iPod Events…

Posted by Hollyann

I figured I would bring everyone up to date on my latest iPod happenings, you all know how I love my iPod(s).

1.  Please welcome Ginger to the Holly.World. iPod family.  Ginger, an 8GB iPod touch, joined us a few months ago and is definitely proving to be both the most fun and most useful of my babies.  Anyone thinking about getting any kind of music player… I can say without doubt that this is what you want.

2.  New iPod means new headphones, right?  I have issues with headphones.  I swear I have tried everything imaginable.  Earbuds fall right out of my ear.  Squishy things that are supposed to go IN your ear?  Right, those fall out too.  Old school walkman headphones were my best option, so long as I refrain from sitting on them and breaking the piece that goes over your head.  Contraptions that wrap around your ears so you don’t need the thing that goes over your head seem to be made for some kind of ear shape I have never seen in real life before.  Behind the neck headphones seem to be made for people whose heads are a foot in front of their neck, I could never get them small enough.  Finally, one day as I sit down with my duct taped walkman headphones and a magazine, I think “I would pay $100 for headphones that didn’t break, didn’t fall off, sounded decent, and looked good.”  What should be in the holiday gift guide in that very magazine? Freaky hot pink furry headphones from Skullcandy.  $90.  It was fate.  Yes, I ended up going with the slightly cheaper non furry version, but they are hot pink.  Comfortable.  Sturdy.  And the best sounding I have heard in that price range.  Happy me.

3.  RIP Fred…  Fred, my firstborn, passed away last week after a prolonged illness.  He had been quite eccentric in the past months, and finally gave up and gave me the sad iPod icon.   If you aren’t familiar with the Apple sad (insert item you are trying to use here) icons, they are VERY bad juju.  I tried to revive him by plugging him into the computer and got a message saying I needed to rush him to the nearest hospital (Apple Store) at which point I decided to let his do not resuscitate order kick in and started making final arrangements.

4.  Of course, those final arrangements consisted of ordering up a new ‘big’ iPod, known as Fred v2.0.  Fred v2.0 arrived yesterday, along with his pink case (yes, as it turns out Fred v2.0 is quite secure with his sexuality) and he seems to be fitting in quite well.  One benefit of having something both new and non touch is that I can finally order games for the thing, if you like Guitar Hero, try Phase… it’s worth the $5.

5.  MacWorld was this week, and although they STILL did not announce that Apple is making a tablet laptop (please please get on the ball, I am so sick of Microsoft) they did say that there was an upgrade for the touch iPods with many yummy things that Todd’s iphone has and Ginger doesn’t.  Downside, it costs $20.  Upside, I don’t really care, I want my mail on Ginger.  Since I don’t get mail on my phone (apparently the budget committee in Holly.World. has decided that the iPhone data plan is a perfectly acceptable expense, but the BlackJack data plan, while much cheaper, is not.) and I am the only person I know who actually has to be at a computer to send an email, I simply need it.  So, last night, I go to get this update for Ginger.  First, I had to update iTunes, to version next.  That took about half an hour.  Then, there was new software for Ginger… this is where the trouble began.  I tell it to download and install, says it will be about 29 minutes, so I go put Kayla in the bath.  Get her in bed, it’s been 30 minutes, it says…. 28 minutes remaining.  An hour after that I get ‘could not finish download, network connection timed out, please try again’.  So I try again, now it says it will be 4 hours.  I think this must be my wireless connection gone wonky, so I plug into the ethernet upstairs… woot, I got the time down to 3 hours!  It ended up taking about 90 minutes.  Then, it goes to install the software it has now taken 3 hours to download, and says it can’t, because an unknown error has occurred.  So I unplug Ginger, plug her back in, after the 3rd time I try that in various combinations of shutting down iTunes and restarting the computer, it works.  Woot!  I’ve updated the software.  Now it’s time to buy the January upgrade, as they call it. Lucky me, it takes me straight to the buy this page when I plug Ginger in again.  I click the ‘I want it give it to me now’ button.  I sign into my iTunes account.  I press the button that is supposed to take me to my billing info.  It says there is a problem with iTunes, try again later.  I go smoke and have a shot of whatever liquor is closest.  I try again.  Nope. Again.  Nope.  Another shot.  Another cigarette. Try again.  Nope.  Google the error message to see if it’s just me… it’s not.  Restart iTunes, voila!  It worked!  Follow instructions, the last of which says “When you unplug your iPod touch, your new items will automatically appear on your touch screen.”  Unplug Ginger… can you guess… yep, no new items.  Plug Ginger back in, get the buy this page again.  WTF?  I did buy it!  Repeat.  Repeat.  Finally hit the buy this button again, because by this point I am drunk, and don’t care if the $20 upgrade costs me $40.  Suddenly get taken to a “thanks for purchasing” page, and my new items appear on the screen.  We started this process at 6pm, it’s now 10:30.  But dammit, I can get my mail, maps, and I know the temperature in Rockton.

6.  Anyone catch that I both got a new iPod yesterday, AND was updating the touch last night?  Yes, I still have a brand new iPod to fill with music, at 10:30 at night.  How long can this possibly take, I think, I just want to get the music and the podcasts and the pictures on, and buy that Phase game…  Well, Apple being generous and all gave me a free music video, a free episode of How I Met Your Mother, and the best of all, free Jack Jack Attack!  I have been known to pop in the Incredibles DVD just to watch Jack Jack Attack, so this rocks.  Yes, totally, I want the free video sampler pack thingy.  About an hour later I am saying ‘who the hell downloads tv to their iPod if it takes an hour and a half to download a half hour show?  This SUCKS!’ Finally everything is downloaded, including the game I bought.  Wait, for the game I have to make a ‘Phase playlist’.  Ok, I’ll just drop in everything from my 5 star list.  Ooops, that’s 1700 songs and this playlist can only have 1000.  Fine, who needs the first third of the alphabet.  Wait, why is this spinning but it’s not telling me what it’s doing.  Is it doing anything?  No, as I discovered when I finally just made it stop syncing and unplugged Fred v2.0, it wasn’t doing anything.  Except putting the music on.  No videos, no game, no pictures.  *sigh*  Plug it back in, and it puts the game and the videos on.  Still no pictures.  It’s 2 am, so I went to bed.  After playing Phase for an hour. 

7.  Well, that brings me to today, when it is my goal to get the pictures on Fred v2.0.  Really, if I manage to do that and nothing else today, I may be happy.