With the unveiling of the iPod Touch and its beautiful high density screen today, a slightly unusual (to the general iPod audience) question jumped to my mind: is there any way to read (non-drm'ed) PDF's on it?

How does the iPhone deal with online PDF's? Is a PDF reader on the homebrew hackers' radar?

While I certainly won't abandon my e-ink (sony) device as a primary reading tool, the high density screen & zoom/pan sound pretty good for reading magazines that publish non-drm'ed versions (like Sci-Am, Eweek, etc).

-adin

Bad form to answer my own question, but I found a couple things that are *close* to what I'm looking for, though I still haven't found a native pdf reader.

It appears that Safari can directly open pdf urls, so you can upload pdfs and read them online.

There's also an ebook reader project on google code called books.app (http://code.google.com/p/iphoneebooks/) though it only reads text and html (it does do gutenberg html). The lead dev/project owner has grudgingly added pdf to the dev plan, though he made it low priority, so it doesn't appear to be anything that's going to happen soon.

Soonr (http://www.soonr.com) give remote access to documents & skype, but from their website appears to reformat documents for mobile viewing (free service for now, soon to make a premium paid service). Drat, *so* close.

Is there anything else out there that I've missed?

Excellent! I got sucked in and ordered one of those this morning. My next stop was to post this same question. I imagine there will be plenty of solutions for text files on the ipod in the next few months.

Thanks for the links.

Bad form to answer my own question, but I found a couple things that are *close* to what I'm looking for, though I still haven't found a native pdf reader.

It appears that Safari can directly open pdf urls, so you can upload pdfs and read them online.

There's also an ebook reader project on google code called books.app (http://code.google.com/p/iphoneebooks/) though it only reads text and html (it does do gutenberg html). The lead dev/project owner has grudgingly added pdf to the dev plan, though he made it low priority, so it doesn't appear to be anything that's going to happen soon.

Soonr (http://www.soonr.com) give remote access to documents & skype, but from their website appears to reformat documents for mobile viewing (free service for now, soon to make a premium paid service). Drat, *so* close.

Is there anything else out there that I've missed?

If Safari can open PDF files you could try using Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com

One of the available template (A4/Sony/iLiad) might work OK with the iPhone/iPod Touch. You can also create custom PDFs for it. This way it should be easy to get a good looking e-book on your device...

Being the owner of feedbooks and all, would you consider making a "locker" for iPhone/iTouch owners to make their own little pdf/html/txt access areas? I could see it as mainly as an area to bookmark/save links to books that you're reading....

I just don't see the point of these new iPods at all. They are clearly ideal for video, and yet they don't have hard disks! Why on Earth make them "flash memory" devices rather than having a hard disk? Video needs large storage capacities far more than music does. Seems crazy to me! The only explanation I can come up with is that perhaps they are basically "iPhones minus the phone"?

I was actually more interested in the 3rd generation Nano, hoping that they'd offer a 16GB model. Unfortunately, they went a different way altogether and made it smaller (perhaps too small) and cheaper and added the (IMO rather useless) video playback.

I just don't see the point of these new iPods at all. They are clearly ideal for video, and yet they don't have hard disks! Why on Earth make them "flash memory" devices rather than having a hard disk? Video needs large storage capacities far more than music does. Seems crazy to me! The only explanation I can come up with is that perhaps they are basically "iPhones minus the phone"?

I agree. The new iPod Classic with its 80 or 160 Gb drive is perfect for video, why flash memory for the iPod Touch ?

Being the owner of feedbooks and all, would you consider making a "locker" for iPhone/iTouch owners to make their own little pdf/html/txt access areas? I could see it as mainly as an area to bookmark/save links to books that you're reading....

Hmm... a locker ? You mean a page with multiple links ? You could use the favorites to do this I guess...

I just don't see the point of these new iPods at all. They are clearly ideal for video, and yet they don't have hard disks! Why on Earth make them "flash memory" devices rather than having a hard disk? Video needs large storage capacities far more than music does. Seems crazy to me! The only explanation I can come up with is that perhaps they are basically "iPhones minus the phone"?

Durability ans weight. Micro hard drives have a nasty tendancy to stop working when crashing to the ground. The iPod is a device built to give one company in action. This is why I bought a Nano, it's great while I train.

Durability ans weight. Micro hard drives have a nasty tendancy to stop working when crashing to the ground. The iPod is a device built to give one company in action. This is why I bought a Nano, it's great while I train.

I've had a number of hard-disk iPods and never had a failure - they are extremely tough.

This new device would seem ideal as a personal video player, but without a hard disk it's really not going to compete head-to-head against devices such as those produced by Archos.

The lack of a hard disk is realy disapointing. I'm still considering one because of the form factor, touch screen, and hackability.

Perhaps with enough of a demand, they will release a high capacity version simliar to that of the classic. I really wouldn't mind the extra thickness.

Durability ans weight. Micro hard drives have a nasty tendancy to stop working when crashing to the ground. The iPod is a device built to give one company in action. This is why I bought a Nano, it's great while I train.

My iRiver iHP-140 is 3 years old and the disk is still in perfect shape.

I understand why having flash memory is important on a small device like the Nano, but with the iPod Touch, I can't imagine myself running while watching some video podcast on it. The iPod Touch is a lot more like an Archos than a Nano...

Man o man, that's a sweet device! Guess I can quite complaining about it being locked to a cellphone. I actually watched the video on Apple's website where the seemingly sleeping individual walked you through all the new things they put into it "just for you!" That last one's kind of a joke, like they really added wireless to the iPod for you or YouTube, for that matter. It stinks of a major deal made with Google (esp. since the default search engine is Google, not that I mind since that's what I use most of the time) and yet another way for Apple to milk micro-transactions. I think they kinda stole the idea of wifi from the Zune, but they left out the feature that you can share songs with other iPods; e.g., like the Zune can.

I so want one of these, I just wish it had more memory. Though I'm sure it's a lot cheaper to throw a few SSD chips on board than to have to include a microdrive, not to mention it makes the device a whole lot lighter, thinner, and energy-efficient. It's a little pricey for the 16GB model, though I will get one eventually. I also like the re-engineered Nano; perfect for the gym to the commute to work! Oh man, Apple sure dropped a major cash-cow into the market, and just in time for Christmas (and my birthday!).

BTW Want to see some goofy figures, check out how you can fit more songs on your 8GB Nano than the 8GB iTouch, but less pictures and two hours more video on a device with a larger screen; i.e., higher resolution! Considering how they expect you to get your songs and videos from the same store, I wonder how they tricked this out? Here's the link (http://www.apple.com/ipod/whichipod/)

Presumably the iPod Touch version of Safari can still read PDFs. Unfortunately, the new machine doesn't seem to support email, so one avenue that's proven useful on the iPhone for getting PDF files into the machine is not available on the new device.

I've tested the FileMark Maker (http://www.insanelygreattees.com/news/?p=51) hack as another way to view offline PDFs via iPhone Safari, and it seems to work well for smaller files (less than 1 or 2 megs). See a video demo of PDFs on the iPhone (http://wowio.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/iphone-and-ebooks-the-video/).

http://wowio.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/sidebar-iphone-video6.jpg (http://wowio.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/iphone-and-ebooks-the-video/)

A quick search on Google pdfs on iPhone threw up some interesting links.

There's a link here from David Pogue about reading books on the iPhone:

http://www.oreillynet.com/mmgadgets/blog/2007/07/reading_books_on_the_iphone_1.html

Seems to be that there's an inbuilt pdf reader that is used by Safari as well.

I found a lot of interesting material about pdfs in iTunes (of all things) it looks like you can download pfs in the same way as you download a track - or subscribe to one in the same way as you subscribe to a podcast. Presumably you can then get them onto your iPod touch simply by syncing.

I'd love to see FeedBooks on there!

Here's theComplete guide to pdfs on ITunes (http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/01/the_complete_gu.html). If you're curious you can also try searching for '.pdf' ino the itunes store search ending.

Of course good old basic html is still very much an option as well.

The dilemma for me is whether to get one now or wait for the HD version. the lack of the HD version is a bit of a disappointment. I'm sure Apple will produce one - there would be a hell of a market among photographers especially if they build in RAW support.

iTunes unfortunately doesn't seem to sync PDFs to the iPhone, just as it ignores them for the iPod. The workarounds seem to be to email the file, serve the file over the Web, or include it in a Safari bookmark (the FileMark Maker method I talked about in my earlier post). Does anyone know of any other method?

A quick search on Google pdfs on iPhone threw up some interesting links.

There's a link here from David Pogue about reading books on the iPhone:

http://www.oreillynet.com/mmgadgets/blog/2007/07/reading_books_on_the_iphone_1.html

Seems to be that there's an inbuilt pdf reader that is used by Safari as well.

I found a lot of interesting material about pdfs in iTunes (of all things) it looks like you can download pfs in the same way as you download a track - or subscribe to one in the same way as you subscribe to a podcast. Presumably you can then get them onto your iPod touch simply by syncing.

I'd love to see FeedBooks on there!

Here's theComplete guide to pdfs on ITunes (http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/01/the_complete_gu.html). If you're curious you can also try searching for '.pdf' ino the itunes store search ending.

Of course good old basic html is still very much an option as well.

The dilemma for me is whether to get one now or wait for the HD version. the lack of the HD version is a bit of a disappointment. I'm sure Apple will produce one - there would be a hell of a market among photographers especially if they build in RAW support.

Hmm ok... so the easiest way to get PDF on an iPhone/iTouch would be through a RSS feed ? I guess I could do that...
We already output our search results in XML, for example if you're looking for the keyword "war": http://www.feedbooks.com/newsstand/search/war

Too bad I don't have an iPhone (I live in Paris) or could borrow one, it would be much easier to find the right solution for these devices.

Heh. Why would you want 120GB in an iPod? Are you really going to watch that many movies on a 3.5" screen or listen to that much music? I think the only benefit to the iPod Touch is it's wifi capability.

BTW Want to see some goofy figures, check out how you can fit more songs on your 8GB Nano than the 8GB iTouch, but less pictures and two hours more video on a device with a larger screen; i.e., higher resolution! Considering how they expect you to get your songs and videos from the same store, I wonder how they tricked this out? Here's the link (http://www.apple.com/ipod/whichipod/)

The reason for the difference is that the touch and iphone use a different operating system from the classic and nano ones. The Touch/iphone use a stripped-down OSX kernel that takes up almost a full gig. Makes Windows Mobile look awfully efficient.

I've been going back and forth on the iPod Touch. I ordered one yesterday and then canceled it this morning.

I like the screen, hate the small memory. I rarely use my hard-drive based player and mostly use my 4 gig nano so 16 is probably enough for most purposes. My whole music collection would require an 80+gig ipod, but I rarely listen to most of the older stuff.

I like the interface, but am concerned that it will be too difficult to navigate music without having to look at the screen.

It would be great for reading books, but it looks like it will only last for about five hours with the screen on continuously. That's for video, so it could last longer for text files, but who knows... Enough for most people, but where I live plane flights to anywhere are always five hours or more.

I've never been so confused about whether to buy a gadget before.

iTunes unfortunately doesn't seem to sync PDFs to the iPhone, just as it ignores them for the iPod. The workarounds seem to be to email the file, serve the file over the Web, or include it in a Safari bookmark (the FileMark Maker method I talked about in my earlier post). Does anyone know of any other method?

I've got iTunes 7.4 (downloaded yesterday). I downloaded a pdf which then appears in a folder in th eplaylists and in turn appears in the window that allows you to choose which playlists you sync to the iPod. So it looks like you can synch it (I haven't tried because my iPPod is registered to my desktop). I expect it would work the same way with iPhone.

Heh. Why would you want 120GB in an iPod? Are you really going to watch that many movies on a 3.5" screen or listen to that much music?

In my own case it's because I use my iPod almost exclusively to listen to audiobooks. An unabridged audiobook (all I ever buy) of a large novel does not uncommonly exceed 1GB in size. At present I have an 80GB iPod and it's virtually full.

The Touch/iphone use a stripped-down OSX kernel that takes up almost a full gig. Makes Windows Mobile look awfully efficient.

Actually, the root filesystem with all applications takes around 200MB.

In my own case it's because I use my iPod almost exclusively to listen to audiobooks. An unabridged audiobook (all I ever buy) of a large novel does not uncommonly exceed 1GB in size. At present I have an 80GB iPod and it's virtually full.

I definitely like the 5G model's features better than my 4G iPod. The 30GB iPod Video I picked up recently surprised me when it remembered where I left off of with multiple tracks; i.e., I can be listening to one audiobook, switch to regular music, and come back to the audiobook without having to remember where I was at. In my 20GB 4G model, if I swapped out from listening to an audiobook I'd have to remember which track and the position if I wanted to continue. What a PITA! :huh:

BTW I totally agree about listening to unabridged versions, who are they to tell me what I don't need to hear from a book? That's always bothered me, esp. with all the Star Wars audiobooks I picked up (unfortunately, the originals are all on cassette).

The iTouch is gorgeous, just glad I can't get a hold of one right now or I'd be sorely tempted to get rid of both my older models and upgrade! :2thumbsup

Hmm ok... so the easiest way to get PDF on an iPhone/iTouch would be through a RSS feed ? I guess I could do that...
We already output our search results in XML, for example if you're looking for the keyword "war": http://www.feedbooks.com/newsstand/search/war

Too bad I don't have an iPhone (I live in Paris) or could borrow one, it would be much easier to find the right solution for these devices.

Hopefully the iPod touch will be available in France shortly.

I'm not sure about the exact mechanisms but it looks like one mechanism would be to submit a single book in the same way that you might submit a track. The other would be to enable someone to subscribe to a series - either of books or a news feed - in the same way as you can subscibe to a podcast.

Continuing my search, I found a nice little app on google code that should work nicely for viewing pdf's stored on the iPhone/iPod: MobilePreview (http://code.google.com/p/mobilepreview/). It's also listed (and installable from) modmyiphone (http://modmyiphone.com/nativeapps/). MobileFinder is also available over there.

I agree that 8/16GB isn't as large as I'd like, I don't know of any other wifi PDA that can handle 16GB (and has a decent webbrowser). Besides, most TV shows seem to come in around 300MB and well compressed movies are 1-2GB. So I can have my top 1000 songs, a few TV shows, and a movie, with plenty of storage left over for files & web browsing cache. Sounds a lot better to me than another T|X (mine recently died) with a 2GB SD card. I guess I'm already used to having to choose what's on my iPod, my music library is over 260GB, with another 40GB in TV shows and movies (100% legal!). So the classic is nice, but I'd still have to pick and choose what goes on it.

Here's another question: is there Java support on the touches (from now on I'll use that term to refer to both the ipod & phone)? I wonder if we could hack the java version of mobipocket onto the touches? That would be nice!

I agree that 8/16GB isn't as large as I'd like, I don't know of any other wifi PDA that can handle 16GB (and has a decent webbrowser).

Do you really consider an iPod to be a PDA? To me, the primary purpose of a PDA is to manage such things as calendar, contacts, tasks, etc, and although the iPod can do those things it's not at all good at it. My Windows "Smartphone" is a vastly better PDA than my iPod.

I'd consider the iPod Touch to be a rather poor attempt to compete in the rapidly growing "personal media player" market, in which the leading player is Archos, and I think, to be honest, that they've made rather a mess of it in not having a hard-disk based device.

For now, I'll stick with three separate devices: Smartphone as a PDA, Archos 605 as a PMP, and 80GB iPod for music. Each is great at what it does.

I'd rate this as a "must try harder" if it's supposed to be a serious attempt to break into the PMP market and challenge Archos.

Do you really consider an iPod to be a PDA? To me, the primary purpose of a PDA is to manage such things as calendar, contacts, tasks, etc, and although the iPod can do those things it's not at all good at it. My Windows "Smartphone" is a vastly better PDA than my iPod.



I was in an Apple store today playing with the iPhone in an attempt to make up my mind about purchasing the Touch. One of the Apple salesmen started telling me how much he liked the iPhone and then told me, "The best thing is it's really like having a whole computer in your pocket." I just nodded and smiled at his obvious marketing department script. I like it, but it's more like having a really slick but extremely crippled PDA in your pocket.

My current winmo phone works fine as my pda. If you compared actual features, flexibility and capabilities, the iPhone would lose.

Still, I'm leaning more towards picking up the touch when it comes out. The screen is just beautiful and the interface is impressive. If someone can come out with a convenient book reader for the Touch, it would be perfect for entertainment purposes. The "pda" functions are just icing...

I have a few questions.

Where does this 'hoarding' tendancy come from? Why do we require to have everything stored on a device but what we actually use?

Why is it that only the best device is what we should use and that any other must be frowned upon?

Nobody drives a Ferrari to work every day with all their possessions onboard!!?!!

There is a use and time of the use for every tool. Selection of one is done according to actual use of, not to 'maybe I'll need some day use'.

Any way the perfect highstoragemediacomputercommunicatorthesizeofadice don't exist yet, should it?

Where does this 'hoarding' tendancy come from? Why do we require to have everything stored on a device but what we actually use?


I prefer the large capacity of my 5G iPod because I want to spend as little time as possible managing files and pre-planning music selections. A simple sync puts everything there, no thinking or extra time required. Plus, if an unanticipated desire to listen to an obscure song comes up, it's there.

On the other hand, the larger size is definitely a compromise. If my primary purpose for an iPod was to listen to music while working out, for example, I'd be willing to make the compromise of having less storage for better portability.

I prefer the large capacity of my 5G iPod because I want to spend as little time as possible managing files and pre-planning music selections. A simple sync puts everything there, no thinking or extra time required. Plus, if an unanticipated desire to listen to an obscure song comes up, it's there.

On the other hand, the larger size is definitely a compromise. If my primary purpose for an iPod was to listen to music while working out, for example, I'd be willing to make the compromise of having less storage for better portability.

Agreed. I have the 8Gb Nano and it's more than enough. I picked the 'No repeat' function so in the four months or so I've used it I haven't been annoyed with repetitions. I have about 1500 jazz and fusion songs on it, compare that with radio top forty and it wins way over. And I have about 3500 pictures to show my clients with good eye sight. :laugh4:

My other player is a 1Gb shuffle and I was very happy with it being able to listen to music 12 hours non stop without repetition but it had no screen. Otherwise it would have been enough.

Okay I admit that a movie needs from 3 to 5 Gb of space.
My son lent me his video iPod so I could try. Fifteen minutes in the movie my eyes were crying tears so much that I couldn't see any more, what's the use?

A mobile device is that... mobile. What it means is that it is small, versatile and easy to configure in no time. It is not a media repository. That task is for its symbiotic computer. If that repository needs to be mobile, a laptop is the better tool for now.

I am not able to read pdfs on the iPhone but I have been using the books.app program and it works nicely. I am always surprised to find people complaining about the size of the memory. When I had my Pocket PC, the most memory that it came with was 64 MB. I used CF and SD cards but those were only 1 or 2 GBs. The larger capacity ones were way more expensive. At 8GB or 16 GB, I would think that there would be plenty of space for your books.

I am not able to read pdfs on the iPhone but I have been using the books.app program and it works nicely.

Hooray, someone who's used books.app! How is the battery life when reading books on the iphone? How does it compare to using a pda with mobipocket or ereader? Any complaints?

3 to 5Gb of space for a movie? You can decently compress a movie, at NTSC (720x480), to watch on your TV down to 700Mb; 1400Mb is even better. I keep a handful of Futurama episodes on my 4Gb Meizu Miniplayer, in case I'm stranded somewhere, and they only take up a fraction of space.

Heh. I can only stand about 30 minutes of viewing time; cartoons are perfect.

I think the battery life is fine, but I plug my phone in every day at work (when I am at work) and when the phone is not in use so I've not had any battery issues. It's obviously not the same as an eink device but I definitely think it is comparable to my IPAQ 4700. It's a slightly smaller screen size (the IPAQ was 4" and the iPhone is 3.5") but the size difference seems negligible.

The books.app is pretty smooth. It has a black and white background, three fonts (Helvetica, Georgia, Times New Roman), and any size that you wish. The pages advance by either dragging your finger or tapping at the bottom or the top.

It advances to the next html file so if your book is cut into individual htmls, it's a pretty smooth read. I'm actually going to be reviewing and posting screen shots of this on Sunday, my regular ebook day.

For daytime reading, the Sony Reader is probably the best, but I enjoy this for nighttime reading and inevitably that is when I read the most.

I've got iTunes 7.4 (downloaded yesterday). I downloaded a pdf which then appears in a folder in th eplaylists and in turn appears in the window that allows you to choose which playlists you sync to the iPod. So it looks like you can synch it (I haven't tried because my iPPod is registered to my desktop). I expect it would work the same way with iPhone.

Tried this today with iTunes 7.4.1 and a freshly-updated iPhone. Unfortunately, it still doesn't sync the PDF files.

The books.app is pretty smooth. It has a black and white background, three fonts (Helvetica, Georgia, Times New Roman), and any size that you wish. The pages advance by either dragging your finger or tapping at the bottom or the top.

It advances to the next html file so if your book is cut into individual htmls, it's a pretty smooth read. I'm actually going to be reviewing and posting screen shots of this on Sunday, my regular ebook day.

For daytime reading, the Sony Reader is probably the best, but I enjoy this for nighttime reading and inevitably that is when I read the most.

Have you tried mobilepreview/mobilefinder for reading pdf's yet?

I'm actually going to be reviewing and posting screen shots of this on Sunday, my regular ebook day.

Have you had a chance to look at support for syles (either as separate style sheets or embedded in the head of the document?)

Apple changed the physical format of the Nano. It should fit better in the palm of a hand.

Tried this today with iTunes 7.4.1 and a freshly-updated iPhone. Unfortunately, it still doesn't sync the PDF files.

It's very strange. I looked at the Ipod touch How-to about syncing on the Apple website and it mentions everything from iCal events to photos except pdfs. I can't see any reason why they would deliberately not want you to sync pdfs to the device.

I haven't looked at PDFs and books.app doesn't support stylesheets. I suppose you could request that feature.

I haven't looked at PDFs and books.app doesn't support stylesheets. I suppose you could request that feature.

Thanks. That's worth knowing. It sounds like books.app doesn't have access to the Safari rendering engine which is a shame.

Hello,

I have finally managed to view PDF files on the Ipod Touch and they are looking quite nice. I wouldn't really say it is better than a dedicated e-ink device but it's pretty good with the ability to zoom in and out and view documents in landscape and portrait modes.

The process does involve "jailbreaking" which means removing Apple restrictions. It didn't take me long as the tools now evolved to have a nice GUI interface. All in all it took me about 15 minutes after getting familiar with what needs to be done.

After jailbreaking, it really takes few seconds to add PDFs or other ebook formats such as txt and htm/html files to your Ipod touch.

To me, this makes it a very good gadget (mp3's, video, PDA capabilities, and now ebooks):crowngrin.

Cheers,
CG

Hmm I am pretty sure that iPod 1.1.1 web browser shows pdfs without jailbreaking. In fact I was dissapointed it does not accept links inside pdf documents.

Hmm I am pretty sure that iPod 1.1.1 web browser shows pdfs without jailbreaking. In fact I was dissapointed it does not accept links inside pdf documents.

It sure does. However, without jailbreaking you won't be able to view your files off line and you will have to be connected to wifi while reading. Jailbreaking just gives you access access to the ipod so you can store files on it and view them off line.

I have found a Safari limitation though, it does not open pdf files above 8-10 mb (exact number to be confirmed). It isn't much of a problem for me as most of my ebooks are below that size limit (apart from comics and graphic novels).

The nice thing is that Safari enables you to view pdfs in portrait mode which is pretty nice :D

I Jailbreaking just gives you ac

BTW, I think that a nice point of the jailbreaking is that, after you load the BSD tools and the terminal application, you could in theory to add tasks to the cron. So the ipod can awake at 6 am, download from your home wifi the newspapers of the day, and store them to be read in the tube. Same with daily podcasts and videocast. In fact the later is such obvious an utility that one wonders how it is that it has not been incorporated in the main OS.

BTW, I think that a nice point of the jailbreaking is that, after you load the BSD tools and the terminal application, you could in theory to add tasks to the cron. So the ipod can awake at 6 am, download from your home wifi the newspapers of the day, and store them to be read in the tube. Same with daily podcasts and videocast. In fact the later is such obvious an utility that one wonders how it is that it has not been incorporated in the main OS.

Could be done very easily using the Feedbooks API, this way you'd have RSS feeds in a custom PDF that fits the iPod/iPhone screen: http://www.feedbooks.com/help/newsstand_api

.epub support would be even sweeter, the creator of Books.app already said that he would like to add epub support: http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=7207#comment-565684

Maybe it is of interest. I just learned about iPhoneDrive (http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iphonedrive/), a piece of software, that allows you to put files on and of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I don't know how well it works, cause I have neither device, and I am not related to this company.

Hi friends,
I'm looking for a program to convert DVDs to iPod in a fast and easy manner. Any recommendations?

Hi friends,
I'm looking for a program to convert DVDs to iPod in a fast and easy manner. Any recommendations?

There are none so far as in that they all take forever. A conversion takes a one to one time ratio; very slow.

Maybe it is of interest. I just learned about iPhoneDrive (http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iphonedrive/), a piece of software, that allows you to put files on and of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I don't know how well it works, cause I have neither device, and I am not related to this company.
Have anyone tried this application?

I've been looking at an iPod Touch mostly for using it as a PDA, and what a wonderfully usable and instantly responsive interface it has. So neat! I hate my Dell X51 with Windows Mobile 5 - sluggish and complicated - #X&?%€!! I've never gotten the sync to work well, and neither the WiFi. And as my main computer is an iMac, a Touch would fit right in.

This app seems to make it easier to transfer e.g. pdf files - and I guess that would also make it easier to view them?

I'm happy with my Cybook for most of my reading, but if I'm buying a PDA like device, I'd also want it to display ebooks, at least as html and pdf. More formats is better, but I can live with this. the Cybook is restricted, too, since it still can't handle html tables - turns out to be a big deal with the html files with the fan fics I save to my disk. So I have to reformat a lot anyway.

Oh..., any thoughts on size? It's supposed to be my PDA (calendar, lists and notes, contacts, etc.), first and foremost, then reader, film viewer and sometimes music player, not my regular music player (my nano fits my pocket fine when bicycling). I recently brought my PDA on a 3 week holiday - and brought along about 8 GB worth of books, music and films. Seemed more than enough space - I had difficulties filling it out. And did I use it? Nah... Three weeks of exciting experiences in the Andes (Chile, Bolivia and Peru) and I had no need or energy at all for any other entertainment :D However, it might be nice to have 16 GB, but why? I'm guessing that in 1 1/2 - 2 years we'll have 3G iPhones in Denmark, too, and then I'll want to get one of those. Is it worth the extra cost then? I'll find out what I want, but it would be interesting to hear your opinion.

Hi friends,
I'm looking for a program to convert DVDs to iPod in a fast and easy manner. Any recommendations? Handbrake.
It's easy, it's simple, and it's not fast ... basically doing the conversion in real time. i.e. a 90min movie takes 90min to convert.

Some countries believe this software is illegal .... hence no link. try googling. if the URL ends with .fr, then you're pretty good.