Making the iPad Sync with Linux

Granted, syncing the iPad with a Linux PC isn’t for purists: at some point you must update the iPad’s firmware from either a Mac or Windows OS. Paul Ferrill reports. The Apple iPad is without question a wildly successful product in a market space that’s seen many false starts. It seems like the iPad was […]

Written By
Paul Ferrill
Paul Ferrill
Published: Oct 25, 2010
Updated: Jan 28, 2021
3 minute read
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Granted, syncing the iPad with a Linux PC isn’t for purists: at some point you must update the iPad’s firmware from either a Mac or Windows OS. Paul Ferrill reports.


The Apple iPad is without question a wildly successful
product in a market space that’s seen many false starts. It seems like the iPad
was at the right place at the right time to scratch an itch we didn’t know we
had. Many wrote it off early on as just an expensive ebook reader with too many
limitations to replace your netbook, much less a full-fledged business laptop.

Inquiring Linux minds want to know if they can make an iPad
work without a Mac or Windows box. The answer is a qualified yes. You’ll need a
copy of iTunes to do some functions like firmware updating and transferring
files to a specific application like Apple’s iBooks ebook reader. You’ll also
need it if you want to get content from sources such as Apple’s iTunes
University. We’ll look at how you could do this using Oracle’s Virtualbox.

Syncing

Syncing music and videos to the iPad is probably one of the
highest priority functions you’ll want to accomplish. For this task we chose
Banshee, although we did update to the latest version. Banshee 1.8.0 recognized
the iPad straight away and showed all the music and videos currently on the
device. Importing music from the iPad is drop-dead, one-click simple. Once
that’s done you can drag music from your desktop / laptop to the iPad or set
Banshee to keep the two in sync.

Read the rest at Linux Planet.

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Paul Ferrill

Paul Ferrill has been writing in the computer trade press for over 25 years. He got his start writing networking reviews for PC Magazine on products like LANtastic and early versions of Novell Netware. He's been using and writing about Unix / Linux since before there was a Linux. Print publication credits include Datamation, Federal Computer Week, Information Week, InfoWorld, Network Computing, Network World, PC Magazine, and PC Computing. He's written for multiple web sites including IBM's Developerworks site. He recently had his first book published by Apress entitled "Pro Android Python with SL4A". Paul holds both BSEE and MSEE degrees and has written software for more computer platforms and architectures than he can remember.

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