iPod

The iPod from Apple is the most popular PMP device currently available. The iPod Touch now has its own page.

eBook Reader

Can I really use an Apple iPOD as an eBook reader?

Yes it is possible but it will take some work to prepare the file. To read an eBook you will need to use the built in notes facility. Please check your iPOD documentation to learn how to access and use the notes facility. (It can be reached from the Extras menu.) If you intend to use this a lot you should add notes to the top level menu.

The notes support makes a pretty primitive eBook reader. Unfortunately there is no support for the size of the fonts used in notes and the ones that are used may require a magnifying glass. In addition you can only use text files and are limited to files that are no larger than about 4K Bytes. This would be totally unreasonable except for a great web site called iPod eBook Creator that can be used to convert long books to the 4K sizes. Here is how:

• Step 1: You simply upload the file you want and it converts it into multiple files which are collected in a zip file.
• Step 2: You download and unzip the file on your PC.
• Step 3: You move the individual files to the notes folder on your iPOD. The files do not have an extension but they they are linked internally so that you can page to the next file to read it just by tapping the select button when you reach the bottom of the file.

For best results you should ensure that the text file contains all of a paragraph on one line and that there is a blank line between paragraphs. The conversion program will remove diacritical marks if present but other extensions to standard ASCII are not supported so the file you use should be standard ASCII text. Any special characters will be shown as ? marks.

The one nice feature is that you can listen to music while reading your book. Tap the menu key or the center select key to focus the iPod keys back on the book if they get switched to the audio by accident.

images

Another choice is to make images and use the iPod picture support. There is a program called iPod eBook creator that can convert electronic text to images for use on iPods.

Encyclopodia

This is a wikipedia for iPODs in English, German or Italian.

http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/library.html

Specifications

iPOD Classic

• Height: 4.1 inches (103.5 mm)
• Width: 2.4 inches (61.8 mm)
• Depth: 0.41 inch (10.5 mm)
• Weight: 4.9 ounces (140 grams)
• Capacity
  • 120GB hard drive - (latest version has 160 GB)
  • Holds up to 30,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format
  • Holds up to 25,000 iPod-viewable photos
  • Holds up to 150 hours of video
  • Stores data via USB hard drive
• Interface: USB 2.0 using the cable supplied
• Display
  • 2.5-inch (diagonal) color LCD with LED backlight
  • 320-by-240-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch
• Audio
  • Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
  • Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
  • User-configurable maximum volume limit
• Headphones
  • 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
  • Earphones
  • Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
  • Impedance: 32 ohms
• Video
  • H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
• Languages
  • Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish
  • Additional language support for display of song, album, and artist information: Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese
• External buttons and controls
  • Hold switch
  • Click Wheel
• battery life
  • 36 hours audio
  • 6 hours video

iPOD Nano

Generation V

• Dimensions: 1.48 x 1.61 x 0.35 inches (37.5 x 40.9 x 8.78 mm) including clip
• Weight: 0.74 ounces (21.1 grams)
• 1.54-inch (diagonal) color Multi-Touch display
• 240-by-240 pixel resolution
• supports: Music, audiobooks, podcasts, photos, FM radio builtin, pedometer builtin, Nike + iPod support
• Capacity: 8GB or 16GB
• battery life: 24 hours audio.

Generation IV

• Height: 3.6 inches (90.7 mm)
• Width: 1.5 inches (38.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.24 inch (6.2 mm)
• Weight: 1.3 ounces (36.8 grams)1
• Music play time: 24 hours
• Capacity
  • 8GB or 16GB flash drive
  • Holds up to 2,000 or 4,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format
  • Holds up to 7,000 or 14,000 iPod-viewable photos
  • Holds up to 8 hours or 16 hours of video
  • Stores data via USB flash drive
• Accessibility
  • Spoken menus allow listeners to hear many of the names of menus, song titles, and artists without viewing the screen.
  • An alternative large font can make menus easier to read.
  • A high-resolution LCD display with adjustable contrast and backlight settings makes it easier to read in low light.
  • Captions in video are displayed when they are present using a legible, high-contrast white-on-black font.

• Display
  • 2-inch (diagonal) liquid crystal display with blue-white LED backlight
  • 320-by-240-pixel resolution at 204 pixels per inch

Otherwise similar to the Classic

Generation III

• Dimensions: 2.75 x 2.06 x 0.26 inches (69.8 x 52.3 x 6.5 mm)
• Weight: 1.74 ounces (49.2 grams)
• Display: 2" oriented horizontal
• Memory: 4 or 8 Gig flash drive.

Otherwise similar to the Generation IV. No Accessibility options.

Generation II

Similar but has a 1.5" screen and no video support. Available in 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB versions. No Accessibility options.

• Dimensions: 3.5 x 1.6 x 0.26 inches
• Weight: 1.41 ounces
• Display: 1.5" 176x132 pixels

Audio Books

An iPod can also be used for audio books in MP3 or Audible format. Generally MP3 files are divided into 3 or 4 minute files that are then strung together. This is to allow rapidly jumping to points in the story. And it keeps you from getting too frustrated if you accidentally press the wrong key.

Audible files are one big file with special features to allow jumping to predefined points in the file. Audible books remember where you were if you leave the file.

For more information

http://www.apple.com/itunes/ - for iPOD and iTunes products