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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

iPod tHerefore iAm

Have iPod, will travel. That's become the mantra of many NYC commuters. Since I got one for Christmas, I don't leave for work without my iPod. My wife and daughter installed quite a bit of my music collection on it before they gave it to me. It has a huge memory capacity. Since the holidays, I have loaded more of my CDs on it and have been checking out the iTunes store.

Not only does one load music on an iPod. I spend time organizing my music and rating the songs on a scale of one to five. I like using shuffle and the playlist features -- my highest rated songs, my most played songs, and recently added songs. Those work best when the songs are rated for my preferences.

I've used the Get Info feature to reassign music from one genre to another and to add or fix album art. I also use Get Info to keep classical and holiday music from being included in shuffled music.

I enjoy listening to podcasts, too. My current favorites include Radiolab and On The Media, both of which are produced by WNYC Radio. I guess I picked the wrong time to check out Atlantic Monthly's video podcasts. They've had a series on breast feeding. Intriguing, but not exactly something I want to watch on the train on my way to Manhattan. For fun, I listen to Car Talk. I've not settled on a good podcast for movie reviews. Any help on that?

2 comments:

  1. I just got an after market program that helps me organize my music better. Check out TuneUp. It's pretty cool, it sorts music into more specific genres, not just the generic "Rock" or "Pop". It will also find missing cover art and give band info like album releases, concert dates and news. They also said that in the not too distant future they will be able to add lyrics. The good part is they offer a 500 song trial for free. The only drag is that it costs $30, but once you buy it you can do as many songs as you want. I tend to micro manage my music a little, but the free trial is worth a look.

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  2. I'll have to suffice with playing around with the settings in iTunes and finding my own album art. At least until my stimulus check arrives in the mail. I'm fairly satisfied with my music setup at the moment, but managing music collections always requires a bit of tinkering. Thanks for the suggestion.

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