Recently in iPod Category

Some people think the iPod and iTunes are podcasting and portable, digital music.

Others chafe at the restrictions placed upon the user by Apple.

Count me among the latter.

I do have an iPod. It cost some $300 about seven years go. I don't know if I ever wrote my post about how I used to use it as a backup drive, barely as a music/podcast player, until I removed its protective rubber cover, let it get suitably scratched and then used the hell out of it for a subsequent year.

But ... I couldn't load it with files from any of my computers. No, it was and still can only be updated from the iBook G4 on which we run iTunes. I can't drop a music file or podcast onto it from my iTunes installation on my Windows PC, from which I manage the iTunes portion of the Daily News' growing number of podcasts.

I can't manage the iPod in Linux. Aside from the iTunes way of attempting to force users to use one computer and one computer only to manage any given iPod (and my situation is even more complicated due to my iPod being initialized on a Mac and having the HFS+ filesystem, as opposed to the more-easily dealt-with FAT filesystem on Windows-initialized iPods), I just want to use my device the way I want, on the OSes I want, and with the files delivered the way I want.

So I bought a $20 player — the 4 GB Centron Craze MP3 Player — that, to be frank, sounds great but has a shit user interface.

But it only cost $20, has a small but useful LCD screen and allows me to drag/drop files of any sort onto it from any PC and OS that reads FAT filesystems (and that's EVERY OS out there, pretty much).

Right now I'm pretty much only using it for podcasts, and I've followed the lead of Fab and Dan of Linux Outlaws in using gPodder.

GPodder is fast, cross-platform (Linux, FreeBSD, even Windows), supports both iPods and "regular" MP3 players, and provides a most excellent way to "catch," listen to and load up podcasts on your favorite audio device.

The way I have it set up in Debian Lenny, with the now-ancient version 0.12.1 (Debian Sid has version 2.1), it can download a dozen podcasts simultaneously and automatically drops them on my cheap MP3 player.

While I bought the Centon player (navigation is horrible; did I mention that?) on impulse, there are better MP3 players that aren't the iPod, don't sell for iPod prices, and unlike the iPod and my Centon play the Ogg and FLAC open/free file formats.

Among these are the Sansa Clip, which I've heard of but never heard. I'll be on the lookout for one of these, and I'm more than a little eager to start ripping CDs to the lossless FLAC format. I even have the Ogg codec installed on my Windows PC, and I use the Windows Media Player to listen to Ogg-encoded music.

I guess that means my geek credentials are pretty much being revoked, using WMP to listen to Ogg ... but I don't put a lot of stock into said credentials, and I'm OK with them being pulled by the rest of the geek theocracy.

Before that happens, I encourage all of you to give gPodder a try.

Thanks, Garrett Rodgers, the Googling Google blogger, who points to the Official Google Mobile Blog's announcement that Google has released a new version of Google Talk that works on the iPhone and iPod Touch:

We've just released in the US a new version of Google Talk designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch browsers. In addition to sending your friends Gmail messages from your iPhone, you can now chat with them while you're on the move, too! In your iPhone browser, just go to www.google.com/talk, sign in and start chatting. That's it. Google Talk runs entirely in the browser so there's no need to download or install anything.

Google didn't get where it is today by charging end users for software and charging them again and again for endless upgrades.

Back in the early Macintosh days (i.e. the mid- to late '80s), Apple used the OS to sell hardware. Upgrades were free.

Today, Apple sells music at 99 cents a track, but what they're really selling is iPods, iPhones, iMacs, and any other damn thing they can slap an "i" in front of. And while the music is available in 99-cent increments, the iTunes software -- which runs in Windows and OS X -- has always been free. iPods would've never gotten to be such a huge business in any other way.

It's no different for the OS.

With that in mind, Apple wins on the desktop -- and crushes Microsoft -- in one way:

Make OS X free -- or very cheap. And make it run on Windows-compatible PCs.

Everybody wants that new MacBook Air. They'll still want it, even if they can also run OS X on a crappy PC. While not getting $129 for each OS X upgrade, Apple would get market share, still move a whole lot of hardaware. And they would gain that all-important "mindshare."

Most people have heard of Linux, but few have seen it on the desktop, even though they "use" it every day when they browse the Web. Most have seen OS X, a significant portion have used it a bit, and a few are rabid fans.

And while I'd like to see OS X go free and open-source, I won't hold my breath on that one. As I said above, I'd prefer -- at a minimum -- that Apple port OS X to Windows PCs, i.e. make a native version that installs from CD and runs on non-Apple hardware.

But even making new versions of OS X free for Apple hardware would prompt more users to upgrade the software. When running the latest and greatest gets slow, they'd be more inclined to buy new hardware, most likely from Apple.

Right now I'm still running my 2003-era iBook on OS X 10.3. I saved $129 twice by not upgrading to 10.4 and 10.5. I can't even use Apple's newest Safari browser because it doesn't run on 10.3. Firefox does, so that's what I use. As a result, Apple misses out on any browser-generated ad revenue. Would 10.5 run well on my laptop? Who knows? I sure don't want to spend $129 to find out.

By flooding the market with a free or very cheap OS X, Apple could blunt the effects of Microsoft Windows, which customers pay for but don't really feel they're paying for because the cost is bundled into just about every PC sold.

Even if a free OS wouldn't fly at Apple HQ, if the company still ported OS X to Windows-compatible PCs, they could -- and should -- compete with Microsoft when it comes to pre-installed operating systems on non-Apple hardware.

Imagine if you could order a PC from Dell with Windows, Linux or OS X ... there would be real competition for the hearts and minds of computer users everywhere from the home to the enterprise.

And since Apple's hardware is so ultra-cool (and ultra-pricey), they'd probably sell even more of it if OS X had a much larger of the overall worldwide OS pie.

Here are some recent Click entries that don't have a lot to do with me installing Linux-based system software:

I have two items (here and here) I did last night on the new Kindle electronic reading device being pushed by Amazon. On the cover of Newsweek this week, the $399 Kindle is being touted as "the next iPod," or "the iPod for books, magazines and newspapers" (yes, the New York Times is available by subscription) It could be huge, but it might not be ready -- or priced -- for prime time. I try to cut through the hype.

And I have my choice as the BEST free photo-editing software for Windows (I've been using it for LA.com images, and it's better than even Photoshop for that purpose).

Look at this pointer to a YouTube video in which Google co-founder and gazillionaire Sergey Brin discusses Google's new Android cell-phone operating system (which should knock the iPhone on its ass by the middle of next year):

If you don't know what the latest thing in servers is, see my roundup of recent news on "cloud computing," in which the vast server farms of Amazon and soon IBM are/will be converted into virtual computing environments, with virtual servers being rented out "from the cloud" to businesses that want what looks and acts like a dedicated server -- running all the applications a server can run -- but is not in the company's back room and instead is built and maintained by these huge companies. Yes, they rent them by the hour:

And there's also my coverage of Wal-Mart's new $199 desktop computer that DOESN'T use Windows (here and here).

You know how I'm always preaching the religion of backups -- and double- and triple-backups?

Well, I started hearing some strange noises from the nearly 5-year-old iBook G4, and while we have most of the critical files backed up on CD-R, we really needed at least one (if not two) backups of ALL the user files.

For the Mac, Superduper is the go-to backup program, even though I'm not its No. 1 fan. I only say this because I can't seem to figure out how to do different kinds of backups on different days (say ... a full system backup weekly and user files every day into separate partitions to provide a daily snapshot of the drive over the course of a week). But Superduper works well enough. I've been using it on my mom's G5 for quite awhile now.

But I wanted to do something different. I didn't want to buy a backup drive.

I wanted to use my iPod. You see, I have a 30 GB iPod Video that only has about 3 GB of stuff on it. And I'm not exactly a daily iPod user. Most of the time in the course of my daily life, I need to hear what's going on around me, and I pretty much only listen to music in my car. And the el-cheapo iPod FM modulator that I bought for about $9 worked like total crap. My occasional workout lately has been swimming -- no iPod there. So I pretty much never use it.

So that spare 25 GB is fair game for an essential system backup. My iPod was already set up to be used as a disk for data files, so I figured I'd try Superduper. I downloaded it and dragged the proper image into the Applications folder (ah ... the simple pleasures of Mac app installation -- it should all be this easy). Then I selected the "to" and "from" drives.

I was only doing a backup of the user files. I don't believe in "full" backups -- with a Firewire drive you can even make a bootable backup with Superduper, and many modern Windows PCs can boot from a plain old USB drive. I think an occasional rebuild of the entire OS from scratch is a good thing -- it clears away the cobwebs.

And it takes way less space and time to backup the user files only.

So when I started Superduper, it warned me with something like, "the drive in this iPod will be TOTALLY erased to make this backup." And I wanted to keep my music files on there, so I stopped the process immediately.

I then did it the quick and dirty way. I opened the iPod's Finder window, opened up another Finder window for the Mac's hard drive, and then dragged the Users folder into the iPod's Finder window. The backup began and took about a half-hour. I can't do an easy incremental backup like I can with Superduper (only moving new or changed files), but at least all my essential files -- this is our main computer, after all -- are backed up.

I do plan to get an external drive or two -- probably USB if I can get them cheap enough -- and back up the users files with Superduper, continuing to do so on a regular basis.

But having an additional backup on an iPod is, indeed, a great thing.

Soapbox time: The Mac is already f'n expensive. Apple should include an easy-to-use GUI backup utility. When you get into the Unix-y guts of the Mac by opening up the Terminal program, there is not only one way to backup files, but FOUR (thanks for this info goes to O'Reilly's MacDevCenter -- and get "Learning Unix for Mac OS X" already!).

For me, either I'm thick as a brick, or the "easy to use" claims that every other Web site seem to attach to Superduper are overblown. I think Apple can -- and should -- be doing way better and giving its users a FREE backup utility that is integrated into the GUI. Will this be included in the forthcoming OS X 10.5 Leopard?

Once again, not holding my breath. But if Steve Jobs and Co. were to come through, it'd be nice.

Morale of the story: You cannot master Mac OS without getting deep into its Unix base. Get the book now! Sure, there will probably be an update for Leopard, but just get it now and get your hands dirty.

At least two people have been seriously injured when hit by lightning while listening to the iPod.

The first, a Canadian jogger who was wearing his iPod while exercising in the rain, suffered a broken jaw, ruptured ear drums, dislocated ear bones and minor burns when lightning hit a nearby tree and then him.

The second is the case of Jason Bunch, a Colorado teen who was listening to Metallica on his iPod while mowing the grass at his home. According to Bunch, it wasn't even raining when he got struck, but there was a storm brewing in the distance which resulted in him Riding the Lightning (pun shamelessly intended for all of you Metallica fans out there.)

A spokesman for Apple Inc. declined to comment, but the iPod packaging warns against using it in the rain.

The Universal Solar Charger from Brando is a God-sent for the gadget lover.
The device is small enough to carry around but don't let that fool you.
It also uses good ol' fashioned electricity to charge a variety of gizmos such
as cell phones and mp3 players

Anticipating an increase in service demand - thanks to Apple's much-hyped iPhone - AT&T has hired 2000 temporary employees and has trained them on how to sell Steve Jobs' latest gadget.

Considering that AT&T has some 1,800 stores nation-wide, the surge in available staff amounts to just one extra person per store.

One more thing - in case you were wondering - we are NOT (sadly) getting any kickbacks from Apple Inc., there's just plenty of iPhone-related news coming out regularly.

Apple Inc. announced Monday that its highly-anticipated iPhone (coming to a retailer near you on June 29) will have a longer-than-expected battery life (8 hours of talk time, 7 hours of video playback, 6 hours of Internet use, 24 hours of music playback and 10 days on stand-by mode), leaving the competition in the dust. Currently, devices such as Palm Inc.'s Treo and Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Curve offer 4 hours of talk time.

Apple said in January that it expected the iPhone to offer 5 hours of "talk/video/browsing" and up to 16 hours of audio playback.

Apple's announcement is good news for us long-distance commuters. Now we can weave our way through traffic all the way from L.A. to New York without having to recharge.

I saw a plug for the Command Line Warriors blog in a British Linux magazine.

An enjoyable read, to be sure, with lots of GUI content, Mac OS X stuff, general Britannia and even shell account info.

Especially notable are the iPod and Linux series, Installing Gentoo series and Intro to the OS X command line.

My quick hint for OS X users:

Go to Applications, then to the System Utilities folder, then run Terminal. That's the OS X command line (your box is running BSD Unix, and it's there in all its glory).

at the prompt type this:

top

You will see most of the running processes on your machine and the percentage of memory and CPU power they are using.

To turn off top, on the PC it's ctrl-C. Maybe it's the same in OS X. If not, try Apple-C, or just close the Terminal window.