Daring Fireball
FireWire cables are no longer included as a standard part of the [iPod] kit; only the USB cable is included by default. That's not to say the new iPods don't support FireWire, however -- they do, just like always -- it's just that the FireWire cable is now a $19 accessory...

[W]hile it's rankling to some Mac users, it’s not rankling to iPod users in general, because, let's face it, most iPod users, especially new ones, aren't using Macs. Thus instead of taxing Windows users for the cost of an included FireWire cable they would never use, Apple is now taxing Mac users $19 to get a better cable.

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I tend not to bother rating songs when listening to iTunes, but a nice feature of the iPod is the ability to rate a song while listening to it: Pressing the Select button twice when you see the Now Playing screen shows the song's rating. Turning the wheel sets (or changes) the rating.

Since you can't remove songs from the iPod directly (at least not yet), I use this feature to remind myself to get rid of songs I don't want to hear again. First, I set up a Smart Playlist in iTunes that displays all songs with 1-star ratings:



When a song comes on my iPod that I want to get rid of, I give it a 1-star rating:



Next time you sync, iTunes automatically updates your ratings. Clicking the 1-star Smart Playlist will display all songs with the 1-star rating. Now it's easy to just select them all and delete them; re-syncing will then delete them from your iPod.

More tips...

MacCentral
The new version of the iPod mini features a 6GB internal hard disk drive mechanism, increasing storage capacity by 50 percent and leapfrogging over many competitors' 5GB players. It retails for US$249. What's more, Apple is continuing production of the original 4GB model and has priced it at US$199.

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MacCentral
Apple on Wednesday refreshed its line of iPod photo digital music players with a new, slim 30GB model, replacing the previously available 40GB unit. The 30GB iPod photo debuts at US$349, $150 less than its 40GB predecessor. What's more, Apple has reduced the price of the 60GB iPod photo from $599 to $449. Apple also introduced the new iPod Camera Connector, which enables users to dump their photos straight from their digital camera to their PowerBook.

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erasing.org
Geek art: in response to the "warning" on Apple's web site of "do not eat iPod shuffle" somebody composed a poem...

"No need to make a big kerfuffle.
But yes, I ate my iPod shuffle."

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Mike Davidson
What I want to talk about is how this game will play out. How the rules will change when Microsoft puts both feet in the water. How sales will be affected when consumer tastes change. How new devices and new technologies will help, hurt, or kill the iPod. And most importantly, how Apple may attempt to defend its newfound position of power with a diversification strategy.

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Think Secret
Within the next two weeks Apple will announce an updated iPod mini with a color screen and higher capacity hard drive, Think Secret has learned. Highly reliable sources have confirmed that the next iPod mini will gain a full-color active-matrix TFT screen while the form factor will remain largely unchanged.

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Here's a way to quickly create a mix for your iPod: In iTunes select File>New Smart Playlist, then select "track number is" and enter "3" (or any low number). This will create a playlist of songs consisting of the third song of every CD you've ripped.



Keep "Live updating" checked, and each time you add a new CD to iTunes, track 3 will automatically be added to your new Smart Playlist.

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Kirkville
The author of iPod & iTunes Garage "gets lots of questions from readers and visitors to this site, and the most common question is this: My computer crashed and I lost all my music! How can I copy my files from my iPod back to my computer? Read on to find out how to do this..."

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Steven Levy, Newsweek
[J]ust about everyone who has an iPod has wondered how random the iPod shuffle function really is. From the day I loaded up my first Pod, it was as if the little devil liked to play favorites. It had a particular fondness for Steely Dan, whose songs always seemed to pop up two or three times in the first hour of play. Other songs seemed to be exiled to a forgotten corner of the disk drive.

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Slate
How to make your iPod an audiophile's dream

Can an audiophile find happiness with an iPod? I so disliked the iPod I bought a year ago that I sent it back. When I complained to a Slate editor about the lousy sound quality, he asked what it would take to make an audio snob like me happy with an MP3 player. After a month of trials, I discovered that it's possible to build a portable system that produces remarkably rich, clear sound. And fortunately, the high end in portable audio comes much cheaper than it does in home audio.

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A Whole Lotta Nothing
I can't help but notice that Napster's iPod attack ads bear an uncanny resemblance to political attack ads. The Napster ads don't tell you that their music files are loaded with DRM that won't let you really "own" the songs at all and they ignore that many folks rip their CD collection to their iPod for free.

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Adding artwork to your iTunes library makes it easy to create your own custom mix CD covers. This Apple Support doc -- How to Add Artwork to Songs -- tells you how to do it.

Finding artwork on the web and adding it one track at a time can be time-consuming. Luckily, there are some small applications that can make this task a lot easier:

For Mac
iTunes Catalog
This is an app that lists all the artists, albums and songs in your iTunes library, and lets you add artwork with a single click. (It also does more than just handle artwork: you can also build HTML files of your library, publish them to .Mac, and quickly get song lyrics.) It's shareware ($9.95) but you can try a demo for free.

For Windows
iTunes Art Importer
The interface is a little weird -- you basically go back and forth between iTunes (where you select the songs) and Art Importer -- but it's free and it works! It'll grab the cover art from Amazon, and with one click adds it to iTunes.

More tips...

iPodlounge
Twenty years after launching its first Macintosh computer, Apple Computer has finally released the first guilt-free model: at a $499 starting price, the Mac mini is a boon to Windows-wary consumers and an almost unmitigated draw for fans of the company's iPod portable music players... We share our views on the [$499 and $599 versions of the Mac mini] for the benefit of iPod fans who might be interested in a great new computer.

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San Jose Mercury News
Older versions of Windows are incompatible with the iPod, and there are some peculiar default settings that could wipe out your music collection. Luckily, there are solutions, and we have four to share.

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Chausse.org
OK, this was totally my fault, but would it have killed Apple to throw in an "Are you SURE you want to delete your entire 30 MB music collection off of the iPod, you dummy?" message box?

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Wright This Way
So, what do you do when you and some friends are all getting iPod Shuffles? You make a RAID array out of them, of course! Follow along as we explore new depths of geekery...

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Macworld
Apple is the most influential company in the world, according to 2,000 ad executives polled by Brandchannel. The annual survey asks respondents to rate the impact of a particular brand on people's lives. Second in the global list is Google, which took the top spot from Apple back in 2002. Brandchannel editor Robin Rusch told Reuters: "Apple's just done an extraordinary job with innovation, technology and design. The iPod is what has put Apple in the lead this year."

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Wired News
Microsoft's leafy corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, is beginning to look like the streets of New York, London and just about everywhere else: Wherever you go, white headphones dangle from peoples' ears.

To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."

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What Do I Know
My new 1GB iPod Shuffle arrived late last week, and it's every bit as fantastic as I assumed it would be... Some have bemoaned the lack of a display, but in the case of the Shuffle I believe less is truly more. The refreshing lack of futz, widgetry, and other stuff would only further complicate what should be a simple experience.

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USA Today
Interviews with owners of various ages tell the same unsolicited tale. They shun today's radio programming (too much talk, not enough good songs) and resent buying CDs that are full of songs they don't want (they gladly spend 99 cents a song at Apple's iTunes online music store, where 1.2 million songs are snapped up daily). "This is no fad -- the iPod has changed my life."

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Robert X. Cringely, PBS
Is iPod the Razor or the Blade?

More than a century ago, King Gillette invented both the safety razor and a new way of marketing consumer goods... His marketing breakthrough was selling the razor handles at little or no profit while making huge profits on the consumable -- the blades. This same technique is used today to promote mobile phones and inkjet printers. And it is supposedly behind Apple's success with the iPod music player.

But in the case of Apple, is the iPod a razor or a blade? In other words, is Apple a hardware company or a media company?

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