Rip CDs Directly to Your iPod 85
Kevin writes "A company out of Taiwan has released a device that rips audio cds directly to your iPod. It converts them to MP3 and even does all the tagging for you." Zettabyte, the company producing the units, hopes to hit market within the year and while it could work for any MP3 player, it is being marketed exclusively for the iPod right now.
How Long (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How Long (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How Long (Score:1)
The only logo on an iPod is the Apple Computer logo.
(Unless you bought one of those HP models from a couple years ago.)
It is on mine. (Score:2)
And at least on my 3G unit, it's printed on the back of the device itself, right under the Apple logo. Maybe they've stopped doing this on the newer ones.
And printed down at the bottom of the back side, near the FCC ID, it reads "Copyright 2003 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved." (Actually it uses the Copyright symbol but I
Re:It is on mine. (Score:1)
The copyright at the bottom is referring to the interface software, not the word iPod.
Typed Drawings and Trade Dress (Score:2)
Apple has half a dozen different trademarks on the "iPod" name, for various uses, but the 'Typed Drawing' trademark, as opposed to the trademark just on the word itself (the "standard character mark"), is 78089144. Here is a link [uspto.gov], although I'm not sure if it will work.
Re:It is on mine. (Score:1)
From it:
Also a German wiki page [64.233.179.104].
Re:It is on mine. (Score:2)
I don't think I'm going to look to you for opinions on American IP laws, thanks anyway.
Re:How Long (Score:1)
Re:How Long (Score:2)
No it hasn't, and you will not there about it next week, whatever that means.
What possible objection could the RIAA have to feeding MP3 files to your iPod from this gizmo vs. ripping the CD with iTunes and loading it from that on to your iPod (the way 90% of music gets on to iPods right now)?
Invalid Assumption (Score:1)
RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use (Score:2)
They think it's illegal [eff.org].
Re:How Long (Score:2)
Re:How Long (Score:3, Insightful)
After all, if it's well established that you can legally use an iPod in the first place, then what is the legal difference between putting a CD in your computer, ripping it, and copying
Re:How Long (Score:2)
Re:How Long (Score:2)
Re:How Long (Score:1)
Re:How Long (Score:4, Informative)
Why do you say that? This isn't really any different than ripping to iTunes on a computer and transferring it to your iPod. You have the physical cd that you purchased (well, possibly... it obviously works with burned cds too), you're just putting it right onto your iPod.
This just takes out the "computer" step.
However, other problems come up too... If a CD is ripped to the iPod, what happens when you plug the iPod into a computer? iTunes doesn't support iPod > computer, so the CD you ripped won't show up and, if automatic sync is enabled, the cd would be deleted.
Re:How Long (Score:4, Insightful)
One would think that the RIAA would be more supportive of this than it would be of CD-ripping in iTunes for that very reason.
Re:How Long (Score:1)
Re:How Long (Score:2)
Now the big question: (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Now the big question: (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Now the big question: (Score:2)
Re:Now the big question: (Score:1)
Re:Now the big question: (Score:2)
What alternative OS would that be? VMS? Otherwise, I thought there was some open source means of managing tracks on iPods. I haven't checked because I don't use Linux / BSD for media management and playback.
I wish them luck, but the number of computers that can't handle the necessary ripping and fi
Re:Now the big question: (Score:3, Interesting)
A 486 with a CDrom drive is hardly an oppressive systems requirement for an ipod.
I bet there's some sicko out there that could do this on an Amiga.
Re:Now the big question: (Score:3, Informative)
what is the iPrice for the iUpload (Score:2)
One thing (Score:5, Funny)
Well, what if you're at a friend's house and (s)he, uh, sells you an old CD. Yeah, sells it to you. But, you don't want to take the actual CD with you, because you're afraid your car will get broken in to. So, you, you know, agree to leave the actual, physical CD at your friend's house, for, you know, safe keeping. You'll probably get it later, anyway. But, you'd really like to have those tracks on your iPod, like, now. So, you whip out your iUpload device, plug it into your iPod and blam!, now you have your newly purchased, perfectly legal music in your iPod.
So, there you go, one reason why you would buy something to do something you already have a computer to do. And it's perfectly legal!
Maybe.
--
Sig nificant
Re:One thing (Score:1)
Whooosh! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:One thing (Score:2)
Automatic playlists? (Score:2, Insightful)
As much as it's dumb that iTunes is supposed to be the only interface to your iPod, I do like the ability to visually manage playlists and create smart playlists. I don't think this device will be able to automatically decide that I want $song on $playlist.
Re:Automatic playlists? (Score:1)
Re:Automatic playlists? (Score:1)
Re:Automatic playlists? (Score:1, Funny)
</pretentious-fanboy>
They are not the first (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.iload.com/index.html [iload.com]
They could be vaporware, but they were hitting the news sites in January. It didn't take long for an Asian company to rip off the idea though. Hopefully iLoad got a few patents in place first.
Re:They are not the first (Score:2)
Re:They are not the first (Score:1)
Err.. for what, exactly?
Oh, I forgot. Thursday, obvious-patents-are-good-day.
Re:They are not the first (Score:1)
It'll never sell. (Score:1)
More functions? (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting. I wonder how much hardware this thing has. It looks big enough.
Re:More functions? (Score:1)
Auto-tagging? (Score:2, Interesting)
Ha ha (Score:2)
Re:Ha ha (Score:2)
What a load. CDDB is so full of CRAP it's become nearly useless. Music Brainz is far from perfect either, but it's pretty darn good, and at least it tags a song as having a title AND an artist, as opposed to the title being "my song--jonny musician" with no artist.
Re:Ha ha (Score:1)
The only time I do have issu
Small market... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Small market... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Small market... (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know how large it is, but it does exist --
one of my co-workers mentioned a friend w/ pre-teen daughters who requested iPods for christmas -- and their parents got them ... but they didn't have a computer, so they didn' have a way of loading music onto them.
So, the problem isn't the typical yuppie, or college student, it's the families out there that don't have a massive income, and don't have a computer at home, but have kids who want iPods.
Of course, this particular situation won't be helped b
Re:Small market... (Score:2)
Re:Small market... (Score:2)
However, I'm pretty dubious of Zettabyte's ability to successfully market this thing to this target audience. They really need to team up with Wal-mar
Borderline Useless (Score:3, Informative)
I can't think of more than a tiny handful of times in the past 6 years that I've wanted to rip a CD but haven't had a computer nearby. Furthermore, this thing looks heavy, or at least bulky, so what exactly are we supposed to do? Carry it around in a little pouch just in case someone has a CD we want to rip? You're probably going to need to keep it at home, which further negates the entire point of having one. iTunes - for all of the perplexing, intense rage people have towards it - is incredibly good at doing what this device does and it doesn't charge you a dime for the privilege.
On top of all this, the industrial designer obviously put this together on his lunch break or something as it just looks incredibly shoddy.
Desktop (Score:1, Redundant)
After all, don't you find it weird that you have to have a bulky device like a desktop or a laptop just to transfer a very small file into an equally tiny device?
Why do I need yet another device to do something that my existing bulky desktop already does?
Smaller than a breadbox... (Score:2)
I think it may actually be smaller than the iUpload, but I had to BYODKM.
What we need is...... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What we need is...... (Score:4, Informative)
Firstly, because video compression is a very CPU-intensive process. While faster CPUs or custom hardware may improve its speed, neither is likely to be very cheap. It's not as if people are making it slow just for fun, you know. Secondly, ripping commercial DVDs is currently illegal in the US due to the DMCA, so you might understand the reluctance on the part of manufacturers.
Re:What we need is...... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What we need is...... (Score:2)
Re:What we need is...... (Score:2)
Not really. A tivo that can do realtime MPEG2 encoding only runs a 100Mhz processor. For certain tasks, using a general purpose processor really isn't the brightest idea.
CSS is a nasty snag though.
Re:What we need is...... (Score:2)
The problem is that realtime is not good enough, because it would then take an hour and a half to rip a typical movie. CDs typically rip within a small fraction of its playing time, which I believe is why people are still willing to do it. Secondly, a TiVo box is not cheap. A new one (including subscription) seems to require a $610.20 com
Re:What we need is...... (Score:1)
Or.... (Score:2)
Sure it won't automatically tag the files for you but it is much more convenient being able to record anything while anywhere...
Heck, mine has a standard audio in, an optical audio in, and a built in mic.
I just keep a patch cable with it and I'm good to go.
Kickass products (Score:1)
There is really no excuse for any proper geek to own an iPod besides trying to look cooler than they actually are. iPods are overpriced and under-featured. There are many good mp3/mpg4 players which are much cheaper and provide far more functionality than the iPod. Of course they aren't designed with you
Great Idea (Score:1)
Seems this device would hit the older crowd who would like the advantages of the ipod without having to learn several new piece of technology in order to use the IPod.
Won't come to Australia (Score:3, Informative)
The problem is that we don't have legal fair use here, making everyone who has an iPod and most people with a CD burner or a VCR a criminal.
Re:Won't come to Australia (Score:1)
For example:
* You are the copyright owner.
* You are a client of the copyright owner and you license that use.
* The content is public domain.
* The copyright owner explicitly permits this use for any reason.
For an example of the latter in the electronic book market, Baen Books has included a CD with a number of the novels they publish containing electronic versions of these
Re:Won't come to Australia (Score:2)
It may very well be technically illegal for the record label to even press new CDs. You never know.
In my state, the legislature passed a law allowing cities to charge a "right to work" tax of $52 a year
Re:Won't come to Australia (Score:2)
No, I'm not assuming that the law in Australia is sane, and it's quite possible that at least some of the non-infringing uses I thought of are actually illegal. But it's vanishingly unlikely that "There are absolutely no legal uses for a device like t
Re: (Score:2)