{"id":40,"date":"2005-06-30T02:23:03","date_gmt":"2005-06-29T17:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2005-06-30\/40"},"modified":"2005-06-30T05:34:59","modified_gmt":"2005-06-29T20:34:59","slug":"the-ipod-is-nice-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2005-06-30\/40","title":{"rendered":"The iPod is nice, but&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"img_right\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/iPod.jpg\" width=\"162\" height=\"275\"\nid=\"iiPod\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>So, <span class='nobr'>I drank<\/span> the Kool-Aid<sup><small>(<tt>tm<\/tt>)<\/small><\/sup> and\nbought an iPod last Sunday. <span class='nobr'>I bought<\/span> what at the time was called a\n&#8220;60GB iPod Photo&#8221; for $449, but now <span class='nobr'>a few<\/span> days later is simply\ncalled a &#8220;60GB iPod&#8221; for $399. (The &#8220;Photo&#8221; moniker\nand $50 were dropped.)<\/p>\n\n<p>Since I bought mine at a local store, <span class='nobr'>I didn't<\/span> get the laser engraving\non the back, but now that the price has dropped, <span class='nobr'>I may go<\/span> ahead and return\nit (paying a $50 &#8220;restocking&#8221; fee), and order one online with\nmy email address engraved on the back.<\/p>\n\n<p>Modern iPods don't come with a doc, firewire cable, remote, belt clip,\nor much else (you get the iPod itself, charger, USB cable, and ear buds),\nso <span class='nobr'>I forked<\/span> over another $40 for <span class='nobr'>a doc.<\/span> <span class='nobr'>I wish it<\/span> were all included, but\nthen, those that don't want them would be forced to pay for them, so it\nmakes more sense that they're separate (<b>if<\/b> the price has been\nlowered accordingly, of course).<\/p>\n\n<p>As nice as the iPod is (and its companion iTunes software, which\ncompletes the iPod experience), there are some very annoying design\nflaws...<\/p>\n\n<ul><li><p>The ear-bud &#8220;headphones&#8221; have virtually no visual or\ntactile indication as to which is for the left ear, and which is for the\nright. That means that you must <b>inspect<\/b> them each time you pick them\nup to see which has the tiny little &#8220;L&#8221; and &#8220;R&#8221;.\nThis is absolutely moronic, and another case where Apple puts form over\nfunction. Apple's form, in general, is very nice, as is their function, but\n<span class='nobr'>I wish<\/span> they'd made one ear-bud <span class='nobr'>a different<\/span> color from the other, so you\ncould tell at <span class='nobr'>a glance,<\/span> without having to use many neurons, which is which. <span class='nobr'>I guess<\/span> I'll try to find colored foam covers or something.<\/p>\n\n<\/li><li><p>Why can't I watch videos on my iPod? <span class='nobr'>It has a<\/span> nice 2&quot; color\ndisplay for pictures &mdash; I'd like to have some <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/pic.regex.info\/anthony\">baby<\/a> movies on there as well. <span class='nobr'>I'm hoping<\/span> Apple will eventually add this capability.<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>The iPod is all about recorded sound, so you'd think that adding <span class='nobr'>a\nsmall<\/span> built in microphone wouldn't be that hard. <span class='nobr'>You could<\/span> then use it to\nmake audio notes to yourself (perhaps for later plodcasting), record\nlectures, etc.\n\n<\/p><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>About the iTunes\/iPod software....<\/p>\n\n<ul><li><p>The shuffle style should be able to be set on <span class='nobr'>a per<\/span>-playlist or\nper-genre, etc. basis. Except in rare situations, <span class='nobr'>I always<\/span> like shuffle\nplay. However, with classical stuff that has movements, <span class='nobr'>I want the<\/span>\nmovements in order. <span class='nobr'>If I make<\/span> the <b>album<\/b> unique, <span class='nobr'>I can put<\/span> the\nshuffle mode onto &#8220;album&#8221; and the movements therein will go in\norder. <span class='nobr'>But I want<\/span> that only for classical.\n\n<\/p><\/li><li><p>For playlist maintenance with iTunes, it would be nice if,\nas you went through your <b>Library<\/b> (the actual songs from which all\nplaylists are composed), the playlists which include the song would be\nhighlighted. <span class='nobr'>As it is<\/span>, there's no easy way to find out what playlists <span class='nobr'>a\nparticular<\/span> song is in. This is <span class='nobr'>a no<\/span>-brainer UI component; it's pretty\nshocking that they don't do this.\n\n<\/p><\/li><li><p>There should be a &#8220;list all songs not in <b>any<\/b>\nplaylist&#8221; feature. Similarly, there should be a &#8220;list all songs\nnot in <b>this<\/b> playlist&#8221; feature, so you can easily scan for\nmissing items.\n\n<\/p><\/li><li><p>There's no way to turn off the annoying &#8220;do you\nreally want to delete this song?&#8221; dialog that pops up when you try to\ndelete <span class='nobr'>a song.<\/span>\n\n<\/p><\/li><li><p>I'd like to be able to mark a song and\/or playlist as\n&#8220;don't export to iPod&#8221;. <span class='nobr'>I know that<\/span> <span class='nobr'>I can<\/span> move out of the\nauto-update mode at which point only playlists <span class='nobr'>I mark<\/span> will get copied over,\nbut I'd like <span class='nobr'>a simple<\/span> &#8220;don't copy me&#8221; override to the automatic\nupdates.\n\n\n<\/p><\/li><li><p>The iTunes &#8220;help &gt; provide iTunes feedback&#8221;\nmenu item brings you to a &#8220;request iTunes Music Store music&#8221;\npage (e.g. &#8220;<span class='nobr'>I want<\/span> the music store to provide more Falco\nsongs&#8221;). Fishing around on the web site brings up a &#8220;provide\niTunes feedback&#8221; link, which brings you to the same &#8220;request\nmusic&#8221; link. <span class='nobr'>I guess<\/span> they're not interested in bug reports.\n\n<\/p><\/li><li><p>The bricks-and-mortar Apple store <span class='nobr'>I went<\/span> to sold <span class='nobr'>a\nbazillion<\/span> different belt clips (from both Apple and third parties). <span class='nobr'>But none of<\/span> them were available to see and hold, to see how they felt. <span class='nobr'>You could<\/span> look in the shrinkwrap and try to guess how it might look and feel,\nbut that's it. <span class='nobr'>How do they<\/span> expect to sell any of theses? (Can anyone\nrecommend an iPod carrying solution?) <\/p><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, I drank the Kool-Aid(tm) and bought an iPod last Sunday. I bought what at the time was called a \"60GB iPod Photo\" for $449, but now a few days later is simply called a \"60GB iPod\" for $399. (The \"Photo\" moniker and $50 were dropped.)<\/p> <p>Since I bought mine at a local store, I didn't get the laser engraving on the back, but now that the price has dropped, I may go ahead and return it (paying a $50 \"restocking\" fee), and order one online with my email address engraved on the back.<\/p> <p>Modern iPods don't come with a [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}