iPod

[Dave James]

I've been having a ball with the iPod I got myself for Christmas. I'm trying to upload my entire Mosaic collection, but it's taking longer than I thought it would. The reason? Apparently the 3-4 year old HP laptop I'm using does not have a high speed port. Whenever I log onto iTunes, a pop-up tells me I've attached a high speed device to a non high speed port. It says in order to correct the problem, I need to have a hi-speed USB host controller. I've asked around a bit, and it appears to me that this is not just something you can plug into your existing computer and you're good to go. So, my question is, is there any way I can upgrade from a 1.0 to a 2.0 USB, short of buying a new computer?

Thanks.

Up over and out.

[Stefan Wood]

Does your laptop have a firewire port? If so, then you can get a cable to connect your ipod to the laptop. If not, then yes, you would have to get a USB 2.0 card to install.

[rockefeller center]

Get a USB 2.0 controller card for your laptop.

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/u2cb2/...2CB2de26RGB.jpg

[couw]

Get a USB 2.0 controller card for your laptop.

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/u2cb2/...2CB2de26RGB.jpg

yes, that's the trick. it goes into a slot on your laptop. probably the slot you have always wondered about what it's there for.

[Brad]

Here's one more question. The battery seems to run out pretty fast. Is this normal. How many hours can one expect before it needs recharging?

[Brandon Burke]

Here's one more question. The battery seems to run out pretty fast. Is this normal. How many hours can one expect before it needs recharging?

They do that. Don't expect to get more than 3-4 hours per charge. You can improve this somewhat if you turn off the "backlight".

[Dave James]

I discovered this morning that you can play the Pod and charge it simultaneously. At work I'm run mine through a Bose Wave radio, and charge it at the same time. This is probably not news to gen-u-ine Pod people, but it was to me. Same thing

if you have one of those Altec Lansing mini-speaker systems. It charges and plays at the same time.

Thanks for all the good information guys. Hopefully, I'll be ugraded before the end of the week.

Up over and out.

[.:.impossible]

As I understand it, this is exactly what decreases the battery-life. I had to have a battery replaced last month and have been letting the battery meter disappear completely until a message comes up saying there is not enough battery power to function, please recharge.

I didn't know this about rechargeable batteries... if you recharge them at 1/2 capacity, that is the new maximum life of the battery. If you recharge them from 1/4 capacity, 3/4 of the original battery-life becomes the new maximum capacity. Does that make sense? Seems ridiculous to me, but this is what I've been told.

So, if you always have the thing plugged in, you should be ok right? I'm not sure. I would make sure that you have a full battery, or an empty battery before plugging in. Just be careful not to plug it in at 99% capacity!

[Brad]

Wow! This is news to me but I will not let them run down very low. Seems very strange however.

[billyboy]

I didn't know this about rechargeable batteries... if you recharge them at 1/2 capacity, that is the new maximum life of the battery. If you recharge them from 1/4 capacity, 3/4 of the original battery-life becomes the new maximum capacity. Does that make sense? Seems ridiculous to me, but this is what I've been told.

This is not true with iPod batteries. This is true for nickel-cadmium rechargeable batteries, but not for nickel-metal hydride batteries. Check out this link for more iPod battery info:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipods.html

I have never let my iPod run completely out. I use it probably 3 or 4 hours during the day, then dock it when I get home. It pretty much stays docked all weekend since it's hooked up to my stereo, and gets pretty constant use while docked.

[.:.impossible]

I used to do the same thing with my ipod. 3rd generation 20G. The battery lasted ~7 months...

[Brandon Burke]

I used to do the same thing with my ipod. 3rd generation 20G. The battery lasted ~7 months...

It is true that you probably want to let it drain a while before recharging. Just like a cell phone. The probelm arises when you leave it plugged in all the time. That's when you start to run into battery lifespan issues.

BTW: Check your PMs, Cary.

[.:.impossible]

That is my experience... I'm treating the battery much differently now. Problem is, they are heavily marketing accessories that continuously charge the iPod which gives the impression that it is ideal to keep the device plugged in at all times.

My advice, and I have owned a fair amout of Apple products well before the advent of iPod (not as many as Albertson), is to always buy Apple Care. I replaced a CDR drive in my iMac once a year! For free! In the case of iPod, if you buy it at Best Buy, pay the extra $30 for the extended warranty. Battery replacements are free of charge. You will need a battery replacement in the next three years regardless of how you use your iPod.

PS I got 8 hours out of my iPod one day over the holiday. Ran it constantly to see how long it would go, even when I wasn't using it. Pretty good considering I was getting more like 2.75 hours a month before replacing the battery!

[Dave James]

I went out during lunch yesterday and bought a USB 2.0 upgrade. Eagerly anticipating download Nirvanna, I hustled back to my computer room as soon as I got home last night to put this baby to work. According to the instructions, this should be no more complicated than plugging the card into the port. Once you do that, the computer is supposed to take over and install it. Well, to make a long story short, I can't get this to work. The laptop I have is a 2001 HP Notebook that's running a theoretically compatible program (Windows Home XP), but when I plug in the card, it tells me it cannot locate the software to make the upgrade happen. That makes we wonder if the machine I have is simply too old and too decrepit to ever make this run. Any thoughts or ideas?

Oh, one other terrific development. Even though I could not get the upgrade to work, I was still able to download music by plugging into one of the BUS ports, albeit at the same reduced speed I had before. Then, while I as having dinner, something happened and now I can't download anything at all. When I plug the i-Pod in, nothing happens. It's like the computer doesn't recognize it's even there.

If anyone has any ideas on either of these two problems, please let me know. I'm about to go around the bend.

Up over and out.

[rockefeller center]

Any thoughts or ideas?

Brand/model name? Have you visited the manufacturer's website?

[Brandon Burke]

My advice, and I have owned a fair amout of Apple products well before the advent of iPod (not as many as Albertson), is to always buy Apple Care.

Definitely.

[billyboy]

When I plug the i-Pod in, nothing happens.  It's like the computer doesn't recognize it's even there.   

When this has happened to me, once I reset the iPod, everything's ok. Hold the menu button and the center button together for 5 or 10 seconds until the apple logo appears on the screen, then try connecting to your computer.

[rockefeller center]

Uninstall the thing in the device manager (control panel/system/system properties/device manager/) and re-start your computer.

Do you have Service Pack 1 installed? If not, do this before you re-start your system.

http://www.usbman.com/USB%202%20News.htm

Microsoft USB  2.0 Driver Information

    The latest version of Microsoft USB 2.0 driver stack is included in Service Pack 1.  The stand alone drivers have been pulled from both the Windows Update Site and the Corporate Download Site.

    Service Pack 1 is available at the Microsoft Windows Update Site.

    The easiest and surest way to use these drivers is to allow Windows Update to install them automatically.

Windows XP

    Microsoft Win XP USB 2.0 drivers are included in Service Pack 1.

    Service Pack 1 which includes USB 2.0 support for Windows XP is available at the Windows Update Site.

    The stand alone drivers have been pulled from both the Windows Update and the Corporate Download sites.

[Guest Chaney]

This website presents my investigation concerning the iPod sound quality.

By "my" not meaning mine. Ran across this on a link over at the Audio Asylum.

Edited January 10, 2005 by Chaney

[Peter Johnson]

Nice writeup, Chaney--very informative. Thanks.

[Brad]

Here's another question. I have an ipod and my son wants an ipod mini for his birthday. Will two ipods work on 1 computer and would I have to load the software for the mini onto the computer. Wouldn't having 2 ipods on 1 computer confuse things?

[Man with the Golden Arm]

re:chaney link site

not an iPod user but a mac rookie. the meat of that site is this i believe. i could only read a little bit before my head hurt.

Conclusions:

Although my experiment contains personal elements, I hope it is useful for you as well. It might help you in setting up experiments for selecting your favourite encoding type and speed.

For me it resulted in selecting AAC 224kbit/sec as my default format, as this is the encoding which provides good sound quality, and still results in acceptable file sizes (at least for my iPod 30GB). Although the AAC 224bit/sec still shows some minor artifact, you have to compare it with the original and critical source material in order to recognize those artifacts, though for the Tori Amos track I can recognize them immediately. The AAC 320 kbit/sec encoding results in much larger files, for just a little bit more quality, which was my reason not to select it. For less critical material, I use the 160kbit/sec AAC encoding, just to gain some space on my iPod. For critical material (piano, lots of cymabals, music close to hard rock with continiously distorted guitars) this results in obvious flanging or tremolo.

Edited January 13, 2005 by Man with the Golden Arm

[couw]

if you listen while being alive, i.e. while breathing, having a heartbeat, maybe even eat some crips, or sit in a transportation vehicle, or walk through a street while listening to your iPod, lower quality settings are very unlikely to bother you.

I have pretty good ears, but I cannot really hear the difference between mp3s encoded at 224kbps and anything above that. And if I can, I'd be hard pressed to call out which is which. Probably would have a hard time picking out the 198kbps if it were among there.

As you will still have your uncompressed source at home in the shelves, to which you can return when you really really want to try and hear that guy in the pommes-frites boutique across the street from the studio order a double with all on top and then listen to his accompanying burp roll off, as it was recorded through the open window of the studio on a hot day in May, I'd say go for quantity and be happy with quality merely being good enough.

Kidding aside: Having someone make you a blind test disk with various encoding options may help you identify the best setting. You may be surprised.

[Jazzdude]

I just bought a 40GB Ipod a few hrs. ago. I'll get it set up in a few days maybe and report my findings. I will use it for the gym. I'm tired of constantly making cassettes to lessen the boredom of working out. Now I can download of bunch of songs (up to 10,000) from my large CD collection and not have to do it again for a long, long time rather than once or twice a week for cassettes.

[casanovas347]

for all users of ipods (3rd & 4th generation) AND iPodmini:

if you have probs with the batteries....check www.belkin.com (there is an 4AA battery-Adapter who can plugged into your iPod....with 4 batteries you can increase your playing-time up to 30h

there is a note, that this battery-adapter won't work with ipod mini...THATS NOT TRUE! It works perfect with mine!

B-)