Yesterday was Christmas Day. I finally got to play with the iPod that was purchased in September. I wasn’t really looking forward to it that much because all the hype had gone and I had moved onto other things. When that day finally came, I had a quick play and put it aside to return to the internet. I did take the uttermost care to not leave a fingerprint on her by wearing gloves. Shes in a case now and not getting fingered anytime soon.

There was not much else to do on it other than listen to music, but in the short time I was playing with it, my first impressions are not that great. I am pretty disappointed with this product and I think I should thank higher powers for not giving this to me earlier, before the patchs because that could have been torture. I have to say, I enjoy listening to music on this. Other than the “nothing special, generic” earbuds, it sounds pretty good, but its elsewhere where the flaws lie.

It looks great, I do have to point that out. Apple always has brilliant design in their products, more so now than ever, and this this is beautiful. I just with that it wasn’t so fingerprint prone. I accidentally touched the screen before I put the protector on but lucky I had wet and dry wipes to clean it away. I know how bad the back scratches and marks, its the same as it has been since the start of the iPod. Its pretty and shiny but I do with they could use a more resistant metal.

I have never been a fan of the nearly endangered scroll wheel. It has always given me problems on older iPods. I always either under scroll or over scroll and I have always found it slightly tricky to get it in the exact location first try. This iPod’s scroll wheel it absolute torture and the worst thing about the classic I have found so far. It is so unresponsive that is it frustrating. Even worse is that it doesn’t work very well with my iPod sleve, so much that I will most likely have to resort to self modification and sergically remove the scrool wheel cover from it just so I can get a little funtionality back. It is not prefect and I wish they had this sorted before they released it. If there is anything worse I hate about iPods than over scrolling, its having it not scroll at all.

One of the most hyped features about the new iPods was Coverflow. I never really use it on the PC because it is painfully slow and I feel no compelling reason to use it. I was hoping that would be different with this, because I lovethe idea of flicking through album art to play an album. I generally pick an album to play, rather than use playlists so this feature is for me. I do have to say, it is generally an okay experience, as long as you don’t jump ahead and scroll too far and end up with a bunch of question marked albums that eventually load. Yes, there could be many reason that it does that but I don’t really care, it bothers me little.

What does bother me is when an album art is duplicated. It is one album, but because there is a variation with one of the artist names, it thinks they are seperate. iTunes is smart enough to realise that it is the same album and to group it together, so I have no idea why the iPod cannot do the same. Its really slack of them to not have it work right. Don’t go telling me about workarounds because they have their own flaws, it should be done rightand not have people working around it.

This thing is a little slower compared to older iPod but since this is my “first” iPod, I can’t really comment on that. My overall opinion is if you have a iPod video, there is no need to upgrade. If you want a iPod Classic, see if you can get an iPod Video first, or if a Nano suffices your music collection, get that instead. There is always the touch for the big spender that like pretty things and lots of features, but then again, I have never played with a Nano or Touch so I can’t give an honest opinion. I am a little displeased and disappointed with this product, but because it has the Apple Logo on it, I have to let it slide and say its a good product. Well done Apple! Well done Steve Jobs!

Music, it is powerful. Everyone listens to music, everyone connects to music. Music is a very effective tool that the media use to hook us. It recently struck me and got me thinking about this that a familiar tune or song can trigger something in the brain to make us think about something else.

One thing is a theme song of a television series. Yesterday, a song that is the theme of a television show my family watch, except me, was on television and it instantly grabbed their attention. They though there was something on television about the show but really it was just a song being used over the top of something else. I found it strange that something as simple as a familiar piece of music can grab someone like that.

After thinking about it, it clicked that I myself do something similar. Whenever I hear a song that has been on one of Apple’s iPod advertisements, I instantly think about the iPod. This is similar for other products but Apple really has me. This is the whole point, they want their product stuck in your head and by using popular, catch music to a greatly done advertisement, they have you hooked.

This also applies of my favourite television show, Heroes. They played a song on the advertisement with a song I hear regularly on the radio and whenever it plays, I always think about Heroes. I don’t care about the song, I don’t listen to the song, but the song triggers my thought, which happen to be my favourite show, Heroes.

Music is a very powerful tool, especially in the media and marketing of products. It can trigger a thought or a memory of something we have seen. Used in a smart way, can really sell a product, whether it be an iPod, a movie, or a television show. This is the media.

As I said two weeks ago, I pre-ordered my iPod. I did so a few days after the announcement of the new models. On that same day, there were pictures of people in the US with their new iPods. I knew I was going to have to wait a few days for them to get to my country.

Well now it has been exactly two weeks since I have pre-ordered it. Today I went to Dick Smith’s to see if my iPod was there yet since the expected date at the time was the 20th of September. That is a long time to wait for a product that is out everywhere but here. The status on the iPods is that there has been a delay in shipping. This now means I have to wait longer.

This could result in me getting it next month, possibly exactly 30 days after its release date. This would be okay if it was launched like the iPhone and I wasn’t expecting it but I think they someone should be putting a little bit more effort into getting these things to us here in little old New Zealand. Our neighbours in Aussie have probably had them for two weeks now.

But this is not new! We are always the last people to get products (with the exception of third world countries,) no matter what it is. Okay, that is easy to understand. It it can be a lot of work getting a piece of hardware released worldwide in a short time period. It is also just as hard to get software, such as video games released simultaneously worldwide with the PAL and NTSC and languages ect. ect. I have just counter-argued a point I was trying to get across.

Lets move onto to one last thing then, television shows. Why is it so hard for them to be released at the same time as New Zealand (and possibly Australia.) I can watch the show a few minutes after it has finished airing in the US so why do I have to wait a month, half a year, a whole year in some cases before I can watch a show broadcasted on TV in my country?

No wonder people pirate television shows, its because you make us wait so bloody long. Also you try and target piracy by using tactics like offering some shows cheap or making it easy to pay for stuff, but the big problem is, all this stuff is only available in the US. Why can;t you give anything to us international viewers.

It sucks that the world revolves around the US. Maybe I should just move there so I can get in with all the action and getting things on time and as soon as they come out. New Zealand is a great place but it is behind in a lot of things, some of that is our fault but sometimes some things are just out of our hands. It’s not our fault we have a tiny population and we are insignificant to the rest of the world.

Well today my parents pre-ordered my iPod from Dick Smith Electronics. They were one of the cheapest places with the 80GB Black Classic costing us $339 NZD. Now all I have to do is wait for the stock to arrive, which they predict to be the 20th of September. Lucky Me! Only problem I have now is keeping my nose clean or else my parent’s with hold it ransom.

I’m going to quickly touch on my opinions on the 4 new iPods that were announced yesterday at Apple’s Keynote.

Lets start small with the iPod Shuffle. New colours, big whoop! I have never really though of the Shuffle as a proper iPod. Its really just a thing that plays music that looks pretty nice. I’m not a huge fan of the new colours though, I preferred the old ones. Whenever I see a shuffle, which is rare, I think of that person as someone that can’t afford a real MP3 player.

3rd Generation iPod Nano’s look a little squashed and plumped. The colours aren’t that nice either. Yes it now plays video but how good of a player would it be in a small screen? I suppose I’d have to use one to properly judge it. I have never been a huge fan of the iPod Nano’s, or the Mini’s for that matter.

The iPod Classic looks pretty similar to the iPod Video, and the functionality is pretty much the same too, but with minor differences there and here. One of them being the implementation of coverflow, a feature I would find myself using quite a bit. Its also at a very nice price too and comes in the 80GB and 160GB models.

Last but not least, the one everyone as waiting for, iPod Touch. This iPod has most of the functionality of the iPhone, but without the communication feature. I was disappointed to find out it only comes out in the 8GB and 16GB varieties. I would have preferred if they had gone with Hard Drive storage for bigger capacity than going with Flash memory. I wouldn’t pay the money for a 8GB, or a 16GB iPod touch knowing that I can get the 160GB iPod classic with more storage, even if it has less features and no touch screen.

To sum it up, I wasn’t that pleased with the new iPods. I couldn’t justify buying the iPod touch at the price point it is since it only has a minimal amount of storage, 16GB at the most. I can see myself paying for the pretty reasonable 80GB iPod and if I had $399, I can see myself getting it without a second thought.

About two hours ago, Apple’s Presentation would have ended. I have just woken up and don’t know where to go. There is going to be Apple information from the presentation everywhere on the internet. But where sold I go first to get all the information and pictures in a single, easy location so I don’t have to muck around sifting through information to get everything I want to know.

Digg will definitely have this in the top 10 dugg stories. Digg is one of the many bases online for Apple Fanboys and any big technology news is on there. Apple + New Product + Hype = Top Story! My guess would be that the story either links to Engadget, Gizmodo or Mac Rumors or all. If this is the case why not go to the original source first because I’m sure the information is spread across multiple posts.

I could go possibly go to Twitter, Pownce or Tumblr. Someone on there would have definitely linked to a website with a lot of information on it. My guess would be that it would link to the same article(s) as seen on Digg. The only problem is that there will be quite a few people with different links and I wouldn’t want to go to all the sites to find the exact same information on it so this method of getting all the information quickly might not be the best solution.

I could try the my RSS feeds because I know for a fact that there will be at least 5 different sources with information on the new iPods. The only problem is that this information will be mixed with other stuff so I would have to siff through my feeds. Also if I wanted to see any extra content, for example photo galleries, I would end up going to the site anyway to see these so why not just go to one at the start.

I guess I will just go straight to a website and have a look at the news. Now I have the problem of deciding which one would have the best content, whether its Gizmodo or maybe Mac Rumors of possibly Engadget, now thats a big decision. Well off I go. *crosses fingers for new iPods* :p

With the supposed announcement of the new iPods, I have decided to rant about those stupid earbud headphones that come with the devices. As you can tell from the word “stupid,” I dislike them.

First off, you see them everywhere, especially the iPod ones. Okay, I’m fine with that, as long as your music isn’t full blast at such a volume that I, and anyone else in the facinity, can hear your music. If you can’t hear your music, maybe you should get your ears tested and send away for a bloody hearing aid. The whole point of headphones of any kind is that you can hear you music and it doesn’t disturb anyone else. If you want the world to hear what you are listening to, get fucking speakers you stupid cunt!

I also hate seeing people that have one bud in and the other one hanging down. I feel like coming along with a pair of scissors and cutting the hanging one off, why shouldn’t I, it doesn’t look you you’re using it. Having it like that does not make you look cool, you actually look like a complete retard because you don’t know how to use them as intended. I myself cannot do that because all my music is stereo and doesn’t sound “complete” without both buds in my ears, but I suppose the kids these days still rip their music in monaural.

I also don’t get why people share buds too. You see teenagers sitting down beside one another, each with a bud in their ear. I don’t think this is very heigenic. I would say there are hundreds or germs on these buds and having someone elses ear germs in your ear is discusting. Hey but who cares right, my germs are your germs and vice versa. Why don’t people get a $20 cable that splits the jack so two people can put headphones into this device. Also it can be a bit annoying, especailly when two people take up the challenge of walking like this. This can be annoying for anyone else sharing the hallway because we have to conjoined people trying to take up the hallway, just so they can listen to the same songs. This is another time I feel like pulling the scissors out. Why don’t you get your own damn MP3 player?!

I also have a few personal problems with these headphones. One is the fact that they fall out of ones ears pretty easy. Another is the length of the iPod headphones and a lot of other branded headphones, the cords are just too short. Every so often I will go into the bathroom with the iPod in my pocket. Sometimes the headphones get ripped out of the jack, other times the headphones lift the iPod out of my pocket and throw it onto the floor half a metre away from me. This is really frustrating!

I don’t see why you don’t see more of the old style headphones. They are also a lot more comfortable to wear. They may be bigger but they are less annoying and generally sound better in my opinion. Also I would feel better paying for the bigger headphones because I would feel like I am getting more for what I am paying for. Those little earbuds seem like a huge rip off if you buy a brand name one. I would swap bud headphones for the big ones any day!