Great deal: Buy a 32 GB iPod Touch from Amazon and get a free iPod Shuffle for the gym or to give away.
Where an iPod is better than an iPhone
Thanks for visiting this blog for the first time. Check out the home page for the most recent posts, or the archives if you're looking for something in particular. Here are some of our favorite posts, which you might enjoy:
- The Moleskine GTD tabs hack
- No choice but to get things done (on retro computing)
- How to subscribe to toilet paper
If you like what you see, we hope you'll consider subscribing to the RSS feed.
Why no preloaded iPods?
Ever since the first days of the iTunes Music Store I’d always wondered why Apple didn’t see iPods preloaded with music. Why not sell a Beck iPod, say, with every track ever released on it and maybe his autograph etched on the back? When Apple came out with the U2 special edition iPod that included their music catalog in the price, it didn’t come preloaded, you had to use a coupon code to download the music.Well, today comes the answer that I can’t believe I hadn’t see before, because I’d look. iLounge reports that the settlement agreement Apple had with the Beatle’s Apple Music Co. over their trademark dispute included a clause that prohibited Apple from selling “physical media delivering prerecorded content[.]” This deal was struck before the iPod, so they never could have guessed its implications. In fact, the clause was probably just meant to cover CD sales.
Now that the two companies have resettled, you can bet you’ll see preloaded iPods. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Beatles iPod is the first.
Nike+iPod = surveillance?
I’m a happy user of the Nike+iPod Sport Kit. It’s an add-on for iPods that tracks your running: how far, how long, pace, calories burned, etc. It also lets you track your progress toward a goal or challenge other Nike+iPod users to races. It works by paring a radio receiver attached to your iPod and a radio transmitter placed in your shoe.However, as those of us who follow such things know, there’s nothing that perks up the ears of privacy activists more than the words “radio transmitter” and “shoe” in the same sentence. Their ears must be at their perkiest as researchers at the University of Washington have issued a report claiming that the Nike+iPod kit can be used to track its wearer. Wired News reports in its usual alarmed tone,
If you enhance your workout with the new Nike+iPod Sport Kit, you may be making yourself a surveillance target.
A report from four University of Washington researchers to be released Thursday reveals that security flaws in the new RFID-powered device from Nike and Apple make it easy for tech-savvy stalkers, thieves and corporations to track your movements. With just a few hundred dollars and a little know-how, someone could even plot your running routes on a Google map without your knowledge.
Below the fold I’ll explain why there are no security “flaws” and you shouldn’t be worried if you own one of these devices. Continue reading this post »
More piling on Zune
According to this ZDNet report, the Zune is not compatible with Vista, Microsoft’s much-touted (and much-delayed) new version of Windows. Hilarious. An MS veep says they’ll have a patch before the Vista retail rollout. But seeing as Vista itself is several years late, I wouldn’t bet my music library on it. And here’s a video of the Zune making it’s debut on CNN’s morning show. Best recap is from Gary Stein: “I watched CNN this morning and Soledad O’Brien literally interrupted the tech-biz reporter, who was talking about the Zune, to extoll the virtues of her new, $70 iPod Shuffle. The next time the story came through the cycle, she had gotten her iPod out of her office and demonstrated how cool it was that you could clip it, and essentially un-sold the Zune, and pitched the iPod.”-
Welcome.
This is the personal site of Jerry Brito, a lawyer and writer in Washington, D.C. He’s an academic researcher and the creator of Unclutterer and several other blogs. More »
Categories
Search
Presently Reading
