A few weeks ago i went out and bought a 20GB iPod (my first Apple made device in 21 years since my Apple II) and as far as personal music devices goes..its OK. The main reason i bought it, other than my obsession with anything new and geeky :), was to be able to listen to music when i go and ride my mountain bike (the other expensive part of my lifestyle) and not be limited to only an album or two's worth of songs. And it does a damn fine job of keeping me rolling along when my i'm rolling along...except....its has a few minor problems when i'm not rolling along.
The primay problem is not being able to easily download my music back to a computer from the iPod itself. Things were going along nicely for a while...it was synced up to iTunes on my IBM T30 laptop, but then i got another new toy...a tablet PC (review coming soon). Soooo...the T30 does a move out of my possesion to our Technical Producer (aka Anonymous Coward) and i delete all my music (7.5GB) without backing it all up, stupidly thinking that i could just copy all the files from the iPod to the tablet when i was ready.
Was i in for a rude shock.....
In all their wisdom Apple have decided to make the transfer/snyc process only work one way...iTunes to iPod and not back again....doh.....so there i was cursing the folk down at one infinte loop..when one of the single button mouse users in the office points me too a tool called EphPod....which appears to have done the trick...all my music is now not only on my iPod but it also back safe and sound on my laptop...wasn't that hard to setup, but still, you think somebody at apple wold have had the foresight to include the option....then again....i suppose after signing all those deals to get the iTunes music store up and running something had to be put in place on the iPod to keep the music moguls happy and try and stop music sharing....yeah ...right....
But...enough whining.....the first add-on for the iPod was the purchase of an iTrip....now this is a really cool accessory...allows me to tune in my car stereo to a number of different FM stations, which the iTrip then transmits too....instant SplaTT FM radio....hehehehehe
Now keeping in mind that i also carry around a 5megapixel Olympus C5050 camera, the next add-on will be the Belkin media reader which will allow me transfer my images from the CompactFlash card to the iPod....very nice.....
Now i just wonder how long it will be before i get sick of my current 7.5GB music collection and need to start downloading (oopss...i mean purchasing) more music....
All in all, aside from the syncing issue...4/5 stars on the SplaTT gadget-o-meter.....
Posted by SplaTT at December 21, 2003 10:01 PM