After my successful releases and launch of the new King Design web site a couple weeks back, I decided I should give myself a much deserved little bonus. 🙂
One of the nice things about working for yourself is the opportunity to do things the way you thought they should be done when someone else was making the calls. I always thought that my employers should do a better job rewarding employees after big release pushes, etc. so that’s what I did. My release bonus is a 40gb iPod photo – I got it this weekend.
Yes I just upgraded the battery on my old 20gb iPod, but the opportunity to get a deal on the (discontinued) 40gb iPod photo seemed like a nice one to take advantage of. The 40gb iPod photo includes both USB and FireWire cables, plus the little dock – items that have been removed from the current iPod releases to reduce the base cost.
So far, I’ve enjoyed the upgrade. In particular, these are things I really like having:
- Rating songs from the iPod. I’m going to rate my entire collection and use the ratings to get rid of the stuff I don’t really listen to.
- Songs played on the iPod get sync’ed back to iTunes – data you can use with smart playlists.
- The color screen is more visible in low light. I didn’t think I’d really care about the color screen, but I was wrong.
- The dock connector port means I can use cool new toys – TBD.
- I can use the USB cable to connect the dock to my USB hub, no need to plug in and disconnect the FireWire cable to my PowerBook every time. Also, I can keep the FireWire cable in my travel bag.
- The response time is a little faster than with the older iPod.
Now that I have some options, I’m trying to decide on:
- the most usable case, and
- the best way to hook up the iPod while in the car.
I’ve had an iSkin on my 2G iPod since I got it from Jason (bought it from him in 2003 when he upgraded to a 3G), mainly because he already had it. While the added bulk isn’t something I’d choose, it’s really nice to not have such a slipperly little device. Egrips are another option, and one that might work better with some of the car audio options, but they don’t offer the same protection. I really like the ability to dock the iPod while using the Speck rubber skin.
As for car audio options, the DLO TransPod seems like a pretty awesome set-up. Especially nice is the line-out option should I end up with the ability to take advantage of that. Of course, with such a tight fit, I doubt any of the rubber skin cases or any case would work with it (hence the consideration of Egrips). Having a docked iPod makes it harder to use the click wheel as well.
Something like the PodFreq would allow me to use my thumb on the click wheel a lot more easily than a docked set up would, but it seems a little clunky.
I know that the Kensington FM Transmitter/Auto Charger works pretty well. It even pauses your iPod when you turn off the car. Unfortunately, I’m trying to avoid supporting Kensington. I don’t know of another similar product, but I’m guessing there probably is one.
The comments are open, bring on the iPod accessory recommendations. 🙂
I use an Iskin on my 3G 15Gb Ipod. However you can only use the cable rather than the dock to sync.
My wife bought me the Belkin ITrip which works quite nicely. The sound is good but not great using an FM transmitter.
That’s why I’m looking at the Speck case instead of the iSkin – so I can still use the dock.
Also, this looks intriguing.
Are you going to make the cutoff at one star or two?
Also, this would be a prime time to start with Audioscrobbler. It’ll handle the offline listening data when you synch, as I recall … worth it if you’re going for that personal panopticon thing or are, like me, always on the lookout for new music.
I’m diggin’ my XtremeMac Case I looked long and hard and thought that for $30, it was the best–I like the included dash mount. Again, it’s a price/performance decision. Also snagged their Airplay FM transmitter. Not an A+ but pretty decent for the money–and a buddy said better than the iTrip. For what it’s worth!
Apple is debuting a new car kit that you must install into your dash like a CD player. The cool thing is that you dock your ipod onto it like the BOSE sound dock, and therefore the quality is quite good. Also I believe that you will be able to store mp3 files in your car system, but I’m not sure.
[…] When I got an iPhone, I put my iPod on the shelf and used the iPhone exclusively as my iPod for the last couple of weeks. The iPhone is a very cool device, and beats the iPod hands down for video, but as an in-car audio device – which is what I use my iPod for most often – it doesn’t hold a candle to my aging iPod. […]