Geek and a Half

October 1st, 2007 by Jake

I just posted some pictures I took of my new iPod in a Flickr Photo Set. The iPod came on Friday, Sept. 28, the day that it was supposedly officially released by Apple nationwide. Good timing Apple.

I really like it a lot. It’s exactly the way I envisioned it, too. Of course… some of the gripes that you’ve seen circulating the Internet still hold true (crippled Calendar app, anyone?), but most of them are fixable. And my iPod is thankfully a Week 38 iPod, so I can confirm it does not have the infamous screen defect. And, despite what people are saying, I didn’t ever expect this device to be or act like an iPhone (however similar it is), so I’m quite happy with it.

September 14th, 2007 by Jake

At least that’s what I’ve been calling Apple’s latest media device. Because that’s what it is. An iPhone minus the phone part. Hence, iPhod.

Regardless, I’ve preordered one. This will be my very first iPod. Ever. And I’m excited. I’ve used iPhones before, and they’re really amazing pieces of technology. They live up to all the hype that they’ve been given, and I think the new iPod touch will, too. Now, I’m not saying this because I’m an Apple fanboy or anything (in fact, I sold my Mac Mini to pay for the new iPod, hardly a replacement, but we’ll see), but they really are neat. I think one of the big selling points for me was that it combined a lot of PDA elements into it, besides being a music player. It’s got a calendar (supposedly, you can’t add events on the fly anymore, though), clock, address book, alarms, calculator… all the little things that come in handy when you least expect them to. And it’s not to say that the old iPods didn’t have these features, either, they’re just presented a whole lot better on the touch.

Oh, and we can’t forget about the revolutionary web browser that’s in it too (yeah, the device has built-in WiFi, in case you haven’t guessed). Full-sized webpages, just like on your computer, but on that neat little screen with all the pinch and tap functionality. Like I said before… It’s an iPhone without the phone. Perfect for me, someone who’s stuck with Verizon Wireless on a family plan.

One more point of interest, as well… “supposedly” these things are fully hackable, just like the iPhone is (and Apple doesn’t even care that you’re hacking their stuff!), or at least, that’s what I’m hoping when I get it. From what I hear from friends who have iPhones, the hack process really isn’t a hack at all. It’s pretty much download, run, and it’s hacked. Feel free to install whatever apps you want on it at that point. I can only hope the touch is as hackable as the iPhone is, but I have a pretty good feeling it is.

I’ve just now preordered the 16GB model, and with shipping the price tag comes out to be roughly $430. You can also get the 8GB model for $300. They ship Sept 28 and arrive in homes starting Oct 2. Personally, I can’t wait.

December 3rd, 2006 by Jake

With the holiday season fast approaching, people in Ohio have already thought up light shows for their houses for this year.

Music: Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24
Courtesy Dayton Daily News

August 2nd, 2006 by Jake

I stumbled across this little app while looking for itunes Plugins (which I later found out only works with Mac…stupid Apple…). It goes through your entire iTunes Library (or a playlist), searches either Amazon or Google and finds album art for each song. It’s supposed to be $10 shareware, but I haven’t found any restrictions yet. It utilizes track name, album name, and title. There’s even an automatic mode, so you can just let it run (it makes sure the song is in the album before assigning the art to it). I manually went through a playlist I have, and it seemed like it would have about 90% accuracy if I had let it run on its own (Certain art I changed because of preference, i.e. from a “Greatest Hits” album to the original). I’m going to let it loose on my library tonight and see what it comes up with (After it’s done it shows you % success), I’ll edit this post and let you know the outcome.

Download iArt Now! (And pay the guy $10 if you like his app!)

Edit: So there is a limit. I think you can do about 50 album arts before it stops working, which is reasonable. So I forked out the money and let it run last night, and my lirary was full of art this morning. It wasn’t always successful, and if I didn’t have an album there it would choose one for me and add the art (and fix the tags). I might delete all my album data and let it run again, just so that it can do everything all at once and have all the right data from Amazon. It is a really nice tool, especially if you do it manually.