Travel technology forum

Hey SBE, iPods can be used for storing and reading text. Here's how ...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2234?locale=en_CA

There are a few other pages and discussions about this.

Doesn't work with Nano, though.

I'm guessing that you can just save your PDF files as .txt files and then transfer them to the iPod. What I want to know is if I can skip that extra step.

I'll let you know if I find anything else out.

The only problem I see with this is that the monitor is a bit too small on most iPods. I'm thinking of picking up the new iPod Touch. It has a 3 1/2 inch screen. Plenty big. It will save me from having to print stuff off, carry books, etc. This time I'm looking to save as much space and weight as possible as I'm going to be biking and am only taking two panniers. The only book I want to take will be my diary.

Cheers
Mike

All that looks rather too technical for me and I haven't actually got an ipod yet!

But the idea is great, much better than carrying books and sheafs of printout about. Hmm decisions decisions. I too travel as light as possible but I'm often miles from anywhere, no entertainment, often no fellow tourists either. I was thinking of taking an ultra portable laptop (with a DVD drive) with me on this trip to watch movies or learn local languages in the evenings when things are a bit dull, if it pours with rain for a few days or maybe even to pass the time during seemingly interminable bus/ferry journeys... takes days to get where I'm going and there will probably be a lot of hanging about waiting for transport connections too.

Practically zero theft risk with my laptop once I reach destination but there is a security risk while on the move for sure ... an ipod would be much better as it's far more discrete and less weight to lug around.

I see there are ipods with 160Go now, enough space for movies and language courses as well as text and music. The problem is the small screen size and ipods aren't that cheap either... same price as a decent camera with a 10x optical zoom here in Europe. Worth buying one do you think? Also is it possible to transfer movies and language DVDs easily from your own laptop or do you have to buy them from the apple ipod website? As I said I'm not an IT expert ...if it's highly technical then I probably won't be able to do it!

Forget it! Seems to be more trouble than it's worth. Tried a few freeware PDF-to-.txt converters and they're pretty messy. Some didn't give a result at all, just a blank document.

Therefore, with the exception of my GPS and digital camera, I'm going to opt for low-tech adventure like I usually do.

Somtam, I see that the Laos Pack was just released a month ago. I'm probably going to be cycling from Vientiane down to the 4000 Island area in December and January. Do you expect to release any more info on these areas before then? I'm going to download the pack, but if there's going to be any add-ons, I'll hold off for a bit.

Thanks a lot.
Mike

I haven't tried to put it onto the iPod yet, but I will.

Also, I noticed that the "iPod sample thingy" that you provided doesn't open in a PDF format. This made it very simple to put into a .txt format. All I did was Select All and then paste it into a Text Editor document, and then saved it as a .txt

Let me get back to you on this. Gimme a few days, okay?

Thanks for the news regarding S. Laos. I'll get it and then will pass on whatever info I pick up.

Cheers
Mike

Excellent, thanks a lot Tilapia!

if you have an iPod touch it's super easy to add PDF files - just email to yourself and save the message to a "documents" or similar sub folder on apple mail then it's there whenever you need. With the touch you can zoom in etc so I format the eFish as 4 column with very small text and it's fine. Other file types / images can be saved the same way, and you can save directly to the "photos" app as well. Cheers!

If you have an iPhone or the Touch there's a pretty good free app called Discover (iTunes search should bring it up) that will let you transfer PDF and Word files to your ipod via wireless. It also has a pretty good reader built-in, with bookmarks and everything. I've got my travelfish guides and some other random PDF's and Docs on there and it works quite well.

It will suck your batteries down faster though.