Download the Internet onto your iPod - Load 'er up!

About:

podLoader allows you to load content from the web or from other desktop files onto your iPod. Later, say while travelling, you can check out the news (from any RSS feed), weather or any file from your desktop. These "Notes" can be used, for example, as directed lessons or self-paced electronic guided tours or just as a simple To-Do list or shopping list. The Notes feature is available on iPod models beginning with third-generation iPod (dock connector) models with the touch wheel.

Screenshots:

Usage:

In Brief:

• Run podLoadr by double-clicking on podloadr.jar after installing the JRE (or run java -jar podloadr.jar from a command prompt)
• Drag & drop files or links onto the "Files & Links" tab. Browsing or manually typing the file name also works.
• Check some news feeds, add weather zip codes and create a notes on their respective tabs.
• Click the run button (ensure that the iPod is connected and enabled in disk mode).

In Detail:

In order to load a web page or news feed simply do the following:

• Ensure that your iPod is enabled for disk use. To do this in iTunes:
  • Select your iPod under Devices in the Source list.
  • Click the Summary tab.
  • In the Options section of the Summary pane, click the "Enable disk use" checkbox.
  Note that if the "Manually manage songs and playlists" option is enabled, "Enable disk use" is always enabled or turned on.
• Connect your iPod to your computer as you usually do.
• Exit iTunes - just to be safe.
• Ensure that you have a recent version of the Java runtime (either JDK or JRE) from Sun.
• Run podLoadr by double clicking on podLoadr.jar. Alternatively you can open a command prompt and type java -jar podLoadr.jar
• Note that podLoadr.jar itself can be stored on the ipod and run directly from there. Keep podLoadr.jar and podLoadr.ini together.
• Populate the various tabs in podLoadr.
• Add your custom items to the "Files & Links" tab. This can be done in any of the following ways.
  1. Drag a file from your desktop or Explorer onto the list
  2. Drag a link from Internet Explorer or Firefox onto the list (by grabbing the icon in the address box)
  3. Type the full name of a file in the Name box and click on add
  4. Click on "Add/Browse" and navigate to the file you need and add it to the list.
• Check off the news feeds that you want from the categorized list.
• Enter the ZIP codes of the weather you want separated by commas.
• Double check the ipod tab to ensure that the drive letter is correct. Or if you have multiple iPods then you can change this setting. (If thats too confusing feel free to send the other iPod my way :-)

To view the note, disconnect your iPod, scroll the menu to Extras, and select Notes. Choose the name the file you created and press the Center button to display the content of the file. You can.t edit the file using iPod, but you can delete it or update it whenever your iPod is connected to your computer. podLoader uses the "Notes" feature of the iPod to support downloading and offline viewing of online content. Such presentations can be used, for example, as directed lessons or self-paced electronic guided tours. Notes is available on iPod models beginning with third-generation iPod (dock connector) models with the touch wheel.

Download:

Firstly, some legal issues:

• YOU ARE USING THIS SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK. BY DOWNLOADING THIS SOFTWARE, YOU AGREE THAT I WILL NOT HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY FILE LOSS OR ANY DAMAGE THAT MAY OCCUR DUE TO THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM. INSTALL AND USE IT AT ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. ADDITIONALLY, IT MAY HAPPEN THAT THIS PROGRAM COULD BE DISCONTINUED AT ANY POINT. I WON'T BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENSES OF THAT UNLIKELY EVENT.

This software is considered alpha. Please backup your iPod and everything before installing and using it.

2.6.M

9th April 2007

Freeware

FAQ:

• Q. Will this software run on Mac & Linux systems and on Mac formatted iPods?
  A. Yes. The software is Java based it is be cross platform. I have successfully run it on Mac OS X with a Mac iPod and Windows XP with both PC and Mac format iPods. The iPod detection code is OS specific but you can manually override whatever podLoadr detected. Additionally, detailed bug report can help me resolve these issues.
• Q. How do I view the content on my iPod?
  A. Extras, Notes, Select Item and press the Center button.
• Q. How do a click on a hyperlink to navigate from page to page?
  A. Again, click on the Center button of your iPod.
• Q. What are those .exe files in the distribution?
  A. I am experimenting with jsmooth to auto-launch podloadr on Windows. Please let me know your results with these and which one you prefer - especially on machines without a JVM.
• Q. Do RSS feeds remember my previously read articles and download only newer stuff?
  A. No. Currently this software just fetches the whole RSS file and dumps it onto the iPod in the proper format
• Q. Help! - my word/excel/pdf/powerpoint file has strange characters and looks wierd!
  A. Support for these formats is currently experimental. I suggest going into Word, etc and doing "File... Save As..." and save it as formatted text and then load it onto the iPod.
• Q. Why does each file get broken up into many pages?
  A. Ask Apple, not me. They do not allow more than 4K per file. We provide links at the top and bottom of each page to make it easier to Navigate these pages.
• Q. When will you add [insert feature here]?
  A. See the todo list below. If you have something not over there, then feel free to shoot an email over to me.
• Q. Can I see your source code?
  A. No - not yet. I am still trying to figure out how I want to license this code. If there is strong interest, I may decide to Open Source it - especially since this is jsut a one-person part-time project. Send email and let me know - especially if some of the things on the TODO list turn you on!
• Q. Will this work with ANY iPod?
  A. No. Apple says that the Notes feature works with iPod models beginning with third-generation iPod (dock connector) models with touch wheel. Support for photos (JPEG files) and videos is also available for 5th generation iPods running iPod software version 1.2 or later, and requires iTunes 7.0.1 or later.
• Q. How many notes can I have?
  A. Again, Apple says the Notes feature supports a maximum of 2,000 notes. If you try to put more than that number in your iPod's "Notes" folder hierarchy, only the first 1,000 will be loaded.
• Q. How do I eliminate the useless "Command Prompt" window that appears when I run java -jar podloadr.jar on Windows?
  A. Run javaw -jar podloadr.jar
• Q. When I double click on podloadr.jar, I get a dialog saying that "Windows cannot open this file?
  A. The most likely cause for this is that you have not got a Java runtime. Please download and install the free JRE from Sun.
Another possibility is that the association for ".jar" files is broken. Reinstalling the JRE will fix that too.
• Q. I can't believe this is free! How do you pay for this?
  A. Well, for now the only way we make money on this is when anyone clicks on the ad benner.
• Q. 0mfG, 1tz kr4p, ur l4m3 !
  A. Thanks a lot, my friend. Positive, constructive criticism like that is always deeply appreciated! Keep up the good work :-)

To Do List:

• LOTS of testing with various iPod models
• LOTS of testing with various other OSes
• LOTS of work & testing for file types like .doc, .sxw, .pdf, .html, etc. need better libraries - pdfbox, apache poi, etc. Also, investigate online file conversion sites. Do any have an API?
• Add image support
• Add Wikipedia articles (WikiPodia)
• Add maps (will need photo support)
• Add driving directions
• Traffic data support
• Add Movie Showtimes
• Add Local Restaurant Info
• Add e-books
• Add speeches
• Add training/tutorials - podvarsity/unipodsity/???
• Add ATOM support
• Longer Term: Rearchitect it to make each tab a custom module in its own jar file so people can create custom plugins to load custom content into their iPod

Contact:

Any feedback regarding bugs, enhancements, modifications is most welcome and really important. You can mail me at Please use [podLoadr] as the first word in the subject line.