Apple iPod Essentials   Tracking the Pulse of iPod

If you prefer the smooth sound of tube-amplified music, it's now easier to get this for your iPod with PsiberAudio's new iTube s Amplifiers.

iTube SE15:
"Utilizing a high quality KT88 in single ended mode to produce 15 watts of fluid musical power."


According to Stereophile Magazine,

[Andrew] Conley's story is one familiar to audiophiles. He's been manufacturing amplifiers and other electronic items on a one-off basis for over 10 years now. "It has been more of a custom service that I have been providing for friends and 'friends of friends' over the years," says Conley. "I have been urged numerous times by my satisfied clients to turn the 'hobby' into a business, but never acted on those recommendations."

The amps aren't cheap though at $900 ($100 for iTube PAS1 preamp). You can purchase online from PsiberAudio's website, and two models are available, one for the US market and another for the European/Asian markets (220V; 50Hz).

These days most stereo amplifiers are solid state technology, but many audiophiles believe that tube amplifiers provide a warmer sound and are superior, though you should seek out a pair of speakers which are highly sensitive (95dB or higher). I found a concise discussion of the merits of various types of amplifiers in the ecoustics.com forums, "do the Tube/Valve based amps really sound different than the Solid State Amps".

RipitDigital is the second service I've read about which will RIP (transfer your CDs to a computer) your music collection and load it onto your iPod. For $1.00 per CD and a $10.00 charge for loading the RIPped music onto your iPod. The founder of the service Greg Frost got the idea after he performed the service for his girlfriend (finally! someone found a good use for a boyfriend), then did it again for another friend (presumably not also a girlfriend).

This seems like the perfect business for someone wanting to work out of their house. So I'm curious how many people think they would be willing to pay for a service like this (please leave me some feedback in the comments, also mention if you care to, at what price point it would cease to be worth it to you, and how you'd feel about shipping off your entire CD collection and new iPod to a stranger). One nice feature about Frost's service is he also provides a backup of the RIPped music on DVDs.

I currently have 3100 tracks in my iTunes/iPod database, 290 of which were purchased from the iTunes Music Store, which means the other 2800 were transferred from CDs. I did my initial collection over the course of many days and no longer remember exactly how long it took to finish. I would personally rather rip my own CDs and avoid the hassle of packing everything up, insuring it and mailing it off. But then I spend 12+ hours most days working in front of the computer so it's easier for me to do something like that.

Let's hear your voice on this subject. Leave me comments.

Suggestion to Apple Computer: Make the left and right earbuds a different color.

Am I being too anal by looking to see which bud has the "L" and which the "R"? Perhaps it doesn't matter that much whether that drum solo is heard in the left ear or the right ear, but if nothing else, having one black earbud, or hot pink, or some other color would surely start a new style trend in the portable MP3 player market.

When you mount your iPod on the desktop as a hard drive, you can copy anything you want to it. For folks in the computer troubleshooting business, keeping a bootable copy of a System folder and some data recovery tools on your iPod isn't out of the question. And this week Steve Welch of IBM used his iPod Mini to recover a crashed ThinkPad.

"What if I could show you a magic trick that could make the Blue Screen of Death disappear?" Welch said on stage with a ThinkPad that prominently displayed that condition. "Returning us to productivity is what makes this little device really rock," he said, holding up his personal Apple iPod with the software installed on it. The compact IBM Rescue & Recovery On Linux enabled him to instantly access e-mail, Lotus Notes and all the data on his hard drive.

One of the members of the IBM research group working on this technology has a note in his kernelthread.org blog along with a few related links.

Now comes a [dire?] warning reported on Macintouch.com. While you can easily install Mac OS 9/X system software and boot from your iPod, the drives in iPods have a shorter MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures; 300,000 hours [depending on which drive is in your Pod] vs around 750,000 in 2.5" laptop drives) rate than say laptop drives, and running OS X from the Pod for longer periods of time could potentially shorten the life of your favorite MP3 player. In particular, the drive will probably never stop spinning while running OS X (and perhaps OS 9, too), so among other things, you'll cook the little drive since the iPods do not have fans, nor a tongue to pant with.

And here's a little program called iPodBackup that will backup your OS X home directory to your Pod.

Links:
   Toshiba 20gb MK2003GAH 1.8" hard drive
   Toshiba 30gb MK3004GAH 1.8" hard drive

Here's a story I'll be following: two separate and unrelated patent infringement lawsuits have been brought against Apple Computer. The first was brought by Chicago-based Advanced Audio Devices which owns patent number 6,587,403 relating to "a music jukebox which is configured for storing a music library therein".

Disclosed is a music jukebox which is configured for storing a music library therein. The music jukebox includes a housing, audio input structure on the housing for receiving audio signals, audio output structure on the housing for outputting audio signals, and a data storage structure in the housing for storing audio signals. The music jukebox is configured such that a music library of sound tracks is storable in the data storage structure. The music jukebox includes means for selecting a sound track from the music library stored in the data storage structure to play through the audio output structure, and the housing includes a display thereon which identifies sound tracks in the music library. Preferably, the music jukebox is configured such that the sound tracks stored in the data storage structure are editable before being played through the audio output structure.

In the second suit, Hong Kong-based Pat-rights has contacted Apple according to a press release on their web site, concerning their patent number 6,665,797 related to the Apple/iTunes FairPlay Digital Rights Management [see related post]. And, Pat-rights is demanding 12% of profits earned by from sales of iTunes and iPod, and is thought to have given the company until 21st March to respond.

A central program comprising a EI sub-program for providing identity information of the rightful user thereof for accessing a network central computer to obtain service(s) or software product(s) or alike, in which a secure operation on an account of the rightful user for payment therefor involved; and a AS sub-program for using the existence of the EI sub-program in a computer as a precondition for authorising use of those software products obtained on that computer. The central program is for managing the use of the individual sub-programs therein so that the AS sub-program can be protected from being copied individually.

A cursory read of the patent claim seems to only talk about "Software" protection, digital art, so I rather doubt they have a chance winning that case.

If I get so lucky as to have some visitors with legal backgrounds, or experience in patent infringement, please share your opinions.

The iTunes Music Store (ITMS) has been offering teasers in the form of free music downloads lately (and since some of them haven't been half-bad, I hope they continue). While I don't know if the songs below will remain free for long, give it a try, but make a habit of checking in at the ITMS each week to look for new giveaways. Currently the free music downloads can be found on the ITMS home page (I'm referring to the home page inside iTunes, not on the Web), in the bottom right corner of that page.

[If you do not already have iTunes installed -- Mac or Windows, doesn't matter -- don't bother clicking the links below since they redirect you to the iTunes Music Store within the iTunes application.]

The surprising find (through a Google search) was this 13 song iTunes New Music Sampler (Universal Motown Edition) which includes artists such as Razorlight , Jamie Cullum, Le Tigre and a name many people will recognize, Michael McDonald.

Other free tunes this week are:
tobymac - gone

Hotel Album Sampler - Moby

This one from a previous week... When the President Talks to God


(Note: if over time these links no longer take you where they should, please email us and we'll take the post down or update it. sorry ahead of time if that happens to you.)

Well, this has nothing to do with iPods, so my apologies, but we received a product announcement by email this evening which read:

"The gift giving season is over for a while, so it's time to buy something really special for yourself. To that end, we'd like to introduce you to the new "Federal Inmate Number 55170-054" (a.k.a. Martha's ID number at Camp Cupcake) line of clothing and housewares."

Here are a couple samples, the rest can be viewed at 55170-054 - Martha Prison Memorabilia


gotta love the "Camp Cupcake" printed above the prison ID on the lady's tank...