Re: o/t ipod

["Robert Blair Mason Jr." <rbmj@verizon.net>]

On Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:10:27 +0100
Peter Beck <peter@datentraeger.li> wrote:

> On Sun, 2010-12-26 at 06:32 -0600, Ted Wager wrote:
> > My son has bought me an ipodtouch for Xmas..Anyone tell me how I can 
> > transfer the music files on his ipod to mine ?..I only have Linux on my 
> > machines but can get access to a Winbox at a neighbours...
> 
> on windows it's not possible to attach the device with itunes on
> different computers without loosing all files. (I think there are 3rd
> party tools for that, but no idea how they are called)

Actually it is.  The most important factor is the source of the songs.
If they were bought on iTunes more than a year and a half ago, then
they are most likely laden with iTunes' DRM (the songs have a .m4p
extension).  Anyway, I digress.  I know that if you go into iTunes and
open the iPod's page, and then select "enable disk use" then you can
just copy all the files over (they'll be nested pretty deeply, just
look for a bunch of folders containing possibly yet more folders which
contain a bunch of four-letter filenames).  After you copy them you
should be able to drag them into iTunes.  If you go the linux route you
SHOULD be able to just connect the ipod and open the folder.  I'm
running Sid with LXDE, and opening up the file manager allowed me
_read_only_ access to the iPod, with no fancy command-line mount
required.  However, it did connect with an extremely slow protocol,
which appeared to take more time to copy the files than accessing it as
a USB device on windows (disclaimer: subjective experience, may have
had to do with better hardware on winbox).

So to wrap up, the files are on there, all you need to do is get read
access and copy it over.  No fancy third party program needed.  The
files are all correctly tagged, so they should play with a quick drag
and/or import into -insert favorite music player here- as long as -said
music player- has support for the MPEG-4 codec.  Note that these codecs
are patent-encumbered, so they might be in multiverse.  I think the
package for the gstreamer powered applications is gstreamer-plugins-bad
or something.  And if they're DRM protected, then I can make a torrent
that contains the software to take off the DRM (requiem)- note that
this requires installing an early version of itunes (i think) and only
works on windows.

-- 
rbmj