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4th gen Ipod questions

post #1 of 6
10/5/09 at 5:44pm
Thread Starter 
I recently got a hold of a 4th gen ipod but it only came with a firewire sync & charging cable. My laptop does not have a firewire port so I need a usb cable. I went to the local frys electronics to look for a usb cable but found no indication that it will work with my 4th gen ipod and it also cost $20 which I think is ridiculous for a usb cable. I saw a lot of knock off cables online for real cheap but I don't know if it will sync properly with my 4th gen.

While looking for the usb cable I stumbled across websites selling a high capacity battery for the ipod. I am thinking I should replace the aging battery in my ipod and I do like the idea of having a longer battery life. But are these batteries legit?
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post #2 of 6
10/5/09 at 7:25pm
Cheap sync cables should work fine. I got a $5 charger off ebay that works fine too. As for the batteries, I haven't dealt with them, but people seem to have problems with the cheap ones. FWIR, they only last around one year or so. Ipod Juice (or whatever it's called) has batteries for around $25-$30, but they're guaranteed for 10 years.

4th gens are pretty easy to work on. I've had two, bought both advertised as broken, and they work fine now.

If you haven't already, check out Rockbox. It's an open source firmware that's way better than the Apple firmware, and you can even play Doom with it!
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post #3 of 6
10/5/09 at 10:42pm
USB cables are not all built the same, either. I had gotten one for my old 4G iPod off eBay for cheap, and it didn't work. So YMMV. Same goes for the batteries - the cheap ones should work fine, but whether or not they'll last for several years is questionable.
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post #4 of 6
10/6/09 at 6:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bba1973 View Post
Cheap sync cables should work fine. I got a $5 charger off ebay that works fine too. As for the batteries, I haven't dealt with them, but people seem to have problems with the cheap ones. FWIR, they only last around one year or so. Ipod Juice (or whatever it's called) has batteries for around $25-$30, but they're guaranteed for 10 years.

4th gens are pretty easy to work on. I've had two, bought both advertised as broken, and they work fine now.

If you haven't already, check out Rockbox. It's an open source firmware that's way better than the Apple firmware, and you can even play Doom with it!
I just purchased an oem cable off ebay for $5 shipped; I hope it works. I ran a test on the battery life of my ipod and it ran 6 hours straight with about a quarter left on the indicator. So i'll purchase a new battery once the old one doesn't old a charge over 4 hours.

I read about Rockbox and like what features the firmware offers. However my only concern is that it won't read the itunes database of the mp3s I recently put on there. I really don't want to format the ipod, put back the mp3s and make new playlist again.
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post #5 of 6
10/6/09 at 11:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nerv View Post
I just purchased an oem cable off ebay for $5 shipped; I hope it works. I ran a test on the battery life of my ipod and it ran 6 hours straight with about a quarter left on the indicator. So i'll purchase a new battery once the old one doesn't old a charge over 4 hours.

I read about Rockbox and like what features the firmware offers. However my only concern is that it won't read the itunes database of the mp3s I recently put on there. I really don't want to format the ipod, put back the mp3s and make new playlist again.
I used to run Rockbox on a 4G.

The good: Adds quite a few features like extended codec support, video playback if it's an iPod Photo / Color, themes, gapless, some games and an excellent EQ.

The bad: Doesn't support DRM, if you have any old iTunes songs that use it. Database functionality takes some time to setup, if you prefer to use that over direct folder access. And you can't sync with iTunes - Rockbox basically makes it a drag and drop device. I guess it's possible that you could sync with the device in the original firmware and then re-run the Rockbox database update to get the new file tags, but I never really tried that. I believe you can dual boot between the OF and the Rockbox firmware, if memory serves.
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post #6 of 6
10/6/09 at 2:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nerv View Post
I read about Rockbox and like what features the firmware offers. However my only concern is that it won't read the itunes database of the mp3s I recently put on there. I really don't want to format the ipod, put back the mp3s and make new playlist again.
Didn't know about that, but I don't use iTunes with my iPod. It works great for my needs.
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