Joining the Collective
Jun. 23rd, 2009 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillMy beloved old iRiver was getting kind of battered, and I really wanted something a bit more convenient to use on the music listening side. My iRiver couldn't do playlists, for example and everything had to be dragged and dropped onto the hard drive. When I first got it, the mp3 recording function was a huge deal, but now I have a multitracking mp3 recorder with playthrough, which, while slightly larger than the iRiver, is unabashedly better for recording.
At roughly the same time, my old PDA was also getting kind of battered (the cover developed a tear at the hinge about a year and a half ago, and despite my best efforts to be careful, the tear got longer and longer, until the cover parted company with the PDA and I can't find a replacement cover anywhere. Add into this the fact that the power switch hasn't worked for years (fortunately it can be set to turn on with any one of the four application buttons at the bottom, and fortunately it does its own auto-off thing) and, well, things were limping along, still, but …limping. Plus the lack of cover made me worry that the screen might be smashed at any time. I looked a bit into buying a new PDA, but the stores I consulted said that they were hardly made anymore; everyone buys a smart phone instead.
Now, lots of people have mobile phones, and I have nothing generally against the concept, except that I already have a phone I pay good money for, and a mobile phone is basically a combination of a PDA that must be ransomed every month, and a choke chain that anyone can yank at any time from anywhere. 1) I hate to spend money twice 2) monthly charges make me itch, and 3) I like a little peace and quiet now and then.
But when I discovered an iPod Touch (2nd gen) comes with the software to do most of what a PDA does… well, the thought of combining 2 battered old gadgets into one smaller new one was appealing. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the vivid color touch screen is like a pocket full of living jewels. Plus it can run Stanza and thus pick up classic books for free (so it could mimic that function of my PDA, only better because syncing the PDA to get books onto it is a pain), and there's this great program called Ocarina that one of my friends was praising and I could get Kindle books on it if I wanted (haven't decided yet) and there's this great drawing program available for it…
Sold. Or rather, added to my wishlist.
My dad and my brother came to visit during the last couple of weeks. One of the things we did was collectively celebrate their birthdays while we were all in the same time zone. Since Kip and I have our birthdays in December, and we're only with Dad and Jake at that time every other year, we have taken to celebrating Kip's and my half-birthdays at the same time. We all go out to dinner and come home and exchange presents. An iPod was a big wish, but not out of the question, and I did indeed receive one.
I didn't actually charge it up and start playing with it for about a week, what with having family over and being sufficiently entertained with that. But when I did, wow.
It comes with a calculator program, for example. Very simple add subtract multiply divide type thing. Turn it on its side, though, and presto—it rotates to become a scientific calculator. The simplicity of a regular calculator with a scientific calculator available on a moment's notice: now that's nice design.
It comes with a calendar program and a contacts program, both of which iTunes can sync with the same programs on your computer. This morning I went through the touchy process of getting my old PDA to talk to my Mac (for a wonder it worked the first time—I can't remember another time that has happened, so you can imagine I didn't sync very often.) Then I hooked the iPod up to iTunes and told iTunes I wanted to sync calendar and contacts as well as music and apps.
Poof, my calendar and contacts info moved onto my iPod. No muss, very little fuss, just done. On the down side, syncing the iPod does seem to require a cord. However it's the same cord required to charge the iPod, so I doubt I'll lose track of it for long.
I was a bit worried about the keyboard. I had tried it once on an iPhone in the store and hated it; my thumbs were bigger than the keys so I typoed all over the place. I got a bit better when one of the store employees pointed out that if you press the keyboard and get the wrong letter, it is usually possible to keep your thumb down, and slide it over to the right letter; the letter you're touching does jump up from under your thumb and get bigger so you can see what you are doing. But really, Graffiti on the Palm TX didn't work very well for me either, so it wasn't a big downgrade. (For those who are interested, I like the original Kindle's keyboard much better, since you can feel what you're doing and feel when you press a key, but I realize that isn't practical for something the size of an iPod.) After using it for a few days, I still am not wild about the keyboard. But it isn't as hard to use as I feared, though typing without watching is right out.
Aps
The version 3.0 software update (Touch users have to pay $10 for it; iPhone users get it free, but let's face it they pay for it five times over per month) includes a voice recorder. Not much in the way of bells and whistles and Touch users have to get a mic that will work with it. However, the apple earbuds with the little clicky thing to adjust volume works fine, or Griffin makes a mic add-on that you can plug into the Touch and plug your favorite earphones into for $20. It works fine to get down snatches of song that you come up with on the go. I've already used it twice.
The 3.0 software update also adds copy and paste, a device-wide search (though it can't find my e-book, but it works fine on the contacts and the calendar, and my songs), a landscape keyboard for the notes and contacts (noticeably easier to type on) and a few other thises and thats.
That Ocarina program? Costs a dollar (or maybe two, I forget). And holy cow, the sound! It has this beautiful tone. You can change the tonic and the mode with a couple of taps. It has extra notes below the tonic that a real ocarina (or set of them) doesn't have. And you can plug in your earbuds and play anywhere, anytime, without disturbing anyone around you. Or you can unplug your earbuds and play for other people, or a recorder. The only thing that makes it somewhat less easy than the real instrument is that you can't feel the holes. But you don't have to hit them very exactly, so it's not a big problem. I can't play it very well yet, but I feel like I'm making progress.
For more fancy recording there are some different aps available from the iTunes store (also where I got Ocarina). One of my friends liked FourTrack, so that was the one I got, even though it was expensive (a whole $10). It can record up to four tracks sequentially, and if you want more you can mix down what you've got onto a single track (doesn't affect the actual recordings) and add even more. I am getting some bumps in the sound with the earbud/mic combination I'm using; this is strictly scratch mixes, for working out ideas and probably not something you'll want for recording your next CD. But a four track recorder that takes no space and weighs nothing for $10? Seems like a pretty good deal even if it isn't studio-ready.
For e-books (though I don't expect to be doing a lot of reading on the iPod when I have a very nice Kindle which has a larger screen and is easier on the eyes) Stanza displays e-books and can go online (if you have access to a WiFi connection, which for me is basically at home or at the college) and fetch you free books from Feedbooks or the Gutenberg Project and pay books from several sources from right within the ap. I'm reading Treasure Island as a sort of proof of concept test (free from FeedBooks). It can switch between portrait and landscape views (there is a switch to turn this feature off for reading in bed, but then Stanza sets the orientation based on which way the iPod is held when you start the application) and between day (white background) and night (black background) reading. It can also change font sizes, but even the biggest font is still pretty small by Kindle standards. Fetching the book was quick and easy. The chapter headings seem to have been saved as pictures, so they have a white background no matter what, which is a little dazzling at night, but that's a minor thing.
Treasure Island is a pretty good book, too.
There's another program called Sleepmaker Waves. It does nothing except play the sound of waves for an amount of time determined by the timer (to get to the timer you have to press the little "i" at the bottom right part of the screen). It's supposed to soothe you to sleep. What the heck, it was free. I do indeed find it soothing, and the external speaker on the Gen 2 means I don't have to wear earbuds which get uncomfortable at night and might tangle around me and yank the iPod around as I roll over in my sleep. There's a version that plays rain sounds and a version that plays storm sounds but I haven't tried those.
There's a free Kalimba program. It's okay. Maybe it's that I don't play Kalimba but it didn't seem like a functional instrument to me, the way that Ocarina is, though Kalimba can play chords, which Ocarina can't. There's a free Metronome program. It works fine, but be sure to disable the sleep function on the iPod first or it will shut off in a minute or so.
Anyway, playing with this thing has taken up quite a bit of my time. As you can tell, I'm pretty happy with it. I have a feeling I'm going to need to charge it every morning, except when I'm very busy.
At roughly the same time, my old PDA was also getting kind of battered (the cover developed a tear at the hinge about a year and a half ago, and despite my best efforts to be careful, the tear got longer and longer, until the cover parted company with the PDA and I can't find a replacement cover anywhere. Add into this the fact that the power switch hasn't worked for years (fortunately it can be set to turn on with any one of the four application buttons at the bottom, and fortunately it does its own auto-off thing) and, well, things were limping along, still, but …limping. Plus the lack of cover made me worry that the screen might be smashed at any time. I looked a bit into buying a new PDA, but the stores I consulted said that they were hardly made anymore; everyone buys a smart phone instead.
Now, lots of people have mobile phones, and I have nothing generally against the concept, except that I already have a phone I pay good money for, and a mobile phone is basically a combination of a PDA that must be ransomed every month, and a choke chain that anyone can yank at any time from anywhere. 1) I hate to spend money twice 2) monthly charges make me itch, and 3) I like a little peace and quiet now and then.
But when I discovered an iPod Touch (2nd gen) comes with the software to do most of what a PDA does… well, the thought of combining 2 battered old gadgets into one smaller new one was appealing. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the vivid color touch screen is like a pocket full of living jewels. Plus it can run Stanza and thus pick up classic books for free (so it could mimic that function of my PDA, only better because syncing the PDA to get books onto it is a pain), and there's this great program called Ocarina that one of my friends was praising and I could get Kindle books on it if I wanted (haven't decided yet) and there's this great drawing program available for it…
Sold. Or rather, added to my wishlist.
My dad and my brother came to visit during the last couple of weeks. One of the things we did was collectively celebrate their birthdays while we were all in the same time zone. Since Kip and I have our birthdays in December, and we're only with Dad and Jake at that time every other year, we have taken to celebrating Kip's and my half-birthdays at the same time. We all go out to dinner and come home and exchange presents. An iPod was a big wish, but not out of the question, and I did indeed receive one.
I didn't actually charge it up and start playing with it for about a week, what with having family over and being sufficiently entertained with that. But when I did, wow.
It comes with a calculator program, for example. Very simple add subtract multiply divide type thing. Turn it on its side, though, and presto—it rotates to become a scientific calculator. The simplicity of a regular calculator with a scientific calculator available on a moment's notice: now that's nice design.
It comes with a calendar program and a contacts program, both of which iTunes can sync with the same programs on your computer. This morning I went through the touchy process of getting my old PDA to talk to my Mac (for a wonder it worked the first time—I can't remember another time that has happened, so you can imagine I didn't sync very often.) Then I hooked the iPod up to iTunes and told iTunes I wanted to sync calendar and contacts as well as music and apps.
Poof, my calendar and contacts info moved onto my iPod. No muss, very little fuss, just done. On the down side, syncing the iPod does seem to require a cord. However it's the same cord required to charge the iPod, so I doubt I'll lose track of it for long.
I was a bit worried about the keyboard. I had tried it once on an iPhone in the store and hated it; my thumbs were bigger than the keys so I typoed all over the place. I got a bit better when one of the store employees pointed out that if you press the keyboard and get the wrong letter, it is usually possible to keep your thumb down, and slide it over to the right letter; the letter you're touching does jump up from under your thumb and get bigger so you can see what you are doing. But really, Graffiti on the Palm TX didn't work very well for me either, so it wasn't a big downgrade. (For those who are interested, I like the original Kindle's keyboard much better, since you can feel what you're doing and feel when you press a key, but I realize that isn't practical for something the size of an iPod.) After using it for a few days, I still am not wild about the keyboard. But it isn't as hard to use as I feared, though typing without watching is right out.
Aps
The version 3.0 software update (Touch users have to pay $10 for it; iPhone users get it free, but let's face it they pay for it five times over per month) includes a voice recorder. Not much in the way of bells and whistles and Touch users have to get a mic that will work with it. However, the apple earbuds with the little clicky thing to adjust volume works fine, or Griffin makes a mic add-on that you can plug into the Touch and plug your favorite earphones into for $20. It works fine to get down snatches of song that you come up with on the go. I've already used it twice.
The 3.0 software update also adds copy and paste, a device-wide search (though it can't find my e-book, but it works fine on the contacts and the calendar, and my songs), a landscape keyboard for the notes and contacts (noticeably easier to type on) and a few other thises and thats.
That Ocarina program? Costs a dollar (or maybe two, I forget). And holy cow, the sound! It has this beautiful tone. You can change the tonic and the mode with a couple of taps. It has extra notes below the tonic that a real ocarina (or set of them) doesn't have. And you can plug in your earbuds and play anywhere, anytime, without disturbing anyone around you. Or you can unplug your earbuds and play for other people, or a recorder. The only thing that makes it somewhat less easy than the real instrument is that you can't feel the holes. But you don't have to hit them very exactly, so it's not a big problem. I can't play it very well yet, but I feel like I'm making progress.
For more fancy recording there are some different aps available from the iTunes store (also where I got Ocarina). One of my friends liked FourTrack, so that was the one I got, even though it was expensive (a whole $10). It can record up to four tracks sequentially, and if you want more you can mix down what you've got onto a single track (doesn't affect the actual recordings) and add even more. I am getting some bumps in the sound with the earbud/mic combination I'm using; this is strictly scratch mixes, for working out ideas and probably not something you'll want for recording your next CD. But a four track recorder that takes no space and weighs nothing for $10? Seems like a pretty good deal even if it isn't studio-ready.
For e-books (though I don't expect to be doing a lot of reading on the iPod when I have a very nice Kindle which has a larger screen and is easier on the eyes) Stanza displays e-books and can go online (if you have access to a WiFi connection, which for me is basically at home or at the college) and fetch you free books from Feedbooks or the Gutenberg Project and pay books from several sources from right within the ap. I'm reading Treasure Island as a sort of proof of concept test (free from FeedBooks). It can switch between portrait and landscape views (there is a switch to turn this feature off for reading in bed, but then Stanza sets the orientation based on which way the iPod is held when you start the application) and between day (white background) and night (black background) reading. It can also change font sizes, but even the biggest font is still pretty small by Kindle standards. Fetching the book was quick and easy. The chapter headings seem to have been saved as pictures, so they have a white background no matter what, which is a little dazzling at night, but that's a minor thing.
Treasure Island is a pretty good book, too.
There's another program called Sleepmaker Waves. It does nothing except play the sound of waves for an amount of time determined by the timer (to get to the timer you have to press the little "i" at the bottom right part of the screen). It's supposed to soothe you to sleep. What the heck, it was free. I do indeed find it soothing, and the external speaker on the Gen 2 means I don't have to wear earbuds which get uncomfortable at night and might tangle around me and yank the iPod around as I roll over in my sleep. There's a version that plays rain sounds and a version that plays storm sounds but I haven't tried those.
There's a free Kalimba program. It's okay. Maybe it's that I don't play Kalimba but it didn't seem like a functional instrument to me, the way that Ocarina is, though Kalimba can play chords, which Ocarina can't. There's a free Metronome program. It works fine, but be sure to disable the sleep function on the iPod first or it will shut off in a minute or so.
Anyway, playing with this thing has taken up quite a bit of my time. As you can tell, I'm pretty happy with it. I have a feeling I'm going to need to charge it every morning, except when I'm very busy.
