iPod Shuffle

Either this was the worst iteration of the iPod ever, or Apple really mis-planned when they built them to sell, they built way to many.

iPod Shuffle Refurb

A Forgotten Bill

I guess about 5 or so months ago, right after I moved to Dubai, I signed up and started paying for Audible. It is a audio book site that offers, for 15 dollars a month, a ton of titles and allows you to download 3 a month. I just signed up to test it and downloaded one book.

I liked it, so I didn't cancel it, but I somehow forgot about it.

I was checking my bank account today and noticed a charge to Audible, which refreshed my memory that I had in fact signed up for it. So I am downloading the balance of the books from the last couple of months since the carry over from month to month.

All in all, I should have a lot of listening materials for the office and for long flights, particularly the flights to Paris and Buenos Aires next month.

The Saga of the Mac Wouldn't Sleep Part 6

Alright, let me first say this, BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER REGULARLY.

I picked up the computer on Thursday morning. I got in and hand to wait a couple of minutes to get the computer. I opened it up and tested it to make sure that it worked. The final count was 3 new fans, 2 logic boards, and a new track pad. I don't know why the track pad was replaced, but it was. I got home later that afternoon and had to re-setup the computer. I haven't decided yet whether I will load everything back onto this computer or not. I kind of like have a computer with not much on it and using the desktop as a storage place for all my music and photos.

I am looking forward to being able to take my computer down to Starbucks or some other coffee shop to hang out in the evening and not be confined to the house for computer use.

Also, a great program that Mark suggested to me allows me to listen to music from my desktop from anywhere using my computer or iPod Touch, as long as there is a network connection. It is called simplify. I bet this is pretty cool on the iPhone when you always have a connection.

Macworld

Macworld should probe to be interesting. I don’t say that because of any specific product they might release, though I think there are a few that they will release that are cool. I have come to find that the Macworld Keynote is fun and entertaining. Regardless of the products that are released I am drawn to them for entertainment. The updates on iTunes and iPods are always interesting. There always seem to be predictions that are floating about for a week or so prior to the Keynote. Some are absurd, some are plausible, and some are down right stupid, but they are always fun. Someone should start a Macworld Keynote pool. Take all the predictions that are made and put them into a chart and let people buy squares for a couple dollars each, then you could also have a pool for what order they would come out in and what the … On last thing … would be. By my calculation, assuming 10 dollars per box, the winner could take home up to 300 or so dollars. That would be if there were 5 predicted products being announced (ie upgraded macbooks, Mac Minis, Mac Pros, Macbook Pros … )

I think it could be fun.

Aberdeen iPod Bustedness

Right before I left for Aberdeen, I sold my last iPod and purchased a new one. It was a great purchase and was really happy for the extra space, especially on the flight over when I was able to watch a bunch of different movies. The first weekend I was in Aberdeen, I was bumming around the city and listened to music while I walked down to the City Centre and got accustomed to the city and what was around. It was really nice.

However, on my first day of work there, when I was heading home, I got in the taxi put my bag in the car and closed the door. The door stopped short of completely closing and bounced back open. I didn't immediately know why, but I looked down and noticed that it has hit my iPod pouch on my bag. As we drove away from the office I decided not to look at the iPod in hopes that maybe I hadn't slammed the door hard enough to actually break the device.

I got home that night and looked in the pouch to find that I had creased the iPod right at the bottom of the screen, which as it turns out is right about the middle of the hard drive too.

I decided to dissect it to see the inner working of a device that has made music easy to transport. As it turns out, the battery is much smaller than I imagined. It all seems put together in a way that makes it easy to replace just about any part of it. And there are lots of little pieces in it that seperate the components. Rubber pieces that keep the hard drive in place and a small metal plate that separates the screen from the battery and the hard drive.

Pretty interesting little deal if you ever destroy one beyond the point of repair, it was kind of fun to take apart.

I am Stupid

After years of having no, "I am stupid and I (blanked) my iPod." Insert lost, got stolen, broke, dropped ... etc.

Today while getting a taxi to head home from work, I crushed my iPod in the door. I felt like an idiot, and I am not sure what I am going to do. I might contact Apple, though I don't know that they will do anything nor do I think they have any responsibility to do so.

Stupid stupid stupid

No New iPod

I have made the decision for now not to upgrade my 60gb 5g ipod. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I don't think it necessary right now. My library is more than 60gb, but I carry what I like and nothing I don't right now. I think by having the space, I might just carry a bunch of stuff that I am not interested in most of the time.

If the rumors of iTunes video rentals holds true, I may look into a Apple TV.

iPhone : Review

The Good: The phone interface is great. Dialing someone that is in your address book couldn't be easier. Choose your contact, choose the number. Sounds quality is better than I have every had on any of my four Razrs that I have had for work. And it is certainly better than either of the phones I have had for personal use in the last 3 or 4 years (motorola something and a blackberry).

The iPod is good, I like the interface almost as much as I like the scroll wheel. The only bad part about it is that I have had the iPod "crash" while using it and Safari at the same time.

Safari is also really good. I can't complain, nor do I understand any complaint, about the speed at all in a wifi network or on the edge network. It is certainly slower on Edge, but it is not as ridiculously slow as I was led to believe prior to release and the Blackberry seems slower. Being able to check movie times and such without calling movie phone is one of my favorite things so far. I also like that I can look things up on the fly if I am uncertain of the facts, this might fade in time because as of right now it is a toy to play with and its fun. Also, most of the time I can find a wifi network to jump on when I am around in the city.

Text Messaging and Email would only be better if the keyboard would rotate. It is a lot easier to use the keyboard with the device horizontal. I use the email for when I get calls and I am not in the office to email myself a note to check into the matter when I get back to the office. It has eliminated the need for me to carry a notepad with me all the time to keep notes. And I am much better at checking email that I am at looking back through my notes.

The not good and not bad: YouTube, I find this to be totally useless. I don't use You Tube on my computer that much, so using it on the phone isn't really something I care about. It isn't good and it isn't bad, but it is there.

The Bad: The interface with gmail creates an inbox message every time you send an email. This is aggravating because it makes me want to check my email on my computer and check my email on my phone. But I believe my blackberry did that too. There is a hint out there to change one of the settings to stop getting this, but when I change it, all of my old mail comes through too, meaning that something like 100,000 emails are sent to my phone. I don't like that. So I will continue to deal with this for the time being.

The screen only rotates in Safari. I like the wide keyboard in Safari, but that is the only place you get it.

The final, and most bad, terrible thing is that I will get a warning that the battery is at 20%, then ten seconds later it is at 15% and about 2 minutes later, 10%. This happens after three days off the charger, but it is still a bit aggravating when you go from 20% to almost zero in the matter of 10 minutes.

Thats it, if I didn't mention it, then I haven't really used it yet. After a couple of months I think I will put up an update.

A Mother's iPod

For Mother's Day, my family put some money together and got my mom an iPod. She really likes it. She is certainly getting comfortable with technology and told me that she would like to get and iPhone because, "it is a phone and an iPod."

Identifying Your iPod

Has anyone ever run into a situation when they needed to identify the iPod that you have? If so then this link is for you.

Tweet Explained

Email me if you want to know how I made an Apple TV totally worth while.

iPod vS. zUne

I have read two articles today that have gotten me thinking. The first on TUAW and was basically asking whether people would be willing to pay a subscription fee to rent music from the iTunes store. I am an advocate of this whether other people are or aren't. I think the subscription services are great and allow people to hear new music that they otherwise would not have listened to. That is basically why I have XM radio. There is a lot of stations that I will tune into and just listen for new bands that I like. I also signed up for a napster account and am able to use their online service for free to listen to certain songs a total of three times before I have to actual get a paid subscription. I have also found this helpful for when I am looking around and find a band I think I might like, then I go to napster and listen to a couple of songs prior to purchasing.

The second of the two articles, which I have a link to on the right, was considering the possibility of Microsoft taking a cell phone approach to their personal digital playing personal listening device. Basically a person would sign a contract saying that they would pay 15 dollars a month for a given amount of time, likely 2 years, and by signing that contract and paying the monthly fee they would get a free Zune and access to the music on the store. I am opposed to this. I don't want to solely rent music. I want the availability of owning my music, and being locked into a contract to rent music just seems ridiculous.

Also, for the foreseeable future, the Zune is still locked to Windows and I haven't heard or even made up a rumor in my own mind that they will some day support OSX.

iTunes Originals

One of my favorite parts of the iTunes Store for a long time was looking forward the new iTunes originals that would come out about once a month. What turned me onto these was the Ben Folds originals, which came out in August of 2005. I found a couple of others that I like, Sting/Tears for Fears/Jack Johnson/REM/etc. But for some reason, possibly a lack of interest or downloaded copies, Apple has stopped doing these. The last one that was released was The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and that was in September of last year.

What happened, and when can we expect new ones.

And So on With Apple

My prediction after having read this list of questions regarding the iPhone is that Apple will release a new generation of iPod at about the same time the iPhone comes out. It will look similar to the iPhone but not have the internet and phone functionality.

This is just a prediction, not a rumor.

I am sorry for focusing on the Apple topic so much. Surely I will find something more interesting to post about soon.

I Am An Apple Fanboy

The story of my mac.
In 2005, I decided I wanted a laptop. I was tired of being tethered to a monitor. After looking, not terribly long, I decided on an Apple. I went an looked at them a couple of times, though I didn't commit right away. The price was pretty steep. I couldn't settle for the iBook, it didn't have all the cool little features that the powerbook had, like an upgraded graphics card that made widgets look cool when you put them on the desktop. I also didn't really jump in either, I used my windows machine for almost 6 months before I gave it up and went to using the mac for everything. Aging 2 years and 2 months old the computer still works like it is brand new.

Then about a month ago for almost no particular reason I decided that I wanted to buy a new computer. There isn't really anything wrong with my computer, less a few blemishes here and there, and a loose key due to my own stupidity. The main reason for my decision is that long ago I ran out of room on the internal hard drive for my music. I remedied the situation by purchasing an external hard drive that was big enough to do anything with.

The only problem with this is that anytime I want to sync my iPod, I have to connect the external hard drive, which I have decided is a pain in my ass.

I am justifying the new purchase by telling myself that I need more room on the internal hard disk, I will sell my powerbook, and that I have never had a computer last so long. I would have spent more in this time frame on windows computers.

The story of my ipods.
I bought my very first iPod in 2005 when I was living in downtown Denver after getting frustrated with switching CDs in and out of my car. The problem there was that I lived 4 blocks away from where I parked, so if I forgot I had to walk eight blocks to remedy the problem. One day I decided that I had enough of walking back and forth for music, and I got in my car, drove to the apple store and bought a black and white iPod. I used it when I ran, I used it in the car, I even hooked it up at the house and used it even though I could have easily used my computer. A few months later they introduced the color iPod that you could view pictures on and though it was cool, I put off purchasing one. I figured I didn't really need it.

I started running frequently and purchased a 1gb iPod shuffle for that, which I still have and use to this day. Now I use it for a flash drive and a music player, then I just used it for music.

I was living with mark when I bought my color iPod. I traded in my black and white one and received a 10% discount on my new mp3 player. Days later they introduced the 5th generation with video iPod. I quickly listed my color iPod on ebay and a day later sold it for almost the price I paid for it. Prior to receiving the money for the used iPod and transferring ownership I bought my video iPod, which I still have and use, though pretty infrequently.

Other Apple products.
The only other Apple product I own is an Airport Express. It has served me well and I still think it was worth the price. I have considered getting the new Airport base station for its wireless external hard drive access, and I have also considered getting an iPod nano (totally unjustifiable).