Nano Nano - The Space Age iPod Nano - And iPodLinux

Mork would really be impressed with the iPod Nano - it doesn't look earthly. Trust me, I have one. I was introduced to my new iPod Nano this last Friday. Apart from office time (where I am not allowed to take my beloved), I have spent considerable time with it. Enough has been said in praise of the iPod family, and of the Nano, so I'll refrain from that. My only disappointment is in that the Nano does not have any charging interface apart from a USB port. That means I'll have to find a computer/laptop wherever I go. I guess I'll resort to carrying my Creative Nomad MuVo² during journeys - that comes with a wall adapter/charger, and the battery is a replaceable-rechargeable Lithium-ion (unlike the iPod that has a built-in battery).

Most of us already know a lot about MP3 players, in general, and the iPod in particular. But few know about iPodlinux. iPodLinux is an open source initiative to make Linux run on an iPod. And it promises some magic. Would you believe that it lets you play videos on a non-video supporting iPods (including the Nano, Mini, 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G iPods)? Well, to be honest, it currently only supports uncompressed videos (which can be HUGE!), but then they're working on enabling compressed video too. The Apple iPod interface is replaced with a new GUI named podzilla. There's even a boot loader that lets you choose between iPodLinux and the native Apple interface. The project promises to support a wider variety of formats, some more games, and most importantly, themes for the iPod.

And just in case you were wondering whether installing the software is legal, the site helpfully informs readers that they have confirmed from Apple that the iPod's warranty is a hardware warranty - and Apple will renew the iPod back to working condition. The site also goes on to provide elaborate instructions for reviving your iPod even when things go horribly wrong.