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The Apple Ipod

Users of the Apple iPod could not get enough of the music experience. These are some of the features of the Apple iPod that makes it so attractive to music lovers and techies:

1. The Apple iPod have so much space available of up to forty gigabytes that it can store up to about five thousand songs.

2. The Apple iPod also comes with the ergonomically designed Click Wheel wherein you can do fast forward, play, reverse, pause and access the menu with ease.

4. The Apple iPod can be used up to 12 hours non-stop due to its long life battery.

5. The Apple iPod was also designed in such a way that you would have the ability to set up your own play list and it also has a shuffle function to introduce randomness during playing.

iPod Hacks

Through the years, however, the Apple iPod has been modified by techies by using iPod hacks, bent on providing more power to the user in terms of customization and personalization of their Apple iPod.

Strictly speaking, iPod hacks are anything that gives changes to your iPod in terms of appearance, either in terms of software or hardware. Various firmwares that provides iPod hacks, are available on the Internet websites like the iPodWizard that is capable of changing the graphic and text of the Apple iPod.

Some users of the Apple iPod are already content with their iPod simplying playing music, however, some people use iPod hacks because they seem to want more.

Turning an iPod into a Universal Remote

Latest technology capabilities have provided a user power to modify his Apple iPod. These iPod hacks can even transform a normal Apple iPod into a universal remote.

The Apple ipod can be used to control any home electronic equipment in your house. It can control your television, DVD player, Media Center, even a robot. This is the power of iPod hacks.

Simply put, you can use a Pocket PC to possibly record the waves an infrared remote produces. Transfer these waves to your iPod and start changing your TV channels. You now have a new universal remote control.

The following are required before starting this example project of iPod hacks:

1. An Apple iPod

2. A Mac or Personal Computer with a sound recording software installed.

3. A Pocket PC, could be a Pocket PC 2002 or 2003.

4. A total remote software and IR device

The following procedure guides you through changing your iPod into a remote control using iPod hacks:

1. The most important element in this iPod hacks project is the sound or wave to infrared converter.

First, install the total remote software on the MAC or PC. This software is meant to extend the range of the Pocket PC to include consumer IR capabilities.

2. Record the infrared signal by using a sound-editing program that can modify sounds and remove channels. An example of such sound-editing program is the SoundForge.

Input the infrared signals from your remotes to the PC by using the software. Input all infrared signals of the home electronic equipment that you want to control.

You can observe if you have recorded the sound effectively if you’ll hear weird beeps or pulses. This is basically what an infrared signal would sound like. Using the SoundForge, you can actually view the pulses and signals on a graphic representation of the wave.

Do not forget to increase the right channel. Then mute it. The process through the IR device would not function properly if you missed this important step.

3. Convert the signals into sound files (actually saved as WAV files).

4. On the Apple iPod, make a new playlist and add the WAV files to the playlist.

5. Now, you can test the new universal remote. Use the Apple iPod to play the sounds through the converter for remote controlling any home electronic equipment.

This basic example of iPod hacks is obviously very easy to understand. Softwares are already available that users can use to modify their Apple iPods.

iPod hacks are still, however, very risky with regards to its effects on your iPod device. Unless handled by a professional technician, the Apple iPod could malfunction if the modification is not right.

Owners of the original Apple iPod clamors for more from the makers of the iPod music experience.

The latest ipod player available in the market comes in a smaller and leaner frame, and is marketed in a rainbow of colors. This is the Apple iPod mini.

The Apple iPod mini has a platform of MAC or Windows OS. Some original Apple iPod users have already seen the Apple iPod mini with a new four gigabytes harddrive space for a US$ 249 price tag. It is not a secret that an additional of US$ 50 will get you a fifteen gigabytes iPod that would store somewhere around 2,700 more music files. That is a lot more than the Apple ipod mini.

This is because harddrive space is so much important for Apple iPod users, the original Apple iPod have so much space available to the user of about forty gigabytes. This amount of space can store more than five thousand songs. Aside from this, the original Apple iPod also has a longer battery life.

However, criticizers should consider the frame of the Apple iPod mini. It is slender and is more styled, that which made it seem more functional and more attractive to the eyes and has a more ergonomic feel to the fingers. To most people, it would not be the ideal music player, but to the 99,000 or so Apple iPod mini users, they beg to disagree.

The Too Sexy Apple iPod Mini

The Apple iPod mini is compared to a US$ 1,200 purse from Chanel. This is because the US$ 249 Apple iPod mini, with its variety of five colors, brings out class and posh.

It has an anodized body made of aluminum and weighs about 3.6 ounces. It measures about 2 inches in width, 3.6 inches in height, and only about half an inch in thickness. It does not look like it at first glance, but the Apple ipod mini is almost like a featherweight than the original Apple iPod.

It is also silky to the touch and smooth. It also fits wonderfully in your palm. This is the reason for the premium price tag.

The Apple iPod mini also has no external moving parts. You will notice that underneath the smaller 1.67-inch LCD screen lie the light touch-sensitive and highly ergonomic Click Wheel. This Click Wheel is the one which incorporates the Apple iPod mini’s other controls. The control’s buttons are located on the pad itself. This is much different than the original Apple iPod’s four function buttons that is located above the scroll pad.

Anyone who is familiar with the software for the iPod knows about the seamless integration of iPod with iTunes. In no time, you would be cruising with the tunes.

The Apple iPod mini behaves just like exactly as other newer generation Apple iPods. It now even packs a battery life of 8 hours. The original Apple iPods have a longer battery life.

Besides the smaller physical dimensions and the new warm minimalist choices of color, which can be gold, silver, pink, green and blue. A major difference observed between the original Apple iPod and the Apple iPod mini is the harddrive space capacity.

The Apple iPod mini has a tiny Hitachi harddrive that can hold about four gigabytes of music. Music files include AAC, Audible, MP3, WAV and AIFF. This is enough storage for a number of Apple iPod mini users.

Apple iPod users usually prefer to carry an entire library of music any time of the day. Rather than manually selecting and transferring specific songs to the Apple iPod mini. The Apple iPod mini can only hold as much as a fraction of the forty gigabytes music collection.

The Apple iPod mini also has accessories that include the earbuds, a USB 2.0 cable and a FireWire dock connector, an AC adaptor, a belt clip, and the Apple iPod mini software.

The Apple iPod mini could have been more lenient by adding a dock or armband to teh package.

The US$ 29 armband is a great help for joggers who want to listen to good music while jogging and carrying the very lightweight and effectively skip-free Apple iPod mini.

Conclusion

To summarize, the Apple iPod mini has a sleek styling, it is a small size and has an excellent integrated Click wheel. It has a possible disadvantage to the user, though, that is the price per megabyte which is much higher as compared to the original Apple iPod.

iPod is only five years old but it dominates the digital audio player in the world. Around 42 million iPod unit sales has been recorded for the fiscal year of 2001 to 2005. The rate of iPod sales in the first quarter of 2006 shows that iPod is selling 100 iPod units every minute.

That is how popular iPod is. For this reason, third party manufacturers are jumping to the iPod craze and are manufacturing iPod skins, iPod covers, iPod cases and iPod special headphones, and iPod battery kits to meet the demand of the users to achieve maximum experience with their iPods.

The third party software developers do not want to be left behind so they created software and plugins for iPod mini, iPod nano, iPod Video. Third party developers offer their products as iPod downloads.

iPod downloads maybe a software or an image or video file for your iPod mini, iPod nano, or iPod shuffle. iPod downloads may be for free, freeware iPod downloads, or shareware, of for free for a limited time of use iPod downloads.

Software iPod downloads may be a dictionary, foreign words translator to english or a video file converter from computer to iPod.

Image or video file iPod downloads include screensavers, icons, free videos, and free music videos.

Below are some of the best iPod downloads.

–Accio Dictionary for iPod

Accio Dictionary is not a Harry Potter dictionary, although this iPod download works magic.

There are many dictionary iPod downloads out there but we consider Accio as one of the best if not the very best dictionary iPod downloads in the industry. With this iPod download, you can manage to ask a simple, Where is the train station? in Spanish or German or Portuguese or Italian by just simply referring to your Accio Dictionary in your iPod nano, iPod mini or iPod shuffle.

With this shareware iPod download, you can listed to translatations of phrases and words that a tourist often ask to a native, like asking directions or asking for a name or saying thanks and sorry. The translations in this iPod download are spoken by native speakers.

The Accio iPod dictionary has 8,000 indexed translations. The vocabularies in this superb iPod download are those you need for traveling and everyday usage.

Accio iPod dictionary offers five shareware iPod downloads. iPod Downloads are for: English-German, English-Spanish, English-French, English-Italian, English-Portuguese.

The four Accio iPod downloads also offer the following:

- Quick reference using the iPod “Notes.”

- It also has a Talking Phrasebook! You can listen to translated words or phrases for travelling and everyday use, spoken by native speakers.

- This iPod download is expandable. You can add several Accio modules into your iPod — these iPod downloads have everything you need for tours and travels.

- Up to 8,000 indexed translations.

–About iSpeak It

This is one of the most incredible iPod downloads to date. Imagine, you can convert into an audio file your favorite e-books simple by using this iPod software. Compatible with iPod nano, iPod mini, and iPod shuffle, you can install this fabulous iPod downloads software from the Apple.com or at its official website.

If you’re a writer and would like to hear how you writing sounds, get this in iPod downloads center immediately for this is for you. This iPod download works best if you are working on a dialogue. You will know if your dialogue sounds more like your mother than a dialogue for a literary piece; unless the character that is speaking is inspired by your mother.

iPod downloads center offers iSpeak as a shareware. You can take any document that you want and convert in into an MP3/AAC track\. You can do this in your iTunes by turning on the built-in text-to-speech of Mac. Windows XP also offers text-to-speech capabilities.

What can you do with iSpeak once you downloaded it from the Apple iPod downloads center? You can download news, driving directions, email messages, weather, and then text-to-speech it in your computer with the help of iSpeak and then transfer it in your iPod nano, iPod mini, or iPod shuffle.

This spectacular software from the Apple iPod downloads center accepts files such as Word, RTF, Pages 2, PDF, AppleWorks, text and even HTML files.

Yes, the ipod mini said its goodbye to the technology market last September 7, 2005. It seems only proper to pay our respects to this whimsical gadget that once put a smile on our face. When the iPod mini was released on February 20, 2004, many were delighted. Being the smaller version of Apple Computer’s iPod first generation portable audio player, it’s variety in color (though still somewhat limited to five colors: silver, gold, pink, blue, and green) appealed to a much broader market. The ipod mini operated with both Macintosh and Windows PCs.

The iPod mini’s feature was the click wheel, where four buttons were located above the wheel. To use one of the buttons, a user had to push the wheel edge inward over one of the labels. The click wheel is now used in the fourth and fifth generation iPods as well as in the iPod nano. Above the wheel was the monochrome display that gave the menus or information of the currently selected track. The new generation of ipods now has a colored screen display.

The iPod mini made use of the ultra-thin Compact Flash Microdrive hard drives. The first-generation mini models only had to content itself to a 4GB hard drive. The second-generation mini models were then available in 4GB and 6GB memory size. The iPod mini 4 GB is capable of storing 1,000 songs while the iPod mini 6GB stored 1, 500 songs.

Later the drive size was laser engraved on the case to distinguish between the two minis. Near the end of the iPod mini’s life, Apple laser etched two lines of 32 characters on top of the reverse side on the mini free of charge. Such a feature would originally cost more money. However, Apple seemed sentimental enough and the gesture was a sign of respect for the mini’s impeding demise.

The battery life of its first generation iPod mini was 8 hours that led to some argument on its short duration. This problem was solved with the second-generation models that claimed a battery life of 18 hours.

Unfortunately, the 2nd generation had no FireWire cable or an AC power adapter, a compromise made by Apple to reduce the retail prices of the new iPod minis. The iPod mini also had a dock connector provided on the bottom for a connection to the computer (Hi-Speed USB or FireWire). The battery was charged during its connection. On the top it was a headphone jack, a hold switch, and remote port for other accessories.

Like the larger iPod, the iPod mini supported a host of file formats like MP3, WAV, AIFF and MP4. It maintained it’s flawless integration with the iTunes Music Store and the files being downloaded there. Software-wise, the iPod mini was as reliable as the original iPod units.

The appeal of the iPod mini is it’s compact and colorful design. And the accessories that come with it are there to enhance the iPod mini’s sound quality and functions. It is true that some of the accessories are expensive but aren’t all the iPod gadgets expensive too?

Besides if there was something good to be said about the iPod mini, it’s the option it gave the consumers when getting a digital audio player. The Ipod mini competed directly with players like Creative’s Zen Micro and the Digital Networks Rio Carbon. The smaller display was one line shorter than the previous models, thus limiting its on-screen track information display to title and artist only, taking the album information off.

The original price for the first generation iPod mini was around $249 for the 4GB memory size. The second-generation lowered the price to $199 and kept the 4GB model. An increased-capacity 6GB mini model sold for $249.

As the Ipod family began to expand, the Ipod mini was laid to rest when Apple launched the introduction of the iPod nano. The iPod mini was no more and stopped its production. Though it seems the iPod mini only stayed for a while, its influence as the pioneer of the click wheel will always be remembered.

We all know that an ipod is expensive. The new releases of APPLE ipods are really unaffordable for normal people. But if you are only after listening to songs and don’t really care about videos, playlists, etc, I suggest that you buy the ipod shuffle instead.

It is the cheapest ipod out in the market today but it already cost thousands of pesos. It is already expensive considering people without big paychecks. So if it is expensive, why would you want to have it anyway if you can’t afford it? It is not even a necessity anyway. We don’t exactly need it to live and you are not obliged to buy one.

But having an ipod would be a big benefit because it brings you wireless entertainment. Plus considering its uncanny portability, it is really a must have gadget. It can play hundreds of songs even though it is just a small box. The ipod is simply an amazing and entertaining device. Imagine a gadget that has the capability to play songs, organize playlists, and show videos.

But let us go back to reality here, the reality I was mentioning earlier. These devices are definitely not cheap and it will be hard to buy one. You will really have to save for it. You might even have to cut short on other stuff and limit your meals. These high prices deprive of people of their passion to listen to music.

But what would you feel if someone would give you a free ipod? Now, you do not have to spend your own money and savings, instead it would be given to you for free. That would be wonderful, won’t it? But the question there is, where in the world will you get a free ipod?

Nowadays, many people use this free ipod as a gimmick. They could attract many people for the promise of a free ipod. Most of the promos include a free ipod as one of their prizes. If you would only join, you would have the chance of winning a new and free ipod. I guess that they are including a free ipod as one of their prizes to invite more people to join the promo because almost every people want an ipod inside their pockets.

If you would be one the winners of the free ipod, you will definitely be excited about it. If you think about it, a device worth thousands will be yours for free, it is like a gift from heaven.

A promise of a free ipod can also be use for advertising. You can advertise a certain event of maybe a product given that if they but, they might win a free ipod. Many would be buying your product or will be going to your event.

Another example is, if you a restaurant and the number of customers are low, try on giving a free ipod a prize in a raffle and that they can acquire the raffle tickets only if they ate at your place. Next thing you know, there will be a sudden increasing in the number of your customers. The results may be shocking.

You would be surprise see that many people would be eating at your place because they want to have a chance on winning that free ipod. A free ipod brings wonders to your life. Now, it is no longer just a device for entertainment but for business as well.

But why and how does a free pod do this? As we all no, gadgets is the in thing today and the ipod is one of the front runners in that category. Although we hate to admit it, it is human nature to want what is in. Even if people can’t afford it, they really still crave for it. That is why a free ipod is so attractive and catchy for those poeple who want it but don’t have the money to purchase it.

But is it all about being in? In my opinion, a free ipod is attractive because it will bring you entertainment with comfort because it is portable and is easy to use. You can listen to music and watch videos with one click. This is like the extreme gadget for music lovers. And music doesn’t only include those of the rich, it goes all the way down to the middle class and the poor.

And for their love of music, a free ipod is all that’s left for them to have this magnificent device and enjoy music.