SUMMARY: new iPod classic, nano 3G, iPod touch, iPhone and ml_ipod

[abu]

For all those with one of the new Apple toys, here is the status:

• iPod classic: should be perfectly fine now with the 3.02 version. CoverArt, cover flow, right-hand pane images etc. all seem to work. Photo upload should work fine, too. Some people reported that there are inconsistencies with cover art, some images randomly don't show up. I couldn't reproduce that.
• iPod nano 3G: Exactly the same as the classic. Photo upload is confirmed to work on nano.
• iPhone and iPod touch: not fully supported yet. But we are working on it. If you want to help in testing, see http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/wiki/I..._touch_support

I will update this forum post when things change.

For those who want more information, please read these threads:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=277475
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=277559
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=278294
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=277803
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=276974

Everybody who has problems with a classic or nano 3G, please use the latest 3.02 or newer! That fixes some important issues regarding these devices!

[nldirkz1]

There is a discussion on ipodtouchfans.com forums:

"After working with the developer on this, he has released a new version of his software that allows you to access all the music libraries on your touch and through a Macintosh

http://www.mulle-kybernetik.com/software/iTunesFS/

You will require Macfuse and Macfusion installation as discussed in this thread:

http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/...hlight=macfuse

Best of all this is all free.

Cheers"

Its released under a public licence. You might find some help from the developper....

[abu]

Well, that doesn't help, as Winamp does not run on the Mac. On a Mac, it's relatively easy to get access to the file system, not so on Windows

[fatcerberus1]

abu, I should be getting a 3G nano by Christmas, so that may help with getting photo/cover art to work right on the new devices. That is, assuming it isn't already fixed by then...

[abu]

The 3G nano should already be fine with p12
Actually, AFAIK classic and nano have no more photo problems, and the cover art stuff seems to be quite random. I did not see it at all while I had the classic.

[fatcerberus1]

Well, aren't we still seeing people with photo issues that are using 3.02p12? I remember a few recent posts...

[bowmanWA]

No problems at all with my 1.0.2 classic and p12, photos and covers (all views) work as expected.

[carlossierra]

Hi Everybody,

I am trying to make my new iPod classic 160GB work with ml_ipod, but after I sync with ml_ipod (either the full library or just some files), no music appears on the iPod. I know there is music there, because I can see through winamp and windows explorer that they were transfered to the iPod. When I go to itunes, it says that my iPod is not recognized. I think it has to do with the DB, but shouldn't that be fixed with the developer version of ml_ipod?

I have iPod firmware 1.0.2, ml_ipod Version 3.01p17 and winamp 5.5.

Please help me know what do I need to do to be able to use my winamp and ml_ipod to manage my iPod...

Thanks,

Carlos

[abu]

Everybody who has problems with a classic or nano 3G, please use the latest patch 3.01p18! That fixes some important issues regarding these devices!

Make sure that you get 3.01p18 with this time stamp: "Tue Nov 6 07:30:19 2007" (I had to upload it twice)

[carlossierra]

Thanks Abu,
Problem solved! Now my iPod classic works perfectly with ml_ipod 3.01p18...
Carlos

[abu]

Great. Now, 3.02 is just out, which has it all included.

[frauhottelmann]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/05/n...d-voice-memos/
This could be interesting for the development for the iPhone, maybe it won't be necessary to use a complicated method over ftp and co. Let's hope

[abu]

Well, this is for Mac OS X again. I guess it won't be long until they open the iPhone for disk use on a Mac. But there's still a long way to go on Windows: There is simply no driver to read the hpfs on the iPhone
But -as you said- lets hope!!!

[carlossierra]

Originally posted by carlossierra
Thanks Abu,
Problem solved! Now my iPod classic works perfectly with ml_ipod 3.01p18...
Carlos

Hey Abu,

No luck for me after all. When I tried loading a couple of files, it worked (and I thought it was ok now). But then after I tried loading the full collection, it stopped working. It says that it has all my music files, but when I try to play them I get "playing 1 out of 0 songs", and nothing plays!

I sent you my DB to stashbox: http://stashbox.org/49526/iTunesDB.zip

Thanks,

Carlos

[abu]

You tried it with 3.02? This sounds very unfamiliar to me. It wos either showing "0 songs" on the iPod, or it worked fine. Never saw anything like this. Did you try with a playlist?

[jgordizbak]

Abu,

Have you seen this?

http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/index.html

Maybe I am late in posting this (have others??) In any case, seems these guys have discovered how to access the iPhone and iPod Touch in a pseudo "disk mode".

Also, I read somewhere today that the new iTunes 7.5 hints at enabling a kind of disk mode ("manually manage music"). Can't find the link where I read this though...

[carlossierra]

Hi Abu,

Yes, I also tried 3.02... no luck there either. Were you able to see the DB I posted? Any clues there?
By the way, what do you mean trying with a playlist? I tried syncing the full music library, and I also tried using the autofill feature... but in both cases I got the same results... this is the way I have always used ml_plugin with my previous iPods...

Please help me... it's been a week since I got this iPod and haven't been able to use it yet...

Thanks for your help in advance!
Carlos

[abu]

I meant, do you have a playlist on your iPod, and tried to play it? Or how do you start to play the songs, when does the "playing 1 out of 0 song" show up? How do you select the songs to play?
The DB seems to be ok. But you could always try this: Create a backup archive (iPod tools). Then exit Winamp, and remove the iTunesDb from the device. Now restart Winamp and use the "Restore" button in the prefs. Choose "Restore without(!) an archive", select your drive letter, and go. That will scan your files and create a new DB. maybe that fixes stuff? Just a try. You can always go back to the state before with your backup.

[nldirkz1]

not sure if the will help.
Here is a driver for reading HPFS under winXP

http://homepage2.nifty.com/bayer/hpfs_w2k.html#English

[fatcerberus1]

According to the site, it can't access HPFS partitions beyond 8.3 GB. This means the driver might work for the iPhone and 8GB touch, but not for the 16GB touch.

If it works at all though, it's a great start!

[abu]

I wouldn't dare to install that. Not open source, just a binary, unknown where it comes from, must be installed as admin as a driver, huh, I'm scared.
If anyone is brave enough, give it a try and report here.

[frauhottelmann]

This driver initially comes from Windows NT 3.51, but the Support from Microsoft ends there. Already in NT 4.0 it wasn't included any more! So it is very very old and not really useful (8.3GB boundary)!

[Bilbo9955]

If frauhottelmann is correct and the driver is old but from Microsoft, than couldn't it provide invaluable guidance to someone who is able to wright a driver? The technique is provided. Also, if it is safe,It could be used for smaller units.

[frauhottelmann]

Well, I only guess it is from Microsoft, since it came with Windoes NT! I read it when I searched for hpfs under windows!

[Artefact2]

Hello guys...

I plan to buy an iPod Touch, I hope you will make ml_ipod work for it

Good luck

[abu]

Well, we all hope so... but it'll be difficult, if not impossible. Let's see...

[carlossierra]

Well, I finally figured it out... the problem of not being able to see my music on the iPod (the playing "1 of 0 songs" that I was getting) was being caused by including one smartview in the sync. This smartview was used to show me the files with no ratings (rating empty or equal to 0). After I stopped including that smartview in the smartviews list to sync, my iPod started working.
Thanks for you help...
Carlos

[abu]

Fine that it works now, but still strange. I have several smart views in my sync, and never saw this problem.

[carlossierra]

This is the smartview: rating ISEMPTY OR rating = "0"
Maybe it can be of help!

I had the same problem with the smartviews. I also couldn't get ml_ipod to write my ratings to the id3 tag sof the files, but I don't know that that's a feature that has been requested yet.

[abu]

Update on the iPhone:
As donations have reached a great 96%, I ordered an iPhone and a friend sent it to me already. Today I received it, yeah! Thanks everybody who donated! Now the work can begin.

I already gained acces to the iTunesDB (via ssh). There is also a project called "iphonefs" on Google Code, which aims to mount the iPhone as a disk drive, just like the other iPods do natively. It is in pre-alpha state, I would say. I gave it a try, it simply doesn't work. I wasn't able to copy a single file, although the iPhone was actually recognized and mounted as a new drive H: on my PC. maybe in some weeks, we get some results from this project.

The more important problem is this: Obviously the iTunesDB has got a protection built in, a hashing just like the classic. Nobody knows up to now whether the algorithm is the same, as we simply don't know what the key would be. there is no such thing as a FirewireID, which is used as the secret hashing key for the classic. As the iPhone doesn't mount (without iphonefs) as a drive, I can't get to the device XML - don't even know if this device would send one. Looking into the registry gives no clue: At the position where you can find the FWID for the classic, there is a 30 char string for the iPhone.

So, if anybody here is active in IRC or other forums: Whenever you hear anything about progress of decrypting the iTunesDB hash, please, please tell me! Without that, we are lost!

[frauhottelmann]

Hey Abu have a look at this http://blog.adaniels.nl/?p=50
I know it's under Linux, but Amarok doesn't write any device specific iTunesDB to the iPhone, so maybe it's not like the new iPods.

[abu]

That sounds very promising. I'll give it a try soon.

UPDATE: Hey, it seems to work even without a hash at all...? iTunes does write a hash in there, so I simply assumed it is necessary. But I could zero out this area, and after rebooting the iPhone, it still handled the iTunesDB correctly. That's pretty cool. Thanks for this information!

[frauhottelmann]

You are welcome!

[abu]

Hey, a minute ago I saw my iPhone listed as a device in Winamp with ml_iPod!
Simple read-only access, but I could see all the tracks that I uploaded with iTunes. Just wanted to let you know...

Still a long way to go: Write access to the database, uploading tracks from Winamp, album art, playing iPhone tracks inside Winamp, SPL support, reading last-played times, photo support, ...

[eddan]

So ...

I was desperate for a solution to syncing music to my iPhone without the use of iTunes. After some "hacking" here's what I came up with in the end that worked. Be warned, though, it's not for the faint hearted.

http://digg.com/apple/Sync_music_to_...WITHOUT_ITUNES
http://digg.com/apple/Sync_music_to_your_iPhone_on_Windows_WITHOUT_ITUNES

[frauhottelmann]

Sounds very promising. Does cover art work??

[abu]

No, the iPhone needs different formats. With eddan's workaround, you should be able to listen to your songs. But iPhone/touch without cover art looks VERY boring. I'll work on the cover art issue next.
Using sftpdrive for access is a nice thing, the only problem: It costs 39$. And it's worth the money, but still there will be a lot of people who don't want to spend that to get access to the iPhone. So I'll use it for the next days, but in the end I hope we'll find a completely free (and if possible open source) solution.

[frauhottelmann]

I don't know if this http://cybernetnews.com/2007/09/27/c...ve-in-windows/ does the same, but you might wanna look into it!

EDIT: Never mind! But what abou Swish? http://sourceforge.net/projects/swish/ It's Open Source!

EDIT: OK, never mind again, Swish is not functional yet!

[eddan]

frauhottelmann, only FTP is supported (under Windows XP at least, we need SFTP). But one could probably port a ftp server to the iPhone that one could connect to instead.

Edit: And Swish, although exactly what we need, states: Swish is at an early stage of development. Some proof-of-concept code has been written to experiment with SSH back-ends, toolchains and GUI toolkits but is not in any way functional.