May 31st, 2008, 15 Comments »
Here’s the scenario. Bear with me, it’s kind of tedious:
- My local copy of my music files are stored on a Windows desktop. We’ll call that PC1. For the record, I also store a synched backup at MP3Tunes.
- Julie and I both have iPods. We listen to podcasts. I use iTunes on PC1, but she subscribes to her own set of podcasts on her Mac. We’ll call that Mac1.
As far as I can figure, you can’t load stuff (songs and podcasts) on the same iPod from multiple computers, particularly when those computers use different operating systems. When I plug my Windows-formatted iPod into Mac1, it wants to reformat it and wipe the thing clean. The same happens in reverse with Julie’s Apple-formatted iPod.
In short, I want to load music from PC1 and then podcasts from Mac1 onto the same iPod. I think this is impossible, at least if I want to use iTunes. What do you think?
This problem would go away if iTunes offered support for user profiles. I guess I’d better submit a feature request.
I think the least painful solution is to remove my Windows PC from the scenario by copying all of the music to an external hard drive. Then we can just attach that to either of our Macs, and access the music library that way. Alternately we could try to set up a home network amongst all our computers. Both of those solutions feel like way too much solution for such a simple problem. Such is consumer computing in 2008, I guess.
15 Comments »
January 14th, 2008, 4 Comments »
Beth was a bit disappointed by the Taboo Naughty but Nice Sex Show:
Every single booth seemed to have the same thing - if you were in the market for lube, vibrators, lube, a sexy Catholic school girl outfit or lube, you were in luck. But how many vibrator-lube-sexyCatholicschoolgirloutfit-and-lube booths can one person really look at in an afternoon?
Seventeen or eighteen, maybe? Anyhow, one product she does remark on is the awkwardly named OhMiBod (safeness-for-work may vary), a vibrator that plugs into your iPod and “to the rhythm and intensity of the music”. If you think that name is bad, read about the ‘Acsexories’ you can get for your fancy new sex toy. Meh.
Clever idea, but I immediately had several questions:
- How much battery power does it need? A lot, I would guess. Ah, hang on. Just found the product info page, and the device itself takes two AA batteries.
- How does it handle classical music? Will, uh, ‘listening’ to Bach make you late for work (I see they have some recommended music).
- Does it only come in Apple White?
Still, it’s probably just the thing to eliminate that pre-MacWorld anxiety.
Speaking of stuff that plugs into your iPod, I feel obligated to remark on the nightmare that is the iPod’s backward-compatibility problems. I recently tried to plug in Julie’s old (as in, 18 months old) iPod Shuffle into my MacBook. The device is too wide, and covers both USB ports when you plug it in.
Don’t iTase Me, Sis
Speaking of accessories for music-loving women, consider the iTaser.
It’s a taser with a built-in MP3 player, and it comes with a fashionable leopard-print grip. It’s apparently for the woman who wants to go jogging with the tunes, but not wear a utility belt to accommodate all her accessories. Besides, didn’t you hear that tasers are the new tupperware?
Valentine’s Day is only a month away.
4 Comments »
September 5th, 2007, 9 Comments »
The Apple Faithful had one of their revival meetings today, and Reverend Jobs rolled out the new tchotchkes. Chief among these were the new iPod Touch, which is kind of an iPhone without the phone part. They also renamed the standard old iPod the ‘iPod Classic’, which seems like the kiss of death to me.
Jobs emphasized that you can now store 40,000 songs on the 160 GB iPod Classic. That sounds great, but how big is the average music collection, really? I’m not sure how representative this data point is, but I’ve got the 1000th largest collection on MP3 Tunes, out of 90,000 members, and I’ve only got 7500 songs.
The extra storage is for video, obviously, which brings me to my question. Do you watch video on your iPod? What type of stuff do you watch? How long is your average video-viewing session?
UPDATE: You know, a bunch of the usual losers on Digg were complaining that the iPod Touch only comes in 8 and 16 GB versions. An entire season of an hour-long television series is about 8 GB. Do they need the thing to hold the complete filmography of Woody Allen?
9 Comments »
July 27th, 2007, No Comments »
A while back, I mentioned that we’d bought this tiny speaker system for our time in Malta. It’s basically one doughnut-shaped speaker that you plug your iPod into. I’m really happy with it, and here’s why:
- The sound, obviously, isn’t great, but it’s a considerable improvement on our only other audio source–our laptops.
- It’s incredibly small and light.
- You can plug it in, but it also can run off four AAA batteries. This is very handy if we want to take it out by the pool, or in a rental car that only has a CD player (we now own exactly one CD).
- It’s got an audio-in jack, and came with a compatible cord. It acts as a handy external speaker for our laptops when we’re watching TV or movies on them.
- It recharges the iPod.
- It’s got a tiny little remote control.
It’s got a USB port, and looks like it should function as a docking station for the iPod, but I haven’t been able to make that work. That’s my only complaint thus far. It’s a really handy solution for cheap and cheerful holiday audio.
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July 14th, 2007, 10 Comments »
I think the photo speaks for itself, but here’s the back story. I just bought this nifty micro-stereo unit that I can plug my iPod into. It’s a JBL Onstage Micro iPod Speaker System, and is pretty much ideal for our requirements–it’s portable (it takes four AAA batteries), tiny and offers reasonable sound quality for its size.
As you can see, it came with no less than eight adapters. Each one is for a different type of iPod. Remarkably, the adapters only cover the so-called fourth and fifth-generation iPod. How many more would they have to ship to accommodate every version, going back six whole years?
Sadly, this problem is all too familiar. Whether it’s browser compatibility or HD DVD format wars, we waste a shameful amount of time bickering over standards. In the long run, will anybody really care who wins the Atom vs. RSS battle? Will it really matter?
10 Comments »
