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hadocon · Nov 8, 2002, 10:30 PM

Is there any information yet?

Anything.....?

Evinyatar · Nov 9, 2002, 05:51 AM

What would you expect this iPod API to do?

hadocon · Nov 9, 2002, 11:13 AM

Originally posted by Evinyatar:
What would you expect this iPod API to do?

Well, for example I would like to be able to use my iPod as an input device to my mac when it is connected via the firewire cable - It would make a great jog-dial for media transport in Quicktime or iTunes - Or even as a hardware interface to navigating through "columns view" in the finder.

I mean the ipod is already connected to my mac and there is a jog-dial just waiting there to be used. It is a shame that Apple wont let me use it. Instead I have to buy a Griffin Powermate, which is nice, but not as nice as the iPod transport.

So I would want this iPod API to allow me to get information from the jog-dial and the buttons while connected to a mac.

snerdini · Nov 9, 2002, 04:17 PM

Originally posted by hadocon:

Well, for example I would like to be able to use my iPod as an input device to my mac when it is connected via the firewire cable - It would make a great jog-dial for media transport in Quicktime or iTunes - Or even as a hardware interface to navigating through "columns view" in the finder.

I mean the ipod is already connected to my mac and there is a jog-dial just waiting there to be used. It is a shame that Apple wont let me use it. Instead I have to buy a Griffin Powermate, which is nice, but not as nice as the iPod transport.

So I would want this iPod API to allow me to get information from the jog-dial and the buttons while connected to a mac.

Damn, that's a really cool idea!

Rickster · Nov 9, 2002, 06:11 PM

The likelihood of this being doable is extremely small. Sure, the iPod is small enough that it looks almost like an input device, but in terms of system architecture, what you're asking is basically the same as trying to make the buttons on a printer become a generic input device for the computer it's attached to, or make it so you can use a PowerBook as keyboard and mouse for another Mac -- it would require fundamental low-level changes to both the iPod's firmware and and the drivers on the Mac.

Not that it's a bad idea, it's just not very likely to happen... better to get a Contour ShuttlePro or something.

hadocon · Nov 10, 2002, 08:48 PM

Originally posted by Rickster:
The likelihood of this being doable is extremely small. Sure, the iPod is small enough that it looks almost like an input device, but in terms of system architecture, what you're asking is basically the same as trying to make the buttons on a printer become a generic input device for the computer it's attached to, or make it so you can use a PowerBook as keyboard and mouse for another Mac -- it would require fundamental low-level changes to both the iPod's firmware and and the drivers on the Mac.

Not that it's a bad idea, it's just not very likely to happen... better to get a Contour ShuttlePro or something.

That is too bad. perhaps Apple will see this post and make the necessary changes themselves. Remember that one could enter text on the newton when it was docked to another mac (using the macs keyboard), you could even do this with appletalk over IP - AWESOME!

Anyways, this sounds like a great hacking project. I am sure something like this would be sure to win MacHack '03.

I hereby grant this idea a public domain. Anyone wishing to make this a reality can do so without any cost... The sooner the better.....

hayesk · Nov 11, 2002, 08:32 AM

Unfortunately, I would think it's not just a firmware issue too, but also hardware. To a Mac, an iPod is just a Firewire disk. MacOS basically reads some data on the disk to determine it's an iPod. The iTunes sync portion is really just specialized file synchronization software.

So, I don't think there can even be a hack to make it work. I could be wrong though.