Black Apples

It's been a bit quiet on here this month. Initially i really didn't have much to talk about - i was starting to think my life must be pretty boring! However more recently all my spare time has been eaten away ripping CDs, so that i had something to put on my new iPod nano! How cool is this thing! It is soooo small and thin, light as a feather - very cute indeed. I bought the 4GB model in the black. After i made up my mind on the purchase, i had a major problem - what should i call it? At first i was going for Black Panther, but all Panthers are black, as far as i know. I was toying with Black Magic, however Kerri didn't seem to like it much. I was really struggling, then suddenly Kerri came up with the brilliant name of Black Cat! Perfect for a die-hard Panther and occasional Cats supporter.

My initial experiences with Black Cat weren't so great. When i connected the iPod to my PC, WinXP complained of a hardware error! I hoped this was normal, so pushed on. All seemed fine until i was required to reboot my PC. My iPod was constantly warning me not to disconnect, but what option did i have? My PC would NOT boot anymore!!! It would get three-quarters through BIOS load, and then hang. When i eventually gave up and disconnected the iPod, Windows did load, but it took FOREVER! It must have taken a good 15-20mins. This scared the @$#% out of me - my poor beloved Redback was very sick indeed. After a couple more reboots the PC seemed to be back to normal, and after forgiving Black Cat, i plugged him back in, and to my amazement, iTunes kicked in and tried to synchronise with the little fella! The iPod starting sucking down music like water down a plug hole. OK, OK, it wasn't that dramatic, but it was amazing to think that this little thing could hold the equivalent of about 60 CDs, over half of a collection that has taken half a life time to accumulate!

So, my thoughts now? Loving it more and more. I quite liked the idea of rediscovering old CD's, but modern lifestyle makes one lazy, and it seemed way too much effort to grab one and put it into my CD player - however things are different now. I've attached album artwork to all of my collection. For some reason being able to see the artwork on the nano's little screen really adds to the experience. I'm also toying with the idea of adding lyrics to some of my collection to make the most of this cool feature. I can also rate the song while it's playing, and this rating, as well as play counts, will simply sync back into iTunes next time i connect back to home base. I've been synchronising with my Lotus Notes Contacts list at work, as well as my Mozilla Sunfire daily planner. Photo viewing was more impressive than i could have imagined, and the signature iPod click-wheel thingy is awesome - i really love this thing!

As i write this, I am reliving the Swans historic premiership win on the weekend via the humour of Roy and HG. Podcasts rock! :-)