50 Fun Things to Do With Your iPod

Ant writes "Jason Kottke's Web site has compiled a list of 50 fun things to do with your iPod besides listening to music with those white earbuds: From the article 'In the four years since its introduction, the iPod has proven to be a versatile little device. Despite a relatively closed architecture, hackers have found their way in. Content creators and software makers put information at your fingertips when you're on the go. Would-be designers have added to the fashionable stylings of the now-ubiquitous white ear buds. Hardware makers and enthusiasts have augmented the iPod with new add-on gadgets. Here are a few dozen things you can do with your iPod besides listen to music.'"

Comments

Wow, this is an old piece

[Anonymous Coward]

May 2005! The Video iPod was still just a glimmer in Steve Jobs' i.

45-50

[biocute]

List 45-50 are slashdotted, so here they are:

45. Blend in with a device everyone has

46. Untangled from useless features in cheap chinese knockoff

47. Free of battery failure with compulsory annual replacement

48. Go deaf

49. Buy back from eBay the iPod you gave someone for XMas, with original receipt and no shipping cost

50. Invitation to the iPod nano class action lawsuit

Re:45-50

[Anonymous Coward]

this was modded informative? ;) i'd give it +1, Sarcastic.

Re:45-50

[kfg]

The best sarcasm is informative.

KFG

Re:45-50

[Carthag]

My favorite thing is putting the earbuds in my nose and opening my eustachian tubes. It's as if the music is coming from within your head (well, it is, really).

Re:45-50

[Anonymous Coward]

The sad thing is that I bet a large number of Slashdotters just went to get their iPods and earbuds after reading this.

I know I did. :(

Re:45-50

[Carthag]

Did you get it to work? It's kinda hard at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's easier. I did read that some percentage of the populace is unable to do it voluntarily, though. One way is to try yawning or swallowing (it's the same thing when you align pressure on an airplane).

Re:45-50

[tehshen]

Holy batman, it does work as well! Sadly, it's a bit faint, even at full volume and with open tubes. And it makes you look like a prat.

There's a market to be had here, surely.

Re:45-50

[tabacco]

"Which is precisely the sort of thing we need to know: Do people want iPods that can be fitted nasally?"

Re:45-50

[Rickler]

Sweet that does work, and the bass actually sounds good.

Re:45-50

[BrokenHalo]

Do people want iPods that can be fitted nasally?

Possibly, yes.

I'm serious. Really. Well, sort of...

I'm thinking of those damn in-ear ear-plugs that I bought hoping for better sound quality than the standard ear-buds, but which won't stay in my ears for love or money. Now my ears are unexceptional as far as size and shape are concerned, but the nasal application of these earphones is quite successful.

It does make me look a prat, though. :-P

Re:45-50

[saskboy]

"50 fun things to do with your iPod besides listening to music with those white earbuds:"

I was going to suggest 48 too. Hearing societies recommend against using earbud style earphones since they are further down the ear canal and thus cause more damage to hearing when turned up too loud. Personally I think loud music from regular headphones will cause the same level of damage at the same perceived volume, since that's the volume that someone wants to listen at anyway, not a set number on the dial.

Re:45-50

[TimTheFoolMan]

Sinusoidal waves?

Tim

Re:45-50

[Greyfox]

Bet it doesn't make you go deaf, though. That might end up being the safest way to listen to your ipod...

Re:45-50

[Anonymous Coward]

I think my sarcasm detector just exploded.

Re:45-50

[odourpreventer]

I did read that some percentage of the populace is unable to do it voluntarily, though.

If the "nose buds" are made to look like the ones used by the aliens in "Battlefield Earth", will that increase popularity?

Re:45-50

[WillfulActs]

Before I got my iPod I came across a good site, http://ipodminiinfo.blogspot.com/, that had some pretty good info. It looks like a compilation of info from different sources. That's just if anyone wants to seriously look for some info on them.

I actually ended up picking up the mini just because it's easier to pop into my back pocket or a jacket pocket. Seems ok, it plays music, good 'nuff. I'm not into podcasting or any of the likes so I guess it's overkill, but I like gadgets to play with.

This was lame when it was on digg.

[murph]

Get mugged.

Re:This was lame when it was on digg.

[Anonymous Coward]

The good thing about Digg is if you miss a story the first or second or third time it is featured there, it will be duped at least 10 more times for your convienience.

Re:This was lame when it was on digg.

[dogwelder99]

That comes under #8... "Approach someone with the signature white ear buds, smile, and trade headphone jacks to get an earful of your new friend's music."

Re:This was lame when it was on digg.

[platypibri]

And then after the umpteenth time on Digg, it'll make the slashdot front page the next day.

Old List

[JoshDev]

This was posted in May at http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/50-th ings-to-do-with-your-ipod-103817.php

#1 fun think I do is

[MasterOfUniverse]

Listen to music! Gosh its a music player for Gods sake, not second coming of a slice bread..

Re:#1 fun think I do is

[Xerxus]

Jason Kottke's Web site has compiled a list of 50 fun things to do with your iPod besides listening to music
I think listening to music is designated #0

Re:#1 fun think I do is

[antdude]

... it said beside listening to music. :P

Re:#1 fun think I do is

[heavy snowfall]

Clever website.

Re:#1 fun think I do is

[Anonymous Coward]

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."--Howard Zinn

Which is why Iraq is no longer ruled by Saddam and his flag. The millions he killed thank you.

Altoid Box

[superpulpsicle]

Alright the #35 one should not count. That sounds like something fun to do with an altoid box, not an iPod.

A bit disappointing

[carou]

There's actually only 44 things in the list, and about half of those are duplicates of each other (perfect for /. then...)

Old comment

[Anonymous Coward]

This was posted six minutes earlier at http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=173360&c id=14423193

51

[Greyfox]

Run a web server on it and get slashdotted!

Actually most of those suggestions weren't particularly useful, some were repeats and #9 is patented if you follow their suggestion on how to use that particular mod. Nothing particularly earth shattering in the lot.

for the womens

[Mancat]

iBuzz: a music-activated, iPod-powered vibrator

http://www.lovehoney.co.uk/product.cfm?id=5294

Re:for the womens

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.ibuzz.co.uk/

Re:for the womens

[SierraPete]

My immediate thought was, "Okay, you're using it that way and it breaks... How do you explain that to Apple's warranty department?"

Re:for the womens

[kfg]

You don't. You explain it to their marketing dept.

KFG

Re:for the womens

[SchrodingersRoot]

This immediately reminded me of the old iBrator...

I feel there's a joke to be made about Mac users needing things like these, but I'm afraid it'll get me severely beaten around here.
And not in the good way.

Re:for the womens

[Jerf]

Reminds me of this, too.

Re:for the womens

[CvD]

Obligatory bash.org quote:

#346240
(lawngrl): im gonna insert my ipod in my vagina tonight and go to sleep i love it so much
(Fire_on_High): I'm quite sure that'll void your warranty

Re:for the womens

[t-twisted]

That's the first thing on Slashdot to ever turn me on.

Re:for the womens

[Anonymous Coward]

you know where you can stick that idea

They forgot..

[StikyPad]

Buring an iPod effigy composed of actual iPods, preferably in front of a Starbucks.

audiobooks

[DarkClown]

I love my ipod, and listening to music on it is great, but it has definitely made me an audiobook junky - it somehow feels like I'm pulling one over on The Man at work when I'm listening to a book that is actually interesting and possibly sucking my atention away from the job at hand.
I realize that this isn't really specific to ipods, but getting one for some reason made me willing to check them out - kind of thought they seemd like a corny idea before.
installing linux on it and playing doom was definitely fun, but the audio on the nano in linux is still [retty glitchy, so it's just kind of novel to have.
what i'm really looking forward to, or hoping for at least, is the rumored video support for nano in a possible forthcoming firmware upgrade. the nano is just small enough to sneak by veging out on videos all day at work - the laptop is a bit sore-thumbish. hooray!

Re:audiobooks

[shmlco]

Second the audiobook recomendation. Spacewise, I have more audiobooks on my pod than music. I'm also an Audible member, so I can get most of the latest bestsellers for about $11 a book. Much better than paying $30-$50 for the cd versions.

Re:audiobooks

[DeveloperAdvantage]

If you are looking for audiobooks for software developers, take a look at our site at http://www.developeradvantage.com/.

We have two MP3 audiobooks currently available, one on Java and the second on J2EE Patterns. An Ajax one is on its way.

You can not get technical content like ours on amazon.com or audible.com.

Re:audiobooks

[shmlco]

You need to make one of those free so we can get an idea of what it's like. I'm not sure a technical audio book works without seeing code samples and screen shots.

Re:audiobooks

[DeveloperAdvantage]

Thank you for your interest.

We do have free samples available on our website. Click on the title you are interested in, and on the list of tracks for that title you will find a short sample for each audiobook. Also, if you purchase the audiobook and are not happy with it, let us know within 30 days and we will provide a refund.

It is difficult to cover technical content in an audio format. I love books, and like you said, for software developers screen shots and code samples are important. That said, in my experience as a professional developer, I have found it extremely important just to have an awareness of what is out there and a basic conceptual understanding of what it is, the advantages and disadvantages, and when to apply it (this is really what is covered on the J2EE Patterns CD). If you know this, then at least you know what to look for and the deeper details, code samples and diagrams required for further consideration or implementation can be found on the Internet or in a book. Also, many people find listening to audiobooks a great way to help them remember details, which is where a product like our Java Syntax module fits in.

I do not have any grand illusions of our product replacing books (my background is technical, not in marketing!). But, our products are a great complement to what is currently available. One of our listeners, a senior developer who has been writing software almost as long as I have been breathing, found that he picked up valuable knowledge by listening to our modules while out for this daily run. There is no other product which would allow him to do this.

Re:audiobooks

[DeveloperAdvantage]

We have decided to make our first one free, at least for the time being. You are right - that will give people a much better chance to see what its like, and we will gather more feedback.

Missing the most obvious reason...

[MosesJones]

Buying one for your wife... meaning you have to upgrade your home machine to play iTunes... honest dear it just won't run on this single CPU one...

Re:Missing the most obvious reason...

[digitalgimpus]

Ok, that was funny.

But seriously, my father bought one... despite him taking about 3 weeks of studying to figure out how it worked.... it meant lots of upgrades to the computer for him:

New USB2 card
New Hard Drive (had 30GB drive, and 40GB iPod)
Fresh Windows Install

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! /hates iPod

ipod ipod hype hype hype

[mumblestheclown]

explain to me again why this device is so special?

i own two of these things by proxy - i bought my girlfriend one of the 4g variety and of the tiny variety in japan about a year ago (she asked, i paid). i am a busy guy generally and quite technologically adept (I run a software company, for god's sake), but spent about half an hour fumbling with the software and, while i got some of her music loaded on them, in general found the whole experience to be poor. the 4g unit's metal casing is basically designed to scratch and the UI is.. well, pretty junky. these things mostly just sit in the shelf.

we spend our time between london, new york, and tokyo... which are, at least in theory, "cool" cities. yet, despite the theoretical ubiquitousness of these things, i rarely see them out there on the field in practice. i do see a lot of people giving steve jobs credit for a device that he markets, but did not invent. i do see a lot of magazines and television shows providing free advertising for this thing. so, i am not surprised that the sales are good (phenomenal, even). I just dont see a particularly special piece of hardware or software. as somebody else has mentioned, there are a number of clones that just seem to be much better at a much better pricepoint. indeed, i felt like a complete tool going to the fancy apple/ipod displays around akihabara paying a high markup for marketing fluff while passing over a number of quite nice units for sale elsewhere.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[99luftballon]

I've had five media players and none of them was an iPod. Like you I dislike the marketing hype arounf the iPod, especially the Shuffle or iChav. Only Steve Jobs could tell people that not having a screen on a player is an advantage.

But like it or not the iPod is by far the easiest music player to use and that's the key to its success.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[goMac2500]

How is it that it took you a half hour? I just plugged in my iPod and it automatically transferred all my music over, no problems at all.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Twid]

Well, I didn' t mod you a troll, but I would have if I was modding.

Here's why:

1. You don't actually own, use, or appear to even like iPods, but you feel compelled to post on your second-hand experience of buying one for your girlfriend. Based on what sounds like about 20 minutes of using one, you think you're some sort of expert commentator.

2. You follow that up with some weird observation about not seeing iPods in use in major cities. Now, I'm in the bay area, but I do travel a lot. I'm not sure what you're looking for, but I personally see iPods everywhere, to the point where you'll see several people posting here about iPods being too popular or too trendy. I was at the gym last week and was amused to see that every single person on the row of elliptical trainers that I was on had an iPod of some sort.

3. You finish with a rambling observation that you don't see why people find the iPod (which you don't own) special or useful.

In summary: you're posting uninteresting, vague and uninformed observations about a product you don't even own or use, and that you appear to have a bias against. You also post vague statements about other products being better without offering any specific examples. I'm not even sure you like to listen to music. So, overall that would move you to troll in my estimation.

There you go. :)

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Chrononium]

Despite the fact that you were modded a troll, I don't think you really meant to be labeled as such -- you're just providing an honest opinion on this device. The iPod (all of them) is not a remarkable piece of hardware in any way. There are superior players out there (hardware-wise). Similarly, iTunes is not the absolute easiest thing out there to use (despite the fact that by default, iTunes will automatically load the songs onto the iPod without any problems ... I suspect that you are using the Windows version, which you only just installed), but I would say it is up there. Still, the combination of those two things (plus the large, nearly *worldwide* iTunes catalog and minimal DRM) has granted it top-dog status.

The cities that you list as being supposedly "cool" cities are also heavily populated. I know that New York advises everyone who owns an iPod to get a different (preferably black) pair of earbuds to avoid mugging, which seems to be rather consistent from my view of people in New York. Tokyo and London probably have similar advisories. Just because you can't casually see it doesn't mean that they don't have it. Or better yet, maybe you're not seeing them at the right time. I have noticed that the U.S. west coast has much more of the devices than the east coast (or at least the users don't change out the white earbuds).

The comment about the metal back to the iPod is completely correct: they are designed to scratch, making them unique. It's a design statement by one of the world's most acclaimed industrial designers.

The comment about Jobs not inventing the device is quite true, but this philosophy can be extended indefinitely. At some point, you have to draw the line as saying that this person is responsible (not unlike a person in your position) for creating the iPod. He played a heavy hand in making it easy to use, as well as providing the necessary engineering and financial support to bring it up off the ground. I don't know of a single person who actually invented the PC, the GUI, or the iPod from scratch.

The comment about visiting fancy displays seems ill-mannered: why wouldn't you want to show off your product in the best way possible? So much about products (and people, places) come from the first impression. Those stores have some of the highest revenue densities in the world, and yet, they are designed to be spacious and unintrusive. I happen to find good design (not just technical design, despite my engineering background) rare and therefore, valuable. If anything, the feeling of being a complete tool comes from the fact that you bought what you felt was an inferior product because someone else asked you to do it.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[mashx]

"london ... i rarely see them out there on the field"

I am not sure what you imply by 'field', but if you get on any train during rush hour in London you'll see them everywhere.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[hkb]

lol @ troll x 2

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[metaphorever]

The metal backs and white faces on iPods isn't there 'to scratch and make them unique', it's there to make the iPod look like a bathtub, silly.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Bazzalisk]

Only one point I can really challenge here:

I live in London, and it's pretty rare for me to sit ina tube carriage without seeing four or five other iPod users during off-peak times.

During rush-hour, naturaly, I can barely see anyone else who isn't presse dup right against me :(

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[GaryPatterson]

I don't travel so much, but here in Australia just about everyone with headphones seems to have little white headphones. This is my experience in Melbourne and (on a day trip) in Brisbane. They're everywhere!

As to the device itself, I haven't found the sort of problems you've had. In my experience it's been trivial to get music onto it. I bought one for my fiancee, and was rewarded at work with a Nano. I'd have never bought an mp3 player for myself, but after being given one, I find I use it a lot.

My fiancee is a PC user, with no particular feelings for or against Apple. She found the iPod simple to use, and now it's the source of her music collection. After opening the box, we had our entire CD collection of nearly 25GB on it in about 40mins.

The device is not particularly special in the specs, although I'd say they're competitive on price, especially the smaller units. It's just a small hard drive, reasonable audio circuitry and a very smooth interface. There are other options, but after trying them in stores I find them clunky to use. The iPod's not perfect, but it's the best of the bunch.

You say that people are giving Steve Jobs credit for something he didn't do. I've heard that he was personally involved with the project, not at a technical level, but at the design level. If that's true (and I've heard it from different sources, so I don't doubt it) then he can take fairly credit for some part of the iPod, but so also can the design team (headed by Ives, no doubt) and the technical team. It's just that we don't know their names.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[cgenman]

I have a theory.

Apple's iPod is a not a music player. It is a detachment device. When the world gets to be too much, you whip out your little white world and detach into your own universe. Because of this, everything on the iPod, from the pure white face to the uncluttered interface, is straightforward, clean, and unnoisy. I've owned a lot of MP3 players over the years, and the iPod is the only one I would describe as "calming." The rest of them are cluttered with features and buttons, aesthetically noisy, and generally not what you want to turn to when you want to de-stress.

That's not to say the iPod is perfect... all of the ones that I've used have had problems ranging from easy scratching to not being able to forward between songs while using the scroll wheel to adjust a song's position. It also takes far too long to figure out how to turn off the blasted thing, a problem common with a surprising number of MP3 players. But it is the least crappy of all of the current crop.

As for the cost, there are more cost-effective player out there. But your goal is de-stressing, not maximum hdd per dollar. If something costs 20% less but makes you want to throw it across the room every time you use it, it isn't a savings towards your goal. If you can get a bigger hard drive in a bigger player that is so big you can't fit it in your pocket and therefore never take it with you... what have you gotten for your money?

I know lots of New Yorkers with iPods. They all have alternative headphones. The white cords are ubiquitous on Boston subways, however, as well as on Bart/Muni in San Fransisco.

And in Job's defense, he didn't create the iPod, but he has driven a heck of a lot of technology projects through to maturation. He drove the first really end-user-centric computer, his drive brought computers from geeky grey boxes to cool centerpieces of the living room, and he made online music sales a legitimate industry. No he didn't make these things himself, but without him these things wouldn't have been made (or would have taken a lot longer to get where they were). Remember: before the MAC, mice were rare and exotic.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Anonymous Coward]

But - isn't that what managers of software companies do all day?

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[osu-neko]

explain to me again why this device is so special?

Because it's perceived as special by so many people. Successful marketting. Hype leading to popularity.

I'm not attempting to downplay this. I've owned four different MP3 players over the years. Only my latest is an iPod. Why, after three significantly cheaper and perfectly capable MP3 players that I was perfectly happy with until I outgrew them (each has been bigger than the last) did I finally decide upon an iPod?

It had nothing to do with the device itself. Look at it and you'll find no clear advantage to anything else you compare it to. The hard drives aren't bigger than you can get on other devices, it doesn't really play more stuff (less, in fact, than WMA-capable players), it isn't really any easier to use than a large number of cheaper competitors.

If you don't see it, you're focused in too close. Pull back the camera a bit, so that you can see more than just the device itself. The reason I bought the iPod wasn't that it was, by itself, any better than the Creative or other players available. No, see those three aisles of iPod accessories in the store next to the iPod?

You can do more with the iPod, not because it does more, but simply because it's the one that everyone is making things for. The Creative player had three accessories I could buy. The iPod had three aisles of accessories. No matter what I wanted, I have a multitude of choices -- which style of case I wanted, what kind of speakers, specially built to both play and charge while it was docked in it, which kind, shape, and color of dash-mounting kit, etc.

The iPod is better because everyone thinks it's better, and manufacturers and sells accessories accordingly. What makes the iPod so special is that everyone thinks it's so special. It's like the proverbial self-fulfilling prophesy -- because so many people perceive it to be special, it actually is.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Anonymous Coward]

To summarize your post:

I don't agree with you, therefore you are a troll.

Thank ghod you don't have mod points!

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[eraserewind]

Well, I live in Tokyo and I gotta disagree with you on the ubiquity of iPods here. Seems like every second person on the train during the morning commute has one.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Twid]

because..... I would have modded the post a troll?

Too late! :)

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Assassin bug]

What is special about it? That's easy: 1)At the time I purchased mine the iPod was the most compatible MP3 player with my iMac. 2) I have a large music collection and I can fit most of it on this tiny device! 3) It is virtually skip-proof! Basically, it does what it is supposed to do. You don't seem to have a need for such a device or you would understand its utility. Why complain about something you don't own, need, or use on a regular basis? Unless you have something to gain...

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[mumblestheclown]

You, sir, are a moron.

1. I own TWO ipods, not just one. I paid for two. That they sit on my girlfriend's side of the bed is a technicality.
2. You claim that the fact that "i don't appear to like ipods" is a reason for marking me a troll. wow. that is just idiotic.
3. virtually every other gadget in my collection i can get working within a half hour or so. i certainly expect an end-user, ease-of-use focused music player to be the same. i found the ipod software clunky and counterintuitive, and the ui marginal at best. i dont understand how this honest experience qualifies as s troll. it might be counter to your own experience. but it is certainly not a troll.
4. i dont see ipods in major cities. again, this is my personal observation. again, certainly not a troll. I mean.. troll for what? people telling me "but i live in city Y and I do see ipods?"
5. I dont finish with a ranting observation. i finish with a summary. the summary is that, based on my experiences, i dont find the ipod useful, and in general there are better alternatives out there.

while I thank you for writing a detailed response, you do not appear in any way to have justified the troll rating. at all. zero. nil.

Rather, you have just emphasized the idiot belief on slashdot that 'troll' is shorthand for 'you disagree with my view on this particular product.' in fact, you pretty much come out and say this. pathetic.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Brooklynoid]

I know that New York advises everyone who owns an iPod to get a different (preferably black) pair of earbuds to avoid mugging, which seems to be rather consistent from my view of people in New York.

Save up and buy yourself a clue. I live in New York City. I've lived here my entire life. I know more iPod owners than I can count. I don't know of any that have replaced their earbuds for fear of being mugged. I don't know of any that have been mugged for their iPods. I don't know anyone who lives in fear of being mugged in New York. Come to think of it, I don't know anyone who's been mugged in New York the past 15 years. New York is the safest big city in America. Come visit us here in the 21st Century sometime; you might like it.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Chrononium]

Indeed, I have visited the city and found it to be fantastic. I felt safe in most areas and the police even seem to be very friendly (a dramatic difference with the West Coast cities). That said, there are numerous standing advisories to replace those darn white earbuds. It is still not recommended to walk alone in Central Park at night. Pretty easy stuff to abide by. The fact that none of your iPod owning associates have been accosted is great. Still, those people may not engage in notably risky behavior (at least noted by crime stats). Even if they participate in late night solo jogs with the nearly luminescent earbuds, they will likely not be mugged. But of those mugged (and it happens in every major city, including the largest city), people can do something to reduce their visibility to reduce their chances of being mugged. Think of it this way (hypothetical situation, numbers made up): 1,000 people are mugged annually in Gotham City, out of a possible million people. Not too shabby by my account: that's a 0.1% mugging rate. Perhaps further studies were conducted on that subset of 1000 and found that 20% (200) were mugged because the assailant specifically wanted his/her iPod, easily noticing the white earbuds. It would be logical to conclude that in order to reduce that segment of the muggings, the visibility of that iPod should be reduced. Easiest and most cost-effective way would be to replace those earbuds. None of these numbers are meant to say that New York City is unsafe. It is simply about making it a bit safer (since 0% crime is the (unattainable) goal in any city). I'm sorry if I offended you -- you've got a fantastic city.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[iainl]

When I got my iPod, I gave this a bit of thought. Then I realised that a mugger clever enough to notice the telltale white earbuds would probably be less interested in standard buds that may well be attached to a £59 512Mb Shuffle than the £129 Etymotic earbuds the guy sitting next to me has attached to an unspecified device that clearly justifies that kind of headphone expenditure.

Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype

[Twid]

Thank you for the information.

Linux?

[jollyroger1210]

Will it run.....It will? Awesome!!

Re:I know!

[jigjigga]

sweet! I have been looking for a replacment for the rio Karma, the last one I knew to play ogg +flac. Thanks for pointing this out, good to know there are alternatives.

No radio

[Douglas Simmons]

One thing you won't be able to do, at least with Apple's factory setup of the iPod, is listen to radio (unless one day they charge for satellite radio). This could be so easily added as it is seen on competitors' devices but if users aren't listening to downloaded music, rather something from a source they do not control, then they are not buying things on iTunes. Am I correct to guess that this is a marketing thing and not because they can't fit a little radio on there? If so, that should be a big criticism of the device.

Re:No radio

[Espen]

One word for you: podcasts

Now I get to listen to the radio programs I want away from the tyranny of the schedulers.

Re:No radio

[antifoidulus]

Or it could be that there aren't enough users interested in radio to justify the cost of adding it. Yeah, it might increase sales a little bit, but is the slight increase of sales really worth adding seldom-used radios to the other millions of iPods that you would have sold regardless? I know conspiracy theories are popular here, but can you actually make a business justification for adding a radio? Even if a radio adds only $5 of cost per iPod, if you are selling millions iPods, then you are adding an extra outlay of millions of dollars for sales that aren't all that much higher. Not to mention increases in support costs.
As per your "control" theory, there is nothing that says you have to use iTunes Music Store music on your iPod, you can load pretty much whatever you want on it.

Re:No radio

[st0rmshad0w]

Podcasts...woop-dee-doo.

Fun word. It's just a bloody recording! Have fun stumbling onto new stuff you like with that format.

Maybe I want to listen to the local college radio station or a real alternative station that isn't clearchannel owned and maybe hear some new local music, eh?

Re:No radio

[Trurl's Machine]

One thing you won't be able to do, at least with Apple's factory setup of the iPod, is listen to radio (unless one day they charge for satellite radio). This could be so easily added as it is seen on competitors' devices but if users aren't listening to downloaded music, rather something from a source they do not control, then they are not buying things on iTunes. Am I correct to guess that this is a marketing thing and not because they can't fit a little radio on there? If so, that should be a big criticism of the device.

That would explain why the "competitor's devices" are now a runaway success and iPod is just a miserable failure...

..or rather is it the othey way round? Well, if it is - then this should be a pretty good answer for your "big criticism". The market demand for radio-equipped digital music players is too small for Apple to bother. Apple's strategy seems to be "sell a basic device with ginormous offer of all kind of add-ons (among them - FM receivers). The "competitors devices" seem to be based on an entirely opposite strategy - "sell a device with all features that we can fit... and no add-ons". It seems that the first one works better on the market, would you agree?

Re:No radio

[guet]

Have fun stumbling onto new stuff you like with that format.

There are many podcast directories you can visit to do just that.

or a real alternative station that isn't clearchannel owned

You'll find that much easier with podcasts (given that they are international and free, and anyone can set one up) than with Radio stations, I really don't see your point. Your local college radio station probably already has a podcast : )

Whatever you call them, audio subscriptions are here to stay and are significantly better than Radio for many uses (save up to the minute news of course).

Re:No radio

[Anonymous Coward]

If so, that should be a big criticism of the device.

What, exactly, would that criticism be? That it doesn't have a radio? Plenty of devices don't have radios. My toaster, for instance. My laptop. My cellphone. Hell, my CD player doesn't have a radio, even though it would be "so easy" to fit one on there.

Re:No radio

[jZnat]

I'd rather spend the $300 on a feature-packed player than spend $300 on an iPod, and then an additional $200+ on accessories just to even come close to those offered by its competitors. The iPod would be fine if it cost ~$100, but instead it is overpriced, mainly due to the massive amount of marketing.

Re:No radio

[eraserewind]

Podcasts are nice, but actually I don't listen to podcasts on my ipod. I listen on my PC at work or at home. I don't think they are as closely connected to iPods as people make out.

Re:No radio

[dangitman]

Fun word. It's just a bloody recording!

Right. but it's a recording that's available - even if I forget to schedule my FM tuner in my computer to make a recording of a show I like. Previously, such radio recordings were only held in archives at the station. Now we can get them in a few moments.

Have fun stumbling onto new stuff you like with that format.

Exactly! It's awesome being able to listen to radio stations that i could never get with my FM transmitter. I discover tons of new stuff for free - compared to trying to find new music I have to pay for, and know what I'mm looking for. I can find an obscure DJ who will play something I haven't heard before on local stations or in music stores (online or brick-and-mortar).

Re:No radio

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Maybe I want to listen to the local college radio station or a real alternative station that isn't clearchannel owned and maybe hear some new local music, eh?

There are like, what, five of those in the US? Of course, that's hyperbole, but it seems that there might be one good channel in any given market, and that's not a lot of choice. With podcasts, you could concievably get legit indie music from anywhere in the world, not just in the local region.

I hate the typical radio ads so much that I won't willingly listen to radio, it seems to be 20 minutes of irritating ads per hour too. Generally, I consider both the AM and FM bands as unsalvageable. The concepts of XM and Sirius are intriguing but they don't seem to work well within my building.

Re:No radio

[Salvo]

In a nutshell; Radio is crap nowadays.
I live in Melbourne, Australia.
In Melbourne, there are dozens of Commercial Radio Stations of all varieties; Rock, Oldies, Dance, Pop, Talkback, Everything!
There are also dozens of Public and Independent Radio Stations. I'm actually subscribed to 3RRR and have subscribed to 3PBS, 3MBS and 3CR in the last few years.
The problem is; most of the stuff they all play is crap! Even on 3RRR, they have shows that have no interest to me, even though my taste in Music is Eclectic, and my Social Interests are varied. When there is a Show on FM Radio that I do want to listen to, there is no guarantee that I'm going to have reception or won't be interrupted half-way through the show; you can't Pause live radio.
I'd love to be able to listen to Zero G, Best of the Brat, Byte Into It! and Delivery, but for any of the above reasons, I always miss or get an incomplete experience. If they Podcast and I download the Episodes. I can Pause, Replay and even share with other people.

Re:No radio

[Anonymous Coward]

$5 for radio chip/antenna?

Man, you are either crazy or clueless, or both. Honestly now, the entire iPod costs no more that $15 in parts to make! Adding a radio would probably set them back a whole of $0.30, or less.

As for size, buy one of those portable radios at Walmart for $1 (the ones with headphones), open it up, and see how small the chip is: it really is tiny, the size of a penny, plus that small coil thingie.

Re:No radio

[jred]

Tell you what. Pop on down to the nearest dollar store & buy a damn radio. Forget all about the iPod. There! You've just saved a couple hundred bucks.

Now you owe me a beer.

hungry?

[AkA lexC]

Im fairly sure you could swallow the nano with little effort.

Re:hungry?

[know1]

i'm pretty sure that will scratch it

Re:hungry?

[Anonymous Coward]

well....
http://cad-comic.com/comic.php?d=20031117

Re:hungry?

[jacksonj04]

Remember "Do not eat iPod Shuffle?"

Re:hungry?

[Anonymous Coward]

> > Im fairly sure you could swallow the nano with little effort.
>
>i'm pretty sure that will scratch it

What have you been eating lately?

Either that, or my parrot and I are gonna have to have a long squawk when I get home. (At least I know what he's up to when I'm at work now.)

Re:hungry?

[Bryan K. Feir]

I'm reminded of the Sluggy Freelance iSophagus ideas...

Number 28...FYI

[IAAP]

FTFA: Get religion

Take the Book of God anywhere with BiblePlayer, listen to the Quran on your walk to the office, or discover the wisdom of the Torah on the train.

And you can also get meditation instruction, Dharma talks, etc... - Here ...FYI

I like to learn about Asian philosophy.

Re:Number 28...FYI

[Anonymous Coward]

You can get the Tao Te Ching as well

http://www.swiftlytilting.com/2006/01/01/the-tao-t e-ching-for-ipod/

Re:Number 28...FYI

[dangitman]

Good point! I never miss CIA brainwashing broadcasts, nor Steve Jobs' keynotes. All available on my iPod.

A few dozen?

[teklob]

A few dozen fun things to do with your ipod? Don't you mean 4.167 dozen? Anyway, I much prefer my sony netmd because it will play for 54 hours on a single AA battery.

Re:A few dozen?

[carpltunl]

Yeah, and 2 of the uses are dupes (Use as a mirror and use to put on make-up).

Re:A few dozen?

[Anonymous Coward]

But unless you carry extra discs (or have HiMD?) you'll be listening to the same 5 hour disc ten times over that 54 hour period.

...and people whine about the lousy quality of iTunes downloads, they should listen to an MD recorded in LP4 mode.

Re:A few dozen?

[teklob]

Actually, I've found that the quality of LP4 NetMD recordings, while supposedly ~64kbps (in VBR mind you) sounds just as good as 128kbps MP3s on my computer. There really is no loss of quality, at least in my mind.

Sorry...

[IAAP]

I didn't mean to Karma Whore.

Get it?

Karma whore referring to a Buddhist Site!

I kill me!

Why the need for radio?

[trolleymusic]

Seriously, god knows how many reviews/blogs/posts/whatever complaining about whatever mp3 player not having radio. Why would I want to listen to what someone else picks and ads and stupid people when I can listen to what I want, when and where I want to listen to it!

Re:Why the need for radio?

[macklin01]

Seriously, god knows how many reviews/blogs/posts/whatever complaining about whatever mp3 player not having radio. Why would I want to listen to what someone else picks and ads and stupid people when I can listen to what I want, when and where I want to listen to it!

1. public radio
2. live sportscasts
3. emergency broadcasts
4. exposure to music you don't own

Really, it's not to hard to come up with a few good reasons. -- Paul

Re:Why the need for radio?

[m50d]

Until the day they make an infinite capacity ipod, I'll always get bored eventually with whatever I have in my player. If there's a decent radio station around (AIUI such things don't exist in the US, but there are where I live) it's a great way to hear new stuff.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[jrockway]

If you wanted to listen to the radio, why don't you buy a $3 transistor radio? The iPod is a digital music player, and the radio ain't digital music.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[pherthyl]

Why would I want to carry around two devices if the functionality of one can be added to the other with zero disadvantages?

Re:Why the need for radio?

[Fishead]

I just finished installing my new Satellite Radio in my car, and figured out something really cool. The $100 MP3 player I bought from Tiger Direct has an FM receiver, and will even stream it to MP3. This means that every day to and from work (40 minutes each way) I can record some music for when I go for a run in the evening. Seeing as how I can't run for more then 20 minutes (yet) this works out quite well.

On an unrelated note, it took me 5 minutes to install the radio, and 2 hours to rip apart my dash to fix my cigarette lighter. You just don't get much of a car for $200 these days!

Re:Why the need for radio?

[pjt33]

Maybe not where you live, but that's not universally true.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[cgenman]

4. exposure to music you don't own

That's why I bought the iPod in the first place.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[dr.badass]

Why would I want to carry around two devices if the functionality of one can be added to the other with zero disadvantages?

Whether there really are "zero disadvantages" is left of to the designers of the device, and the goals they have set for it. Given that you can't do to radio most of the things you can do with an iPod (make playlists, pause, skip around, set ratings, listen to over and over again), it doesn't really fit in.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[Anonymous Coward]

another reason .. the gym I go to has multiple televisions with different shows on. In order to listen to the TV, you tune your FM receiver to the proper station, and WHAM you hear the TV. Because of this, I did not buy an iPod and instead bought a cheap sandisk mp3 player.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[Anonymous Coward]

So when you go to the gym you can listen to the TV's!

Re:Why the need for radio?

[topham]

Bah.

The solution is to listen to Satellite radio. (XM Radio specificly) lots of music, no ads.

And with the new units due in the spring, MP3 players and recording of songs from XM Radio... the best of both worlds... except it isn't an iPod and I don't already own one...

Re:Why the need for radio?

[null-sRc]

4. exposure to music you don't own

LOL!

I'll leave it to you geniuses why I laugh..

Re:Why the need for radio?

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy hell. It would take less than 2 hours to put in a NEW cigarette lighter in a dash... sheesh.

I kid though. I've run into some odd issues with "simple" fixes to a car. 1995 Z28. I got spark plug and wire change down to 2 and a half hours.... you wouldn't believe how those engineers decided to route the wires..... and if you got a replacement set, they only reached through the same points....

Re:Why the need for radio?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

So the designers are the ones that determine what is and is not a disadvantage for me? Thats great. Maybe they can tell me which of my girlfriend's habits are in fact disadvantages to me. I mean, beacuase they are so very accurate in determining what they want me to like on my ipod. I think I should sue that line on my employees. "I'm sorry but I've determined that giving you a raise this year would be a disadvantage for you. You'd probely just spend it on alchol and firearms and end up in Jail. Now, you don't want to go to jail do you? Thats why its in your best intrest not to be given a raise this year. Maybe next year you'll think twice about taking advantage of the open bar at the christmas party. "

Re:Why the need for radio?

[dr.badass]

So the designers are the ones that determine what is and is not a disadvantage for me?

Uh, yes. That's part of what you do when you're designing something.

I have no idea what the rest of your post means, but I assure you that nothing I was talking about has anything to do with your girlfriend or your employees, or even you in particular.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[ErroneousBee]

Bah, my iAudio 5 will stream radio to MP3, has (apparently) a timer mechanism to record according to a schedule, and also has voice activated recorder so I can hear what people are saying about me.

Its a shame I only listen to Bach and dont care what others think of me.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

No, the designers decide on what is going to be a disadvantage for the company, not the consumer. The consumer decides what is and is not an advantage for them. It might be difficult for you to understand that if you've never actuallly designed something for a company. Sure they talk about the consumer, but that's only part of the discussion. Its like the car industry. Concept cars are designed with the user in mind, the production model is what happens when they take other considerations. I'm just saying apple like every other company inthe world, has been known to screw the user, for stupid reasons that had nothing to do with the user.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[dr.badass]

No, the designers decide on what is going to be a disadvantage for the company, not the consumer.

Could you cite an example where credible designers designed a product in ignorance of end-user needs? Or a scenario where being unacceptable for users is advantagous for the company? You're struggling to make a point, but all you've done is state the obvious: "Designers work for companies."

The consumer decides what is and is not an advantage for them.

Yes, and the consumer's way of acting on those decisions is to buy or not buy products accordingly. They don't actually decide the design goals (and in turn, the design) for such products except by demand or lack thereof.

It might be difficult for you to understand that if you've never actuallly designed something for a company.

I have, and I still think you're wrong.

Concept cars are designed with the user in mind, the production model is what happens when they take other considerations.

I think you have it backwards. Concept cars are marketing instruments, first and foremost. They don't have to be designed to do anything that users actually want or need to do. A concept car may go 200 miles per gallon, but not have air conditioning, airbags, or (of all things), a radio. Production cars have to sell, and to sell, they have to fulfil the consumer's needs.

I'm just saying apple like every other company inthe world, has been known to screw the user, for stupid reasons that had nothing to do with the user.

How on earth is making a product that the user doesn't want to buy screwing the user?

Re:Why the need for radio?

[Fishead]

Yeah really, I know a guy who had to cut a hole in his wheel well just to get at one of his sparkplugs without lifting the engine. Now that I know how to take apart my dash, it would prolly take me 15 minutes to get at the cigarette lighter, but in order to figure out the dash assembly, I ripped everything off. To top it off, it was pouring rain so I had to do it with my doors closed. Also, I have reached that point where investment in the audio system passes the investment in the entire vehicle.

Re:Why the need for radio?

[aldsar]

So the designers are the ones that determine what is and is not a disadvantage for me? Thats great. Maybe they can tell me which of my girlfriend's habits are in fact disadvantages to me. that seems awfully close to calling designers something of Nazis... ...and so Godwin!

You missed:

[Anonymous Coward]

scratch to win a free iPod!

You forgot...

[alan.briolat]

51. Use it as a hockey puck (preferably if it belongs to someone listening to mass-produced (c)rap)

Re:You forgot...

[Anonymous Coward]

YAY!!!
SNOBBERY!!!!! /grow up

very digg - crap

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, slashdot beat digg.com to a shitty digg.com-style 50 best list story.
Congrats!

Re:very digg - crap

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if this is a dupe on slashdot aswell.

Otherwise I think not.

Traffic information (n/t)

[pjt33]

Traffic information.

Emergency Boot Drive

[Anonymous Coward]

I use my iPod for music, audiobooks, podcasting, and storing notes. But one other thing I use it for is an emergency boot drive.

I cloned my start-up disk onto my iPod minus unecessary files and use it as an emergency boot drive. If I need to repair/maintain the start-up disk, I can do it with my iPod which has all the utilities I need. I've repaired my friends' Macs this way too. It's faster and more flexible than booting from CD.

Plus, I often simply boot from my iPod when I'm using my school's Macs or friends'. (With permission, of course.) I get to run my apps with my environment which I can sync back and forth with my Mac.

Unfortunately, now that all iPods no longer support FireWire, this will be my last iPod that can be bootable.

Re:Emergency Boot Drive

[Wisgary]

No USB drive support?

Re:Emergency Boot Drive

[Anonymous Coward]

AFAIK, Macs cannot boot from USB drives.

Re:Emergency Boot Drive

[macshit]

Unfortunately, now that all iPods no longer support FireWire, this will be my last iPod that can be bootable.

Wait, ipods no longer support firewire?!? I thought Apple was the #1 firewire cheerleader... What happened?

I'm confused because I had vaguely been thinking of adding a firewire card to my circa 1999 PC as a way to add an external harddrive (the idea being that it would be compatible with any new system I bought while still being convenient and reasonably fast), and that I could also buy and ipod and use firewire to download to it (I only have USB1, which works with ipods, but is ... slow).

Re:Emergency Boot Drive

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple has slowly phased out FireWire support on iPods starting with the Shuffle, the nano, then the 5G iPod.

Many iPod fans, including me, were not happy with that decision.

The theory as to why Apple chose USB 2 over their own FireWire support for iPod are:

- FireWire was never as popular on the PC side. And even if a PC has a FireWire port, it's sometimes the 4-pin version. iPod needs the 6-pin version to be able to charge from FireWire.

- Both recent Macs and PCs support USB 2.

- Since the Shuffle was USB 2 and the nano for reasons stated above, it would be logical to make the 5G iPod and thus the entire iPod line USB only to further simplify things.

- By removing the FireWire chip which is bigger, more complicated, and more expensive than USB controller, Apple can shave production cost and further reduce size of the iPods.

Apple has not abandoned FireWire completely. It is still the ideal choice for streaming audio and video from camcorders and audio mixers as well as connect ands power portable external drives. FireWire 800 will start to replace FireWire 400.

Re:Emergency Boot Drive

[Wisgary]

Oh :(, thought they might be able to.

iPod Holder at the gym...

[__aaclcg7560]

I was at the gym this morning in what apparently was Sports Bra Sunday since a lot of women were wearing them without a shirt. One woman had an regular iPod sitting in the front middle of the sports bra while running on the treadmill. I'm not sure if that's the most practical place to put it or she was too cheap to get an arm-band or waist iPod holder.

Re:iPod Holder at the gym...

[A. Bosch]

> I was at the gym this morning in what apparently was Sports Bra Sunday since a lot of women were wearing them without a shirt.

Soooooooooo.... I was just wondering. What gym do you go to?

Re:iPod Holder at the gym...

[__aaclcg7560]

It's 24 Hours. The location I go to also has the San Francisco 49er's cheerleading squad renting out the aerobics room for one weekend each year.

Re:iPod Holder at the gym...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, and all you noticed was the iPod. See what happens when you devote half your life trying to justify a product by a company that does not even care if you exist?

Re:iPod Holder at the gym...

[__aaclcg7560]

That's probably why I don't own one. When technology becomes a fashion statement, I tend to pass on it.

Re:iPod Holder at the gym...

[Anonymous Coward]

Owning a computer can be a fashion statement these days; do you not own a computer, either, simply because it's fashionable to some people?

Refusing to use something because some people find it fashionable is as absurd as buying it because some people find it fashionable.

Re:iPod Holder at the gym...

[__aaclcg7560]

I do own a network of computers. But nothing fancy like blue lights and see-thru windows or anything like this. In fact, trying to find a decent "beige" PC case is almost impossible. I had to settle for this instead. Of course, I did replace the blue LED fan. ;)

Re:iPod Holder at the gym...

[lrucker]

I'd go with practicality. There's less chance of the earbud cords getting caught on the treadmill parts, or even just pulled out by arm movement.

Website?

[ruiner13]

Is their website running on an iPod? If so, i'd take it off the list now :)

Might as well pimp mine...

[aftk2]

Since it didn't make it.

iPod bartender and iPod bartender shuffle

(I think something similar did make it, but mine is free.)

#51

[Anonymous Coward]

Give it to meee!

yay minimalism

[qw0ntum]

I know Apple is into the minimalist thing, but eliminating the numbers 45-50 is a whole new level.

Re:yay minimalism

[Anonymous Coward]

Hush, only having 44 instead of 50 is actually a feature!

Microwave it?

[untwisted]

I put mine in the microwave. That was pretty fun for the 3 seconds that it lasted. Amazingly enough, it survived. The first time I nuked it, I left it off and put it in the mic for 1 second (I didn't want to melt the screen). The second time I nuked it, I turned it on and put it in for 3 seconds. That cooked it pretty well, however when plugging it in to the charger it would still turn on (even though it smelled of burnt electronic). The battery won't hold a charge, and the scroll wheel doesn't respond anymore, but hey the apple logo still comes up, as does the charging logo.

Re:Microwave it?

[GNU(slash)Nickname]

I put mine in the microwave.

For the love of Jobs, WHY?

Re:Microwave it?

[SMS_Design]

Are you fucking retarded?

Re:Microwave it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, he did buy an Ipod so I would have to say that yes he is.

Re:Microwave it?

[untwisted]

I nuked it to break it... duh. Why else would you put an iPod in the microwave?

Re:Microwave it?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a fucking retard. I know you think you're funny, but no. You're just fucking stupid.

Re:Microwave it?

[untwisted]

Hey man, to each his own.

Re:Microwave it?

[Andre_PC]

Wow. Well, instead of melting it, why don't you send one to me? iPod is very expensive here in my country (almost double the price) :o

sold!

[nilsthegreat]

convinced me to get one

Re:I know!

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish you silly ogg people would stop whining. Ya ya its open, WHO CARES! How much more did it cost to have MP3 support in the ipod, what a $1?

Stop preaching!! 99% of us could care less!

I don't understand why every Slashdot Ipod discussion has people like you bitching about something as silly as this. Yes yes, we get it, it has no ogg. Can we please move on now as no one else cares other than a few uber-nerds!

I'm too poor for an iPod

[RickPartin]

If I may be off-topic for a moment, I'm looking for another cheap MP3 player in the $40 range. I would rather spend that every couple years than $400 every couple years. Load up a 256mb SD card with music or internet radio shows and I'm perfectly happy. Anyone have some suggestions?

Re:I'm too poor for an iPod

[Anonymous Coward]

I was in a similar situation to yours a while ago - wanted an SD card player, not in iPod price range. I settled a lot higher than your proposed price though.

I hope this link works...

That's what I ended up buying. I don't know what £80 is equivalent to in dollars, but it'll be triple figures on your side of the pond I suppose, which sounds a lot more expensive, now I think about it... anyway, this thing fulfilled my oddball criteria - flash memory not hdd, normal batteries not shitty proprietaries, and SD card slot.

The reason I mention this despite it being miles out of your price range is that I searched for quite a while for SD compatibility and this was all I could find.

Re:I'm too poor for an iPod

[Lispy]

You might wanna check out this little gem even if it's a bit more expensive.
Pretty cool device and has everything you could possibly dream off. Forget the iPod. :)

Re:I'm too poor for an iPod

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure buy a used iPod Shuffle, I'm sure ebay can help if you watch long enough. No hints intended.

Re:I'm too poor for an iPod

[Angry Toad]

I saw a dead-cheap one at Wal-Mart not long ago that even an SD slot. I think it was around $60-80 Canadian, so that might even be in your price range after the conversion.

    Wal-Mart, of course, but evil or not that's where the cheap prices are.

iBirdPod

[dpbsmith]

...is a very interesting offbeat iPod product.

Stokes' Field Guide to Bird Songs, which I've owned for a number of years, is a three-CD set of recordings of about 300 bird songs. iBirdPod "software" is nothing more than a very elaborate script--I think it's just AppleScript but I'm not sure--that loads these CDs into iTunes (and thence to your iPod), but makes extremely clever (ab)use of the title, artist, and album fields, the playlists, and the feature that allows the user to define starting and ending times for each track.

For example, the track named "Towhee, Eastern" is by "artist" "drink your teeeee, towhee," from "album" "Pipilo erythrophthalmus."

It's contained in playlists "birdPod-All-alpha" (which includes every bird alphabetically by common name), "birdPod-All-phylo" (which includes every bird alphabetically by scientific name), "birdPod-Forest" (which includes only forest birds), "birdPod-Shrub-Brush," "birdPod-Sparrows" and "birdPod-Urban."

Every track is "cued up" to start at the very beginning of the most common song... particularly useful since the Stokes CD's sometimes double up two or three songs in one track.

So, if you're in a forest setting you can call up the "birdPod-Forest" playlist and you hear a bird calling something like "Drink your tea," scroll through the "artists" until you get to "drink your tea," and play the song to confirm it. Or if you read about Pipilo erythrophthalmus you can scroll through birdPod-All-phylo, read off that it's the towhee, play the song, and make a mental note that the mnemonic for remembering the song is "Drink your teeeeee."

When I learned about it, my first reaction was what? they're charging money for that? I could do all that myself. Then I remembered why I didn't have my Stokes CD's on my iPod already... and I made a quick mental estimate of just how long it would take me to organize the songs... and decided it was money well spent.

Re:iBirdPod

[ljw1004]

Thank you! That was a fascinating post.

Re:iBirdPod

[trooz1]

What?

Mirror

[winkydink]

#51. Use your iPod for anything other than a web server.

http://www.networkmirror.com/FCHBZyg5Fudct_vH/www. kottke.org/plus/50-ways-ipod/index.html

51. make google adsense money

[Twid]

51. Clean your iPod with brasso based on a slashdot comment. Take pics and post about it on your weblog. Get an amazing amount of traffic. Watch the adsense dollars flow in.

I'm not saying I'm retiring soon or anything, but it was surprising to see the checks from google show up. Bonus! :)

Read RSS feeds if you're a Mac user

[mrob2002]

Number 23 has a link to a piece of PC software for reading RSS feeds. For all us Mac users, http://www.carnglas.com/ has a free piece of software called iFeedPod which will sync RSS feeds to the iPod - very useful for those boring commutes!

Re:I know!

[genner]

Wow, do you support macintosh products over the phone by any chance?

Listen to Podcasts ;^)

[Schezar]

Frankly, I'm more interested in using my ipod to, well, listen to things. Not that all of this isn't cool, but most people buy the things to use them as mp3 players. There are thousands upon thousands of podcasts out there, and the signal-to-noise ratio is better than you might think. (Meaning: there are lots of good casts).

That said, suggest some good podcasts ;^) What is slashdot listening to?

Two words for you....

[Animaether]

news broadcast

I'm sure you'll enjoy being the first to hear on a podcast how there how such-and-such died or so-and-so plane crashed... the day after it happened.

This applies to many things, really... don't forget that a 'podcast' is nothing more than a fancy word for easy 'subscription' to downloadable audio files. So you download the podcast, and listen to it on your way to work, etc. But once over - oh well, I guess you can listen to the same podcast again. And again. It's like having all your favorite music on there, except labeling it a 'podcast' from a 'podcast station'.

Sorry, but no - podcasts aren't radio.

Listening in the car...

[vistic]

#5: Listen to your mp3 collection in the car

"Griffin and Kensington (among others) sell FM transmitters for the iPod. Just tune your radio to the proper frequency and out comes your music collection."

Those FM broadcasters usually sound pretty bad. I have a standard Sony CD deck in my car, and on the back it has an "AUX" input for a CD changer I guess. I bought one of those cables that has RCA plugs on one end and a mini-headphone jack on the other from Radio Shack. So now I have a cable that just kind of comes out of my glove box which is plugged into the back side of my Sony CD deck. I get perfect sound from my iPod while in the car.

I wonder why more car stereo manufacturers don't put auxiliary inputs on the front of the deck, that'd be convenient.

Re:Listening in the car...

[OzPeter]

Some car manufacturers are starting to put connectors in their systems. Scion is one that I know of that does it. Hopefully the manufacturers will learn that trendy young kids aren't the only people who like to have their music on the go.

Re:Listening in the car...

[tabacco]

You can get wired FM modulators that are usually a huge improvement in quality over the wireless ones (although still limited to FM audio quality).

Alternatively, some cars, like mine, come with a factory head unit that supports an external CD changer. Those basically include a couple of control lines, and some line-level audio lines. You can get third part boxes that sit on that cable and pretend to be a changer, whilst actually just accepting a line in from whatever you plug into them. In my case, the head unit think it's playing a CD (Disc 1, Track 11), but the input to the box is actually my iPod. Works beautifully and gives way better quality than any FM solution.

Re:Listening in the car...

[kalidasa]

The original Griffin iTrips worked very, very well on 87.9 FM; the new dock-connector based ones are not as good, even on 87.9 FM (which many radios can tune, but which can't be used for broadcast in the States).

Nothing impressing without iPodLinux

[Elsan]

There's nothing much impressing in that lot... Also, for someone who has used iPodLinux you can see the author did not try it AT ALL, he doesn't even denote most of the things you can do with it. Where it says you can play a movie I thought "Oh! iPodLinux!" and it didn't even talk about it... iPodLinux could have taken lots of space in this list if the author had tried it...

Puritan Yanks

[OzPeter]

From the mentioned website:

PLEASE NOTE: This product can not be shipped to North America or Canada.

I know the yanks are a bunch wussy puritans, but whats up with the cannucks????

Re:Puritan Yanks

[andreMA]

PLEASE NOTE: This product can not be shipped to North America or Canada.

Last I checked, Canada was part of North America. Did I miss a memo or something?

Re:Puritan Yanks

[OzPeter]

Damn .. I missed that one in my rush to post .. lol

But I doubt you are the only people who missed that memo.

And I am sure the Canadians get pissed when people say North America but they mean the USA.

I have friends from Brasil who insist on saying "Dammit .. we're Americans too .. South Americans maybe, but we are *still* Americans"

Re:Puritan Yanks

[Anonymous Coward]

There are plenty of sex toy shops based in the US. The problem is most likely trademark infringement, i.e. with the "iWhatever" being considered infringement here but perhaps too general to hold in the UK.

I dunno - what IS a Puritanical stance on intellectual property? Maybe you'd be right anyway.

Re:Puritan Yanks

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank god....only NORTH America and Canada are forbidden. So I can still buy one for myself in Florida. Whew!!!!

how do they count?

[AlgorithMan]

Despite the fact that there are only 44 things (with an excuse that is at least quite funny) did you notice that there are more like 20-25 things you can do with your iPod - many of them (podcasting, record stuff, use it as a mirror, read texts, disguise it in some way, broadcast radio signals) are mentioned multiple times...

but how about this one: get arrested for installing linux on it
or this one: die from age while waiting for the unbeleivalble slow software to have uploaded your music on it
and this last one: waste your time on reading the same fun things to do with your iPod over and over again

well what shall I say... thats just the effect: no matter how bad your product is - when you broadcast enough advertisements the people will buy it... MS,HP,Apple (and more I don't recall now) live from that effect ^^
cya

AlgoMan

I own one

[kadathseeker]

A mini (which had the best case, most reasonable size/capacity/price). I have had it for a year, and have replaced the battery myself just this Xmas. While it is nice and all, it is NOT a device worthy of the hordes of gibbering idiots that worship the damn thing. I have crashed the OS several time, had it freeze on me several times, had it corrupt data, had the battery not last half the expected lifetime, given up on iTunes (ml_ipod for Winamp for teh win - and yes, I prefer Winamp as a media player because the Media Library is great for dealing with hundereds of gigs of music and videos) and had other problems with it, but I still use it all the time, every day. In fact, I may have had my hands on it almost as much as on my dick. Oh, wait, I read /., nevermind.

Band Camp

[Anonymous Coward]

Fun things to do with your iPod?!

This one time, at band camp...

digg digg digg digg diggity digggggg!!11cat1!

[Anonymous Coward]

These "this was already featured on digg" comments on slashdot were lame the first few times, and still are.

One thing I personally wouldn't use it for...

[Al Al Cool J]

..is listening to music.

Different strokes for different folks, but for my purposes, the ipod is functionally useless. I use my mp3 player (a Creative Muvo) primarily for listening to freshly downloaded music that I've never heard before. So it's an absolute must that I be able to quickly and easily delete songs I don't like while listening to them (and without having to look at the device). That's why I got the Muvo.

My rule of thumb is: new unproven music on the Muvo, good music on my computer, while the very best gets burned to CD for my car. The core idea is that I don't want the music on my computer to be a distraction when I'm working. So nothing so bad I have to stop work and skip past or delete a tune. Screening new music is best done when I'm out and about and away from my computer, and so I want an mp3 player that lets me do that.

This approach, and the Muvo, work very well for me, so I'm posting this message in case there are others who might like to do the same.

Re:One thing I personally wouldn't use it for...

[wadetemp]

You can rate songs on the iPod which is a functional subsitute for being able to delete them. For example, all my unproven music syncs to the iPod at 0-stars (not yet rated.) If I hear a song I hate I set it to 1-star. This has the effect of "deleting" it because my other smart playlists exclude 1-star songs.

If you must delete them you can do it from iTunes later. (Syncing the iPod, sort Library by rating, select and delete all 1-star songs.)

Re:One thing I personally wouldn't use it for...

[wadetemp]

Oh, and after reading your comment one more time you said "and without having to look at the device." To use my method you have to look at iPod, because going from 0-star -> 1-star is a finese operation and it's easier if you look at the screen.

You could change the technique to get no-look. Going from X-stars to 0-stars is easy to do without looking at the screen... click, click, wheel-counterclockwise.

Re:One thing I personally wouldn't use it for...

[Al Al Cool J]

Interesting. I see that's kind of a newer feature, which may explain why I didn't see it when I read through the ipod owners manual a while back. Thanks for the info.

I can see the appeal of the ipod, it's a quality device, but I still like my Muvo. It does exactly what I need for music playback (and I love the voice recording and built-in USB thumb drive).

Warranties

[Anonymous Coward]

51. Put your ipod around neodymium magnets when the next upgrade is announced

Stealing Cars?

[MoonPost]

So if you can imitate the signal form the TV remotes, then you should be able to imitate the signal from car keys too?

Re:Stealing Cars?

[lonasindi]

car keys use R/F, not IR. And not in the ranges your iTrip or whatever broadcasts on, either.

Re:Stealing Cars?

[slim]

More to the point, cars use a challenge-response protocol, so that they're not susceptible to replay attacks:

KEY: Hello, I am a key. Please let me in.
CAR: Hmm, what do you get if you encrypt this random number with our shared secret?
KEY: I get this number.
CAR: Yep, me too. I'll open up.

Re:Stealing Cars?

[lonasindi]

and on top of that, that random number isn't the same every time. further, the physical key itself is also an electronic key nowadays. The ignition won't go unless it detects the presence of a chip (think RFID) that's typically located in the fat part at the top of the key. Modern cars are hard to steal.

5 more thing you can do with an iPod

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Use it as a doorstop
2) Trade it in for a PSP. (Which plays games, movies, and browses the Internet.)
3) Use it as a rectal obstruction device whenever you buy mainstream music from iTunes at $.99/song.
4) Paint every room in you house off white, sell everything and refrain from any thing that could inspire thought or imagination. (Thought and Imagination are sins in the "Church of iPod" because they don't cost anything.)
5) Mark this post as flamebait and continue your consumer whore lifestyle

Re:51. make google adsense money

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to focus on something reflective, just put a finger or something in front of it while focusing.

My Favorite...

[NotFamous]

#57 - Pacemaker -- You can raise and lower you heart rate with the scroll wheel. Note: required a slight modification of the ear buds.

FM transmitter?

[nastro]

I listen to my nano in the car through a tape adapter. I guess it's sufficient for this curmudgeon who likes the old way of doing things...:D

Call me stubborn but

[scwizard]

Maybe I'm just jealous that I can't really afford one, but I refuse to buy an iPod or a cell until they're meshed together into one super device.

#26 Why the heck not real movies?

[xsspd2004]

Okay, I know it is against the [ignorant and out of touch] law in the US, but why not watch real movies on your iPod? That's why I bought the stupid thing.

My recipe goes like this:

1. Clone DVD to get the VOB files to my hard disk.
2. MergeVOB to get them into one huge file.
3. Videora iPod converter to do the MP4 converting.

On my rather dated machine the process takes about an hour 40, but the movies are only 700mb and that doesn't make much dent in my 60GB

Okay, now here's the kicker. I bought the movies legally on DVD and still have the case and all, why is this illegal? That's just stupid I don't care who you are. I should be able to put the disc in and iTunes should rip it for me, just like a CD.

Re:#26 Why the heck not real movies?

[bennomatic]

If I were Steve Jobs, that exact feature is what I would announce this Tuesday. Imagine if iTunes could rip your DVDs automatically, and apply Fairplay to the rips so that you could share with 1 or 2 other computers. If anyone could get the RIAA to agree to that, SJ could.

Of course, the only way to make this work would be to increase fees to rental agencies like NetFlix and Blockbuster. Less people would be buying movies, so that's how the RIAA would have to make back their money. The good news is that NF and BB would still make out like bandits without raising rental fees because there would be such a huge jump in rentals once average Joe Mouseclick could rip a movie to his iPod.

And with some level of sharing allowed, it would absolutely kill the illegal sales channel Why would someone invest in time, equipment and distribution systems to pirate movies when they can't even sell them for as much as a rental goes for because people can so easily "borrow" movies from each other over the net?

Maybe I'm an idealist, but I think it's crazy enough it just might work.

Re:#26 Why the heck not real movies?

[Dionysus]

When did Recording Industry Association of America care about what you do with your movies?

Re:#26 Why the heck not real movies?

[CharonIDRONES]

Some of us already do ;)

-Brandon

Re:#26 Why the heck not real movies?

[Mojojojo Monkey Inc.]

Because at the time this article was apparently written, the iPod with video didn't exist yet.

Re:#26 Why the heck not real movies?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought the movies legally on DVD and still have the case and all, why is this illegal?

That's not illegal and never has been. What is illegal is for someone to sell you the software "device" that allows you to do it. The DMCA is stupid, but not as stupid as some claim.

Old news.

[Anthony Coward]

The list is what... a year old or something?

Most portable device radio is crap

[Anonymous Coward]

The radio tuners in most MP3 players are crap - it's a good bullet-point feature but in the read world can't pick up anything but static. I bet one reason they didn't put it in is it's tough making one that meets their "it just works" quality standards.

IPDA

[Belseth]

Seems a lot of the features are trying to turn an Ipod into a PDA. If some one would just make a PDA with a proper hard drive that has an Ipod style menuing system there wouldn't seem much of a fight for functionality. Ipods are still largely a single use device. I use my PDA all day long and would be lost without it. I'm guessing cost is the big factor holding it up. Personally I'm pretty happy with the 1 gig card on my PDA. I store a lot of stuff on it and have yet to use up 10% of the memory. If it breaks I can pull out the card and drop it into a new one and be up and running in minutes.

Re:IPDA

[Anonymous Coward]

A 60 GB hard drive takes a lot of power and weight. So to make a PDA with an iPod-sized hard drive using current technology, you'll have to sacrifice something.

Or, coming at it the opposite way, it would be hard to Apple to modify the video iPod to have a screen as big as a normal PDA, add bluetooth, WiFi, etc.

If flash memory becomes less expensive and could functionally replace the 20-60 GB hard drive, then all this would change. The constraints of the hard drive would vanish, and hard-drive based mp3 players would compete head-to-head against other handheld devices.

Apple could add a lot more more hardware features onto an iPod while keeping it reasonably small, lightweight, and low-power. And makers of PDAs and phones could add enough storage for user to keep quite a large music collection on their phone or PDA.

iWhine

[naChoZ]

Being half deaf on the left, I wish someone would figure out a "hack" for balance control. Pretty sad such an obvious control would have to be a hack though...

Re:iWhine

[hawaiian717]

This is what you need, recommended by MacAddict Magazine (Dec 2005): http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?produc tId=2102669&cp

Re:iWhine

[Ziviyr]

How about hacking in a resistor for the good ear of your headphones?

Re:iWhine

[pimpimpim]

That links to a stereo-to-mono adapter, doesn't sound like the right solution to me? Maybe there are earplugs with balance control in the cord?

Re:iWhine

[lachlan76]

I don't know of any personally, but you could make one easily enough. Just put a pair of trimpots on a small piece of PCB, join it to a 3.5mm plug/socket and mount it in a piece of plastic or wrap the whole thing up in heatshrink. Better methods are available, but they aren't as simple, and often require either batteries and/or extra size (eg. a dual-gang potentiometer will give you something more like a traditional balance control, making one earpiece louder and one softer, but is larger).

Re:iWhine

[hawaiian717]

It wouldn't let you adjust each ear individually, but the stereo-to-mono adapter will combine the left and right audio channels, and send the result to both ears. Assuming I understood the MacAddict response correctly (the question was posed by someone who is deaf in one ear).

Re:iWhine

[pimpimpim]

Ah, so it makes sense, since you will at least hear both channels. But he specifically mentioned balance control. And, now that I think of it, I have headphones with balance control (I bought them because of the long cord that came with them):

it's the beyer dynamic DT 131 TV. Designed for watching tv with a corded phone. They apparently designed it for elderly people, not only because they show some old person on the picture of the box, but also because of the HUGE balance control box in the cord. I like the idea that they thought about partial deafness and sight/hand coordination for this group of users, but this big box and the 6 m cord make it a bit useless for use on the road.

Re:iWhine

[naChoZ]

That's more extreme than I need. I'm only about 50-75% deaf in my left ear, but it's still usable. It's my dominant ear on the phone, for example, I just have to crank the volume up. At the moment, all I do with my ipod is just jam the left earbud in my ear rather tightly and leave the right one fairly loose.

Re: 50 fun things....

[jfv]

51. Stick your Shuffle/Nano up your lilly a**. (Sounds more fun to _this_ reader than most of the items on the list) (P.S.: That item is _ancient_. Like last year or something.)

Not work safe

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's what you can do with your ipod. . . . . .

http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/wp-content/ep035un censored.jpg

If you are in the UK...

[blorg]

...this SD card player at £8.99 seems a good deal. Alternatively this (cheap-end electronics) is exactly the sort of thing to buy direct from Hong Kong/China on eBay for peanuts (just remember to factor in the shipping!)

goodbye-pod

[drwho]

I am so tired of hearing iPod this, iPod that -- these devices are not the first, nor the best, the portable MP3 players. I am also surprised that so many people here in slashdot, who tend to be quite reactionary about privacy and public disclosure rights, seem to blithely surrender to iTunes, that software which rules your music collection -- one which is in some ways spyware (reporting back to apple what you listen to) and is subject to the whims of Apple and its cohorts. At what point will MP3s become unsupported unless digitally signed by some Authorized Party such as Apple or the RIAA? I live my Creative MUVO much better - just drag and drop your music, no sweat, no software, no Big Brother. And, unlike the iPod shuffle which I was misguided enough to get my girlfriend for Christmas, it doesn't require software (iTunes) which caused the CD drive of her computer to no longer be recognized by the OS. I returned it to the store, and am going to buy her a MUVO.

Re:goodbye-pod

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I have found nothing to support the claim that iTunes or its supporting software reports your listening habits to Apple.

At what point will MP3s become unsupported unless digitally signed by some Authorized Party such as Apple or the RIAA?

Creative is in bed with Microsoft, how do you know that Microsoft wouldn't try to force the same? It would seem to be some sort of silly speculation, neither Apple nor any other audio device maker seems to ever force updates.

Re:goodbye-pod

[Anonymous Coward]

wow go the flame-bait.

Skeet shooting

[HermanAB]

is the one thing they didn't mention and which I think would be the most fun. Especially if it is somebody else's ipod...

Very old page

[l00k]

Erm, this has been on the net since at least May last year. A give away is "..With the recently introduced iPod Photo.."

Some things that aren't inluded in that list:

1. Convert large text files and into notes for use on iPod
2. Rip DVD Movies To Your iPod Using Free Software
3. Use your iPod Photo or Nano as a Yahoo! Maps directions viewer
4. How-To: Get TV shows off of your TiVo and onto your iPod

And that's just from clicking through del.icio.us search results for iPod a few times.

Fun thing to do with your iPod...

[l33tlamer]

Open rectum, place iPod centered on the opening. Move hand towards opening until the iPod has completely entered the body.

I swear, the next time a student ask me a question in a Lab while listening to an iPod, and then re-asks the same question 30 seconds later, this will be my reply. Not that it will be heard through the "doof-doof" music he is listening to anyways.

Seriously though, my professors have iPods, my supervisor is getting one, and my sister has one. How about some articles on Apple monopolising "I-can-dance-to-mp3s-because-I-have-an-iPod" market.

Re:Fun thing to do with your iPod...

[hawaiian717]

I actually can hear the outside world just fine through my iPod's earbuds, but still I take at least one earbud out of my ear when I'm talking to/listening to the flight attendant, out of courtesy (my iPod mostly gets used on airplanes). I also don't play my music at maximum volume.

neat

[ShaneThePain]

i like the political speech option in particular. too bad that website is so ethnocentric. I would love to listen to mussolini and oswald mosley. truly great speakers with a powerful and just message. Its a pity more dont recognize their genius.

Overhyped?

[TechForensics]

The IPod has a stellar "coolness" factor, but I tell everyone considering one to get an Ipaq instead. Maybe a bit less memory in most configurations, but WiFi, Bluetooth, Web browsing; or interface to your GPS, remote-control just about any IR device, print, use Word, Excel, read Ebooks, receive streamed video from your home server.... and of course, Solitaire. If you're not flush with extra cash, why get a less-capable device for more money?

Re:Overhyped?

[l00k]

True, but it is precisely because of the large capacity of iPods that they are popular. I had an iPaq 3800 series for 3 years, and used it to listen to MP3s, and play [short] videos on. I now have an iPod and am selling the iPaq in an online auction. I miss the ability to input text into the device, but for my personal situation I decided the iPaq wasn't the best answer. Don't underestimate what the freedom of giving people enormous amounts of space has on how and what they use their device for, and how they feel about their purchase.

"but WiFi, Bluetooth, Web browsing; or interface to your GPS, remote-control just about any IR device, print, use Word, Excel, read Ebooks, receive streamed video from your home server.... and of course, Solitaire."

Granted, the lack of wireless connectivity in all iPods is glaringly absent. Expect the next generation iPods to be connectable given this obvious feature hole. Pocket Word was useful, but you can read text with an iPod, copy video (albeit not as cool as streaming it), and my iPod does have Solitaire on it :)

"If you're not flush with extra cash, why get a less-capable device for more money?"

It's a matter of different strokes for different folks. If one wants a device to listen to music, podcasts and watch video on, then why pay good money for something you need to memory-manage constantly? That would be a fair question to ask people who buy a PDA to do what an iPod does.

Re:Overhyped?

[hawaiian717]

For $299, I can get an iPAQ rx1955 with 36MB of user accessible memory, or a 30GB iPod with video. Well, the iPAQ does have an SD slot, so lets see how much those go for. Cheapest price for a 2GB SD card on DealRAM is $99.99, which gets me the storage capacity of the smaller nano, which costs $199. As the iPAQ gets me the storage capacity of the cheaper iPod nano at twice the price, I'm not sure how you can say the iPAQ gets you a bit less memory while the iPod costs more. The iPAQ is a more capable device, I'll give you that, but they're not aiming for the same market. If they were, why do you think that the Mac forums (and sometimes here) have posts every now and then from people asking for a new Newton?

I don't think it's fair to say that everyone should get an iPAQ instead of an iPod. It all depends on need. If the primary need is for a music player, then the iPod is what you want. If you need a PDA that can maybe play a few songs, then go for the iPAQ, though in my case, I'd probably go for a Palm TX instead, since PalmOS has a much better history of Mac compatibility than PocketPC.

Re:Overhyped?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I tried to use a PDA as a portable audio player. It doesn't work well on-the-go, in my opinion, except as a backup device in case the dedicated audio player is nowhere to be found when I'm in a hurry or something like that.

With a dedicated player, I can feel the buttons to skip tracks, press pause and adjust the volume without having to look at the device, this didn't work that way with many of the controls being on the touch screen and easily bumped and such. The software players for the PDA that I tried didn't even have a concept of play lists.

Wow, that's dumb.

[PasteEater]

So... you're a spoiled rich kid. How's that goin' for ya?

Re:Wow, that's dumb.

[untwisted]

I am by no means rich. I will say that I feel I'm spoiled in relation to others. I have always had a computer at my disposal, and I generally get what I want (though I do work for it, no my mommy and daddy don't buy me everything) but not because I'm spoiled. I have a lot more than many people, though there are people far worse than me in this world. I have my reasons for nuking an iPod, and its not because I'm filthy rich.

s/RI/MP/

[bennomatic]

My bad... so many acronyms these days.

For anyone who didn't get what I meant, I was actually referring to the MPAA, which is responsible for motion pictures. Thanks to Bacchus for pointing this out!

But ask yourself...

[plopez]

what would the 911 call look like? Next time you think about doing something a bit... risque like that, make sure you think through the consequences.

For the women?

[dangitman]

You do know that men can use a vibrator just as easily as women, right? I'd say that vibrator sales are over 50% to men. They are popular among women, but I don't think they outsell the men. It's probably quite even demographically.

Open MP3 Player

[punkrockguy318]

Is there an mp3 player that ships with open specs and open firmware? If there were an mp3 player to be developed that shipped with open firmware, that would be quite a productive platform for development. Look how much has been done with the iPod, and all of that was reversed engineers! If a manufactorer was straightforward and released the firmware, so much more could be done. Does such a product exist?

Re:Open MP3 Player

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup. http://www.neurosaudio.com/

#41 Sell IPod on Ebay

[Sporkinum]

#41 Sell IPod on Ebay is exactly what I did or attempted to do that is. Won a 2gb nano in a drawing just before Christmas and decided 2gb doesn't cut it. My only problem is that the guy that won claims his 8 yr old son bid on it and won't pay. Now I have to wait a week and relist it. At least this gives me more time to scope out ebay for different players. Looking at either an IRiver with OGG support, or a Creative zen with great battery life and large HD.

Paranoid much?

[Foerstner]

that software which rules your music collection

Meaning it puts it in folders?

one which is in some ways spyware (reporting back to apple what you listen to)

No...it doesn't.

At what point will MP3s become unsupported unless digitally signed by some Authorized Party such as Apple or the RIAA?

Any minute now, I'm sure.

More fun things...

[Anonymous Coward]

51. Drop it from 10 feet and see if it survives
52. Repeat 51 from 20 feet
53. Put it in a beaker full of nitric acid and see how long it takes for the music to stop playing
54. Repeat 53 using a really hot oven
55. Make up some horrible story involving your ipod and try to sue Apple

Number 3

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

I stopped reading TFA when I got to number three. " Dress up your Ipod". Okay, thats about the stupidest least fun thing you could do with an ipod. I mean you could make a nice egg costume for it and sit on it until it hatches. but with the price of gas being what it is you wouldn't be able to afford the petrolium jelly it requires to keep it alive. Its really a shame, but you have to have a firm finatial plan before you start procreating. Just because you spent over $300 on the best digital music device, doesn't mean your responsible enough to bring a new life into this world. So please, think before you knit.

What You Talking About

[Greyfox]

My ipod has never seen the inside of itunes. Every single song on it was loaded with gtkpod. Breaking my old Palm address file into files 1 per address didn't take long -- awk did it in a line of code. I can put backup files on it too, though that's of limited use since my Windows machine at work can't read the Apple-formatted drive. It's still a handy 60 gig drive I can just happen to listen to music on, though.

What...

[DarkJC]

No holy war posts? C'mon people. Apple? Kottke.org? It's obvious.

Bah that's nothing -

[KlaymenDK]

- the article itself is full of repetitions. This is a "Fun, oh, 25-ish, things to do with your iPod".

One more thing

[Tug3]

Well, I used my first iPod (the original one) as a hard drive for my old PowerBook G3 which internal hard drive had failed. So, the iPod was th only hard drive "in" the PowerBook. Worked great. I installed OS X from the CD to the iPod and just booted. No worries!

Only thing I had to remember was to reconnect the iPod BEFORE opening the lid of a sleeping PowerBook. OS X really doesn't like that the computer's hard drive is removed while the computer is sleeping.... =)

It was fun while it lasted (for about a week), before I got around to buying a new hard drive for the PowerBook. No point in this (OS X on iPod) really, except the fun- and just-because-you-can -factors... ...but it was worth it, I feel that I have much bigger now that I did it. =)

No. 51

[nath_o_brien]

Funnily enough, Everybody loves Eric Raymond did a comic related to this on Friday... http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/archive/eler-2006- prediction-outtake

I nominate this...

[meringuoid]

... for the Most Appalling Geek Pun of the Month Award.

Seriously. That physically hurt.

#51

[towsonu2003]

trash it and go buy an iaudio x5, which officially is compatible with linux. much better than ipod.

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/x5/

Pod Jacking

[Anonymous Coward]

Just read this article and went for a run on the beach ..so of course when I spotted a girl walking the opposite way holding her ipod I had to try pod jacking ..I stopped and pulled out my headphone plug and suggested we swap plugs ..she was taken aback when I stopped but didn't hesitate to switch ipods ..she was listening to some very light dance/pop while I had rammstein going. It was a nice interlude specially in a place where people tend to be somewhat insular and not so forthcoming to interaction with strangers, I want to try it more often and see if I can find some new music this way.
On a side note she had her volume at what must have been full, it was almost double mine and painfully loud. I look forward to the time ipod/wifi/broadcasting of some type can link people up in public places as something like this blows away communication barriers