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Professor iPod Discusses Device's Social Impact
PurdueGraphicsMan writes "There's an interesting story over at Wired News, involving an interview with UK university professor Dr. Michael Bull, apparently the 'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices,' according to The New York Times. The piece also mentions: 'Bull, a lecturer in media and culture at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, is the author of 'Sounding out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life', a book Bull calls the 'definitive treatment' of the impact of the Sony Walkman and its descendants.'"
What DRM on the ipod? As far as I've seen, the DRM is in iTunes, and only applies to music downloaded from the iTunes store. I've had no problem copying self-encoded music files from my machine at home, to my iPod, to my machine at work (all windows). The only hard part was finding the music on the iPod, but since I have "show hidden files/folders" enabled in Windows, it was pretty easy. The filenames are a little strange on the iPod, but if you tell iTunes to file your music away for you, it will happily rename the files and place them in appropriately-named folders.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
IMHO, they've a serious flaw - the damn things break easy. I know 3 people with iPods, and each of them has had to return it multiple times. For several hundred dollars of (addmitedly sexy, nicely designed) pocket hardware, that's pretty bad.
User servicable in what sense?
Inside of warranty, you can send it back to Apple and have it replaced for free. Outside of warranty, you can have it replaced by Apple for $99 or you could do it yourself with a bit of technical know-how for less than half that price.
They're by no means meant to be "disposable".
Well, the batteries are not supposed to be user-servicable, apparently. That is what the big controversy over the iPod was a bit ago. It costs $99 for out-of-warrenty iPods for apple to change their batteries.
.. So, it isn't exactly use-once, throw it away. I don't know off the top of my head the life of the batteries, anyone?
The batteries are, however, rechargable (optimally 14-28hrs, apparently)
Sort of.
iPods are not 'throw away devices' by any means.
If your iPod's battery goes (there's a certain threshold for apple to take it back) within a year, they'll replace it. Two years if you buy iPod applecare.
If it goes and it's not under any sort of warrantee, you can pay apple $99 for a battery replacement. That's including everything. *Or* if you're savvy enough you can go online and order a do-it-yourself battery replacement for considerably cheaper.
Once again, this is not a 'throw away' issue.
RD
They are user-serviceable, but I am fairly sure that it voids your warranty, which is crap.
If it's still under warranty, you should get the battery replaced for free under the warranty, and save yourself the $50 it costs for a new battery. If the warranty has expired, then it's a non-issue.
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He was not being racist. He is referring to the iPod TV commercials where the dancers are silhouettes.
The iPod is designed (IIRC) so that once you upload music to it, you can NEVER GET IT OFF. I know you can delete it, but I mean you can't copy those music files back off the iPod. There are many ways around this (some of them very simple) but it's still a form of DRM. That said, it limits people's iPod usability like putting a piece of tape on someone's ankle prevents them from walking. It doesn't effec the device's use for 99% of people.
What you mentioned was one way around it, but I think on the Mac you actually can't get around it (not without 3rd party programs or something like that. Thank goodness for Windows security holes?).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Not really..
home > people > departmental faculty > Dr Michael Bull
Dr Michael Bull
Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies
Location: ESSEX HOUSE 209
Email: M.Bull@sussex.ac.uk
Telephone Numbers
Internal: 8788 or 2574
UK: 01273 678788 or
01273 872574
International: +44 1273 678788 or
+44 1273 872574
BSc (Bristol), MA (Greenwich), PhD (Goldsmiths)
Research Interests
Mobile comminication technologies and their use, Music and sound in urban culture. New directions in Critical Theory (The Frankfurt School).
Selected Publications
Books
2000 Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life. Oxford. Berg.
2003 The Auditory Culture Reader (edited with Les. Back,). Oxford. Berg
Journal Articles
2001 The World According to Sound: Investigating the World of Walkman Users. New Media and Society. Sage London.
2002 The Seduction of Sound in Consumer Culture in Journal of Consumer Culture
2003 "Towards an Aural Epistemology of Proximity and Distance. Mobile Technologies and their Use" in Space and Society (forthcoming)
2003 "Alone Together: The Culture of Mobile Listening in Automobiles" in Social Studies of Science. (forthcoming)
Chapters in Books
2001 "Space, Place and Music: A Critical Ethnography of Automobile Habitation" in Car Cultures. (ed D. Miller) Berg. Cambridge.
"Personal Stereo Use and the Aural Reconfiguration of Representational Space" in New Technologies and Spatial Practices (ed S. Munt) Cassell. London.
2003 "To Each Their Own Bubble: Mobile Spaces of Sound in the City" in Place, Space and Culture in a Media Age (ed N. Couldry and A. McCarthy) Sage, London. (forthcoming)
2003 "Thinking about Sound, Proximity and Distance in Western Experience. The Case of Odyssius's Walkman" in New directions in the Anthropology of Sound ( ed V.Erlmann.) Oxford. Berg. (forthcoming)
Translations
2003 Sounding Out the City is published in Japanese by Hituzi Sybo, Tokyo.
Book reviews
Theodor W, Adorno, Metaphysics: Concept and Problems, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000 Sociology 2002, David Morley, Home Territories: Media, mobility and Identity, London, Routledge, 2000. New Media and Society. 2002
Recent Conference Papers and International Workshops
March 2002 Rethinking Networks: Fluid Networks, Fluid People. Helsinki, Finland.
Towards an Aural Epistemology of Proximity and Distance: Mobile Technologies and their Use.
April 2002 "Hearing Culture": New Directions in the Anthropology of Sound. Oaxaca, Mexico.
Thinking about Sound, Proximity and Distance in Western Experience. The Case of Odyssius's Walkman
April 2002 "Musica Urbana" University of Bologna.
The Aural Privatising of Urban Space and its Social Implications.
November 2002 Sound Matters. New Technology in Music. University of Maastricht
The Culture of Mobile Listening: From Walkmans to the Automobile as an Acoustic Theatre.
Teaching
Michael teaches undergraduate courses in: Music and Media, Media, Technology and Everyday Life, The Media in the Era off Globalisation.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
Apple defines "dead battery" as "holds less than 50% of its original charge" according to this.
Also, for what its worth, you can still buy the AppleCare warranty extension as long as you're under warranty (and possibly even if you're not, I'm not entirely sure). Given that the complaints that surface about the 3rd Gen battery were that it started really losing capacity at the 18-month mark, it might be worth it.
Just in case you are not being sarcastic or trolling, the grandparent of your post tells you how to do it in Windows (simply enable "show hidden files and folders").
On Macs, you can use the Terminal application and copy the files in one line, then import to iTunes (or whatever you use). And for both platforms you find freeware that does this for you without getting technical.
Actually, the "weird" file system format on the iPod is actually a database. It allows the iPod to avoid having to scan the entire hard drive for playable media every time it starts up, and saves a lot of battery life.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
You didn't get the reference. Dumbass.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Target had the 10GB 3G Ipod for 150$, on clearance. Went like hot-cakes. Check at a Target near you!!
Good thing you didn't tell them it was $400!!
So let's see, I got a 10GB portable hdd + mp3 player for 150$ (7.5 times what you paid), 10GB/800MB = 12.5 times the capacity, along with tremendous extra functionality.
All bow to his Noodliness!! His Noodle Appendage has touched me!
Headphones in the car aren't a good idea, and as sibling poster pointed out, probably illegal. Your better off getting a tape adapter if your car stereo has a tape player (mine does, but i wish it just had RCA ins, no loss...), or an FM adapter. I'd recomend a digital one, because otherwise they're a bitch to tune and the signal will drop annoyingly in the middle of traffic.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Yes, quite easily.
1. Put the album into your computer.
2. Select all of the tracks.
3. Go to the advanced menu.
4. Select "Join CD Tracks."
5. Rip and transfer to iPod.
This is, for example, how I am able to listen to King Crimson's "Lizard" in it's proper form on my iPod.
How'd you replace the AC adaptor?
I really kluged it. The adaptor plug from the outside looks the same as the ones on a Walkman, but after getting it home I found that the standard Walkman plug won't fit onto this power jack in the CD player. "Shit, chumped again," thought I. "A proprietary jack to make everyone buy a $25 AC adaptor for a $20 CD player."
I carefully opened the unit and mapped the connections with an DVM ohmmeter. Then I desoldered the connector, attached three wires to the now-empty holes on the circuit board, reassembled the unit, and soldered a standard mini power-jack to the wires. Then I used hot glue to attach the new AC jack to the side of the CD player. It worked, to my relief.
Then I got an automobile cigarette lighter plug and installed an LM317 adjustable voltage regulator chip in it that was adjusted (with two resistors) to +6 Volts (what the CD player requires). Then I spray painted a set of good headphones to be the same color as my hair so the cops won't notice that I'm wearing them and give me a big honking ticket.
Result: $25 car stereo with ten hours of music on each 14 cent CDr. I know I'm really cheap and sleazy, but what can I do?
Okay, here's the list of benefits for an iPod (correct me on what I miss):
- Lots of music in one place, at your fingertips
- "Mix" on the fly
- Use it as a portable hard disk
- Some PDA functionality
- Good battery life
- Not much skipping
- Fast file transfer on a new PC
- Files can be transferred on anything with USB or Firewire
- iTunes compatible
And the list of non-plusses:
- If charged daily, $99 yearly battery replacement fee
- Battery replacement takes longer than one day.
- Storace space cannot be increased through standard methods.
- When the battery goes flat, you have to charge it.
- Also, when the battery is flat, the units data contents are not-transferrable
- Cannot use iPod's music (or data) with anything that doesn't have a USB or Firewire port.
- High initial MSRP cost.
- Cannot play music bought at record store without intermediate steps
- Cannot play your friend's CDs without intermediate steps
- Data format not car stereo compatible
Benefits of a CD/MP3 player:
- Low initial MSRP cost.
- Infinite storage space
- Can mix data and music
- Can reload with fresh batteries if ones in unit die
- Fresh batteries are available anywhere, anytime and take under 10 seconds to replace
- Choice of rechargeable or non-rechargeable batteries
- Files can be transferred to anything with a CD player
- Fast file transfer with any age of computer
- Does not require batteries to transfer data
- Can play back music on many DVD players
- iTunes compatible (if using recoded CD)
- Can play music bought at record store instantly
- Can play your Friend's CDs instantly
- Data format car stereo compatible
Lowlights of a CD/MP3 player:
- Cannot remix between discs
- Requires charging more often when using rechargeable batteries
- Bulky
- Not compatible with anything lacking a DVD or CD-ROM.
- Lacks PDA capabilities
- Older units had skipping problems
- Slow seek times
As you can see, there's strong points on both sides of the debate. As you can imagine, being a car stereo owner, I have a CD/MP3 player.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
The battery replacement service was released 2 weeks before that stupid ipod's dirty little secret thing's domain was even registered.
There is no problem at all moving music back and forth between multiple PCs and an iPod. I do it all the time. The layout and naming of the files on the iPod are strange, but the files are normal (mp3) files.
I would advise against manipulating the files directly. Use the excellent EphPod program freely available at www.ephpod.com instead.
Actually work by Tom DiMarco and Timothy Lister [Peopleware] demonstrated that listening to music, destroys your creativity.
They tested this by setting developers a programming problem. Half in quiet, half with background music. All solved the programming problem.
However only those in the silent group noticed that there was a short-cut solution to the problem. None of those listening to music did.
The reason is, the bit of your brain that is creative is the same bit that listens to music, and it can't do both.
Edward
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
But in five years, iPod clones will be selling for $20, the Apple units won't be collectable, Apple will stop supporting them, batteries will be unavailable, and something else really expensive will be cool.
...I know, the comment was more about Firewire and USB, but it still struck me as interesting.
Perhaps, but until then, I, and the parent, will be able to cart around our music in our shirt pockets and flip through our libraries with greater ease than you and your 28 CD's. And that, to me, is worth the $400.
Please note that I, like the parent, admire that you found a solution that works for you and am just pointing out (more) advantages to our position. Hell, my best friend still has a $2 (maybe not that cheap, but cheap) CD player that he connects to his car stereo with a tape adapter and he's got over 400 CDs.
I find it interesting that you mention CD's being universal media as though the iPod uses specialized equipment to output it's music. They do, after all, have universal headphone jacks!
fs
>Being a car stereo owner, I have an iPod and a 8 year old Sony discman cd-to-tape adapter
;-)
Hey, if it works for you, that's great. However, I'm enjoying the 12 - 20 kHz frequency range too much to give it up for tape warble.
The best bet, for such things, is to get ahold of a stereo with either AUX in (easiest) or CD-Changer in (harder, but often doable). That way you don't get any more loss than what's already present from the compressed music file.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC