Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts

[rhythmaning]

On Wednesday evening, I met up with my brother, the first time I had seen him in more than six months.

We sat in a pub and drank some beer (actually, my brother drank cider. Fortunately, he didn’t have ice in it, but still.) We talked about family stuff, sifting the wood for the trees.

He also did something that we had agreed we wouldn’t do, and something that he knew I didn’t want him to do.



He gave me a couple of Christmas presents. This is what we had agreed not to do; we were going to wait until he visited sometime (now, most likely) in March. Obviously, I didn’t have anything to return.

And he gave me an iPod. There is a habit in my family of giving presents with added self-interest. I give things I would like to receive (if only because I have little imagination as to what others would really value); and my brother really wants a new iPod.

He reads this journal (and I am sure he will read this), so he knows what I think of mp3 players generally, and he knows that there are other mp3 players I would go for before an iPod, and he knows (because we have discussed it inordinately) that I have sufficient music formats in my life already – as well as CD, I am wedded to my minidisk player, and addicted to the radio. (My portable minidisk has a radio incorporated, so it usually goes wherever I go. It is great on long, delayed train journeys.)

But he felt that I needed something more. So he gave me a top level iPod. Because he wants one. And he hopes I won’t love it like he would. And because he was in the States, where they less than two thirds of the price.

What is annoying is that if I take to the iPod, it won’t replace the minidisk player, because one of the things I use my minidisk for is

So here are my first impressions and my first feelings.

• It is heavy.
  
  
• It looks good. This is style over substance, if you ask me.
  
  
• It is NOT an intuitive interface. It took me f*cking ages to find out how to change the volume. I had to resort to downloading the full manual. OK, once I found out, I immediately saw where it said how to change the volume in the little “get started” guide that came with it in the very neat package. But that isn’t intuitive.
  
  
• It sounds good. Not brilliant. I have it running through the hifi at the moment – later I’ll wander around doing some shopping with the headphones on and see what that is like, but I am not naturally drawn to headphones – they are useful, but I wouldn’t choose to use headphones unless I had to.
  
  
• It is going to take me forever to upload all my CDs. It seems fast for each CD, but for five hundred-odd CD, so far, I am only making a small dent. So far, 462 songs, 1.6Gb. I am about 8% through my CD collection. This also means that 73Gb (what they call 80Gb. Clearly, Steve Jobs can’t count.) is going to last a lifetime; I reckon my whole CD collection will come in around 20Gb, so the smaller model would have done. (This is where my brother’s self interest comes in: he needs way over 30Gb…)
  
  
• I still need my minidisk. Not only for all the concerts I borrow from the radio (usually duplicates of things I have), but because I still have a few hundred beautiful, round, grooved-black LPs, and I really should transfer them into a digital format before my record player blows up. (But then, as my brother pointed out, that is ripping in real time.
  
  
• As many of you pointed out, but particularly f4f3, I like the shuffle facility. Although since I am only a little into my CD collection, it has shown a huge fondness for Elvis Colstello, The Clash and Lloyd Cole so far. (Mercy Killing. Feels right for me, just now.)
  
  
• It will be interesting rediscovering albums I haven't played for ages. But An album is a complete thing; a track is just a little bit. And there is a reason why I haven't played some of these albums in a long while. How many tracks do I want from Sophie B Hawkins' Tongues and Tails? One - Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover (which is frankly f*cking brilliant); but of course I am uploading the whole CD right now...
  
  
• iTunes is thick. It realises the Clash should be under C, but Tasmin Archer comes under T and Lloyd Cole under C. Like I said, thick.
  
  
• iTunes is thick. It keeps trying to connect to the internet. I hate programmes that do that. I’ll tell you what I want you to do, and I don’t want you to do that, you stupid machine. So don’t keep asking! It just annoys me and makes me swear at you and really, really makes me want to scrub you off my computer. That’s what I do to programmes that annoy me. (Ha! Where are you now, YahooCommunicator?!) iTunes annoys me. But of course I am bloody stuck with it.
  
  
• Battery life will be an issue. I have been told it lasts about 18 hours, which is fine day-to-day, but lousy on holiday. This is going to be a pain, and means it is unlikely the iPod will become my portable player of choice.
  

That is about it.

I hate to say it, but I really have to admit that I am now part of the Appleverse. And I am sure that will amuse some of you out there…

And if any of you can tell me how to stop bloody iTunes talking the iTunes Store, I’d appreciate it.

Comments

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

You should be able to turn off access to the iTunes store in prefs

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I looked there, but I couldn't find it.

It isn't on the General tab (where I unchecked the "show links in store" tab. Ever hopeful), and it isn't on the Store tab, either.

But thanks for trying!

[kittenexploring.livejournal.com]

On my olden days version of iTunes, that I didn't update for some definite reason I don't recall now, you can turn off internet access from edit menu, preference, general tab. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if it's changed completely since, though.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I really can't find it there. I have been looking!

Thanks for the suggestion, anyway...

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I've never had the problem of my iTunes wanting to do unsupervised shopping, so I don't know how to stop it. I note, however, that under edit, pref, parental control there is the option to disable iTunes store - I wonder if that might help for now?

I don't know about the current situation, but when abrinsky purchased his iPod he got the version with the larger memory because the reported battery life was much longer. Well, that's his excuse.

We have a plug-in charger (which works for both his iPod and my little Shuffle) that we take on holiday and which has come in handy while his computer has been away for repairs.

Why can't you record radio & LPs as mp3 files and use them on the iPod, instead of recording to minidisk? (Apart from wanting to grump about the iPod.)

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I thought the parental control thing would work too, but it didn't.

I am sure it is possible to record LPs and radio onto my PC, but it would take some more work (if only working out how to make it work!).

Don't take my grumpiness away...

*cough*

[deililly.livejournal.com]

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/usb-turntable/index.html

Re: *cough*

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Well, yeeessss... But I since already have a turntable (which I bet somehow I could connect to my PC. Even if I don't know how just yet...), I'd be loth to spend 119 squid on a new one. Thing is, transferring vinyl to digital needs one to play all the LPs. Which is fine, but takes time. I am sure I'll get around to it. Sometime...

Re: *cough*

[deililly.livejournal.com]

That one can play them at double the speed to save you some time :P Though yes I believe you can hook everything up with some nifty cable work.

Actually since my turntable died when I see things like this I wind up whimpering. I never played my vinyl often but when you can't, oh the pain of it! Not the most amazing collection but a lot of memories get mixed up in your records don't they?

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with cider with ice? Hmmm?

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

Why do you want to stop it talking to the store? That's how it'll get album art. The ministore & recommendations, you can turn off - will let you know if that's what you want.

I <3 "Damn, I wish..." myself, and have it on my iPod. Which is nearly full (but only 20Gb).

[filmstalker (from livejournal.com)]

MiniDisc is superb, but I have to say I moved away from it and love my Sony NW-A3000, I hated my iPod.

The audio on the Sony is as good as the MD, and the player has a really smart feature called artist link which groups similar types of artists together so you can listen to a particular genre of music. You can edit that too. Plus there's intelligent ratings which the player works out automatically, dynamic playlists, I love it.

Only down side is the software is a bit cumbersome and takes some getting used to.

Can you not rewrap the iPod and give it back? No, that would be too cheeky!