Apple and Microsoft appear to both be trying to get out an interesting new product in time for Christmas: the wireless iPod (or, in Microsoft’s case, a wireless mp3 player):
Current iPod owners have to sit in front of a computer to download music onto the gadget. But with the wireless version, they would be able to download new songs anywhere and at any time – as long as there is a wireless network in the area.
I thought the story was interesting, and it touched on some additional interesting things, but I’m not bowled over by the idea of a wireless iPod.
I use my iPod every day (mostly for audiobooks), and I think it would be nice to have the ability to download content wirelessly, but that’s not the highest thing on my most-wanted iPod features list.
I haven’t had a lot of success using wireless hotspots with my laptop, and I don’t know if they’d fare much better with a wireless iPod.
They also aren’t all over the place (yet). If I could have cellphone-type coverage for downloads (i.e., if I could take my iPod virtually anywhere and get content), that would be better, but I just don’t hang out in wi-fi hotspots (not even Starbucks).
And then there’s the matter of trying to navigate a wireless music store with a click wheel. Ick.
What I’d rather have a Bluetooth iPod so I could get the content from my computer without having to hook up the iPod physically.
Built-in speakers for the iPod would be even better.
What I’d like most of all are good wireless earbuds (probably kept in a compartment inside the iPod when not in use so they can recharge) that have significant battery life so that I can listen to my iPod in public without having that annoying cord between the Pod and the buds.
I know that there are already some wireless headsets for iPods, but I haven’t been impressed with the ones I’ve seen thus far, and I’d rather have earbuds that I could plug into the iPod for recharging when not in use.
But that’s just me.
Whadda y’all want in an iPod (or equivalent device)?
More space!!!!! That, and the ability to create a listing of one’s songs that could be exported to Excell so that I could maintain an index to my audio library. (If this is already possible, PLEASE let me know!!)
CRAP! I just splurged on the 60GB video iPod after waiting two years deciding whether to get my own, and now this!
SouthCoast: I just did this on my husband’s computer to see if it could be done.
I’ll assume you’re on Windows but if not, just find the menu items wherever they are…
In iTunes, click File > Export Song List. Save library.txt perhaps to your desktop.
Open Excel. Click File > Open and browse to library.txt.
A window will pop up where it recognizes that the data is delimited. Don’t change anything, and click Next.
You should now see a preview of the data separated into columns. Excel detects where to separate the columns.
Finish up there (click Next or Finish, I forget) and you’ll have a spreadsheet with different columns for Artist, Title, Genre, etc. listing all of your songs.
I’d like further indexing in playlists. This is probably iTunes-specific, not iPod, but I’ll ‘splain anyway.
I created a playlist with my son’s favorite albums, but when he browses his playlist, it’s just all the songs from the albums in one lump. I’d like to be able to select a whole album within a playlist. (We share my iPod, and he hates having to scroll through all of my gazillion albums to find his.)
(If this IS available now, please tell me how to do it!)
‘thann
I want one with at least a 50 GB hard drive (preferably more) that costs no more than $100. I’m waiting until the storage capacity and price get to somewhere around those levels before I buy one — which I figure will happen sooner or later, hopefully within a couple of years. Until then, I’ll continue using my “poor man’s iPod” — i.e., a Sony discman that plays mp3 CD-R discs (as well as playing regular audio CDs).
Other than that, I’d also like an audio player that supports as wide a variety of audio file formats as possible, particularly lossless compression formats like SHN and FLAC. I’d also like for it to be able to play these lossless files (or uncompressed WAV files) with no gap in between tracks — for those albums where one track flows directly into the next with no gap in between.
And finally, I’d like a player that simply acts like a hard drive in terms of copying files, in that you can copy files back and forth between the player and any computer, with no restrictions (I assume that most or at least some players work this way already). First, this capability would allow me to back-up non-audio files on the player, if I have extra space to do so. Also, I remember Jimmy posting that you have to play some tricks in order to copy files from an iPod onto any computer other than your original computer. If that is correct, then that “feature” alone would be enough to make me buy some other brand of mp3 player, rather than buying an iPod.
(Oh, and I really don’t care whether it has wireless capability or not, since most of my mp3 and other audio files come from my huge CD collection rather than from the internet.)
I want an iPod that’s cheap.
I previously wrote:
“(Oh, and I really don’t care whether it has wireless capability or not, since most of my mp3 and other audio files come from my huge CD collection rather than from the internet.)”
I forgot to mention that one major exception to this is the Catholic Answers mp3 archives, which I often download for listening in the car or at my computer.
Call me strange or “old school” but I refuse to “wire up”. We live in a society that is continually becoming more and more asocial and I will not join the masses in feeding my own id / ego more than I already do at everyone else’s expense.
Just because technology is available (and exponentially more and more and newer and newer) and we are being perpetually groomed in our role as consumers by “those” that spend billions upon billions of dollars doing just this, does not mean that I must keep up with the latest whatever it is. People think I am weird because I currently don’t have a cell phone, I have a rabbit ears antennae for my cable-less tv and I am still using dial up 52k modem for my internet.
Yes, I can listen to what I want to listen to but unless it is all by myself and not in public, then I refuse to do.
It just reminds me of the old anecdote about all the people who walk around talking to themselves being grouped together so that it looks like they are talking to each other.
We are being immersed and bombarded with sights / sound / noise like never before in human history. So, it is harder to hear one another and harder to hear God’s still small voice. It is hard enough in 21st century Western Society to daily fight my flesh to remind myself that I am not here for “me”. And it is no coincidence that it is called the “I”-pod.
I am trying to cultivate more and more silence and availability to others and to God. How can I listen if I have a hard time hearing?
I also love birdsong too much to shut this out… again, call me strange, but this is just me.
I want a waterproof iPod that I can take in the pool while swimming laps.
Tim,
I found your comments interesting. I feel the same way about certain new technologies, though probably to a lesser extent. For example, there are certain new technologies, such as digital video recorders, that just don’t interest me. And like you, I don’t have a cell phone, nor do I have any desire to have one. (Though my wife does have one, and I may eventually have to get one, as pay phones become harder and harder to find.) Also, I usually don’t buy cutting edge technology; rather I wait for the price to come down before I buy. For example, rather than spending $600 on a DVD player back when they first came out, I waited several years until I could get one for $70.
However, I don’t understand your objection to the iPod. Did you have the same objection to portable tape players (e.g., the Sony Walkman) or portable compact disc players? If not, then how is the iPod essentially different, other than it can hold more music without having to carry around a bunch of tapes or CDs?
Paul,
I had a Sony Walkman and I have a Sony Discman. But, yes I feel the same way.
about the only time I would use them is on an airplane when those sitting by me didn’t want to talk or again, if by myself or in private.
I love music and have a home and car stereo to listen, but to be in public and surrounded by LOTS of people that are all with each other but not socially so is like inviting people to my flat and then playing the music so loud that we can’t communicate.
…Treo 700, 1 Gig card, Wireless head set…close to what you want. (50 GIGS!!!) I’d be afraid I’d fall in and get lost.
It actually was a Protestant site that first put technology into perspective for me, echoing what I’m sure must be the common Christian understanding. You might be familiar with the site I’m talking about, though I can’t recall it by name. I just stumbled upon it and the webmistress calls herself a “Proverbs woman.”
The thing is, make the handy devices your servants, not your masters. Your washing machine is your servant. Your computer can be your servant. You can even make an iPod your servant.
Here’s where I expound on my own:
It’s up to personal discretion, when something slips from being a servant to a master. In itself, technology isn’t bad, and even an iPod can be used to your advantage without allowing it to become your master. A computer can become more than a servant when it’s not a tool working for you anymore. When sitting there becomes an end in itself, the computer becomes your master.
I wanted an iPod so I’d know that I could go for walks (to keep fit) without boring myself to pieces for 45 minutes a day. It also turns out, that I can use the iPod to get me through certain mind-numbing chores that I’d otherwise procrastinate to no end.
My cell phone is rarely used. By no means is it glued to my ear. But it does come in handy when the alternative is to rely on the kindness of strangers who may or may not be kind or trustworthy. I want this cell phone because it’s preferable to depending on strangers. And there’s no harm in using them to save someone else time, i.e. saving a person a second trip to the store.
You can unwind now and then with technology, and you can make technology serve you without worrying about how “pure” and “independent” you have to be of it. It’s not a question of how independent you should be of technology. Technology is morally neutral as long as it’s not abused. Having less technology around results in being surrounded with, well, less technology. If that brings more peace to someone, kudos to them. To make a moral judgment, though, though, I think the question to ask might be, “is it my servant, or am I a slave to it?”
I’m with Tim.
I want some technology that disables nearby pods and cells so we might all hear the sparrows of God, together.
Being shut out by all those who are wired/cell-ed up day in and day out is possibly similar to what the state of Purgatory is like on a good day; speaking, but not to us. Us speaking, but not being heard along with not being seen..
{{{shudder}}} I’m sleeping with the lights on tonight.
[Besides, there are only two good tunes, “Play That Funky Music” and “Paradise City”. The rest is filler. Okay, and some pretty decent podcasts — but we need to make sure all this ear candy doesn’t keep us from real people.]
Ugh, better headphones for an ipod is useless. I can’t stand the compression iTunes music store crunches things to. Better headphones won’t make a lick of difference unless you rip the songs from a CD.
Hmmmm. Is this like, a radio??
😉
My daughter has an IPOD I bought her. It was difficult to make it work with our Linux system, but one of her computer savy brothers did it. I have been wondering if I could get one and use it for audiobooks. I am ignorant…how do you download books to an IPOD? What do they cost?
Would setting it up for LINUX work for audiobooks the way it does for songs? When you stop it playing and start it again, does it start where you left off, or go back to the beginning as it apparently does with a list of songs?
I am not quite as clueless as Puzzled, but close.
I don’t want to scorn technology. I specifically would like to be able to listen to audiobooks on the ski lift, when I go skiing alone and it is kind of boring to ride up the slow lifts at my local mountain all by myself. But I am often frightened off from it by not having anyone to explain it to me, now that my sons have moved away and are so busy. One of them used to say, “Mother, a retarded lab ape could do it!” but at least he then did teach me.
Susan Peterson
Karen, thanks! I’ll try that.
Tim, there are different reasons for having an iPod, and different ways of using them. I bought mine when I bought my new car 2 years ago. Rather than buy a pricey multi-CD changer for the car, which would ensure that I always had exactly the wrong CDs onboard, I bought a cheap, after-market car stereo, the iPod and an iGo device that plays the iPod through my car radio. So now I have 11 days of audio onboard at all times. I seldom ever use the iPod with earphones.