peristaltor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
peristaltor) wrote2009-08-14 01:20 pm
peristaltor) wrote2009-08-14 01:20 pm
Entry tags:
Functionality Beyond Design Parameters
I have an iPod. Not the fancy, wheel-controlled or touch-screen equipped money pits, but a simple iPod Nano (without the proprietary DRM earbuds). It does what I want of it. It provides audio content while costing less than my $60 limit, the amount of cash I am willing to spend on any gadget I bring to work.
When new, this little gadget did all that was promised and more. Funny thing though: Its functionality , I soon realized, was so apparently constrained by Apple's marketing department that getting the gadget to do what I, the gadget's owner, wanted it to do proved -- and continues to prove -- impossible.
Here's the scoop. These little MP3 players are great at replicating sound files. 60 years ago, audio entertainment ran the gamut from dramas to news to music. TV slowly killed that, sadly, relegating radio to the low-cost chore of stuffing recorded music and sports blather between commercials. Since sports yakkers and other news usually becomes dated in hours, and since the old playable-on-demand audio distribution system relied on hard copies delivered to retail outlets in months, not minutes, nobody bothered to package and market music alternatives (other than audiobooks). This left (with few exceptions) only music sans commercials available for portable audio experiencers. So, when MP3 players hit the scene, their makers sought to fill the most obvious market niche occupied by the various walkmen and car systems, be they tapes, CDs, minidiscs, what have you.
When the internets made audio dissemination quick, cheap and easy, though, these little walkmen killers unexpectedly became potential carriers of that other radio staple, the topical interest audio show. Apple missed that. Apple missed that completely and entirely. Let me show you proof.
To their credit, Apple programed iTunes with podcast functionality. Really. There is indeed a place where one can subscribe to and cache podcasts on one's computer. One simply goes to the iTunes store to find the show and subscribe, or one enters the poddy info directly. iTunes then checks the podcast regularly and downloads the latest offering.
What's interesting here? iTunes does not allow me to transfer those podcasts to my Nano automatically. Really. There is an "Autofill" function where one can select a directory (such as Music). This directory will become the source for content when the device is connected to the 'puter to charge. Here's a screenshot of the options for my machine:
And where is that Podcast option, I wonder?
No where, that's where.
Your only default options are for Music, music you Purchased, and Genius (whatever that is), along with My Top Rated, Blah, Blah, Blah. The folders underneath (with the little blue sheet and the quarter note, as opposed to the Apple-provided purple page with the gear) I created for various reasons, sometimes to compile a CD, sometimes to just organize stuff. I could shove all podcasts I download into such a new, me-created folder; but I would have to do that manually. I already do this manually when I transfer content to the device. Why would I do it manually twice?
Not only have they forced me to go on a click quest to manage my portable podcasts, once they sit on my machine they play backwards. Not "Stairway to Heaven" 666 backwards, but in exactly the opposite order one would logically expect them to play.
You see, once one opens the directory and looks into the guts of the connected Nano, one has options as to how one would like to hear the displayed content. Just click on Artist, or Name, or Album, and one can hear content ordered thusly. I click on Release Date. I order the material from the oldest to the newest, like so:
Here you can see a selection of The Onion Radio News, the best daily laugh anyone can have in a minute or less. Notice how the far left column is numbered from 1 to 33, and the blued option Release Date has the items listed from oldest to newest? That means when I reload my Nano, I should just hit play and pick up on my podcast playlist where I left off, right?
Nope. Compare the actual playlist -- as it plays -- to the supposed playlist order I selected, as indicated by the screenshot:
Selected -- Played
1. -- 1
2. -- 33
3. -- 32
4. -- 31
5. -- 30
6. -- 29
7. -- 28
8. -- 27
9. -- 26
10. -- 25
11. -- 24
12. -- 23
13. -- 22
14. -- 21
15. -- 20
16. -- 19
17. -- 18
18. -- 17
19. -- 16
20. -- 15
21. -- 14
22. -- 13
23. -- 12
24. -- 11
25. -- 10
26. -- 9
27. -- 8
28. -- 7
29. -- 6
30. -- 5
31. -- 4
32. -- 3
33. -- 2
I got my hopes up when my first selection matched the device's, let me tell you. It was a short lived thrill, though, just enough randomness to keep me guessing why, why, why.
Folks, this MP3 stuff is going to kill radio as we know it just as television killed old time radio almost for good. Instead of hunting for crap (and finding it), we can choose what it is we fill our ears. We can pay the provider directly, as I do to a few of the shows I listen to regularly, rather than let them choose their pimp, their sugar daddy, their undisclosed influence on content.
And put that crap about the wasteful power the internet consumes right out of your mind. That is downright silly. Sure, a Google search might require the same energy as boiling X cups of tea; but how much energy and time must one use to fund a trip to the library?!? Capture it as I drive to do my research and my car's exhaust will keep that kettle boiling indefinitely. My bus does an even better job. No, one must only compare apples to apples, and that means comparing the podcast downloads with the current distribution model and the power it demands. Compared to a radio station's power bills, poddy download/transfer power requirements are miniscule, especially hour-per-hour. It gets even worse when one weighs the important metric, hour listened per hour heard. Just consider how many listeners actually hear the lonely DJ in his shack at 3 am in BFE . . . while his antennae is blasting at full freakin' power. Shut down even a couple marginal stations and dedicate that power to podcasts, and the grid wouldn't even notice the difference.
And that might be the problem. Apple has been noticeably skittish when it comes to taking on litigious entities lately. Their Apple TV could put Tivo right the fuck out of business . . . if Apple wasn't afraid the ensuing lawsuit would turn out like other suits Tivo filed. Ugly prospect, that. Imagine if a class-action suit naming everyone from Fox Sports AM to NPR hit Apple for "stealing content in a manner that affected the business model" or something. Ugly and scary.
I've taken my complaints about my Nano's limited functionality to Apple, both to the local Mac store and to their online complaint pit (where I assume everything just falls like the Xerxes representatives in 300). The new version of iTunes has no new functionality. I'll let you know next time I upload if anything plays properly, but I'm not holding my breath.
It's. Just. Sad.
Addendum, the next morning: Oh, and I completely forgot the strangest part, the part that leads me to believe there is a programing error in the pod's OS. There are only two slider switches on the Nano, Power On/Off and Shuffle On/Off. Shuffle off plays items roughly in the order you select on the sync page (see entry for infuriating limitations) -- but plays MP3s, then MP4s, Apple's proprietary format. Switch to Shuffle On -- you're going to love this -- and the unit only plays MP4s, ignoring any MP3s currently loaded.
What's more, this is the second Nano I've owned. I mentioned the shuffle switch weirdness (and some other strangeness) at the Mac store to a floor guy, prompting him to take my old one to the back and declare it FUBAR in ways no one in the back claimed to understand. He gave me a new unit . . . which does exactly the same thing.
Once I can write off as a unit malfunction. Twice and we have a design flaw.
Major Addendum, August 17, 2009: It looks like the latest iTunes upgrade (to 8.2.1(6) ) has corrected the ordering problem! By gum, the darned thing is now playing the order I want!
Now to get them to fix that podcast Autofill and we're on the verge of normalcy!
When new, this little gadget did all that was promised and more. Funny thing though: Its functionality , I soon realized, was so apparently constrained by Apple's marketing department that getting the gadget to do what I, the gadget's owner, wanted it to do proved -- and continues to prove -- impossible.
Here's the scoop. These little MP3 players are great at replicating sound files. 60 years ago, audio entertainment ran the gamut from dramas to news to music. TV slowly killed that, sadly, relegating radio to the low-cost chore of stuffing recorded music and sports blather between commercials. Since sports yakkers and other news usually becomes dated in hours, and since the old playable-on-demand audio distribution system relied on hard copies delivered to retail outlets in months, not minutes, nobody bothered to package and market music alternatives (other than audiobooks). This left (with few exceptions) only music sans commercials available for portable audio experiencers. So, when MP3 players hit the scene, their makers sought to fill the most obvious market niche occupied by the various walkmen and car systems, be they tapes, CDs, minidiscs, what have you.
When the internets made audio dissemination quick, cheap and easy, though, these little walkmen killers unexpectedly became potential carriers of that other radio staple, the topical interest audio show. Apple missed that. Apple missed that completely and entirely. Let me show you proof.
To their credit, Apple programed iTunes with podcast functionality. Really. There is indeed a place where one can subscribe to and cache podcasts on one's computer. One simply goes to the iTunes store to find the show and subscribe, or one enters the poddy info directly. iTunes then checks the podcast regularly and downloads the latest offering.
What's interesting here? iTunes does not allow me to transfer those podcasts to my Nano automatically. Really. There is an "Autofill" function where one can select a directory (such as Music). This directory will become the source for content when the device is connected to the 'puter to charge. Here's a screenshot of the options for my machine:
And where is that Podcast option, I wonder?
No where, that's where.
Your only default options are for Music, music you Purchased, and Genius (whatever that is), along with My Top Rated, Blah, Blah, Blah. The folders underneath (with the little blue sheet and the quarter note, as opposed to the Apple-provided purple page with the gear) I created for various reasons, sometimes to compile a CD, sometimes to just organize stuff. I could shove all podcasts I download into such a new, me-created folder; but I would have to do that manually. I already do this manually when I transfer content to the device. Why would I do it manually twice?
Not only have they forced me to go on a click quest to manage my portable podcasts, once they sit on my machine they play backwards. Not "Stairway to Heaven" 666 backwards, but in exactly the opposite order one would logically expect them to play.
You see, once one opens the directory and looks into the guts of the connected Nano, one has options as to how one would like to hear the displayed content. Just click on Artist, or Name, or Album, and one can hear content ordered thusly. I click on Release Date. I order the material from the oldest to the newest, like so:
Here you can see a selection of The Onion Radio News, the best daily laugh anyone can have in a minute or less. Notice how the far left column is numbered from 1 to 33, and the blued option Release Date has the items listed from oldest to newest? That means when I reload my Nano, I should just hit play and pick up on my podcast playlist where I left off, right?
Nope. Compare the actual playlist -- as it plays -- to the supposed playlist order I selected, as indicated by the screenshot:
1. -- 1
2. -- 33
3. -- 32
4. -- 31
5. -- 30
6. -- 29
7. -- 28
8. -- 27
9. -- 26
10. -- 25
11. -- 24
12. -- 23
13. -- 22
14. -- 21
15. -- 20
16. -- 19
17. -- 18
18. -- 17
19. -- 16
20. -- 15
21. -- 14
22. -- 13
23. -- 12
24. -- 11
25. -- 10
26. -- 9
27. -- 8
28. -- 7
29. -- 6
30. -- 5
31. -- 4
32. -- 3
33. -- 2
I got my hopes up when my first selection matched the device's, let me tell you. It was a short lived thrill, though, just enough randomness to keep me guessing why, why, why.
Folks, this MP3 stuff is going to kill radio as we know it just as television killed old time radio almost for good. Instead of hunting for crap (and finding it), we can choose what it is we fill our ears. We can pay the provider directly, as I do to a few of the shows I listen to regularly, rather than let them choose their pimp, their sugar daddy, their undisclosed influence on content.
And put that crap about the wasteful power the internet consumes right out of your mind. That is downright silly. Sure, a Google search might require the same energy as boiling X cups of tea; but how much energy and time must one use to fund a trip to the library?!? Capture it as I drive to do my research and my car's exhaust will keep that kettle boiling indefinitely. My bus does an even better job. No, one must only compare apples to apples, and that means comparing the podcast downloads with the current distribution model and the power it demands. Compared to a radio station's power bills, poddy download/transfer power requirements are miniscule, especially hour-per-hour. It gets even worse when one weighs the important metric, hour listened per hour heard. Just consider how many listeners actually hear the lonely DJ in his shack at 3 am in BFE . . . while his antennae is blasting at full freakin' power. Shut down even a couple marginal stations and dedicate that power to podcasts, and the grid wouldn't even notice the difference.
And that might be the problem. Apple has been noticeably skittish when it comes to taking on litigious entities lately. Their Apple TV could put Tivo right the fuck out of business . . . if Apple wasn't afraid the ensuing lawsuit would turn out like other suits Tivo filed. Ugly prospect, that. Imagine if a class-action suit naming everyone from Fox Sports AM to NPR hit Apple for "stealing content in a manner that affected the business model" or something. Ugly and scary.
I've taken my complaints about my Nano's limited functionality to Apple, both to the local Mac store and to their online complaint pit (where I assume everything just falls like the Xerxes representatives in 300). The new version of iTunes has no new functionality. I'll let you know next time I upload if anything plays properly, but I'm not holding my breath.
It's. Just. Sad.
Addendum, the next morning: Oh, and I completely forgot the strangest part, the part that leads me to believe there is a programing error in the pod's OS. There are only two slider switches on the Nano, Power On/Off and Shuffle On/Off. Shuffle off plays items roughly in the order you select on the sync page (see entry for infuriating limitations) -- but plays MP3s, then MP4s, Apple's proprietary format. Switch to Shuffle On -- you're going to love this -- and the unit only plays MP4s, ignoring any MP3s currently loaded.
What's more, this is the second Nano I've owned. I mentioned the shuffle switch weirdness (and some other strangeness) at the Mac store to a floor guy, prompting him to take my old one to the back and declare it FUBAR in ways no one in the back claimed to understand. He gave me a new unit . . . which does exactly the same thing.
Once I can write off as a unit malfunction. Twice and we have a design flaw.
Major Addendum, August 17, 2009: It looks like the latest iTunes upgrade (to 8.2.1(6) ) has corrected the ordering problem! By gum, the darned thing is now playing the order I want!
Now to get them to fix that podcast Autofill and we're on the verge of normalcy!