Help Support iPods On Linux

Christophe Fergeau writes:

The more I hack on libgpod, the more I realize that having iPod models from various generations would be really helpful. When implementing support for setting the iPod time, for parsing the iPod timezone, for figuring out which information is useful in SysInfoExtended, ... I always end up running after people with various iPod models to make sure the code works as expected both on new and old iPods.

I'm sure some of you have old iPods they no longer use hidden somewhere in their room, if you are in this situation, a donation would be really welcome and helpful :) Even iPods with dead batteries or broken screens might be useful.

And while I'm at it, it would also really really help if I could get my hands on an old iPod touch or iPhone. Because this is where most of the work is to be done today, and without one such device, I cannot test thoroughly and get into shape stuff like that.

So if you're feeling generous today and want to help support iPods on linux, drop me an email or leave a comment!

Source: http://cfergeau.blogspot.com/2009/07/modern-begging.html

Introducing Arista Transcoder

(Jaunty only)
Arista Transcoder is an easy to use multimedia transcoder for the GNOME Desktop. Arista focuses on being easy to use by making the complex task of encoding for various devices simple. Pick your input, pick your target device, choose a file to save to and go.


The 0.8 release is the first public release and includes a to-do of items that will be completed for the 1.0 final release. All development will happen on Launchpad, which provides bug tracking, distributed version control, milestone / roadmap planning and tracking, a forum and translation utilities.

Features:

* Presets for iPod, computer, DVD player, PSP, and more
* Live preview to see encoded quality
* Automatically discover available DVD drives and media
* Rip straight from DVD media easily (requires libdvdcss)
* Simple terminal client for scripting

Jaunty is the first release that supports everything needed to run Arista (GTK+ 2.16, latest GStreamer libraries, etc.). Make sure you have all the GStreamer plugins installed (including those in Multiverse!)

The author Daniel G. Taylor is looking for any feedback and/or help others can provide.

More info here: http://programmer-art.org/projects/arista-transcoder