i'm going to use my thinkpad as a portable mp3 player

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liquid_sonata · #1 Post by **liquid_sonata** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 11:44 am

thoughts, comments, suggestions, ideas, warnings? want me to tell you how it worked?

basically i broke my ipod and since i cannot live with music, i must find a replacement mp3 player while i wait for my new ipod. therefore the t42p must suffice. i'll leave it in my bag/sleeve with the earphones coming out (i have shures, therefore there's no need to worry about whether my cord is long enough). i'll obviously have the screen closed while i set wmplayer to play mp3s. eh, i have the 9-cell battery and a bay battery.

Logi7 · #2 Post by **Logi7** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:18 pm

find some sort of usb device and use it as a remote!
lol

i dunno abiut haeving the active HD protextion on while walking though..

benz · #3 Post by **benz** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:25 pm

Actually, I asked on here a while back and someone gave me the idea that you CAN leave APS on while listening to mp3's (in Winamp) and occasionally moving around.

You can set the amount of a song that Winamp will cache into RAM at one time (I put it at like 10MB), so if it is able to access the HD (ie. APS has not braked the heads) for just the few milliseconds that it needs to cache the current or upcoming mp3, you are straight, and it won't skip. If you need to know how to do this let me know, and I'll dig up that thread and post it.

Cat5 · #4 Post by **Cat5** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:35 pm

benz wrote:Actually, I asked on here a while back and someone gave me the idea that you CAN leave APS on while listening to mp3's (in Winamp) and occasionally moving around.

You can set the amount of a song that Winamp will cache into RAM at one time (I put it at like 10MB), so if it is able to access the HD (ie. APS has not braked the heads) for just the few milliseconds that it needs to cache the current or upcoming mp3, you are straight, and it won't skip. If you need to know how to do this let me know, and I'll dig up that thread and post it.

YUP...

But, still about the remote thing... Got a cellular? =)
I've got a T610 sony ericsson and T41 with Bluetooth... there is a nice app named float's mobile agent that enables you remote control of your PC via BT for SE phones.. Ofcourse it is on sourceforge, the source is for open and you can mod it to your liking (been there, done that =) ) and the scripts (VBS) that control BT can be custom made by you also... I would recomend that to any thinkpadder that has a SE mobile phone, nothing better than lazing in the bed and changing the winamp/bsplayer stuff with your cell

Kenn · #5 Post by **Kenn** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 2:59 pm

I did this on a few 4+ hour drives recently, and it works fine.

Here's what I did:

Boot the laptop.

Disable Active Protection System (IMPORTANT! At least in itunes APS parked the HD for over a minute at a time during even smooth driving/while stopped).

Create a battery profile in MaxiMiser to run on slowest CPU speed, LCD off in 1 minute, hard drive never off, never standby, never hibernate.

Plug in the earbuds (only use one while driving, I think using both is illegal in most states)

Prop a book against the laptop so it won'tt fall off the car seat during hard stops.

Stop all unncessary processes and applications

Hit play in itunes

Close the screen.

On my 15", I got 5+ hours of music on the 6-cell, and according to the battery meter up to 9 hours on the 9 cell. Since the display is off, I figure the 15" should get about the same runtime as the 14".

For even more runtime, use an mp3 player that's less of a resource hog than itunes.

liquid_sonata · #6 Post by **liquid_sonata** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:28 pm

hullo,

thanks for all the advice and suggestions. as far as using a cellular for a remote, i wish i could but i don't have a cell. sounds totally ingenious though.

but it was a miserable failure. everytime i took a step somewhere the song would stop playing. i believe i did disable tpshocks.exe too. i'm going to try the cache mode, but i don't have winamp.

Kenn · #7 Post by **Kenn** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:16 pm

You may want to make sure you have tpshocks disabled. You don't have to end the process, just going into the application and unclicking "enable" will do it. Also, make sure your battery profile is set not to turn off the hard drive. It's no ipod, but it should work

liquid_sonata · #8 Post by **liquid_sonata** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:43 pm

okay,

is this even worth doing? that is, am i risking severe damage to my computer? is there something different about a portable mp3 player that allows us to be able to jostle them around without songs skipping?

eh...besides, i'm worried about the heat. it's going to be in a sleeve, and when i took it out it was not hot, but noticeably warm.

Kenn · #9 Post by **Kenn** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 7:05 pm

liquid_sonata wrote:okay,

is this even worth doing? that is, am i risking severe damage to my computer? is there something different about a portable mp3 player that allows us to be able to jostle them around without songs skipping?

eh...besides, i'm worried about the heat. it's going to be in a sleeve, and when i took it out it was not hot, but noticeably warm.

Is it worth doing? Probably not, all things considered.

I walk around with a laptop held right-side up all the time, but if you're jogging or hiking it probably isn't smart

And yeah, it'll get hot inside a sleeve. Laptops should have ventilation.

Portable players can be jostled because they're either 1) solid-state with no moving parts, or considering the ipods/other HD-based players, smaller so they're more easily ruggedized and generally have less momentum working against them as opposed to a 5lb laptop.

Cat5 · #10 Post by **Cat5** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 8:49 am

liquid_sonata wrote:hullo,

thanks for all the advice and suggestions. as far as using a cellular for a remote, i wish i could but i don't have a cell. sounds totally ingenious though.

but it was a miserable failure. everytime i took a step somewhere the song would stop playing. i believe i did disable tpshocks.exe too. i'm going to try the cache mode, but i don't have winamp.

You don't have to use a cellular...
I rigged my friends comp to have remote via an old TV remote. Find the utility GIRDER and find the schematics for IGORPLUG (usb or rs232) that's nice for a remote.

Daniel · #11 Post by **Daniel** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 5:43 pm

Tkisason, is there something like that for the Symbian Series 60 phones? I don't have an SE phone. I have a Nokia 7610.

Matt · #12 Post by **Matt** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:53 pm

I've done this too on long drives. Rather than using earphones, however, I used the cassette deck adapter that came with my CD player; plugged into the headphone jack on my T42, adapter in cassette deck, audio through my car's system. Worked great, and I wasn't limited tune-wise to what I could put in my CD changer.

What came in super-handy for such use was the Fn + spacebar resolution switcher: WinAmp just wasn't readable with the 'puter sitting in the passenger seat at 1400x1050, but at 800x600 it was perfect.

Cat5 · #13 Post by **Cat5** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 5:35 pm

Daniel wrote:Tkisason, is there something like that for the Symbian Series 60 phones? I don't have an SE phone. I have a Nokia 7610.

Well, as mutch as i know, Symbian phones have C-IR consumer infrared, that means that there is also some programs that work as a universal remote for your TV via IR, so i beleve that if you pull up the program "GIRDER" and use that, it would work... If you dont find something with BT

Daniel · #14 Post by **Daniel** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:35 pm

My phone is the only Symbian one without an IR port.

i'm going to use my thinkpad as a portable mp3 player

i'm going to use my thinkpad as a portable mp3 player

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