IPod In Your Car If you love to listen to your iPod while walking through town or working out, you will probably love your iPod in your .....
Apple makes iPod for Mac and Windows, but not for the open-source operating system Linux. Because of this, Linux developers began working on an iPod solution for Linux. When developers began testing Linux with iPod it was partly just to see if it could work. It did. However, initially there was no real need for it and no benefits for users who installed Linux onto their iPods. They just simply had two operating systems on their iPod: the Apple firmware and iPodLinux. Once the concept was proven, more work was done to tweak the system and its capabilities. Now, installing Linux on the iPod is a way to add capabilities and enhancements beyond the basics.
Podzilla is the name for the standard iPodLinux interface. It is similar to the Apple interface but has a crisper font and switches between menus between one and two seconds faster because there is no animation for menu changes. Once of the cons is that the Linux operating system uses more battery.
The iPodLinux includes an Extras menu that expands to four other items. First, is the Recording Menu that allows you to do Mic or Line in Record. Line In recording is for recording the audio output from other sources. This enables you to make instrumentals of your favorite songs without having to buy a program to do it on your Mac or PC. With Mic recording you can use the left earbud of the iPod headphones and record mono audio at up to 96 kHz. Using the Apple firmware, you are able to create recordings as well, with an add-on device that must be purchased and at only 8 kHz. Once you have recorded audio on your Podzilla, the recordings are saved as WAV format. They can then be downloaded to your Mac or PC later and converted into a different format if desired. The next two menu items are the Calendar and Calculator. These are not significantly different from the Calendar and Calculator that come installed with the Apple firmware. Last is the Games Menu. The Podzilla comes with 5 games: Asteroids (called Steroids), Othello, Tetris (BlueCube), Pong, and Minesweeper (Nimesweeper). Now, you have options if you get tired of listening to music on long trips.
Another feature of Podzilla is the File Browser. This function allows you to see all of the files on the iPod, even the hidden ones. It can also display GIF, JPEG, and BMG files in black and white. This is a feature that earlier generations of iPod did not have. Surely, it doesn't turn it into an iPod photo, but it can be useful for looking at diagrams and other simple drawings. ......
