Tag Archives: IPOD

Why iPad is a joke

It’s not just because of the name’s congruence with a certain brand of female hygiene product. The real joke is that it hasn’t got the features of a 10-year-old, ebook reader bought on eBay for $60. Which doesn’t surprise me. Apple has always been about style and buzz, not about features.

When Mrs. C. got her iPhone, she gave me her old iPod shuffle. It’s nice. I filled it to the max with Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and old swing tunes. But it’s neither as convenient (needs a computer to recharge) nor as easy-to-use (has no display to tell you what’s playing) as my old iRiver MP3 player which I bought used for $20. Haw.

UPDATE:  Well, I see the new shuffle tells you, in a voice, what the tune is and who’s playing it. But it still needs a computer to recharge.

Out of touch, and likin’ it

Cobb links to a piece purporting to list the best rock albums of the past twenty years. I’m not familiar with a single one. Worse than Cobb who at least likes three. I should be ashamed, I suppose, but I’m not.

In fact, I am loading the new IPod Mrs. Charm gave me with the stuff I grew up with: Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. Next up: Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, etc. Stuff I can whistle. I’m too retro to live, maybe…

IPOD goes to war

I have avoided the wussy IPOD as just another over-priced piece of Apple detritus. But if it can forecast and track a sniper’s bullet from muzzle to impact, well, maybe not. So long, jihadis!

Free music

Little revolution underway this morning in the music industry. We’re trying to sort through our technology here at the rancho to decide what it all means to us. For instance, we had not upgraded our CD player. Now we’re glad, as CDs apparently will not be made in the same quantity as before. Mom has an MP3 player in her car, but Dad doesn’t. But Mom has an iPod, and Apple is trying to hold out, whereas Dad has an iRiver, which presumably will not. Confusing to us. More to musicians, I’m sure.

UPDATE:  Well, it would be free, for the "price" of suffering through a little advertising, but the purveyor apparently is still trying to convince the music companies. But if they can’t sell CDs, and they admit they can’t in the quantity they need to, and the young will turn to independents before paying for MP3s, then something has to give sooner or later.  Meanwhile, we’ll put our CD upgrade on indefinite hold.

The 2007 Physics Nobel for…

Wait for it. The Mp3 player! Well, not exactly, but the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is boasting that without the awarded physics process, called magnetoresistance (magnet plus neato), you could kiss magnetic hard drives, including the MP3 and the Ipod, adios amigo. I like my IRiver Mp3 player, which is a heck of a lot cheaper than an Ipod, just fine. But, really. I can well understand Snoopy the Goon’s pique.