Thoughtfix of TabletBlog has posted another detailed look at the Nokia N800 versus the iPod Touch.

The iPod touch and the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet may seem like apples and oranges (Apples and Nokias?) from a consumer perspective. One is a mobile internet device that happens to play music and videos. The other is a mobile music/video device that happens to have a web browser. The purpose of this article is to accentuate the strengths and weaknesses of each device help people decide what’s right for them. It’s neither a review of the touch nor of the N800. People familiar with both devices don’t seem to want to own both, which is sensible since the functionality overlaps quite a bit. Both, as internet and media devices, are similar in a notable way: neither are phones or intended to replace phones. The fact that both are intended to be a “second device” is the critical commonality. They’re fighting for space in your other pocket.

After 36 hours of reverse engineering, the method for producing the checksum on new iPods has been discovered. You can also get linux support working if that’s what you crave for your shiny new toy.

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BoingBoing writes, The latest iPods have a cryptographic “checksum” in their song databases that prevents third-party applications from synching with the portable music players. This means that iPods can no longer be used with operating systems where iTunes doesn’t exist — like Linux, where gtkpod and Amarok are common free tools used by iPod owners to load their players. Notice that this has nothing to do with piracy — this is about Apple limiting the choices available to people who buy their iPod hardware.

Ever since the iPod Touch was introduced last Wednesday, people have been “philosophizing” about just what the newest iPod on the block is and and isn’t. They’ve also been comparing the device to numerous other devices on the market. Perhaps the most rampant comparisons, at least in this part of the woods, are those between the iPod touch and the Nokia N800 Internet tablet (fun fact: an oddly large number of the Ars writing staff uses the N800). It is for this reason that we are going to take this opportunity to do a precursory comparison–look for an in-depth Ars Technica review of the iPod Touch in the coming weeks–between the two devices.

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GNUpod is a collection of Perl-Scripts which allows you to use your iPod under GNU/Linux and many other Operating Systems with a useable Version of Perl 5 (+Modules).

v0.99.2 Highlights:
– Full Podcasts support (including much better iPod-Video support)
– playlist can now be used multiple times
– Many small bugfixes/enhancements

Researchers at security firm Kaspersky Lab have developed a virus that can infect Apple's popular portable media player, the iPod. But users do not have to scramble for protection just yet. The virus would only affect players that run Linux instead of the iPod's native operating system.

The virus, called Podloso, is not a genuine threat and can be installed on an iPod running Linux. The virus can then install itself into a folder containing program demo versions, which can execute the virus’ file architecture. Once launched, Podloso can scan the iPod and infect .elf format files. Later attempts by the user to access infected files will return an error screen stating “You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus.”

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Benjamin Mako Hill has put up an announcement of an 8-minute video called “What’s Wrong With My iPod?” It discusses the problems with DRM and covers the “iRony” party held last year in Cambridge where iPods were liberated through the installation of iPodLinux or Rockbox. It’s available in Ogg Theora format.

via LWN.net

Per the Linux on iPod blog…

Many thanks and cheers to the hard work by DataGhost et al. in figuring out all of the final little bits in getting 5.5th gen iPods working with iPod Linux (Winpods and Macpods, 30 and 80 gig units). His various patches have been checked in, and integrated into the current nightly build of the kernel.

There’s a minor patch being integrated today that will allow 30 gig units to work properly… look for that kernel tomorrow!

More information can be found on the 5.5G Wiki Page with respect to installing these experimental builds on your 5.5th gen iPod.

via MAKE

If you’re running iPodLinux getting Doom installed on your iPod is a very simple process. All you need to have is an iPod that has old podzilla running on it with orange boot text (the new podzilla and kernel or it might have colour problems) and a computer (Mac, PC, Linux doesn’t matter). It supports most iPods including the older black and white screens, the nano and 4g & 5g models.

Download iDoom here, and follow these instructions.

iDoom is a new port, developed from original Doom source code. It will utilize the full screen and runs around 10-15fps. You can check out some videos of it in action if you’re too weary to linux up your iPod.

Floola is an application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model that supports iTunes) under Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Floola supports all most common used features including podcasts. Read on for a video of it in action.

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