tech ronin

Shuffling Along

My iPod shuffle 1 gb has arrived! The little green box is awesome and amazing. It felt so good to hold it and feel its weight and quality that I didn't want to open it since then the box wouldn't ever be as it was again.

But, I needed to get the iPod shuffle out to free it to be musical. I immediately plugged it into my PowerMac to start up iTunes and get going.

It quickly loaded up my shuffle with 193 songs. First little glitch - it put a bunch of random tracks from audio books in with the music. To fix that, I sorted by genre and deleted the book tracks. Then I created a smart playlist defined as not genre audiobook and not books & spoken. I'll get my shot of tunes from that list when I want any music from my whole library.

I was just about to start bopping around and hooked up the lanyard and put it around my neck and plugged in the headphones and then -- nothing. Needed to charge for 4 hours. So, I plugged it back into the USB port and went to bed for the night.

Some quick thoughts. This is going to work great for discovering all the good music in my music collection from albums I haven't listened to enough. Only one problem with that. You can't see the artist or name of song while you are listening and discovering cool new songs. I'm thinking there should be a preference to save the random playlists that get generated for the shuffle so you can refer to them later to find your good songs and rate them.

There may be another fix but I haven't found it yet. I would also like to be able to rate the song right from the shuffle. Maybe I'm dreaming, but some off beat button combo might work. Question, does the shuffle keep track of the songs I listen to or does iTunes keep track? I want all this listening data to be tracked. This is my main listening time - out on the street walking.

Sound is great. Apparently, better than other iPods according to PC Magazine. Gotta go try it out some more in the real world right now. See you later.

Mac Panther: Favorite Keyboard Short-Cut

This is an easy one. Hiding the current application with Cmd-H is sometimes convenient. But getting rid of everything else but the current application, now that's convenient! When you've got all sorts of *junk* behind and beside your current window, clean it with Cmd-Option-H. Gone!!! For a very long time, there was no keyboard equivalent for *Hide Others*.

By the way, I was reminded of this tip while reading Anandtech's first Macintosh trial. Anand calls it: A Month with a Mac: A Die-Hard PC User's Perspective. Considering that Anandtech is one of the best PC websites on the net with 5 million readers, the report is surprisingly positive. Anand doesn't call himself a switcher since he continues to use PCs as well, but he is a daily Mac user now with his 2 gb dual PowerMac and Cinema display at the ready. Since this report on October 8th, he's created a Mac section to Anandtech which I will be following. There's a part II to his Mac story that is about a Powerbook and more recently he's written about the Mac mini.

Losing Control with iShuffle

Quite some time ago, I discovered that it worked really well to listen to my huge (5000 songs) iTunes music library on shuffle. I could listen forever that way and never hear songs too often to get tired of them.

The iPod shuffle follows this principle exactly. If, every day, I get a fresh random squirt of songs from my library, I'll never hear them too often and I know I like them because they come from my collection.

This whole All Mixed Up. Choose to Lose Control program is not a big risk. Apple has already checked out how people use their iPods and many listen on shuffle - a lot of the time. Nice timing to put the shuffle out during get-in-shape season.

We may want to create special playlists for particular needs. The big exercise playlist that we can squirt randomly from. The walk playlist - perhaps a little more mellow and nature-oriented depending on where you are walking. The public transit list. The lunch list.

I still think there's value to having your whole music library in your pocket and the shuffle won't get you there. But, the shuffle would be much better than not having your iPod at all. My guess is that MANY iPod owners, especially owners of the full-sized iPod, will want a shuffle to augment their music listening capability. I do.

The iPod shuffle is a creative solution that leverages Apple's strengths with software, design, marketing and integration. Many are trying to compete with Apple in the digital music market: either with a device or store or device/store. But Apple has enough variables to make it hard. This system is not a commodity and changes all the time. Good luck competing!

Mac mini Fills the Gaps

No, the Mac mini isn't the solution for everyone, but it sure fills some big gaps in Apple's Mac line-up. Major objections to Mac have been that Apple doesn't offer a low-enough-end model and that there's no affordable version without a monitor for those who already have one. The mini totally works for those 2 scenarios and more. The more is the amazing tiny form factor which, by the way, has value to a lot of people. Here are a few hot usage scenarios:

New User on a Budget. $499. Add keyboard and mouse: $58 from Apple. Add an inexpensive 15 or 17" CRT display $72 (or see if someone you know is giving one away). Total price $629 (Dell sells a *small* design 4700c with 40 gb drive, 256 mb RAM with CRT and combo drive for $769). Later on, when you scrape a few more bucks together, you can splurge and get the flat-panel display of your choice.

Average User with a Monitor you Like. Let's say you (a) don't need a power-user professional set-up and (b) already have a nice monitor and (c) want a Mac. Get the $599 mini with the bigger hard drive for your music and photos, add iWork and the $58 keyboard/mouse set if you need it and the 512 mb RAM ($75). That totals up to: $811. Rock on!

Media Maven Finally, a tiny networkable computer that fits in the livingroom near the TV and stereo. The mini is the media/entertainment computer to beat.

Yes. You can get lots of cool extras from Apple including Bluetooth $50, Airport $79, wireless keyboard/mouse $41 extra or even a SuperDrive that burns DVDs $100 with the Build-to-order option. These seem pretty affordable. The only place you could get yourself into trouble is if you buy a 20" Apple flat-panel display. Some of us like that kind of trouble. Others should get an iMac or stay clear. Dan Frakes has a really high-quality Mac mini vs Cheap PC price comparison article at MacCentral.

My iPod shuffle 1 gb is on order

Impulse buy. I'm guessing that about 80% of those who attend the Expo will buy one of these unless they already have an iPod mini. Now it's just a matter of hurry up and wait. The estimated time for delivery was 1-2 weeks. No turning back now. Free shipping. As I was leaving yesterday, I noticed that bus stop posters were already up in green "Enjoy uncertainty". Check out the iPod shuffle Ad. One thing I noticed watching the Ad - those little cables may make a nice necklace, but they sure are candidates to go away with a wireless version.

Mac mini and iPod shuffle Don't Disappoint

I drove over the Golden Gate bridge this morning to MacWorld Expo to see what Steve (Santa) would bring this year. I got lucky and was able to see most of the keynote standing about 15 feet outside the door (low fidelity, but the price was right and I could see the presentation). Steve looked his usual self and followed the usual program.

The pictured Mac mini really rocks! The price is just right $499 and $599. I would spring for the $599 - 80 gb hard drive, 1.42 mhz G4 version just because. But that $499 price point may well rock the consumer market. Thanks, Steve, for the bold move!

So, what is it like? Well, you can see it. It looks like a really cool CD-drive kind of like the iMac looks like a flat-panel display. It has what looks and feels like a white melanine top. The size is 6-1/2" per side and 2" high. That's my trusty pocket Moleskine there to give you some perspective. It is a full-fledged OS X computer that's tiny, weighs less than 3 pounds and is cheap. I am loving the prospect of watching this play out.

And then there is the great iPod shuffle. I strongly recommend it as the USB flash drive of choice! $99 gets you the 512 mb version and $149 gets you a gig. As expected, I want the 1 gig version. They say it plays 240 songs. That's nice especially if you buy into Apple's suggested use. Russell Beattie just bought the $99 version at the show. Good thing I didn't realize they were on sale. I'm getting one by the way. No question!

When you select the iPod shuffle in iTunes, a new configurable autofill button appears that lets you grab just enough music to fill it up with a shuffle of cuts. This is a usb device, so you can just stick it into one of your usb slots and synch and recharge. As a usb flash device, you can store regular computer files on it as well. I can totally see myself synching this and getting a random shot of music every day. And if the first random mix doesn't please you, just hit the button until you like what you see. This may be a good omen for Apple, one of my first thoughts was that I need to buy more music at the Apple store!

The new Pages "word processor with style" looks good too. That will take a little testing to verify, of course. Pages comes with Keynote 2 to make the new iWork bundle. This could be my big chance to, once and for all, abandon Word. Wouldn't that be great? It imports and exports Word, so there's a chance!

And iLife '05 was announced and looks like another solid upgrade. iPhoto 5 looks good, with movies now showing up in the photo library and more editing features. iMovie HD is said to be much faster with HD video support.

All and all, a great set of announcements! I can't wait to see if Apple gets a big marketshare pop from the new Mac mini. If not, they can go back to selling high-end stuff and nobody will be able to complain any more.

Great News: Six Apart Acquiring LiveJournal

Fantastic news! Mena Trott of Six Apart has announced via a very detailed blog post, natch, that Six Apart has acquired LiveJournal. This is excellent news because now that we've got huge players like Google (Blogger) and Microsoft (MSN Spaces) in the blogging mix, ultra cool little blogging companies like Six Apart need to bulk-up to avoid being run-over.

Six Apart has posted a shorter FAQ about all this for people who want a quick fix on what's happening. One reassurance I appreciate is that Six Apart promises to keep the LiveJournal quality in tact and avoid things like "removing the free level", "plastering the sites with ads" and "owning user content". Brad Fitzpatrick, founder of LiveJournal (a Portland, Oregon firm), posted to his blog to express LJ's view on this deal:

The most immediate changes will be that we'll start to get prettier... more styles, themes, etc. Six Apart is really good at that and we're not. - Brad Fitzpatrick, LiveJournal

Technologies and other assets can now be swapped (and comingled when it makes sense) between the 2 services and perhaps lines of communication will be opened between them reducing the SNS island problem mentioned in my last post.

I love it that the friends and family journal blogging that is LiveJournal's hallmark will be combined with TypePad's less diary -link, opinion, hobby and news blogging. Each side will be expanded in good ways. Hopefully, some of the viral community feeling that makes LiveJournal such a success will rub off on TypePad.

Check it out!

43 Things Gets it - It's the Content Baby!

Finally, a social networking site that helps me for a change. It helps me manage and use my content. I have four blogs as many of you know. So, I'm into content. If I write things at 43 Things, some of them would be good posts to one or another of my blogs. So, I've registered my two more general interest blogs: this one and Janet's Genealogy Blog at 43 Things and when ever I make an entry over there, I can simply pick one of my blogs and hit the *Add this entry* button to do double-duty and get some blogging in.

Tonight I added a new goal: Take at least 1 genealogy research trip this year. And, then I posted a little entry about the trip I've got in mind. When it came time to hit the save button, I saw the blog selection button and decided to post to my genealogy blog. What a concept. That was the easiest thing I ever did!

Then, I fired up Marsedit to do some fine-tuning using some blockquote formatting, added more thoughts to the post and added a link to a book. I posted the edit there. Then I copied part of my post back to my entry in 43 Things. Cool!!!! This is exactly the kind of surpassing the SNS islands trick that we've been begging for.

I remember about a year ago writing to Ryze tech support asking them for a feature that would help me see my own guestbook posts and my forum posts. Nope!

43 Things lists all your most recent entries at the bottom of your *things* list. And there's a *See All of Janet Tokerud's entries* link handy. I want to see my own entries and if someone writes something interesting, I might just want to see theres.

And, a couple days ago I discovered how dead easy it was to get Flickr photos up on my 43 Things page. Thanks 43 Things for doing it right for a change!

And did I mention that it's got RSS feeds. Another content-savvy feature. As I said before, 43 Things rocks!

Wonderful Year-End Post from Scout

If you would like to read something inspiring, personal and authentic today, check out Scout's post on Becoming Sage. It's about her experience and recovery after a near-fatal brain aneurysm. The writing is excellent as usual. Check it out!

43 Things Rocks!

If you were wanting to make New Years resolutions but didn't quite get around to it. Or you want to make your list public, this is your site! If you need ideas for what you are up to in life, check out the world's most popular goals. Go quickly while the year is young!

OK. I've raved about social networking services before - Ryze, Orkut, Flickr. And chances are 43 Things won't be the last SNS that I rave about and I may abandon it as I have others because something better comes along. In fact, right now, blogging is my social networking community and that's where I most want to put my energy. But this is a cool, small side line worth checking out.

43 Things is a vast improvement on these other services from my point of view. I've already entered 27 things and about 8 entries in the last hour. That's the sum total of my experience with it.

But what is this 43 Things? If you haven't heard yet, it just came out in December. Was invitation only temporarily and now seems to be totally open. And it's about entering the 43 things you want to do, publishing those things so others can see them, seeing the aggregation of everyone's lists. Using keywords on these things. Writing entries about the things you have on your list. Seeing what other people who want to do the same things or have already done those things have to say about them.

This is not idle chatter. And at the same time it is fun. You could take this 100% seriously and not have as much fun perhaps. My list of 27 things includes things like: write a good book and the perennial lose 10 lbs and walk across the Golden Gate bridge.

Maybe this is a flash in the pan, but it couldn't be more timely.