Connecting an Ipod Touch with VirtualBox in Ubuntu 11.04

Before reading: if you own any normal device like an Android, HP Touchpad, portable media player, you can still use this tutorial for getting youtube videos on it.  All you have to do is disregard all the crap about Itunes.  Just read the Ixconverter.com steps below.  Probably, all you have to do is drag and drop the finished video file into your device when it's plugged into your computer.  Only Apple would make this so dang complicated. :(  Without further adieu...

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So you've installed and started enjoying Ubuntu 11.04.  No surprise.  Me, too.  But, then you realize that your uncle is going to upgrade his Ipod Touch for no apparent reason and is just going to give you this facist device for free.  Like myself, I wouldn't even turn it down for free!  Problem is (and this is just one of many problems) is that you can't simply drag and drop files like any other device out there.  You have to use Itunes.  And Itunes, being lame, only works in Mac and Windows operating systems.  Well, before you toss out that device, you might want to just use it to watch movies and listen to audio files, or perhaps turn it into a bit of a voip device.  Might as well.  It's free.  Here is how I got a youtube.com video moved over to my Ipod Touch all while using just my Ubuntu 11.04 laptop:

 This is assuming that you have already done the following:

1. Installed Oracle's Virtual Box from the Ubuntu Software Center
2. Configured your permissions in the Ubuntu User Groups to make sure all your USB stuff works (ask me to do another blog on this one if you need)
3. Installed a Windows XP CD (legit copy of course!) into Virtual Box
4. Booted up and installed your favourite browser as well as Itunes
5. Synchonized your Iproduct with Itunes to make sure that part is working well

Now you want to bring some playable (MP4) videos over to your device.  I use youtube.com and convert those files using ixconverter.com to get the right format.  Here's how that looks step by step:

1. Go to youtube.com, right click on the thumbnail image of what you want and click 'copy link addres'

2. Then go to ixconverter.com

4. Then scroll down and paste your youtube link into the ixconvertor.com field.  Make sure that you have set your file format to 'MP4' and then click 'convert' button

5. On the next screen you can click the link that speeds it up, or just wait the 15 seconds.  It will start doing some kind of processing thing and then your file download will begin.  It will download the file to the 'downloads' folder unless you have changed it to something else.  You'll need to know this for one of the next steps

6. Now, in Itunes, you go to 'file' and 'add file to library', open up the file you just downloaded and boom.  You should now be done.  All you have to do next is plug in your device and as long as virtual box recogizes your iproduct via USB then Itunes should just start synchronizing all your files with your device.  Note!  If it's taking a long time it's probably because you haven't used Itunes much so it's doing a massive backup which will take a loong time.  Be patient and don't unplug anything.