Somehow I missed iPodDisk. This unbelievably useful app was released back in November and will most likely replace Senuti in my iPod toolbox. iPodDisk mounts your iPod right on your Desktop as a read-only shared volume not unlike an iDisk. This volume contains two folders “Artists” and “Playlists” which correspond to the Artists and Playlists on your iPod. Now you’re free to do whatever you want with the mp3/mp4 files inside those folders (except remove them, it’s read-only remember?). This would be tremendously helpful if you lost your iTunes library and the only back of your music was on your iPod.
I now keep dmg installers of both Senuti and iPodDisk on my iPod [which is set to ‘Enable disk use’ in iTunes Prefs] for those occasions when I need to get at the actual mp3 files on my ‘Pod.
I just haven’t been in the mood to write as of late. I got an email from a reader asking when I’m going to start writing again, so I figured I might as well address it online. I did have urges to post a few times. Especially when Apple announced the Intel thing (WOW) then a bit later introduced a multi-button mouse! And of course their most recent got-to-get-one toy: the iPod nano.
New projects include learningRuby on Rails for web development (I think my PHP days are close to over now). And using Textpattern (which finally was released out of beta at version 4.0 no-less) for times when you don’t need to re-invent the CMS wheel.
The next big push at work is a total rewrite of the Samson website. Hopefully we can get it done with rails.
I think I’m done with mountain biking, I want to start riding on the road. That would involve a significant expenditure on a road bike, so I’ll probably put that off ‘till the spring.
Please use the contact form to let me know if you have any preferences of what you’d like to see me wrote more about.
Well, that didn’t take long. No less than 2 hours after the previous iBook post the iBook finally said no more. Right now I’m in the process of backing it up while it’s in FireWire Hard Disk mode, then it’s off to to Apple Store. Hopefully afterward I can remote access into it and de-authorize iTunes and the Studio MX suite.
I should mention that in March I broke down and purchased an iPod Photo (30GB). I’ve been very pleased with it so far. I believe that the newer generation iPods (including the Shuffle) seem to sound better than the earlier ones. I think hear less distortion in the low end. I’m still using the 512MB shuffle for nights out when I don’t want to carry the full size ‘Pod with me and while snowboarding. I do like having my Photos with me, one feature that helps is that I can sync Music to the iPod from one Mac (my G4 Desktop) and Photos to the iPod from another (an iBook). iTunes 4.8 even allows to to turn off warnings that you would normally get when plugging your iPod into another machine. I’ll definitely pick up the iPod Camera Connector before my next vacation.
Yes, it’s been a while. I figured I’d better write something before my iBook goes on the blink again (literally). That’s right my iBook is exhibiting the video blinking symptoms that just scream “Replace my Logic Board” again. I haven’t even done the 10.4 Tiger thing to this machine ‘cause I just have to many things tricked out in the OS for web development (which reminds me that I’ll have to post my OSX virtual hosts setup here soon). I’ll just have to do another Carbon Copy Clone and get it over with.
My old 10GB scroll wheel iPod died over the holiday season and I needed something to replace it. I was borrowing one for a while, but I wanted to get something of my own. So I bought an iPod Shuffle. I dropped $99 on the 512MB model, the price was just right.
Well, I am mostly taking back what I said about the iPod shuffle. Here’s what the iPod shuffle does. For $99 you get a handy 512MB USB 2.0 pocket drive that happens to play MP3s, MP4s (including protected ITMS MP4s), WAVs and Audible files. It also comes with a set of headphones and a lanyard. It’s also tiny, ideal for physical activity.
Do I miss the screen and the scroll wheel? Yes. Do I miss having almost anything I could want to listen to available at a moments notice? Yes. But, it does a nice job a playing MP3 files in a small profile which is kinda what I was looking for. It’s great for not taking up a lot of room when you go out, just a small space in your pocket. It’s great on the slopes (keeping the volume down so I can hear other boarders of course).
My biggest gripe with the shuffle is even if you keep it in manual (non-Autofill) mode, it still ties itself to one machine. I’d like to be able to drag tunes off my home machine before I go to work the fill it with different tunes from my work machine when I leave at the end of the day.
Ideally I’d get a 30GB iPod Photo or an iPod mini (6GB) when funds are a little more flowing. I do like the size of the mini and they have the best feeling click wheel.
There’s a nice iPod Shuffle article at MacDevCenter. It pretty much covers all of the details of the unit.
Ok, the Mac mini is cool, very cool. So I thought about plunking down some cash on one right away (like right after the Keynote right away). Then I thought, better wait, the 1st version of anything tends to be a bit buggy. So my G4/400 will have to wait a bit before it’s replaced by another machine as my desktop Mac.
Just for kicks, I went to the Apple Store and I figured see how much it’d cost me. Of course, I’m in for the 1.42GHz/80GB model at $599 base. I might as well add a SuperDrive (+$100), I definitely want both the AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth options (+$129), and I’m not sure how many RAM slots this puppy has so I should just max-it-out (1GB) at the factory (+$425). That brings my total to … $1,253.00, Yikes!
Ok, the minis are still cool. but once you start building them up, the price easily runs away, shooting past the $600 “just in sight” range to over the $1k “I might need to think about that one a bit” mark with a few add-ons. I’m going to wait a while and see, perhaps I’ll end up getting a G5 after all.