If you’re walking in an area filled in traffic, it pays to concentrate, so listening to an iPod or other music player isn’t very sensible. But despite that obvious bit of advice, it doesn’t follow that we’re at a greater risk of being run over simply because portable music is so popular. More »
Nowadays, most of us seldom use our optical drives since everything is downloaded. If you’d like to see your optical drive get some love, turn it into an iPod dock with some scissors and an old CD, while still keeping it usable. More »
For regular pedestrians, an iPod can be a useful tedium-buster. However, Victorian police have tied an increasing number of road deaths to walkers being distracted by MP3 players and text messaging. More »
Variable pricing might not have made much difference to what’s on sale in the iTunes store, but there are ways you can get music without endlessly coughing up $1.69 a track. More »
iPod-love’s got you stuck with iTunes, but you’d prefer to cut down on the extra bloat iTunes requires on your hard drive? Here’s how to install iTunes without QuickTime, Bonjour, or that pesky iTunesHelper. More »
iTunes has always filled the iPod shuffle with music to capacity without asking for much intervention from you, but Apple snuck the same very handy functionality for all iPod models in the recent iTunes 8.1 release.
If you’d like to enable AutoFill with your iPod or iPhone, Ars has the details: More »
Options for in-seat entertainment on planes have improved dramatically in recent years, but for the most part still restricts you to whatever the airline chooses to program. While planes like the A380 have upped the ante, it’s still relatively rare to be able to view your own content on a screen bigger than your portable media device. However, the situation should get better. As I report for APC, Airbus expects options for plugging in iPods and other forms of content should increase in the next few years, as airlines seek to differentiate themselves and attract the fickle traveller dollar. What would you ideally like on in-seat tech menu? Share your dream configuration in the comments.
Airbus: why in-seat tech is so trickyThe declining Australian dollar might be bad news if you’re planning a US trip, but it turns out to be good news if you want to buy an iPod. Australia now ranks as the cheapest place on the globe to purchase a basic iPod, according to CommSec’s quarterly iPod index, reports Susannah Moran at AustralianIT. That’s a dramatic change from the previous quarter, when Australia ranked 14th for buying the then-entry-level model. iPods are generally hard to acquire at a discount (save for Apple’s own occasional sales), so any opportunity to save money is helpful.
CommSec to unveil ‘iPod index’[AustralianIT] More »
Mark Gladding (who created previously mentioned Text2Go as his day job) blogs about the ways in which you can use an iPod for in-car entertainment, covering all the options from the extremely low-tech (listening through the supplied earbuds) Like Mark, I’d concur that it’s a waste of money to buy an in-car FM transmitter; you’re better off getting a replacement car stereo that supports audio input. If you want to keep your iPod in place, check out this DIY car iPod dock. Got any other tricks to get your iPod rockin’ roadside? Share them in the comments. [8 Ways to iPod your Car] More »
Telstra’s BigPond Music arm has started selling music in unprotected MP3 format, making it a much more appealing rival to the iTunes store than when it was a Windows Media-only shop (which blocked any iPod users for starters). All four major labels have signed up for the store, and tracks are available encoded at 256Kbps or (in some cases) 320Kbps. Telstra is currently still selling WMA formats as well, but we’ll be surprised if this lasts too long. Pricing starts at $1.69 for individual tracks (BigPond ISP subscribers get a discount of 12% on individual tracks or 9% on albums, and don’t have downloads counted against their quota). (Thanks Shane G!) [BigPond Music]
