How to put DVD’s on your iPhone (for free)

A lot of companies like to sell you applications to put DVD’s on your iPhone. Usually these apps are just wrappers around existing tools, and are pretty expensive if you consider you can do it for free. And you don’t need to be a computer wizard either! The steps are simple:

1. Use Handbrake to rip the DVD to iPhone format
2. Drag the generated mp4 file into iTunes
3. Sync it to your iPhone like all other content

To show you exactly how this is done, I’ve  written up this “babystep-by-babystep” tutorial. Let me show you how I ripped “For A Few Dollars More” and put it on my iPhone:

Disclaimer: The DVD I ripped is bought and payed for. This article does not relief you of your responsibility to obey the law, so please be careful. And be nice, don’t pirate.

T-Mobile Network Quality

As you’ve noticed, I bought an iPhone. When you’re living in the Netherlands, you’ve got two options to get an iPhone. The first one is walk to an Apple reseller, buy an iPhone and sell your soul to T-Mobile. The second option is to drive to Belgium, convince a reseller to sell you a simlock-free iPhone, and get a Vodafone iPhone “Super Sim Only” contract. I went for the first option, and to be honest I kind of regret it. The iPhone is brilliant, but the T-Mobile network in the Netherlands sucks. Bigtime.

If your life depends on somebodies availabilty, please make sure to check they’re not using the T-Mobile or Orange network (the companies merged). Don’t let T-Mobile fool you with the “iPhone has bad reception hype”. I can make screenshots like you see here each day. I have “No service” but I can see the Vodafone and KPN networks just fine.

The iPhone buying experience

Ok so I’ve been blogging about the iPhone and it’s “apps” for a while now. After a lot of consideration and switching between Nokia and iPod touch, doing nothing and buying a 16GB 3G iPhone, I finally went for the latter. What a bittersweet experience.

Turn your iPhone into a Drive

My Nokia 6300 behaves like a flash or thumb drive when I connect it to a computer using an USB cable. I think this should be standard functionality nowadays. Cellphones are replacing the Filofax and MP3 players. I can read mail on my cellphone, take pictures and movies. It contains an 4GB memory stick, sometimes even more. So why do I need to carry this silly thumbdrive with me?

Cowbell++;

I just came across this great post about creating captivating content. The punchline: It’s not about getting the scoop, it’s about finding the cowbell and amplifying it.

More funny cowbell references:

• Alex Johnson’s version the popular playstation game.
• The wikipedia page on the cowbell sketch
• The Cowbell project
• And… The More Cowbell app for your iPhone (rock on!)

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to “explore the studio space”. No, really.