where that it failed to deliver anything the iPod didn’t have and came with some hideous software which was one of the biggest issues.

The wifi connectivity was almost un-utilised when it could have been a fantastic addition to an mp3 player and instead Microsoft let Apple steal it’s thunder with the iPod touch.\

The Zune 2 however was actually good enough that the best most commentaries could come up with where that it still wasn’t a success. The Zune software had been rewritten from scratch, the Zune interface was new, unique and attractive and the devices themselves where slimmer and far better designed then the first generation.

When my friend bought one (over Ebay, the Zune still isn’t released in Australia) what I loved the most was the navigational trackpad. The iPod scroll wheel was always one of the devices greatest strengths and something other companies struggled to compete with in their own products. The Zune however introduces a trackpad which has the same strengths as the scrollwheel (quick navigation through long song lists) while having an additional strength – ability to click up and down like a normal 4 direction pad which makes it a whole lot easier for moving up and down a couple songs at a time.

The generation 3 Zune is an incremental upgrade and is mostly changes in the services, firmware and pricing of the product, but still worth purchasing, check out Paul Thurrot’s review. I’m looking forward to trying the new software, some great new changes there.

As Paul mentions, the Zune 3 update is available for all Zune owners, even the original Zune 30. This is a great move on Microsoft’s part and actually shows they care about customers more then pushing them into buying the latest and greatest version.

Froddle Pod is such an iTunes alternative. It certainly is not as feature rich as iTunes but it provides access to the main features that iPod owners need: It can copy music and videos from and to an iPod which is definitely the main feature that any iTunes alternative should support.

The software can also backup and restore all data that is stored on an iPod. Another feature is music normalization for all or selected music on the iPod. It is currently unclear if it supports album art.

Supported are the following iPod models currently: iPod Nano (all), iPod Mini (all), iPod Classic (3rd to 6th generation). No support for the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch yet.

The software did check for and download the Microsoft Visual J# Distributable which takes up 80 Megabytes of space on the hard drive.