OddThinking

I’ve got three or four blog articles here, but they are so tied up together, I am just going to ramble about all of them.

Found!

I found an iPod Shuffle last weekend. Just laying on the grass. Cool.

Owner’s Details

All of my phones and PDAs – even the very basic ones – had a place to store your name so if the item was found you could find out who it belonged to and return it.

The iPod doesn’t seem to have that.

If you were willing to sacrifice some privacy, you could even let Apple, via iTunes and the unique serial number, record the ownership, accept reports of loss and let people know if iTunes ever came across the item if it was found. No sign of any such feature.

There is the ability to set the name of the device itself. That is not the same as the owner – otherwise all my devices would be called Julian. In any case, from that, I know that the iPod belongs to Tom. Sorry, Tom. I honestly would have posted it back to you if I had known who you were. Instead, be assured that I am making the most of it.

iTunes and Usability #1

You know I respect Apple for putting usability high on their priorities.

I was really looking forward to the whole iPod usability experience that everyone was raving about.

You also know that I think the biggest sin of usability is to try to make an application on one platform mimic the same application on another platform, rather than mimicking other applications on the same platform.

One that ground alone, iTunes on Windows sucks.

iPod versus Samsung D600

The iPod can stop a track halfway through and resume where it left off later. That one fact makes it sooooo much better at listening to long tracks, such as podcasts, than the D600.

The iPod doesn’t complain about incompatibility with certain MP3 formats, like the D600 does – presumably due to bit rate limitations.

Of course, I am already carrying the D600, so it is more convenient than the iPod.

iTunes and Usability #2

I was really expecting good things, so I am really surprised to report, iTunes on Windows really, really sucks.

I start it up and see a list of tracks with four columns.

The first column is untitled, and contains a track number and a little gray dot. What does the dot mean? No idea. None at all, so I hover over it. No tool tip. I’ve got a Podcasts folder. In that folder, the grey dot is blue on some entries, an exclamation mark on others and missing on others. No clue.

Column 2 is titled “Name”, and it consists of a checkbox, and name and an arrow. What’s the checkbox? I think it means I have listened to the track but I am not sure. What’s the arrow? It gets more information about the track – I know that only because I clicked it to find out what it does.

In the Podcasts directory there appears to be some tree structure. Too bad they don’t use the Windows look-and-feel to indicate that.

Every time I try to delete something, it doesn’t go away.

This is really frustrating. There’s clearly lots of features here. I am sure that iTunes can do a lot of things that I want, but I just don’t get any of the UI metaphors they are offering me. Nothing is making any sense. I have no wish to go back to the beginning to learn how do use another blasted audio player.

iTunes Alternative #1

Prior to finding the iPod, I gave up on iTunes as a podcast collector, and wrote my own code to fetch the podcasts I wanted.

I wanted to download them during quiet periods (e.g. off-peak) and to have them ready to listen either in my car (via CD), on my phone or at my PC.

The code is a work-in-progress, but it is in use now. It downloads all my favourite podcasts.

What I want to add is rules to determine whether it a podcast should be put on CD, on a phone or ready for the PC. I am thinking that long tracks destined for the phone should be broken into short chunks and converted to a suitable bit-rate to overcome the phones limitations.

iTunes and the iPod

At first, I still thought there might be some identifying information on the iPod to help me return it to the owner.

So I prepared myself for the Apple experience, and plug the iPod into a computer for the first time… up popped this dialog box

I had to read this three times before I convinced myself that, yes, the very first dialog, before I had got to first base with this iPod was threatening to wipe all of the files on the iPod.

I said “No”, but couldn’t work out how to proceed. Eventually, I gave in and said “Yes” because it was the only way I could see to continue. Sorry, Tom.

iTunes Alternative #2

I found some open-source Python that will generate the databases used by Tom’s iPod shuffle… alright, I’ll say it… my iPod shuffle. I don’t need to use iTunes to load it with my music. Hooray.

Planted?

I found the same iPod for sale in a store this weekend, above a big stand full of an inconceivable number of iPod accessories. The new price is $99, so presumably the second-hand price is around $60.

I bought a new set of earphone covers.

I thought it would be pretty cool to plug the iPod into my Sony car stereo, and I remember when I installed the stereo it had a couple of spare Aux In plugs. I investigated and found that they were “Bus Audio In” which is a special Sony term to mean “Incompatible, unless you buy another piece of hardware that sells for over $US100, if you can even find it for sale in your tin-pot little country. New stereos with Aux In are available for about $300! No, we’ve changed the cable loom so it won’t even be a simple installation.”

I am wondering if “Tom” wasn’t just a marketing strategy between Sony and Apple to dump second-hand iPods around to trap people on the accessory treadwheel.