5 posts tagged “ipod”

Today was my first day back to school in 11 days (holiday break), and my eyes were really opened to two new tech revolutions. For the sake of entertainment, I've written them in skit-script style formatting. Both stories are true.

Morning Annoucement Lady: Mr. Hart is planning a school podcast to keep South students informed on activites and fun things to do in the school. If you would like to help in the podcast, please contact Mr. Hart at hart@school.edu.

Kid 1: Whats a podcast?

Me: Ah! The school finally has a podcast-...

Kid 2: Podwhat?

Girl: Pod...cast?

Teacher: Its some internet thing. I've seen it before in Newsweek.

Me: Ah, yes! Podcasts! Well, they're like internet radio. They're neat.

Girl: Podcast? Those dumb things in iTunes?

Kid 1: Whats a podcast?

Me: (sigh)

So, I guess podcasting isn't has mainstream has I hoped or thought. Has for helping with my school's podcast, I'm not really interested, even though it might be fun and provide good experience, plus I can play Leo and edit it up with some jazzy music. I'll have to give it thought.

The next one took place later. My friend Adam, carries around a CD player, and has always admired my iPod.

Adam: Hey Kev, guess what I got for Christmas.

Me: What? An iPod? Congrats man!

Adam: No, I got something better. Its called a Zune!

Me: Oh god, Adam, Zunes are....

Adam: No, its sweet. Its got 30 gigs, it has a big screen, and can play video.

Me: Yeah, but its ugly and big and-...

Adam: My brother has one too. We can trade songs!

Me: But, yeah, the DRM-...

Adam: They've even got this music store. I might buy some music instead of getting CD's.

I was very critical of the Zune when it came out, but now, I've changed my opinion. My friend Adam, who has never owned a MP3 player, buys CD's and rips them to MP3, and doesn't use iTunes, loves his Zune. Its fantastic for him. I think, in my power user mentality, I've written off the Zune. For me, getting a Zune would be horrible. I couldn't stand the DRM, I wouldn't use the URGE music store. However, my friend Adam, he loves it, and he talks about it the same way I talked about my iPod when I first got it.

This brings up a story, my Dad knows a commerical airline pilot. One time, at a football party, he complained and complained about flying an Airbus A320. He didn't like it, said the Airbus "handled like sh*t". But to us passengers, the Airbus A320 is no different from a Boeing 747. This must be what my friend Adam is experiancing. He loves his Zune, and can't tell the difference between the Zune and the iPod, but, his nerdy friend Kevin is going on and on about terms he doesn't know, like DRM, podcasting support, and other things.

To pilots and computer power users, the Airbus A320 and Zune are flawed. To passengers and my friend adam, they're just fine.

I won't to pretend to be the one breaking the news that James Kim didn't make it. You probably read it else where. I'm saddened by it, since I really was praying that he would make it.

I actually don't remember seeing James Kim on TechTV when it was on, but then again, I didn't remember Robert Heron either. I was first introduced to him when I downloaded CNET's MP3 Insider podcast. Honestly, I didn't like the style of podcast, and I unsubscribed.

A month ago, when I was shopping for a MP3 player, I read James' review of the iPod G5. Fast forward to last week, in a "webisode" of CNET's Buzz Out Loud, Tom Merritt commented about how he had to fill into James Kim's usual post with Veronica Belmont on their MP3 Insider. I shrugged it off, and enjoyed the daily dose of BOL.

Then, I decided to come back to Vox by chance, actually, and saw that Leo updated his blog, and saw the entry about James, only 20 minutes after he posted it. Of course, James' name rang a bell, since Tom Merritt mentioned it only a few days prior. I ran to CNET.com, and have been following the case via CNET.com, and the blogs of various tech journalists.

At any rate, I checked CNET at school and saw the headline on the CNET landing page, "James Kim found, status unknown." I assumed he was ok, but when I got home and told my mom, she informed me that CNN was reporting that "that internet guy didn't make it."

And thats where we are now. Its a very sad story. Both CNET, and the tech news industry, not to mention his family, have faced a serious lost today.

Rest in peace, James.   

Well, once again, DRM proved to stop digital technology....

For a US History project, I needed to do a Power Point, and set some music to it that was representive of the idea of "Fearlessness". I picked out "Duel of the Fates" by John Williams (bit of Star Wars). I had recently gotten the song legally off of iTunes, and tried to pop it into Power Point, but guess what, Power Point wouldn't recongize the protected Mp4 format.

Well, now, I don't know what I'll do. I tried burning the song to CD, and then copy it back to iTunes, so it would come in Mp3, but iTunes 7 was janked, and I couldn't figure out how to do it. I like to fancy myself a technical-adept person (since I've used a computer since I was 3 year old, you know, but maybe I'm kidding myself).

I wanted to use a purchased song in a simple, legal, Fair Use way. I wasn't going to give a copy to every one of my friends, or put it on the internet, I just simply wanted to use it for my power point, and I couldn't because of the stupid lawyers and their DRM.

On the Zune, I believe that technically, its better that the iPod. Bigger screen, better UI, awesome Wi-Fi sharing feature, but its crippled by DRM features. I've seen a Zune at school, and its a very impressive device, but, the lawyers got their hands on it and ruined it. Microsoft's engineers shouldn't be blamed for the Zune, Microsoft's legal team should. Remember, DRM (or Digital Rights Management) isn't protecting our rights, its protecting the rights of the RIAA. What do you have when you have a RIAA lawyer burried up to his neck in sand?

Not enough sand.

Ahem, perhaps I'm going too far with my love of Mac OS X.

I recently got two theme add-on's for Firefox and Thunderbird that make it look EXACTY like Safari and Apple Mail, the default browser and mail app from Mac OS X. So... erm, it looks a lot like Mac.

Even stranger, in my graphic arts class, we've got to design a t-shirt and note pad, and I made mine with the apple log and the words, "iShirt" and "iPad".

And the only Mac I own is my iPod.

I'm under the weather today kids, so my blog entry will be a bit subdued to say the least.

Today, the Apple iPod turned five, which may seem a few years longer than you remember, which is about right for me to. The iPod was introduced in 2001, to some critism, it only worked on Macs, only had a Firewire connection and had only had 10 hours of playback. Despite these, it was a technical marvel, a very very small hard drive.

Slowly over time, small improvements brought iPod to the front of the MP3 player field, a very simple control interface, and the great iTunes application, and the move to allow use on Windows. No MP3 device had really taken over the market.

I own an iPod and love it.

Meh, this entry is so bad. I shouldn't even post it. The fact of the matter is, I'm kind of blogged out. I've been blogging some in-dept posts for what, three days straight, and I feel am burned out on blogging. Personally, I don't know how I can keep this up. I'm not really 16 anymore... (Yeah, like 17 is too old to blog :) )

Well, I'm sure I'll find a way to keep this up. Later.