Tag Archives: iPod

My New iPod

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My 4G 40GB HP/Apple iPod died on me over the weekend. I used it all day Saturday, came home, put it on the dock to sync up, and all I heard was click..click..click. After a few times of trying to restore it, I got the sad iPod on the screen so I know it was history. I went to the Apple Store in the mall by my house and picked up a new 30GB iPod. I didn’t even fill my last iPod half way so the 30GB is fine for me. While I was in the Apple Store, I also picked up the new iHome. I had the first iHome for my last iPod and it’s been acting up lately. When I saw the new model has dual alarm clocks, I bought it.

 

iTunes 7.0 And New iPods

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Apple released iTunes 7.0 today which includes movies along with music and TV shows currently available. The pricing is comparable to buying the DVD in the stores except it’s basically already ripped so you can watch them on any PC/Mac or on an iPod including the new ones they released today. Apparently they realized how popular the different colors were for the iPod mini so they decided to release the iPod nano in the same colors. The new iPod shuffle was also redesigned and is now not much bigger than the click wheel interface to control it. iTunes 7.0 can now do gapless playback, which a lot of customers have been screaming for, and automatically import album artwork into the songs you import into your library. Before iTunes would only add the artwork for songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store, so you would have to add the album artwork on your own. iTunes 7.0 can now sync with Outlook for your contacts and calendar information. Previously, you had to export vCards from Outlook and then copy them to the iPod manually.

 

Senuti

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Now that I have my new Mac, I needed to put all my music on it from my iPod. I could’ve done it the same way I do it in Windows (View hidden files and folders, navigate to iPod_Control\Music\) but the only way I can get to that folder, that I’ve learned so far, is through a terminal window. I found a program called Senuti that looks like iTunes and can copy the songs right from the iPod directly into iTunes. Normally you would have to copy the songs to your hard drive and then import them into iTunes. Senuti does it all with one click.

 

iHome iH5

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iHome iH5 Clock Radio for iPodI’ve had the iHome iH5 Clock Radio for iPod for a few months now and thought I’d blogged about it so I’m doing it now. It’s something I’ve been waiting for somebody to make ever since I got my iPod last November. It’s an alarm clock radio that allows you to wake up and fall asleep to the radio (either AM or FM) or your iPod. It works with every iPod including the Shuffle, Nano, and the new iPod that can play video. The sound quality is amazing. You don’t need the volume turned up very high to hear everything clearly. It’s very similar in sound quality to the Bose systems everyone brags about. The only downside with the radio is that there aren’t any presets which doesn’t bother me too much since I don’t listen to the radio that often. The backlight on the clock is extremely bright on it’s highest setting (of which there are 3). It took me a few nights to get used to even the lowest setting which still illuminates my bedroom better than a nightlight.
There are a few drawbacks to the alarm feature. The first drawback is that instead of using time zone abbreviations such as “ET” or “CT,” the iH5’s display uses numbers 1 through 7. It comes preset for Eastern Standard Time and there’s a +1/-1 switch on the back to spring forward/fall back for when Daylight Savings Time starts and ends. People outside EST/EDT will have to figure out which zone they’re in and adjust the clock accordingly. The second drawback is that there is only one alarm. My old alarm clock radio had two alarms. I could set one for weekdays and the other for weekends. Now I have to change it from one time to the next. The last drawback has to do with the snooze feature. When you hit the snooze button, you get 9 (yes, nine) extra minutes of sleep. Why would they choose a time like 9 minutes? Why couldn’t they do one extra minute for an even 10?
There is an optional remote control for $20 that I’m thinking of getting. When your iPod is in the iH5, you have to change tracks using the click wheel on the iPod. There isn’t a forward/reverse button on the iH5, only a play/pause button. I’ve tried changing tracks a few times and it feels a little strange. The remote allows you to turn the iH5 on and off, switch between radio and iPod modes, control iPod playback, change radio stations, adjust the brightness of the LCD and to snooze the alarm. That last feature I doubt I would ever need but it’s nice to know it’s there.

 

iTunes 6.0

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A little over month after Apple released iTunes 5.0, they come out with iTunes 6.0. iTunes 6.0 now supports video for the 5th generation iPods that support video. It has finally happened. Apple has true video capability in an iPod. There are even docks with IR ports for a remote control. As of right now, I don’t see myself wanting/needing a video iPod but that may, and probably will, change in the near future.

 

iTunes 5.0

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iTunes 5.0 was released today along with the new iPod nano. The nano replaces the mini but is slimmer and has a color display. It looks like a wider version of the shuffle with a color display. It comes in a 2GB and 4GB version whereas the mini was available in 4GB and 6GB models. The nano is also available in black instead of the stereotypical iPod white. I can honestly see the nano causing the end of the shuffle. The shuffle is $129 for 1GB whereas the nano is $199 for 2GB. I’ll have to go to the Apple store in the mall here to see how light the nano is.
The new version of iTunes isn’t much different from the previous version. They changed the look of iTunes and now podcasts that you’re subscribed to in iTunes show up under Podcasts and in your main library. Other than that, the only reason for iTunes 5.0 is to give the nano and the new iTunes phone, the Motorola ROKR available only through Cingular, something to sync with. The one thing missing from the new iTunes is BitTorrent support. A lot of the lesser known podcasts can’t afford the bandwidth that iTunes may bring them so most turn to BitTorrent to help control bandwidth demand on their sites. All of the other podcatching clients like Doppler, iPodder lemon, and iPodderX support BitTorrent.

 

iTunes 4.9

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iTunes 4.9 was released today and one of the new features is podcasting. Apple has finally embraced the idea of podcasts and podcasting. Not only can you subscribe to different podcasts through iTunes, but you can also create your own and submit it to Apple’s directory which is pretty much the same as Adam Curry‘s iPodder.org. I’m going to check it out for about a week or so and decide if I want to use iTunes for my podcasts or stay with iPodder lemon. So far it’s having a hard time with a few of the shows I subscribe to, no matter if I subscribe through the iTunes music store or manually add the URL.

 

iTunes Plugin

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I’ve discovered an iTunes plugin that will post the song I’m listening to into my blog here. You can either set it up to insert it automatically in the top of the post, the bottom of the post, or manually anywhere by hitting F11, which is the way I’m doing it for now.

[Listening to: Nine Inch Nails - Hurt (4:24)]