Ubuntu: Which multimedia PDA to buy ? Ipod touch or others?

[patrick295767]

Hi guys,

Goals: calendar, playing movies (divx), listening mp3 (no itunes!), todo list, and picture viewer, and maybe more: games or I dont know yet.

It seems that the iphone and ipod touch are not well supported by linux in terms of sync. For data exchange, e.g. copying a movie to the harddisk of the ipod touch, is tthat slow?

Maybe other multimedia PDA are better designed, and better companions with LINUX and showing better hardware performances. Please do not hesitate to give the light to detect/find out better pda multimedia machines in that price range rather, and to which one can use with ubuntu. Any model advices welcome !



Before we get started, I want to clear some things up:
* Syncing your iPod touch with Linux is NOT the most efficient process, and is also not very stable.
* Any flaws in your sync CAN BE FIXED.
* A restore is not possible on Linux. I am in the process of writing a Python script for restoring to 1.1.1 (that may never get completed).
* iTunes emulated under Wine will NOT sync your iPod touch
http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33754
all about sync/mount ipod touch using wireless. and what to do if you have no WIFI at home? (http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176286)

[benerivo]

I have an ipod touch and i haven't sucessfully transferred any videos, but to be fair i didn't put much effort in to researching how to do it. The problem being is that apple have tried to keep users inside itunes and there is no direct file management.

If you just want something for video and audio, then for under £100 in the UK you can get something which works with Linux as a mass storage device where you can just drag and drop, and it looks pretty good. I used a friend's archos a couple of years ago and the video performance was fine.

http://www.archos.com/products/mp3_players/archos_43_vision/specs.html?country=gb&lang=en

EDIT - it also has a calendar and has a dictaphone for 'notes to self'

[na5h]

Well, there's always the Samsung Galaxy tab...kind of like an iPad, but smaller (I think). It's supposed to be some kind of crossover between a smartphone and a laptop. It comes with the Android operating system (Linux), 3g, wifi, bluetooth, 3Mpix camera...and lots of other goodies. I don't really know that much about these pda/tablet-pc/media-player thingys, but it seems like you get much more for the money if you buy the Galaxy... the iPad and iPod touch seem pretty limited.

[3rdalbum]

HTC Wildfire? It's a phone, but you can buy it prepaid and then just don't activate or use the SIM card. Music, videos and photos can be loaded through drag 'n' drop.

[handy]

I have an iPod Touch, & I'm very satisfied with its functions, it supplies more than I personally need. BUT, I also have an OS X, system which I could easily input all of my contact data via the computer keyboard & then sync it, of course doing the same with my audio books via iTunes was relatively simple also.

If you don't have an OS X, system then I wouldn't get an iPod, you will probably just become frustrated at the limitations when trying to deal with it via a distro.

There must be a good selection of PDAs that function extremely well with the distros.