Music in Your Hand: the iPod Shuffle
July 15th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
The iPod is almost as prevalent as the Sony Walkman was in its heyday, and seems to have attracted people from social teens
to middle-aged computer geeks. Still, there are people that feel that the price-over $200 for Apple’s latest iPods, then there’s an iPod for them as well! For those who want a quality music player at a lower price, the iPod shuffle provides it for much less cost than the traditional iPod.
iPod Shuffle: The Tiny Wonder
The iPod shuffle easily holds enough music to keep your toes tapping through a day trip or a day at work. And the iPod shuffle does this all in a machine about the size of a matchbook. The built in belt clip makes it ideal for those looking to exercise with music, since they can just hook the iPod shuffle on their belt or shirt collar and go for a run, and all without ever having to worry about the music skipping. The secret to both the skip-proof operation and the small size is the use of flash memory, which is more compact and durable than including a miniature hard drive in the machine.
iPod Shuffle: Music and More
Besides music, the iPod shuffle can carry other computer files wherever you go. Because Apple recognizes how convenient having portable data storage is, they’ve included software for you to transfer files to the iPod shuffle, and even determine just how much storage on the device is devoted to music and how much to other files. The older version of the iPod shuffle even resembled the USB storage drives that are as common today, about the same size and shape as a pack of gum. Be aware, though, that the current iPod shuffle can’t simply plug into a USB connector as the original can. You’ll have to use the dock that comes with it in order to transfer data. However, despite this limitation, it’s hard to beat the iPod shuffle for portability and convenience. Though it can’t play the latest television shows like the newest iPods, it’s a powerful little music player in a small package, compactness and convenience in one little package.
Technorati Tags: computer geeks, ipods, ipod shuffle
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The Multitasking 80gb iPod
June 15th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
The uber-hip 80gb iPod takes multi-media entertainment to a new level. For the younger crowd who doesn’t remember, 80gb is absolutely enormous. It wasn’t long ago that 80gb would’ve been an extremely large and expensive amount of storage for a desktop computer.
The 80 gb iPod can house a library of 20,000 songs and 100 hours of video. This 80gb iPod can support up to 25,000 photos as well. This little machine has a lot of power. Apple continues the company’s stylish advancements with each new generation of players. There are more iPod games coming out along with the enormous catalogue of songs to download from iTunes.
As usual the click wheel puts all the handy options at your fingertips. This time you can get up to 20 hours of music time on your battery and about 6.5 hours for video use.
Dress It Up
One of the cool features of the Apple products it that there are loads of companies who just specialize in making unique accessories for their items. Your 80gb iPod can get a fancy case from the likes of ezGear or Otterbox. It’s easy to make you mobile entertainment center a fashion statement.
More Accessories
Depending on your needs you can get a car kit for your 80gb iPod or a camera connector to download your pictures right from the internet. With the iPod Hi-Fi you can dock you player and use it as a sound system for your room. One thing is for sure life is going to be a lot more interesting with the power of the 80gb iPod in your pocket.
Technorati Tags: 80gb, ipods, multitasking
Related Tags: 80gb, computer geeks, digital music, ipod shuffle, itunes, multitasking
Form and Function Combined in iPods
June 5th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
Over the last five years or so since their first sale, Apple iPods have become one of the most recognized and popular music players since the Sony Walkman. What makes iPods so popular is partly the good timing in their release, right around the time where services such as Napster, which allowed music pirating, were being shut down. The concept of legal music downloading was ready to be brought to the forefront of the music scene, and Apple was there with iTunes and its iPods to meet the demand. But there was more than just good timing involved in the popularity of iPods. These music players have a solid, attractive design and are comfortable to use.
Music in Your Palm
Apple seemed to realize that in order to make truly portable music catch on, it needed to be able to fit in your pocket. Due to the necessary size for holding compact discs, Walkmans can’t fit that niche. But because digital music players are only limited by the size of the hard drive inside, Apple was able to use a small hard drive to make a player that was about the same size as a deck of cards. Other music players today may match iPods in storage space or even be able to play more file types, but even some of those don’t have the small size of the iPod. Apple further developed this concept with their iPod nano and shuffle, which both use flash memory instead of a hard drive, making iPods even more convenient and compact.
Easy to Use
In addition to small design, Apple chose a simple, attractive display for their iPods, with what’s called a click wheel to create a simple interface. There are actually five buttons on iPods, but the click wheel hides four of those; pressing in the right direction, such as with the direction buttons on a video game controller, will press the appropriate button. The fifth button is at the center of the wheel and is used mostly to confirm selections. The design is easy to use, since adjusting volume consists of running your thumb along circumference of the click wheel, similar to turning the dial on a stereo.
The interface between iPods and your computer is also handled easily, since music purchased for iPods is sold in the iTunes music store, which not only manages purchases, downloads, and acts as a music player on your computer, but will automatically detect if your iPod is connected and transfer your music library to it. By ensuring that the process of transferring music off your computer is easy to do, Apple has kept from driving people away with complicated procedures. It’s this combination of simple, easy to use design and portability that makes iPods such a desirable item today.
Technorati Tags: digital music, ipods, itunes
Related Tags: 80gb, computer geeks, digital music, ipod shuffle, itunes, multitasking
