The ultimate Apple remote control

January 17, 2006 eirikso3 Comments

More wishful thinking. More Apple rambling. And a description of the ultimate remote control. No doubt about it. I was disappointed in the remote control that Apple made for Front Row experience. For a second I was thrilled. Fantastic! A remote control with a scroll wheel! But no, it has six buttons. Period.

It looks like this:

It’s IR. It’s one way. It has no screen. It has no scroll wheel.

Throw this away. Apple has already designed the ultimate remote. They only have to change some parts inside the iPod Nano.

In other words, the ultimate remote looks like this:

Remove all the memory. Remove the audio part. Throw in a bluetooth chip. Make a two way communication with Front Row Experience.

Voila. The coolest remote ever built. For listening to music from your Apple media box in your living room you don’t have to turn on the big screen. Just navigate with the remote and music plays from Front Row. When watching movies etc. you turn on the big screen. The LCD on the remote still gives you navigation info etc…

Then Apple makes an add on for the existing iPods. An accessory like the photo connector. A little something that you clip onto the bottom of your iPod Video or iPod Nano that turns it into a bluethooth remote for Front Row.

Dream on…

The Apple Mobile Phone

January 17, 2006 eirikso1 Comment

Apple, please! Giving us an FM radio for the iPod in 2006 is an insult. Why? Why can’t you understand that it’s not the “iPod Radio Remote” we want. We want the “iPod Cellular Remote“. This product should have been a cellular attachment for the iPod. Same idea. Use the screen and the battery in the iPod. Just add a little external box with some keys, a cellular chip and preferably also wifi.

Wired had lots of coverage on what people want and why they don’t get it in issue 13.11. Seems like the biggest problem is the download service that should let you buy music directly through the cellular network. Crap.

This is what I want:
The 30 GB iPod is slightly thinner than the 60 GB. So, give me a device that is the size of a 60 GB iPod but with a 30 GB disk and use the available space to fit in a 3G cellular and wifi. Let me update my podcasts and buy music from iTunes music store when on a WiFi network or through my computer and let me use it like I use my cellular today when on a mobile network.

The main point here is not to be able to buy music on the go. It is the possibility to bring only one device and one set of headphones. And to own the most sexy cellular ever built.

My current mobile is close, but it lacks the storage space and the software to make things easy enough. That will be fixed at some point.

Right now I carry this around:

Nokia 6630
– Excellent phone
– Excellent calendar and adress book
– Camera (but not very good)
– Music player (but not very good)
– Video player (but not very good)

iPod 60GB Video
– Excellent music player
– OK video player
– calendar and adress book

Sony CyberShot DSC-P150
– Excellent camera

When Nokia removes the three “but not very good” from camera, music player and video player it’s good bye iPod and CyberShot.

Or, if Apple makes the perfect iPod Phone:
Apple’s Trademark Applications Hint At IPod Phone. It’s good bye Nokia…

How to connect your iPod to your car

January 15, 2006 eirikso5 Comments

…or rather how to connect your iPod to your 2001 Toyota Rav4
So, time has come to find a soultion that gives me an ability to listen to my iPod in my car. It’s a 2001 Toyota Rav4 with a standard Toyota factory mounted stereo. And a 60GB Apple iPod Video.

Using one of the several FM Transmitters out there is not an option. That’s just not good enough. I want to connect the iPod to the car stereo through wires. I want the best sound quality possible with the combination of a car stereo and an iPod.

Someone out there would immediately say: “Then you have to start by getting rid of the factory mounted Toyota stereo.“. I know. It’s not very good. With the original speakers only it’s actually close to terrible. But after adding a subwoofer and an extra set of tweeters it’s much better.

The options
It cooked down to these two:
Continue reading “How to connect your iPod to your car” →

How to get video out of your iPod

January 10, 2006 eirikso6 Comments

Update:
Having a blog with a bit of readers is a wonderful thing. You can post articles about stuff that makes you angry. And then realize that you are completely wrong!

Have a look at the comments. Thanks, Magnus and Tor Erik.

Apple should still consider their strategy concerning FairPlay and a couple of other things. Regarding their AV cable they did the right thing.

The original post:
Apple is a company that makes wonderful software and hardware. Still, sometimes they do their best to make their products difficult to use and annoying for the consumer.

The connector on top of the new video iPod can also be used to deliver video to a television set. Video cameras and other equipment use standard AV cables to deliver stereo sound and composite video out of a mini jack like the one on top of your iPod.

However, Apple has decided to make it difficult for their users by making the connector on top of the iPod non standard. They say that you have to buy Apple’s own cable if you want to connect your iPod to a television set.

For starters, that’s a lie. You can buy a standard AV cable. You just have to connect it in a very stupid and non logic way. Someone at some point made some thinking and managed to make some kind of standard out of the typical RCA connectors you use for audio and video. White and red for left and right audio. Yellow for video. Great.

If you buy a standard AV cable for your iPod you have to connect it like this:
* Plug the red RCA plug into your TV’s yellow RCA jack
* Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV’s white RCA jack
* Plug the white RCA plug into your TV’s red RCA jack

Detailed description here.

How stupid is that? Yes I know, Apple think they’re going to rule the world and get stinking rich by selling the special AV cable where the connectors have been messed up to match the iPod.

Well, this is amazingly stupid thinking:
1. It gives great room for confusion
2. It is a classic example of bad usability
3. Last but not least:
Apple, please start trusting yourself. I bought your expensive and special cable. Not because I was unable to connect the red to the yellow, using a cheap standard cable. I knew that already. I did it because Apple’s original cable is one of the best built, wonderfully designed and sexy AV cables ever made. I would buy another one for my video camera as well if it had been built using the standards.

The reason why I bought this cable is the exact same as the reason for buying an iPod in the first place. It is more expensive than the competitors, but it is also better built, in a league of its own when it comes to looks and in general a pleasure to use.

This is a tiny issue and not a very important example on its own. Still it illustrates an unintelligent strategy from Apple.

Apple, I love your products. Now please, open your FairPlay DRM. Open the Firmware in the iPod. Open your Front Row Experience for third party content providers…

MP3 player roundup

December 3, 2005 eirikso7 Comments

The ancient (to the left)
My good old Rio PMP300. Not the first one ever, but the first well known commercial MP3-player ever. 32 MB of on board memory and possible to expand with memory cards. At that point horribly expensive memory cards. Communicates with your computer through the parallell port!

The new one (to the right)
iPod 60GIG. Music, photo and video. Yes, I have managed to turn my mobile phone into a cool device for podcast listening, but there’s no doubt. For convenience, usability, battery life and sound quality. My new iPod’s podcasting capabilities are fantastic. And, I am actually already amazed over the development within the video podcast scene. Already some high quality content out there. Among other stuff, a fun revisit to the Happy Tree Friends. I had nearly forgot about those guys.

I want to play my music both on my iPod and in my Media Center, so after upgrading to iTunes 6 I have stopped buying music at the iTunes music store again. For a while, running iTunes 4 and jHymn to remove the stupid FairPlay DRM I have been a happy customer of iTunes Music Store. Now I’ll have to stick to cool shops like allofmp3.com to be able to buy music that will play on all my devices.

Or, I could of course visit my local CD shop and buy the unencrypted masters they still sell over there. Just stay clear of Sony. Or, maybe not. My media center runs AnyDVD, and has actually protected me against evil stuff like the Sony rootkit from day one. (And yes, I know. There are a lot of free music out there that will play on all my devices and that will not infect my machines with evil software, still – I work for the content industry and I actually make sure that I legally own the music I have on my computers and devices.)

Quite interesting actually. As an old mac user, complete gadget freak, above average interested in design and above average interested in music – this is my first iPod. So all hints, links to web sites, tweaks and hacks are welcome! Use the comments.

Right now I have successfully converted a couple of movies using Videora iPod Converter. High quality. Very easy.

And last but not least – The MP3 player for the kids
I agree with Oyvind, make a huge iPod maxi for the kids. It’s not there yet, so I headed for the sports department. Inovix Sport. 128 MB built in memory and expandable by SD or MMC. Cheap. Built in FM radio. Water resistant. Quite sturdy. Big buttons. No movable parts. Together with a cheap 1 GIG or 512 MB memory card this one is actually quite cool!

Apple Media Center – At last!

October 13, 2005 eirikso3 Comments

Apple has finally released its 10-feet GUI. They call it the Apple Front Row Media Experience and it looks like a full screen iPod user interface. Of course Apple bundles it with an amazingly stylish remote control. This is wonderful. Give them a year or so, and you will see some fantastic combinations of sexy hardware and software.

What I miss in the Apple Front Row Experience as far as I can judge from the Apple web site at this point are:
– PVR functionallity with an electronic program guide
– A system for including broadband services
(Like Microsoft Online Spotlight or Beyond Media SnapStream Spotlight)
– Extenders (I guess it’s just a question of time before Apple integrates video streaming in their Airport)
– Support for HD content

Well, that was not a second too early! I can’t wait to see what Apple will build around this. Apple is the perfect company to make successful hardware and software for your living room experience.

Update:
Thomas Hawk has some good comments. Basically I agree with most of them.

Why on earth would I want to buy a copy protected 320×240 version of a TV show when I can get it for free (totally legal) by recording it on my Media Center?

And, why on earth release a media computer in 2005 with no TV Funcionallity?

Still, as mentioned earlier in this post: give Apple a year or so.
(Unless Steve Jobs still is in the stupid opinion that “Generally what they want to view on television has to do with turning their mind off”. Steve, welcome to 2005. Television. Computer. What’s the difference? Do you really think my two year old son will be buying anything else than a computer to consume media as he grows up?)

Apple – you have made the world’s most user friendly and sexy portable media player. Why can’t you get the point when it comes to living room entertainment?

I want a HD capable Apple Mac Mini Media Center with PVR-Functionallity now.

Hackers predicted the future of Apple back in 1999

June 24, 2005 eirikso2 Comments

While browsing the very entertaining archives of 2600.com i stumbeled upon a very interesting hack.

Back in 1999 some Swedish hackers changed the front page of both MacWeek and MacWorld. It seems like they actually did a remarkable piece of prediction. I have tried to recreate a possible conversation between two of the hackers:

January 4. 1999

This is a quote from the front page they made:

APPLE MERGES WITH INTEL !
Today, Apple and Intel released the shocking news that they now have merged into APTEL Inc., starting a new line of Computer Systems featuring the Intel Pentium II processor and Linux Slackware Operating System.

So, it is 2005. Apple’s operating system is based on unix and in the beginning of June all front pages where full of this.