The iPod Touch - the fun comes with the videos

Posted on December 28, 2007
Filed Under Gadgets |

While being in New York for SMX Social earlier this year. I fell for my Apple addiction and bought some needful things in the store at 5th Ave and central park.

One of the items was a 16GB iPod Touch. My iPod Nano the old one with the 4GB memory was not big enough anymore and I died to get my hands on a item with the new touch screen interface.

I didn’t want to go for the iPhone as it would only work with AT&T and in the US at the time - and the UK O2 contract options were just too bad for my taste.

I have to say that for quite some time I felt - what a useless new gadget. As all the WIFI stuff would just make no sense at all in London where free WIFI is not a very common thing.

So no browsing with safari or watching YouTube videos on the go. Even shopping on iTunes was pretty pointless other than at home - and why would you want to buy stuff on iTunes at home where you have a proper Mac at hand. Now I got my broadband in UK from BT and with my package I get several hundred minutes of BT-Openzone on top - for free. BT-Openzone allows me to log into BT wireless networks in the UK and the coverage in the city centre and on train stations and on airports is pretty good. So finally I can get something out of the new iPod.

BTW the free tune at Starbucks - never ever managed to get that working. The button shows up but I never get a free download - and I’m an early bird - in the coffee shop round 8 ….

The fun really started when I first trans coded some movies - two seasons of scrubs - for my iPod touch. Since then I wouldn’t want to miss my new shiny toy on my daily bus ride to work and back home in the eve - or on my travels with planes that don’t have in seat entertainment systems.

The tool I use is called iSquint and is free

An iPod video conversion app for Mac OS X. It’s many times faster than QuickTime Pro, works with almost all popular video formats such as DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG, FLV, AVI, DV, QuickTime MOV, and much much more.
It’s also infinitely free-er.It’s also really easy. Just drag in your file, and click Start.
You can also choose “TV” or “iPod” size, set your quality, or even go all-out by playing in the Advanced drawer.
On a 1GHz G4, iSquint can convert most video files to iPod-screen-sized videos in realtime.
Intel Macs are up to twice as fast, and can convert videos upwards of 5x real-time! Depending on a few factors, a 20 minute video will take up anywhere from 50-150MB of disk space.

Comments

5 Responses to “The iPod Touch - the fun comes with the videos”

Running a Marathon on Flip Flops : Locally Type* on December 28th, 2007 7:48 pm

[...] was another item I bought that day at the Apple [...]
Convert YouTube Videos for iPod Touch - Mac OS X : Locally Type* on January 2nd, 2008 9:29 pm

[...] mentioned in this earlier article a lot of fun for the iPod Touch comes with the videos you can watch anywhere [...]
Setup Assistant Loop Bug - Endless Misery with Mac OS X Leopard : Locally Type* on January 3rd, 2008 11:42 am

[...] numerous failed attempts to regain access to the dammed &#$&(*^$ , I started my iPod touch Safari and searched for a solution to the [...]
Top 10 Free MAC OS X Tools - I couldn’t live without : Locally Type* on January 3rd, 2008 1:52 pm

[...] to my earlier iPod Touch article I love this [...]
How To - Install iPhone and 3rd Party Applications on your iPod Touch : Locally Type* on January 4th, 2008 2:17 pm

[...] iPod Touch is a very neat and shiny gadget and great to watch YouTube movies with on the Go, but it lacks some [...]