Saturday, March 9, 2002
[Updated: 03|11|02 6:38 A.M. PST]
This story has been retracted.
Software: Skin your iTunes with iSkinner v1.0
Trent Eh at AppleXnews.com emailed us with an announcement of the first and only iTunes skinning application:
“Almost all skins for iTunes are hard to install and require you to download several programs to get at the code, but this App does everything for you.”
The Pod Software page states:
“iSkinner is the first and only iTunes skinning application that does everything for you. Just select the skin you want and hit Apply, its as easy as that! (iSkinner only works on Mac OS X and only works with iTunes 2.0.x)
“
Friday, March 8, 2002
Snowboarding Japan with an iPod
MacObserver writer Darla Sasaki writes about her experiences snowboarding with her iPod in Hokkaido, Japan.
“The iPod makes the perfect snowboarding companion. It holds all my tunes, operates perfectly in the cold, withstands multiple meetings with the ground, is easy to operate while wearing my snowboarding gloves, and blocks out the horrendous music that is often blasting from Japanese ski lifts.”
Cases: Groove Jacket molded case for iPod
iPoding member “jsquishee” reports EvreythingiPod is selling the Groove Jacket case for $29.99. Made of injection-molded plastic, the sleeve offers play-through design and access to all the iPod’s functions.
Thursday, March 7, 2002
Software: iPod Free File Sync v2.3 for OS 9 Released
iPod Free File Sync (iPFFS) is the only utility that allows synchronizing
music from different iPods or any other source to your computer with ease.
It shows you exactly which of the MP3/AIFF/WAV files in the source are not
on your computer. After synchronizing, you can browse through the new files
directly in the application you’re familiar with – iTunes 2.
You may then:
- copy the desired files directly from within iTunes to your computer
manually. - use the auto copy feature which copies the desired tracks based on artist/album to your computer.
Software piracy, Canada retailers on alert
Many news agencies reported and editorialized the recent Wired.com report of a teenager walking into a Dallas CompUSA and stealing Microsoft Office X with an iPod. Canada.com has published a reactionary story on what actions are being taken in the computer retail sector:
“Although there have been no reported instances of this form of piracy in Canada, Canadian retailers are on the alert.
“We’ve talked to our salespeople and reminded them not to let anybody plug in anything or put in a blank CD into our computers,” said Victor Salus, store manager of North Star Computers in Toronto.”
Forums: Tales of a dual platform user
iLounger, “gundamrx288”, writes in the forums:
“My name is Charles and I was a pretty hardcore PC Wintel user, but my office had extra Mac iBooks laying around, so i took one home to work with. It was great! Then news of the iPod came…
I am now a Mac nut. The iPod’s pratically glued to my hand.
What can I say? I was at the right place at the right time. Steve Jobs won me over.Who’s next, eh?”
Have you been converted? Add your story to this forum topic…
Wednesday, March 6, 2002
Tips & Tricks: Easy iPod Phone Dialer
iLounger, Matt H., writes in with his easy method for having an iPod dial phone numbers:
- Dial a number with your touchtone phone.
- Hit redial and record the sound from the receiver with a mic. I used Sound
Studio for OSX and my Apple mic. - Save the track as AIF and then use iTunes to convert to MP3.
- Play the track back, holding the headphone to the receiver.
Portable Foldable Speakers
iPoding reader “Sean412” reports finding portable, foldable, speakers from Urban Outfitters for $3.99:
“Granted, they don’t produce theater-quality sound, but they are perfect for when I’m at work or when I want to listen to my iPod in hotels when I travel.”
Search the website, type keyword “speakers”…
Announcement: iPod Survey
“Here’s your chance to help make the iPod better! We are a group of graduate students at the School of Information, at the University of Michigan.
We are studying/evaluating the iPod for our group project this semester. We are very excited about the iPod and this project, and we would like to ask for your help.
We have created an on-line survey to collect feedback from the users of portable mp3 players (iPod or otherwise), and other users who regularly listen to mp3s. We are grateful if you could take a little bit of you time and answer an on-line questionnaire.
The surveys should be open to anyone and a participant ID is automatically generated. Please feel free to contact us, if you have questions.”
Survey for mp3 player owners, click here
Survey for people that do not own a mp3 player, click here
Tuesday, March 5, 2002
iPod Phone Dialer
Earlier we reported the possibilty of generating dial tones with your iPod and actually using it to dial a phone. iLounger, “tjtremor” has done it:
“It works, I have some phone numbers on the iPod using 256K MP3s. I phone the person in no time. I used CoolEdit Pro to generate the DMTF signals (dial tones), setup is Tone Time 40ms, Break Time 20ms, Pause Time 250ms.
“
We’ve contacted “tjtremor” for more details and will publish this tip on the Tips & Tricks page soon.
Software: ipoAdress v1.0 released
iPoding reports there is a new application to convert your iPod into a psuedo PDA by German software programmer, Jurgen Kohlenbach of Kohlenbach EDV.
“ipoAdress is a small adress-database with the possibility to export adresses as mp3-files. You can define what fields of your data appear in the iPod. You can import your data as text file. With iTunes you can sort and transfer the mp3-files to your iPod.”
Apple named top global brand of 2001!
In a recent survey by brandchannel.com, Apple beat out familiar brands Nokia and Volkswagen for first position in the Global Top Vote list.
“For the purposes of the survey, we defined a “Brand of the Year” as that which had the most impact on our lives in 2001.
That is, the Brand of the Year is not necessarily the biggest or the one with the most revenue – it is the one that makes us stand up and take notice. The responses certainly made us stand up and take notice as, surprisingly, immensely familiar brands like Nike and Coca-Cola did not make the top five choices.”
Read more…
View the bar chart…
Forums: Why the iPod reports only 4.63 GB of available storage
Ever wondered why the iPod reports only 4.63 GB of total available storage space? iLounger, “eustacescrubb” explains in the forums:
“It’s the way your computer and iPod calculate a gig and the way the manufacturer calculates a gig. For lay people, a gig is 1000 MB, or 1000 1000 KB. 1000 x 1000 = 10000000. But a MB is actually 1024 KB, and a GB is 1024 MB. 1024 x 1024 = 10485576. The iPod’s advertised capacity is 5 GB because its capacity is actually 50000000 KB. But since your computer calculates a GB as being 10485576, that times 5 = 5242880. That means that to your computer, the iPod’s capacity is 242880 KB less than 5 GB. So, 50000000 / 10485576 = 4.76. The contents of the iPod Control folder without the music folder equal a little over 100 MB. So: 4.63 GB.”
Cases: MARWARE SportSuit available for pre-order
iPoding reports MARWARE is now taking pre-orders on its new SportSuit for iPod. Orders are expected to ship end of March.
Software: Panorama iPod organizer available now
The Panorama iPod organizer turns your iPod into a PDA:
“With the Panorama iPod Organizer users can store and access phone numbers, email addresses, flight numbers, appointment times and more on their iPods. Data can be entered and edited in the Panorama iPod Organizer itself or can be imported from other database or contact manager software. Information can be organized on the iPod into custom categories (Home, Work, Travel, etc.).
The Panorama iPod Organizer is available now via electronic download for an introductory price of $19.95.”
iPod Desktop Icons for OS X
The iPod Fanatic (French iPod fan website) reports on a recently released set of OS X icons at Xicons by Hein Mevissen.