iPod app hack - Remove iTunes requirement.

[mattlach]

One rather important hack (at least to me) that I am surprised to not have seen anyone discuss yet is some sort of hack allowing the iPod app to play songs (mp3’s + other formats) stored as regular files on the iPhones file system.

Depending on iTunes to transfer songs to the iPhone is rather annoying especially for those of us who primarily use operating systems in which iTunes is not available.

Ideally this functionally would be made available:

- Ability to mount iPhone as USB mass storage device, or transfer songs using currently available SFTP implementation.

- An implementation of an alternate player to the built in iPod app (like rockbox) would work except for the fact that integrated functionality would be lost as well as the communication with external devices (like car ipod integration) would be lost.

A hack to the ipod app allowing it to play straight mp3’s from a directory on the file system, as well as USB mass storage compatibility would be ideal.

Any thoughts?

[theviolator]

Actually, a hacked version of iTunes which will not (connect to Apple) mess up your modded iPhone ;)

[chrisrowe]

Would it not be easier to use WinSCP to transfer files over to the iPhone to say var/root/Media/Songs. Then write a bash script to generate the iTunes library file that iPod.app uses and overwrite the existing one.
Just a thought...

[mattlach]

Could be, I am not familliar with mobileipod.app and how it interfaces with files. I'm very surprised at how it hides files so they are not plainly browseable.

[terry.simons]

Could be, I am not familliar with mobileipod.app and how it interfaces with files. I'm very surprised at how it hides files so they are not plainly browseable.

It's not hiding the files...

# find / | grep mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/APDA.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/BDRK.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/BKBC.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/BMPF.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/BVMV.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/CJLF.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/CKEE.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/CTWC.mp3

The files are named that way for indexing purposes. ;) Apple's trying to optimize the load times and such of the MP3s on embedded devices. On a computer it's not as much of an issue, and since people really don't need to concern themselves with how the files are stored on the iPod/iPhone, it makes a lot of sense.

This is how the iPod works as well.

[mattlach]

It's not hiding the files...

# find / | grep mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/APDA.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/BDRK.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/BKBC.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/BMPF.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/BVMV.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/CJLF.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/CKEE.mp3
/private/var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F00/CTWC.mp3

The files are named that way for indexing purposes. ;) Apple's trying to optimize the load times and such of the MP3s on embedded devices. On a computer it's not as much of an issue, and since people really don't need to concern themselves with how the files are stored on the iPod/iPhone, it makes a lot of sense.

This is how the iPod works as well.

The indexing bit makes no sense to me, seeing how there are plenty of mp3 players out there that just read a normal file system with file names, and they index just fine.

I feel its more of a method of discouraging people from not using iTunes, because if people are not using iTunes they arent buying songs from apple, or seeing Apples advertising...

The fact that you can't just drop mp3's on to ipods as a mass storage device and play them, was the main reason I never owned an iPod. When the iPhone came out I just couldn't resist getting one though, but this drawback still bothers me a lot.

Also, the fact that they removed the "manual mode" option that used to exist in the iPods from the iPhone is ABSOLUTELY INFURIATING.

[IvanMalison]

I seriously doubt that the filesystem on the ipod/iphone has anything to do with indexing. I think they want to keep the files hidden so that you can not easily transfer songs off of the iphone/ipod and so that you must use iTunes to sync with the iPhone/Ipod. The iphone/ipod has a separate database file that takes care of indexing all the music on your ipod.

[tramuyo]

i dont think so the idea of take the iPhone as a cheap MP3 player, thats bcoz Apple creates iPhone and their "iPod" embedded system

[rmyc]

yeah i;m hating the itunes garbage

[hachu]

Yes, other mp3 players do read a normal file system with file names. If you load 1000 songs onto one of them like that, and then load 1000 songs onto a iPod through iTunes, you'll see how crappy the startup/indexing time and playlist handling is for the other mp3 players is compared to the ipod.

If you have any interest in computer science, look up how something called a "hashtable" works and why you would want to use one. Then look one more time at this "indexing" and you'll understand.

It's for a speed optimization. Not for a lockout. Just because you guys think it looks ugly or think it's underhanded doesn't hide the fact that there's an actual legit reason for why this did it like this.

And no, keeping the filenames the same but still flattening the tree will not be as fast. Sure the loss wouldn't be that big...but, flattening the tree still forces you to have a database file and loader app if you want to have any sort of organization so you might as well do the job right and hash the names.

The indexing bit makes no sense to me, seeing how there are plenty of mp3 players out there that just read a normal file system with file names, and they index just fine.

I feel its more of a method of discouraging people from not using iTunes, because if people are not using iTunes they arent buying songs from apple, or seeing Apples advertising...

The fact that you can't just drop mp3's on to ipods as a mass storage device and play them, was the main reason I never owned an iPod. When the iPhone came out I just couldn't resist getting one though, but this drawback still bothers me a lot.

Also, the fact that they removed the "manual mode" option that used to exist in the iPods from the iPhone is ABSOLUTELY INFURIATING.