DotNetRocks + iPod tip

I love listening to DotNetRocks on my iPod while driving to work, but one thing has been bothering me for a long time: when you pause the show halfway and then either dock the iPod or listen to something else, you lose where you were. This means that in order to continue listening later, you need to manually fast-forward back there.

I just found out that for audio-books, iPods do keep a bookmark though, and any AAC file will be recognized as an audiobook if it has a .m4b file-extension (instead of the default .m4a). So to be able to bookmark your DotNetRocks shows, follow the following directions:

  • Download the "Windows Media" version of the show.
  • Drag 'n drop it into iTunes, which will automatically convert the .wma file to a .m4a file. (you could have also downloaded the mp3 and manually converted that to aac through iTunes, but the sound-quality of WMAs is better and iTunes will auto-convert them).
  • After the conversion is complete, right-click on the file and select "Show Song File" - an explorer window will pop-up for the directory containing the converted file.
  • Rename the file-extension to .m4b.
  • Drag 'n drop this file back into iTunes (it will now show up as a "Protected AAC Audio File").
  • Remove the original file from iTunes.
  • Et Voila! Your iPod will now automatically set a bookmark when you pause DotNetRocks, and continue playing from there when you return later.

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Comments

This might be interesting for you and your iPod...

Posted by Ed at September 12, 2004 7:46 AM

There's also a bug with remembering bookmarks for .m4b files too. If your iPod goes into 'deep sleep' mode (usually after about 2 days of non-use) and you were last listening to a .m4b file, it won't bookmark the current location and use the previous one. I used to write down the location of the book that I was listening too but I found a better workaround. If you listen to something else after stopping the .m4b file, it will bookmark where you left off. I just play some random song after listening and it's worked so far.

It took quite a bit of searching in the Apple iPod forums to find this out. If you search for "Audible bookmarks", you may find more information about this.

Posted by Paul Leclerc at September 12, 2004 10:11 AM

Cool iPod trick for long files
I happily break from my ongoing criticism of the Bush administration to draw attention to a cool iPod feature I just learned about. If you are listening to an audio book on your iPod and you pause and listen to...

Trackback from GeekFun at September 12, 2004 3:11 PM

Great iPod trick

Trackback from vidmar.net/weblog at September 14, 2004 3:26 AM

.NET Rocks! now available in bookmarkable iPod format

Trackback from Carl Franklin at October 4, 2004 1:56 AM

.NET Rocks! now available in bookmarkable iPod format
.NET Rocks! now available in bookmarkable iPod format

Trackback from Richard Dudley at October 4, 2004 9:06 AM

Being a DNRer are you going to be putting that podcasting stuff in sharpreader somehow?

Posted by James Saull at November 17, 2004 11:12 AM

Hey Luke, what do you think of Mondays? http://mondays.pwop.com

Posted by Carl Franklin at November 25, 2004 12:21 PM

Mondays? second best podcast out there.

I also really like having .NET Rocks back to it's original format; the extra bits, while funny, were getting to be a bit much... now if only we could get the original co-host back and get rid of this weirdo that replaced him... ;-)

Posted by Luke Hutteman at November 27, 2004 9:52 PM

Hi Luke,

by the way let me thank you your great sharpreader again... best reader - and in use for 1,5 yrs already ( you got my donation... )

concerning your ipod bookmark issue, congratulations on this workaround, but let me note that this feature is a default feature on my iriver ihp 140 ... but using it as 40 GB backup media as normal USB2 harddisk was the main reason to get it instead of the Ipod I would have enjoyed more from it's style...

kind regards, Christoph

Posted by Christoph Cemper at December 4, 2004 6:22 PM

How do you get your iPod out of "Deep Sleep?"

Posted by Heather Fleming at July 30, 2005 9:55 PM
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