Technology: Threat or Menace?
Sunday, December 4th, 2011 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniSo, who wants to explain to me what, exactly, an IPod is and why “it’s essential” that I have one?
In other news, the deck is roofed; the crew boss is due back on Monday (or Tuesday, or “early in the week”) to measure for the back-splash and install the pesky mini-blinds that refuse to acknowledge my dominion over themselves. I think we’ll hold off on the ceiling fan; the installation sounds like too much wear-and-tear on everyone at this point.
The house is very slowly coming back into something resembling coherence. I’m trying to sort out books, music, and knick-knacks that no longer give pleasure rather than mindlessly tossing things back where they were. This? Is harder than you might think.
And, yes — we are still working on Dragon Tide, which as some astute readers have noticed, is late. Our fault entirely, for not completely grokking how much the new order of bidness would affect the old order of bidness. We have kindly received an extension from Madame the Editor. And I’m busy cutting-and-pasting, foreshadowing, and laying in the subplot(s). This? Is also harder than you might think.
So, in a few minutes, I’m off to the Word Mines.
What’re you doing today that’s fun?
Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 03:35 pm (UTC)But any MP3 player that can hold your entire music library is nice to have.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 03:43 pm (UTC)Did you own a Walkman during the 1980s?
It's sort of like one of those, only a lot better. You load music into it via your computer (either off of CDs, or bought from the iTunes online store) and listen to it on the go. The big advantages being (a) sound quality (it's excellent) and (b) being able to carry around up to 500 CDs in your pocket.
(And the high-end ones -- the iPod Touch -- do lots of other stuff as well: video camera, still camera, games console, movie player, ebook reader, public transit map, and web browser. In fact, it's a fairly neat pocket computer. There's a slightly bulkier version with a built-in cellphone: the iPhone.)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 03:49 pm (UTC)An iPod is a portable music player, like a Walkman but using digital files. Beyond this, I know not. Do not have one.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 03:49 pm (UTC)Alas, no. I passed through the 80s in just-above-abject poverty. In the 60s, I had a transistor radio.
(And the high-end ones -- the iPod Touch -- do lots of other stuff as well: video camera, still camera, games console, movie player, ebook reader, public transit map, and web browser.)
Ah, OK. The phone seems to do most of that stuff, and mostly I don't use it, though it was nice to have some of my own music with me on the last loooong train trip.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 04:06 pm (UTC)The iPhone is much cooler and includes iPod functionality if you want to put music on it.
That's just my opinion, of course
Barbara
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 04:47 pm (UTC)By the time you get up to the iPad ... it started life as a bloated iPod touch, but it's now a de facto new type of computing platform, as different from regular PCs/Macs of today as a Mac was from a PC back in 1985. And about as mature as a 1985 Mac[2].
I wuv my iPhone 4. Seriously, if the screen was just a little bit bigger I'd do everything with it. Just my luck that it didn't become available until I was succumbing to middle-aged eyeballs.
[1] I keep my old click-wheel hard disk iPod simply because I get tactile feedback from the play/pause/stop/forward/backward buttons, so I can use it via a cassette interface in my (ancient) car without having to look at a touchscreen.
[2] The seeds of future success and ubiquity are visible in the iPad today, but it's still rather limited.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 04:51 pm (UTC)However, the cost of setting this kind of rig up is, if cheap by serious audio geek standards, nevertheless non-trivial.
(I had to do the flood-the-house-with-airport stations thing because some of the walls in this apartment are made of stone and three feet thick; the amp and speaker combos followed over a period of a couple of years.)
i pod
Date: 2011-12-04 05:38 pm (UTC)Nanette
ipod / smart phone equivalent
Date: 2011-12-04 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 06:22 pm (UTC)Then I find out I can get email on it, get a NOOK app, check local weather, maps, and dozens of other things. It's much the same as a smart phone without the phone part so no monthly fees. Works on wifi rather than cell phone tower.
It's the music storage that I find truly wonderful
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 07:00 pm (UTC)The Shuffle is the size of a postage stamp and lists for about $49; it's a basic personal music player (2 GB) and no more.
The Nano is the size of a soda cracker and lists for $129 and up (depending on how much memory you want (8 or 16 GB). The Classic is the size of a small cell phone, lists for $249, and has 160 GB of memory. Both these play audio and video.
The Touch is the size of a large cell phone and lists for $199-$399 (again depending on memory; 8 GB is basic, 32 or 64 GB models are available). The Touch combines the features of a media player/viewer (and recorder!) and a palmtop device (Palm Pilot, iPaq, etc.).
The Shuffle's virtue is that it's relatively cheap and designed to do just one thing. The Classic's virtue is its enormous memory capacity (more than most tablet devices). The Touch's virtue is its combination of compact size and versatility; essentially, it's a mini-tablet (though its only data-connectivity is via WiFi and Bluetooth).
But what is coming to be important about iPods (as opposed to other media players and related devices) are the accessories. You can buy speaker docks for your iPod so that you can listen to it just as you would a home stereo. You can buy desktop telephones and clock radios with iPod docks; indeed, it's becoming harder to find clock radios with CD players nowadays, because the iPod-compatible versions are taking over.
My take is that the Shuffle and the Touch are the most useful of these; the Nano and Classic are too small to make the video features worthwhile. The Touch's usefulness depends on what you need in a portable gadget. It's on the small side for an ebook reader and isn't optimized for writing, but as a palmtop successor it's got a lot going for it.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 07:07 pm (UTC)I do have some music on my mp3 player, but it isn't necessarily the first thing I'd put on. Many modern phones have mp3 players built in. You don't need an iPod to use a podcast, despite the name.
As far as a "real" iPod... I do have one now and I quite like it. But that's because I have an iPod touch, and it lets me put ebooks on it. If I'm using the thing, chances are I am reading. Including several of your chapbook collections :D. But I got it because my faithful mp3 player of several years killed itself after hours of playing French lessons and history discussion for me. The other pocket computer features a touch offers are not all that important to me.
(I'd probably find the music thing a lot more important if I didn't have the sort of brain that *always* has a soundtrack going... my music mostly gets used to jolt my brain off a soundtrack that was driving me mad)
Depends on where/how you listen to music
Date: 2011-12-04 07:32 pm (UTC)for me and I'd sing along with my voice lessons to warm up/practise -
or I'd listen to my library of music.
Once I got my CD player (I had no choice with that model), I played
more CDs in the car than at home - and now I have them loaded on the shop's computer in iTunes. I listen more at work now...and if it
isn't on iTunes, it's on YouTube. :)
I haven't touched my iPod in a long time. Then again I don't download
podcasts to it either. Some folks I know try that...
LAuretta@ConstellationBooks
My use of a music player. (your music may differ :)
Date: 2011-12-04 08:15 pm (UTC)I can listen for hours. Well worth it. Took the place of endless cassettes, then cds, then cds with mp3s on them.
If you don't carry music around, or don't want to, you don't need one.
Many people use their phones as music storage devices, but I don't, because I don't want the essential functions of the phone to compete for battery life with music playing.
Best,
Ed
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 09:44 pm (UTC)I would think that an iPod nano or shuffle would be great for working out. They don't have as much room as the larger iPod, but how much do you really need for an hour or so of working out? The nano gives you more options for arranging your music and has a bit more space.
I am, in fact, listening to my holiday mix while checking my flist and reading. Later, I will be (ugh) cleaning out the spare bedroom which I am sure has a bed, somewhere.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 11:32 pm (UTC)And there are even TWO Girl Genius radio-play podcasts available!*swoons*
Changed name?
Date: 2011-12-04 11:48 pm (UTC)Re: Changed name?
Date: 2011-12-04 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 02:52 am (UTC)In the sense of Ipod=mp3 player... Nice to have access to a large amount of your personally preferred music when away from home (where the music is all on the computer). In the car, where I am usually driving for hours, or at work, where I can't leave music on the computer but I can plug the speakers into my music player, it is nice to have background music. As I mostly listen to opera, ballet, or full length classical, swapping CDs is either a hazard or an annoyance, being able to set up hours of music is perfect.
Given the low price of a music player that mostly only plays music, it is an easy decision, so long as you have already transferred music from other media to the computer. If you haven't, then it is lot of hours out of your life and probably not really worth it.
As I'm not a big fan of headphones, the alternative of using my smartphone to play music is less useful, but that is just me.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 11:11 am (UTC)I have heard it described as the soundtrack to our lives and there is some sense to that. Alan-A-Dale (the computer made me name it to set it up, don't blame me) holds the music that keeps me going - all of it that I can find time to rip onto the computer and stuff into his little gullet. And? I Do.Not.Have.To.Carry.CDs. This alone is incentive enough. BUT? There is the thing called "shuffle." Trust me. You need this.
In other news, Podette needed to do One More Thing before her company can "activate" her license. Turned out, she really needed to have done one more thing beFORE the one more thing. So we weren't successful in our quest, but we had a really nice drive down and back, coming home via a different route and doing some Christmas shopping at a historical point of interest or two, with a tasty lunch thrown in. So, day not wasted, but used up and most of that with frustration.
Suddenly finding that there is lo too little time between flying to California on Wednesday and Now. Much scrambling to ensue.
Hope you had fun int he Words Factory!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 11:22 am (UTC)An iPod ties you to Apple and the Apple store in much the same way that a Kindle ties you to Amazon. I'm not sure if you can convert other music to the iPod but, if you can, just be aware that that would likely involve extra work. I'm sure someone will correct me if that's not the case.
Also anyone buying an iPod whose music tastes don't run into the norm should probably check what's available via iTunes first before investing.
Tricia
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 11:46 am (UTC)And as for fun today... I'm at Disney World. Today I'm going to the Animal Kingdom.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 03:12 pm (UTC)Why have an iPod over cds? I am a person who made mix tapes. I am a person who burned cd's. I am a person who hates advertisements on radio...hates news, weather, sports. Give me music, please. An iPod freed me from the 90 minute limitation for cassettes and cd's. I have playlists that last 9 hours. There is no box around my music anymore, no time limitation, no need to turn over the record or put in a new cd.
Someone above thought need was related to age. I disagree. Need is related to your relationship to music. My father, who is turning 90, has a basic Nano. It holds a playlist of Count Basie and another of Duke Ellington that he and I put together from numerous cds of their work in a journey that began with Ken Burns' History of Jazz on PBS. He wanted his own "best of" cd of songs he remembered, many of which were tied to different record labels. We burned a cd before iPods became common. Now it's all on his iPod that he can carry with him to waiting rooms with a pair of headphones. (He also has classical music on his Nano.)
I agree (naturally) with Autopope that the various devices are iPod plus other wonderful things. I even drool over the idea of having such technical gadgets. But we live rural, where our internet is satellite and broadband is a fantasy. So iPhones and iPads aren't practical. But an iPod? Oh my. Needs no internet. Just electricity and a computer with a cd player. Or a friend with a huge music library.
And why not some other mp3 player? Because I'm a mac user. I believe there are still aspects of the iPod that are superior to other mp3 players. And this conviction was borne out with our new car and trying to use mp3 files with it since it didn't have the automatic iPod connector.
Oz
iPxxx What it is and why would _you_ want one.
Date: 2011-12-05 04:12 pm (UTC)In all cases, I'm going to stick to the non-phone, non-computer uses. These are entertainment devices. So the first part of the answer is that you would want them to entertain yourself (entertaining others may be illegal or at the least very difficult). Since they travel well, you would want them so that you will be entertained when you are not where your primary entertainment lives. (Since we know that the primary entertainment is the cats. That's why they are between you and whatever you are trying to look at currently.) This could be a train, riding in a car, or ghu forbid sitting in the waiting room at a medical facility of some sort.
For many of these devices the entertainment will be audio. This pre-supposes that you have loaded them with wonderful audio from either your own collection of audio files (MP3 or WMA format, some of the others like ogg are not supported) or you have purchased audio files via Apple's iTunes which many find convenient and other find abhorrent. For those i-devices that are blessed with video screens (iPod Classic, Touch, Pad, Phone, and I believe some Nanos) you may also download movie or video content. This may involve some jiggery-pokery of a semi-technical nature to get the movie or video converted to something you can use on the i-device. This may also be quasi-legal but we are assured that it is covered under fair use.
A couple of these devices may also function as book readers, I don't know about the Touch, but the iPhone and iPad may be used in this manner.
I will leave aside the desire to be up with the latest trends in geekly fashion as I have in fact met you and don't believe that this is a major consideration in _your_ choice to use these particular devices.
So, if you don't currently have audio entertainment currently available (and I'm reasonably sure you do) or if you wish to purchase a device to have audio, video, and possibly ebooks available to entertain yourself with then you would consider these to potentially be "must have" devices.
I occasionally use my iPod classic to listen to music, it holds my music library. I more frequently use a non-apple device to entertain myself, as it's a better computer (Asus eee Slate). YMMV.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 06:11 pm (UTC)I love my iPod nano, but I mostly listen to it on my commute, which isn’t relevant for you. Like some other commenters, my main use is for podcasts. If you like spoken word, there are lots of good free podcasts available, both professional and non-professional. You subscribe to them through the iTunes store, then any new episodes are automatically downloaded and copied onto your iPod. I listen to various BBC podcasts (programs on comedy, film review, science, history, statistics and arts coverage – quite wide ranging now I list it!) and a few non-commercial SFF podcasts.
It’s also good for entertainment while queuing and travelling. I have a non-vocal classical music playlist set up for background noise when I want to avoid distraction from surrounding people’s conversations.
I’m sure that non-iPod MP3 players fulfil exactly the same functions, but I don’t have any experience of them.
Caroline
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 07:28 pm (UTC)Barbara
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 09:00 pm (UTC)i pod
Date: 2011-12-05 11:11 pm (UTC)I listen to a lot of "world" music, and have umpty ump cds of same. I stick them in my mac laptop cd player, they download into I Tunes while I am doing something else, I plug in my Nano and load them on there... ta da! done. Not a lot of muss (except my CD player on my laptop seems to be broken right now- sigh. Will Get Fixed for Xmas )
Nanette
Deck is roofed - yea!
Date: 2011-12-06 12:38 pm (UTC)P.S. Don't own an Ipod - have a cheap radio as local excellent classical music station provides entertainment and noise cancelling when I am at the gym. My husband uses his phone (Android) to listen to books.
Another alternative...
Date: 2011-12-07 12:48 am (UTC)Yes, the IPod is the very first step on the slippery slope that leads directly to pod people waking up in your garage and replacing you. Only little Timmy notices that the garage is full of pods, and no one will listen to those wild fantasies of his anymore...
Beware! The pods are coming, out of the sky, out of the cloud... and no one even notices!
Old Tech
Date: 2011-12-07 03:03 pm (UTC)Note: I use my nonapple touchscreen phone for reading books, email and news on the bus. Also for playing wordament, a highly addictive Boggle analog ideal for smallish
screens.
Mac