Portable Audio & Video

Transcoding video for iPods and PSPs on TiVo…

Transcoding video for iPods and PSPs on TiVo…

599895Big news for TiVo owners with iPods and PSPs – “You can setup the desktop to automatically transcode transfers to one of three formats – Windows Media Library, Sony PSP, or Apple iPod. At least in the first release you cannot transcode shows that have already been transferred. And you can only select one format for the desktop, so you can’t transcode transfers for both a PSP and an iPod, or put some shows into one format and other shows into another. But, again, I suspect most users will be OK with these restrictions, and TiVo says they may add these capabilities in subsequent releases. Advanced users still have other options.” [via] Link.

HOW TO – Build an iPod Shuffle FM transmitter

HOW TO – Build an iPod Shuffle FM transmitter

71378034 631788530DMAKE photo pool member Shufflehacks writes “I built my own radio-transmitter for my Shuffle, I nicknamed it “iMouse”. It works quite easy, there is a power switch on the bottom to turn it on. Just press play on the Shuffle and tune your radio to the right frequency. The range is about 100 to 150 meters.(500 feet) Now I can enjoy my Shuffle on my car stereo.” Link. It’s made out of an old mouse, excellent.

DVD to iPod – Convert, the easy way (Mac)

DVD to iPod – Convert, the easy way (Mac)

HandbrakeliteThis is the best application in the entire world for converting DVDs to iPod video, it’s one click – “HandBrake Lite is a horribly-mangled abomination of HandBrake, jettisoning its non-crucial features with the one-track goal of creating iPod-sized movies from DVDs. You only really need to click two buttons to rip a DVD for iPod. It’s as easy as that. Less stuff to read, and fewer confusing words. All videos are automatically resized to 320px wide. Widescreen movies are properly cropped before conversion. Smaller interface, easier to stash away on your screen somewhere.” Link.

Functional prototypes in 30 minutes or less…

Functional prototypes in 30 minutes or less…

ProtoI asked Scott and Bjoern to write up what they’re up to when I saw the challenge of making a functional music player in 30 minutes, they write “d.tools is a hardware and software system that enables designers to rapidly prototype the bits (the form) and the atoms (the interaction model) of physical user interfaces in concert. d.tools was built to support design thinking rather than implementation tinkering. With d.tools, designers place physical controllers (e.g., buttons, sliders), sensors (e.g., accelerometers), and output devices (e.g., LEDs, LCD screens) directly onto form prototypes, and author their behavior visually in our software workbench.” More info and downloads here.

Turn a RSS feed into a audio with Feed2Podcast

Makeaud-1-1Robie from Pirateweather writes about a new service called Feed2Podcast that will turn your RSS feed (or any RSS feed) into a audio player so you can listen to the feed “They/we use new text to speech engine and your rss feed and turn your blog into a podcast instantly” It’s a pretty good text to speech engine – here’s what it sounds like with their preview audio player, click here to listen. Neat!

PEZ MP3 almost all gone!

PEZ MP3 almost all gone!

Pezmp3HolPat writes in about his PEZ MP3 players, they’re almost gone! “There is still a chance to get a PEZ MP3 player in time for Christmas. I have several hundred of the little fellas in stock and ready to ship. After the recent appearance on Regis and Kelly they are selling quickly. So, if you haven’t bought one yet and you want to get in on this limited-run, first-edition, hop over to pezmp3.com. Once this batch sells out, I am not making any more of this version.” Link. See our review here.