ipod (non-) lust 2008

(tags hardware, iPod, iTunes)

I am so glad that the iPod product announcements are like clockwork, come every September. I know exactly when my iPod becomes a lemon.

This new round of iPods is not very interesting, but I had a chance to sample them at a store recently. I first thought I would gravitate toward the new "classic" 120GB, but I feel bogged down by the weight. I dig the motion sensor of the slim iPod Nano, and I tried the shake-to-shuffle feature. You can't turn the shuffle off that way, it seems. Plus rotating to Cover Flow and other spirited animations makes me say "Shiny!". I did forget to sample the iPod Touch. I think its the price that puts me off.

Anyway, I'm going to try to go another year without an upgrade. I hope that solid state discs (SSD) tech will reach the size of my library, which is now about 60GB full of mostly 160 kbps MP3s. Anyways, that would make my current iPod 5.5gen almost two years old. AppleCare on it is almost expired. Adding bluetooth makes it somewhat feel new again but battery life is abysmal.

This iPod news has made me re-stitch some cover art for my ripped CDs. I found this great blog for anime related CDs scans. Strictly 600 by 600 pixel samples. I'm going to keep an eye on it.

And iTunes 7.7 is frustrating. I know iTunes 8 is out but the software quality on these Windows releases make me pause. 7.7 seems stop ripping my CDs if I click on the window while it's ripping. WTF, this is totally unlike the previous versions. I want to downgrade, and yes Old Versions of iTunes for Windows will work nicely. Actualy this is the only quibble I have. It's still slow and unresponsive, but my data seems safe and not corrupted (knock on wood).

fear the digital contents: iTunes/iPod misbehaving

(tags music, iTunes, ipod)

I was about to rip Apple a new one, because the games I bought for my iPod more than a year ago didn't sync. I think it had something to do with a firmware update that I've been prolonging. But later on this week it fixed itself. It probably had to do with me manually authorizing this computer.