50 Fun Things to Do With Your iPod 255
Ant writes "Jason Kottke's Web site has compiled a list of 50 fun things to do with your iPod besides listening to music with those white earbuds: From the article 'In the four years since its introduction, the iPod has proven to be a versatile little device. Despite a relatively closed architecture, hackers have found their way in. Content creators and software makers put information at your fingertips when you're on the go. Would-be designers have added to the fashionable stylings of the now-ubiquitous white ear buds. Hardware makers and enthusiasts have augmented the iPod with new add-on gadgets. Here are a few dozen things you can do with your iPod besides listen to music.'"
45-50 (Score:4, Funny)
45. Blend in with a device everyone has
46. Untangled from useless features in cheap chinese knockoff
47. Free of battery failure with compulsory annual replacement
48. Go deaf
49. Buy back from eBay the iPod you gave someone for XMas, with original receipt and no shipping cost
50. Invitation to the iPod nano class action lawsuit
51 (Score:2)
Actually most of those suggestions weren't particularly useful, some were repeats and #9 is patented if you follow their suggestion on how to use that particular mod. Nothing particularly earth shattering in the lot.
Re:45-50 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:45-50 (Score:2)
Re:45-50 (Score:4, Funny)
Tim
Re:45-50 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:45-50 (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a market to be had here, surely.
Re:45-50 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:45-50 (Score:2, Interesting)
I was going to suggest 48 too. Hearing societies recommend against using earbud style earphones since they are further down the ear canal and thus cause more damage to hearing when turned up too loud. Personally I think loud music from regular headphones will cause the same level of damage at the same perceived volume, since that's the volume that someone wants to listen at anyway, not a set number on the dial.
Re:45-50 (Score:2, Informative)
KFG
#1 fun think I do is (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:#1 fun think I do is (Score:2)
Re:#1 fun think I do is (Score:2)
Altoid Box (Score:5, Funny)
A bit disappointing (Score:3, Informative)
for the womens (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.lovehoney.co.uk/product.cfm?id=5294 [lovehoney.co.uk]
Re:for the womens (Score:5, Funny)
Re:for the womens (Score:5, Funny)
KFG
Re:for the womens (Score:2)
Puritan Yanks (Score:2)
PLEASE NOTE: This product can not be shipped to North America or Canada.
I know the yanks are a bunch wussy puritans, but whats up with the cannucks????
Re:Puritan Yanks (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Puritan Yanks (Score:2)
But I doubt you are the only people who missed that memo.
And I am sure the Canadians get pissed when people say North America but they mean the USA.
I have friends from Brasil who insist on saying "Dammit
Re:for the womens (Score:5, Funny)
#346240 [bash.org]
(lawngrl): im gonna insert my ipod in my vagina tonight and go to sleep i love it so much
(Fire_on_High): I'm quite sure that'll void your warranty
But ask yourself... (Score:2)
For the women? (Score:2)
audiobooks (Score:4, Interesting)
I realize that this isn't really specific to ipods, but getting one for some reason made me willing to check them out - kind of thought they seemd like a corny idea before.
installing linux on it and playing doom was definitely fun, but the audio on the nano in linux is still [retty glitchy, so it's just kind of novel to have.
what i'm really looking forward to, or hoping for at least, is the rumored video support for nano in a possible forthcoming firmware upgrade. the nano is just small enough to sneak by veging out on videos all day at work - the laptop is a bit sore-thumbish. hooray!
Re:audiobooks (Score:2)
Missing the most obvious reason... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Missing the most obvious reason... (Score:2)
But seriously, my father bought one... despite him taking about 3 weeks of studying to figure out how it worked.... it meant lots of upgrades to the computer for him:
New USB2 card
New Hard Drive (had 30GB drive, and 40GB iPod)
Fresh Windows Install
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Linux? (Score:2, Funny)
No radio (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No radio (Score:5, Insightful)
Now I get to listen to the radio programs I want away from the tyranny of the schedulers.
Two words for you.... (Score:2)
I'm sure you'll enjoy being the first to hear on a podcast how there how such-and-such died or so-and-so plane crashed... the day after it happened.
This applies to many things, really... don't forget that a 'podcast' is nothing more than a fancy word for easy 'subscription' to downloadable audio files. So you download the podcast, and listen to it on your way to work, etc. But once over - oh well, I guess you can listen to the same podcast again. And again. It's like having all your favorit
Re:No radio (Score:2)
Fun word. It's just a bloody recording! Have fun stumbling onto new stuff you like with that format.
Maybe I want to listen to the local college radio station or a real alternative station that isn't clearchannel owned and maybe hear some new local music, eh?
Re:No radio (Score:2)
There are many podcast directories you can visit to do just that.
or a real alternative station that isn't clearchannel owned
You'll find that much easier with podcasts (given that they are international and free, and anyone can set one up) than with Radio stations, I really don't see your point. Your local college radio station probably already has a podcast : )
Whatever you call them, audio subscriptions are here to stay and are significantly better
Re:No radio (Score:2)
Re:No radio (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No radio (Score:4, Insightful)
That would explain why the "competitor's devices" are now a runaway success and iPod is just a miserable failure...
Re:No radio (Score:2)
Re:No radio (Score:2, Insightful)
What, exactly, would that criticism be? That it doesn't have a radio? Plenty of devices don't have radios. My toaster, for instance. My laptop. My cellphone. Hell, my CD player doesn't have a radio, even though it would be "so easy" to fit one on there.
Re:Why the need for radio? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, god knows how many reviews/blogs/posts/whatever complaining about whatever mp3 player not having radio. Why would I want to listen to what someone else picks and ads and stupid people when I can listen to what I want, when and where I want to listen to it!
Really, it's not to hard to come up with a few good reasons. -- Paul
Re:Why the need for radio? (Score:3, Funny)
That's why I bought the iPod in the first place.
Re:Why the need for radio? (Score:2)
The solution is to listen to Satellite radio. (XM Radio specificly) lots of music, no ads.
And with the new units due in the spring, MP3 players and recording of songs from XM Radio... the best of both worlds... except it isn't an iPod and I don't already own one...
Re:Why the need for radio? (Score:2)
Re:Why the need for radio? (Score:2)
Whether there really are "zero disadvantages" is left of to the designers of the device, and the goals they have set for it. Given that you can't do to radio most of the things you can do with an iPod (make playlists, pause, skip around, set ratings, listen to over and over again), it doesn't really fit in.
Re:Why the need for radio? (Score:2)
Traffic information (n/t) (Score:2)
Re:Why the need for radio? (Score:2)
hungry? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:hungry? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:hungry? (Score:2)
Number 28...FYI (Score:2, Informative)
Take the Book of God anywhere with BiblePlayer, listen to the Quran on your walk to the office, or discover the wisdom of the Torah on the train.
And you can also get meditation instruction, Dharma talks, etc... - Here [buddhanet.net] ...FYI
I like to learn about Asian philosophy.
Sorry... (Score:2, Funny)
Get it?
Karma whore referring to a Buddhist Site!
I kill me!
Emergency Boot Drive (Score:3, Informative)
I cloned my start-up disk onto my iPod minus unecessary files and use it as an emergency boot drive. If I need to repair/maintain the start-up disk, I can do it with my iPod which has all the utilities I need. I've repaired my friends' Macs this way too. It's faster and more flexible than booting from CD.
Plus, I often simply boot from my iPod when I'm using my school's Macs or friends'. (With permission, of course.) I get to run my apps with my environment which I can sync back and forth with my Mac.
Unfortunately, now that all iPods no longer support FireWire, this will be my last iPod that can be bootable.
Re:Emergency Boot Drive (Score:2)
Wait, ipods no longer support firewire?!? I thought Apple was the #1 firewire cheerleader... What happened?
I'm confused because I had vaguely been thinking of adding a firewire card to my circa 1999 PC as a way to add an external harddrive (the idea being that it would be compatible with any new system I bought while still being convenient and reasonably fast), and that I could also buy and ipod an
iPod Holder at the gym... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:iPod Holder at the gym... (Score:2)
Website? (Score:4, Funny)
Might as well pimp mine... (Score:4, Informative)
iPod bartender and iPod bartender shuffle [electricstate.com]
(I think something similar did make it, but mine is free.)
iBirdPod (Score:5, Interesting)
Stokes' Field Guide to Bird Songs, which I've owned for a number of years, is a three-CD set of recordings of about 300 bird songs. iBirdPod "software" is nothing more than a very elaborate script--I think it's just AppleScript but I'm not sure--that loads these CDs into iTunes (and thence to your iPod), but makes extremely clever (ab)use of the title, artist, and album fields, the playlists, and the feature that allows the user to define starting and ending times for each track.
For example, the track named "Towhee, Eastern" is by "artist" "drink your teeeee, towhee," from "album" "Pipilo erythrophthalmus."
It's contained in playlists "birdPod-All-alpha" (which includes every bird alphabetically by common name), "birdPod-All-phylo" (which includes every bird alphabetically by scientific name), "birdPod-Forest" (which includes only forest birds), "birdPod-Shrub-Brush," "birdPod-Sparrows" and "birdPod-Urban."
Every track is "cued up" to start at the very beginning of the most common song... particularly useful since the Stokes CD's sometimes double up two or three songs in one track.
So, if you're in a forest setting you can call up the "birdPod-Forest" playlist and you hear a bird calling something like "Drink your tea," scroll through the "artists" until you get to "drink your tea," and play the song to confirm it. Or if you read about Pipilo erythrophthalmus you can scroll through birdPod-All-phylo, read off that it's the towhee, play the song, and make a mental note that the mnemonic for remembering the song is "Drink your teeeeee."
When I learned about it, my first reaction was what? they're charging money for that? I could do all that myself. Then I remembered why I didn't have my Stokes CD's on my iPod already... and I made a quick mental estimate of just how long it would take me to organize the songs... and decided it was money well spent.
Mirror (Score:2)
http://www.networkmirror.com/FCHBZyg5Fudct_vH/www
51. make google adsense money (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not saying I'm retiring soon or anything, but it was surprising to see the checks from google show up. Bonus!
Listen to Podcasts ;^) (Score:2)
That said, suggest some good podcasts
Listening in the car... (Score:2)
"Griffin and Kensington (among others) sell FM transmitters for the iPod. Just tune your radio to the proper frequency and out comes your music collection."
Those FM broadcasters usually sound pretty bad. I have a standard Sony CD deck in my car, and on the back it has an "AUX" input for a CD changer I guess. I bought one of those cables that has RCA plugs on one end and a mini-headphone jack on the other from Radio Shack. So now I have a cable that just kind of
Re:Listening in the car... (Score:2)
Re:Listening in the car... (Score:2)
Alternatively, some cars, like mine, come with a factory head unit that supports an external CD changer. Those basically include a couple of control lines, and some line-level audio lines. You can get third part boxes that sit on that cable and pretend to be a changer, whilst actually just accepting a line in from whatever you plug into them. In my case, the h
Re:Listening in the car... (Score:2)
how do they count? (Score:2, Interesting)
but how about this one: get arrested for installing linux on it
or this one: die from age while waiting for the unbeleivalble slow software to have uploaded your music on it
and this
I own one (Score:2, Insightful)
Stealing Cars? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Stealing Cars? (Score:3, Informative)
KEY: Hello, I am a key. Please let me in.
CAR: Hmm, what do you get if you encrypt this random number with our shared secret?
KEY: I get this number.
CAR: Yep, me too. I'll open up.
My Favorite... (Score:2, Funny)
#26 Why the heck not real movies? (Score:5, Insightful)
My recipe goes like this:
- Clone DVD to get the VOB files to my hard disk.
- MergeVOB to get them into one huge file.
- Videora iPod converter to do the MP4 converting.
On my rather dated machine the process takes about an hour 40, but the movies are only 700mb and that doesn't make much dent in my 60GBOkay, now here's the kicker. I bought the movies legally on DVD and still have the case and all, why is this illegal? That's just stupid I don't care who you are. I should be able to put the disc in and iTunes should rip it for me, just like a CD.
Re:#26 Why the heck not real movies? (Score:2)
Of course, the only way to make this work would be to increase fees to rental agencies like NetFlix and Blockbuster. Less people would be buying movies, so that's how the RIAA would have to make back their money. The good news is th
s/RI/MP/ (Score:2)
For anyone who didn't get what I meant, I was actually referring to the MPAA, which is responsible for motion pictures. Thanks to Bacchus for pointing this out!
IPDA (Score:4, Insightful)
iWhine (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:iWhine (Score:3, Informative)
goodbye-pod (Score:5, Insightful)
What You Talking About (Score:3, Informative)
Skeet shooting (Score:2)
Very old page (Score:4, Insightful)
Some things that aren't inluded in that list:
- Convert large text files and into notes for use on iPod [ambience.sk]
- Rip DVD Movies To Your iPod Using Free Software [diveintomark.org]
- Use your iPod Photo or Nano as a Yahoo! Maps directions viewer [ipodiway.com]
- How-To: Get TV shows off of your TiVo and onto your iPod [engadget.com]
And that's just from clicking through del.icio.us search results for iPod a few times.Overhyped? (Score:3, Insightful)
Old comment (Score:2, Funny)
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:2, Interesting)
But like it or not the iPod is by far the easiest music player to use and that's the key to its success.
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:2)
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:5, Interesting)
The cities that you list as being supposedly "cool" cities are also heavily populated. I know that New York advises everyone who owns an iPod to get a different (preferably black) pair of earbuds to avoid mugging, which seems to be rather consistent from my view of people in New York. Tokyo and London probably have similar advisories. Just because you can't casually see it doesn't mean that they don't have it. Or better yet, maybe you're not seeing them at the right time. I have noticed that the U.S. west coast has much more of the devices than the east coast (or at least the users don't change out the white earbuds).
The comment about the metal back to the iPod is completely correct: they are designed to scratch, making them unique. It's a design statement by one of the world's most acclaimed industrial designers.
The comment about Jobs not inventing the device is quite true, but this philosophy can be extended indefinitely. At some point, you have to draw the line as saying that this person is responsible (not unlike a person in your position) for creating the iPod. He played a heavy hand in making it easy to use, as well as providing the necessary engineering and financial support to bring it up off the ground. I don't know of a single person who actually invented the PC, the GUI, or the iPod from scratch.
The comment about visiting fancy displays seems ill-mannered: why wouldn't you want to show off your product in the best way possible? So much about products (and people, places) come from the first impression. Those stores have some of the highest revenue densities in the world, and yet, they are designed to be spacious and unintrusive. I happen to find good design (not just technical design, despite my engineering background) rare and therefore, valuable. If anything, the feeling of being a complete tool comes from the fact that you bought what you felt was an inferior product because someone else asked you to do it.
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple's iPod is a not a music player. It is a detachment device. When the world gets to be too much, you whip out your little white world and detach into your own universe. Because of this, everything on the iPod, from the pure white face to the uncluttered interface, is straightforward, clean, and unnoisy. I've owned a lot of MP3 players over the years, and the iPod is the only one I would describe as "calming." The rest of them are cluttered with features and buttons, aesthetically noisy, and generally not what you want to turn to when you want to de-stress.
That's not to say the iPod is perfect... all of the ones that I've used have had problems ranging from easy scratching to not being able to forward between songs while using the scroll wheel to adjust a song's position. It also takes far too long to figure out how to turn off the blasted thing, a problem common with a surprising number of MP3 players. But it is the least crappy of all of the current crop.
As for the cost, there are more cost-effective player out there. But your goal is de-stressing, not maximum hdd per dollar. If something costs 20% less but makes you want to throw it across the room every time you use it, it isn't a savings towards your goal. If you can get a bigger hard drive in a bigger player that is so big you can't fit it in your pocket and therefore never take it with you... what have you gotten for your money?
I know lots of New Yorkers with iPods. They all have alternative headphones. The white cords are ubiquitous on Boston subways, however, as well as on Bart/Muni in San Fransisco.
And in Job's defense, he didn't create the iPod, but he has driven a heck of a lot of technology projects through to maturation. He drove the first really end-user-centric computer, his drive brought computers from geeky grey boxes to cool centerpieces of the living room, and he made online music sales a legitimate industry. No he didn't make these things himself, but without him these things wouldn't have been made (or would have taken a lot longer to get where they were). Remember: before the MAC, mice were rare and exotic.
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:3, Funny)
I live in London, and it's pretty rare for me to sit ina tube carriage without seeing four or five other iPod users during off-peak times.
During rush-hour, naturaly, I can barely see anyone else who isn't presse dup right against me :(
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:3, Insightful)
As to the device itself, I haven't found the sort of problems you've had. In my experience it's been trivial to get music onto it. I bought one for my fiancee, and was rewarded at work with a Nano. I'd have never bought an mp3 player for myself, but after being given one, I find I use it a lot.
My fianc
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:2, Insightful)
Because it's perceived as special by so many people. Successful marketting. Hype leading to popularity.
I'm not attempting to downplay this. I've owned four different MP3 players over the years. Only my latest is an iPod. Why, after three significantly cheaper and perfectly capable MP3 players that I was perfectly happy with until I outgrew them (each has been bigger than the last) did I finally decide upon an iPod?
It had nothing to do with the device
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:2)
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:4, Insightful)
Here's why:
1. You don't actually own, use, or appear to even like iPods, but you feel compelled to post on your second-hand experience of buying one for your girlfriend. Based on what sounds like about 20 minutes of using one, you think you're some sort of expert commentator.
2. You follow that up with some weird observation about not seeing iPods in use in major cities. Now, I'm in the bay area, but I do travel a lot. I'm not sure what you're looking for, but I personally see iPods everywhere, to the point where you'll see several people posting here about iPods being too popular or too trendy. I was at the gym last week and was amused to see that every single person on the row of elliptical trainers that I was on had an iPod of some sort.
3. You finish with a rambling observation that you don't see why people find the iPod (which you don't own) special or useful.
In summary: you're posting uninteresting, vague and uninformed observations about a product you don't even own or use, and that you appear to have a bias against. You also post vague statements about other products being better without offering any specific examples. I'm not even sure you like to listen to music. So, overall that would move you to troll in my estimation.
There you go.
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:2)
Too late!
Re:ipod ipod hype hype hype (Score:2)
Re:I'm too poor for an iPod (Score:3, Interesting)
Pretty cool device and has everything you could possibly dream off. Forget the iPod.
Re:I'm too poor for an iPod (Score:2)
Wal-Mart, of course, but evil or not that's where the cheap prices are.
If you are in the UK... (Score:2)
Re:One thing I personally wouldn't use it for... (Score:2)
If you must delete them you can do it from iTunes later. (Syncing the iPod, sort Library by rating, select and delete all 1-star songs.)
Re:One thing I personally wouldn't use it for... (Score:2)
You could change the technique to get no-look. Going from X-stars to 0-stars is easy to do without looking at the screen... click, click, wheel-counterclockwise.