On a RoadTrip with my iPod
Mon 3 Sep 07 13:58 | Tags: Hardware, Reviews, iPod
My adventures with car transmitters for my iPod continue.
Recently I stumbled upon a great deal at Overstock.com - they're selling the Griffin RoadTrip transmitters for only $20. Granted, they're refurbished, but for less than a quarter of Griffin's original price, I decided to take my chances on used goods. (If you're not as brave, you can get it from Amazon for only $43.34.)
I think I got a pretty good deal. The sound quality of the RoadTrip is pretty good. It's been too long since I've used the NewerTech TRAFFICJamz to do a fair sound comparison, but I had no complaints sound-wise.
The RoadTrip is hangin' out. This photo shows it with all three arm segments connected; for regular use, I just use two of them.
The hardware of the device itself, however, is another issue. The TRAFFICJamz was a small stick-like module which plugged into the car power adapter socket (known in less PC times as the cigarette lighter) and had a cable a few feet long coming out the end with an iPod connector at the end. The RoadTrip, however, is like an iPod caddy with a bendable segmented arm on the back, with the power adapter at the end of the arm. The device comes unassembled, so you actually have to connect the arm segments together. You have the option of using just two arm segments, or putting a third segment between the two for added length and bending angle-age. All this means that the RoadTrip is significantly larger, heavier and more complicated than the TRAFFICJamz.
This is a bit of a serious concern. While parked, I would often stow the TRAFFICJamz in my glove compartment in order to hide the easily-stealable expensive electronics products from sight; with the RoadTrip, I have to cram it under my seat. More serious, though, is that the awkward weight and length of the RoadTrip means that it's prone to wiggling loose from the power socket when driving on not-so-smooth roads or over train tracks. This means I have to pull over and readjust the RoadTrip in my car's cheap-ish power socket, which leads to much cursing and frustration.
The larger screen and controls on the RoadTrip compared to the TRAFFICJamz are appreciated, though I find it strange that I have to manually push a button every time I start my car in order to make the RoadTrip start transmitting. The TRAFFICJamz would just start transmitting automatically.
I guess I can just mark up these concerns to just getting what I paid for, though, and in those terms I still think I got a pretty good deal. Just so long as this thing doesn't short out my iPod again, I'll be pretty happy with it.
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Let A Terrible Flood into your ears
Sun 20 May 07 19:29 | Tags: Reviews, iPod
I often listen to electronic music when doing computer-related tasks such as coding; when I need some tunes to get the brain waves going, but can't be distracted by listening to lyrics. I can't pretend to be an expert at this sort of music, but I know what I like. So when Esselfortium, an acquaintance from message boards and IRC channels, told me he was self-publishing his own album of electronic tunes, entitled A Terrible Flood, I was interested in giving it a listen - and quite surprised by its quality.
Puny Earthlings! I precipitate upon you!
I had originally asked Essel a bunch of questions a while back in preparation for my article, but it turns out my IRC client was not logging the conversation like I thought it was, so let me try to recap what I can recall. Esselfortium, known in meatspace as Michael Mancuso, began releasing electronic music albums in his first year of high school, though he does not think they were very good in retrospect. Now seventeen, he's had a few years to hone his talents and stabilize his quality, and he's now making a more serious effort of getting an album on the market. Armed with his MIDI keyboard and a copy of the music production software Reason, he's created an eighteen-track CD which causes a standard 74-minute-capacity disc to nearly burst from its seams. A Terrible Flood (not to be confused with They Might Be Giants' perennial album Flood) is mostly comprised of a rhythmic, downtempo sort of electronic music which might be tough to dance to, but which makes great headphone music - intelligent dance music, to use the parlance.
Essel has five of the tracks off of his album available for your listening pleasure. "Startan3" is the opening track, and one of the more uptempo tracks on the disc; it's somewhat video-gamey and somewhat spacey. "The Airport" is personally my least favorite track; the highly electronic music with east Asian accents is unfortunately accompanied by samples from what sounds like a Cold War-era film strip about an airport which repeated a bit too much for my taste. "Chilled" and "Table Rock Sunrise" are abrasive and slightly scary downtempo tunes; the latter ends with a warbly, lonely piano solo evocative of a dusty ghost town, in my opinion. Then there's "epad.rns," a scratchy, somewhat minimalist tune with a strange sound or instrument of some sort which, to me, sounds like the desperate crying of one whose words can't quite be made out clearly. Of course, the non-free tracks are pretty good too; "Elevator Breaks" starts with crowd noise and clanging machinery, evocative of a crowded factory. "Kaianide" is another great video gamey track which wouldn't sound out of place in an action-packed Genesis game. And "Torpedo," the most uptempo track on the disc, is also the most energetic and happy; optimism in musical form, with a loud splash of water at the crescendo - a literal flood, though not necessarily terrible.
Sound good to you, too? A Terrible Flood is currently available for purchase on CD from CD Baby for $15; or, if you scoff at the quaint idea of purchasing music on a plastic disc, you can pick it up on iTunes Store for $9.99.
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Reconsidering the NewerTech TRAFFICJamz
Sun 29 Apr 07 12:31 | Tags: Reviews, iPod
The earliest article in RGR's archives is my review of the annoyingly-capitalized NewerTech TRAFFICJamz, a car charger and FM transmitter for the iPod. It was a generally positive review, and also one of the most-accessed pages on RGR from search engines; it's smack dab on the first page of Google search results for "TRAFFICJamz", right underneath NewerTech's own site. I've probably helped sell at least a dozen of the little guys for NewerTech. However, I can no longer stand by my recommendation of the product.
Murderer!
Last week, I wrote about my bricked iPod; it was showing a "Sad iPod" icon (similar to the Sad Mac icons of old) and wouldn't return back to life. It was still within the warranty period, so I sent it in to Apple; they sent me a replacement surprisingly quick.
I was using the TRAFFICJamz when the iPod died, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. However, I'm now convinced that the TRAFFICJamz is responsible for killing my iPod. Why? Because my replacement iPod died while I was using the TRAFFICJamz! And the TRAFFICJamz died too! Perhaps it was just my imagination, but I could swear it was accompanied by just a touch of smoke as a fuse or something blew in the unit. Now the replacement iPod is showing the Sad iPod icon and otherwise behaving just like the earlier iPod, and the TRAFFICJamz just isn't working at all.
I'm bummed, because the TRAFFICJamz really was a decent value. However, blowing up and taking out the iPod with it… that's a rather fatal flaw, in more ways than one. Therefore, I can no longer recommend the TRAFFICJamz, and will personally be avioding NewerTech's products in the future.
I've arranged for replacement of the new iPod as well. I don't know if Apple will actually let me get away with it, seeing as how it's so soon after the last replacement, but we'll see. If they don't, NewerTech should expect a rather unhappy phone call in the near future.
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Life without iPod
Wed 25 Apr 07 00:13 | Tags: Meta, iPod
I wrote back in February that I had become so enchanted with my iPod that I had a hard time envisioning life without it. Well, my iPod started acting up the other day… It was showing a "sad iPod" screen, and none of Apple's troubleshooting advice got it working again. So I've been without a proper portable music device the last few days, and man, has it been lousy… No longer do I look forward to walking the dog, and other chores such as dishes have to be done in relative silence. Arg.
I contacted Apple about it; on Monday, they sent me an empty box for me to return my iPod in. I packed it up and dropped it in a DHL box on Monday afternoon; this morning (Tuesday), I woke up to see an email from Apple confirming receipt of my iPod. Wow, DHL is fast. I hope Apple is fast at repairing my iPod (or getting me a new one) as well.
Anyway… so far, SiteB.us seems to be getting a pretty good reception. I just moments ago finished an update of the back-end; I had originally designed it to not use a database, but I changed my mind on that and gave it a database-powered back-end for additional flexibility. Cool new things are in store for it… Stay tuned.
Tuned? Tunes… man, I miss my iPod…
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EMI 187s DRM
Mon 2 Apr 07 10:35 | Tags: Software, iPod
The rumors proved to be true; record company EMI has officially axed DRM, the technology which makes it more difficult to pirate (steal) the music tracks or use them on non-iPod devices, from their iTunes Store downloads.
Well, sort of. It turns out the Apple Store is going to offer two versions of EMI's offerings through their store; the regular, DRM'd versions at standard 128kbps quality and standard 99¢ price, and non-DRM'd versions with 256kbps quality at $1.29 (though the standard price for albums will thankfully remain $9.99). This was announced at a press conference between Steve Jobs and EMI chief Eric Nicoli earlier today. This announcement confirms rumors to this effect that have been swirling about the last few days.
We already knew from Jobs' uncharacteristic (for a typical CEO, anyway) open letter entitled Thoughts on Music that he felt that DRM was a necessary evil, the only way he could get record companies to play along with the idea of an online music store; music execs were understandably apprehensive (some would say paranoid) about allowing downloadable versions of their products to be so widely available to the public after the whole Napster fiasco. This announcement gives some truth to Jobs' words, as it means that, for the first time, music that is purchased from the iTunes Store will legally be playable by software and hardware other than that made by Apple; the music will no longer be locked in to the iPod and iTunes. Jobs truly believe that his company can remain dominant in the field of hardware music players and online music stores without any sort of lock between the two.
Of course, this isn't the first time music companies have sold digital music without DRM; of course, standard audio CDs have no copy protection schemes. Also, the second-place player in the realm of online music stores, eMusic, sells standard MP3s without DRM, though they do not have the support of the big-name labels and their catalog is lacking big-name rock star power compared to iTunes'. Selling music sans DRM has been successful in the past, and there's no indication why it won't continue to be so in the future; the fact is that if someone wants to steal music, they're going to steal music, no matter how easy you make it for them to buy it. So what can the harm be in offering those who are willing to buy music more choices?
So what's with the rise in price to $1.29? There could be several things happening here. I wouldn't be too surprised if EMI is still a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, and wants to make sure it can recoup a little more in case this whole thing does lead to more piracy. Or maybe it's Apple's idea; maybe they've been wanting to raise their prices for a while, and they've found the way to do it by offering a new product, of sorts; and they are going to be using up twice the disk space to store these songs and twice the bandwidth to serve them up to customers, after all. Perhaps it's a little of both. Either way, the fact that album prices will remain at $9.99 makes things a bit more palatable; in the rare events that I buy music from iTunes (I still tend to look for CDs first), I tend to buy whole albums anyway. (And to tell the truth, I doubt I'd be able to hear the difference between a song encoded at 128kbps and the same song at 256kbps anyway.)
EMI's DRM-free music will be available next month. It remains to be seen if other record companies will follow.
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