{balki Blog}
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1. In-built FM radio: An FM radio that can display artist and album information (and of course, the cover art) using the RBDS (Radio Broadcast Data System) information just like the Microsoft Zune. (even better, if the iPod can double up as a satellite radio receiver!)

2. Wireless sync with iTunes: Wireless sync with iTunes is just a no-brainer. I don’t know why Apple is not introducing this feature yet. I don’t need anything fancy like internet access, or music sharing with other players or even automatic firmware updates. All I care for is my iPod to sync with iTunes without having to connect using the clunky USB cable.

3. Expanded search and track organization: The search interface and the play-lists are organized based on the US music market but that is not a holistic solution. For example, the music industry in India is heavily dependent on the movie industry and we have more soundtracks than original albums. Also, the music director is an important element in the soundtrack. There are multiple singers not only within the album but also within individual songs. I want to be able to search (and organize and navigate) based on the cast of the movie as well. In essence, I like to see Apple think outside the box and understand there are other countries that listen to music in different ways than the US music lovers.

4. Easy cleanup of missing tracks in iTunes: It is amazing how hard it is to clean up missing tracks. iTunes does a good job of recognizing and marking missing song tracks but when I click on one of these music tracks, I would like an option to remove all missing tracks rather than having to re-select the track from the file system. Also, I cannot delete a track while I am browsing within the play-lists. Why do I need to be at the root-level of iTunes to be able to delete duplicate or unwanted tracks?

5. Better integration with home theater system: I have been in search of a good tool that lets me integrate my iPod with the home theater system. The A/V kit from Apple only lets you browse the photos and watch videos. What I want is to see the exact same User Interface and navigation control on my plasma TV as it is displayed on my iPod screen (again, I have an OCD for album cover art and ID3 tag info. It is very important that I can see those on any display interface from the iPod). The closest I found is the DLO HomeDock Deluxe. It has a reasonably good User interface but is not the same as the iPod. Plus, it does not display album cover art

6. Dolby Digital / DTS Surround sound output: I am not sure of the technological feasibility of this feature but I would love to hear the music in full Dolby Digital or DTS Surround sound quality on my Bose audio system. This feature would simply blow my mind away!

7. Karaoke-enabled lyrics: I see an occasional article about synchronized lyrics and karaoke-enabled music players but I think developers are still in the dreaming stage and they are working against huge technical and legal barriers. Personally, I would have a blast lip-syncing to Butterfly by Crazy Town and Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta from the Office Space soundtrack on my favorite music player of all-time, the mighty iPod.

8. Better integration with Car Audio system: I wish Apple or another 3rd party vendor could come up with a flawless, easy interface to any car audio system that works with my iPod(s) and provide at least CD-quality audio output, if not better. Meanwhile, the best I can do is a lousy Belkin cassette adapter with even lousier music quality and frequently dying battery (because I forget to turn-off the iPod and it won’t switch off automatically, when I stop my car or switch off the audio system).

9. Multi-user capabilities (especially w.r.t. song ratings): My wife and I are on the opposite ends of spectrum when it comes to taste in music (and movies and food and everything else; a subject for another day!). I made several attempts to consolidate our music ratings while listening in the car with very poor results. I decided that the best thing would be for the iTunes/iPod combo to provide separate ratings for me and my wife so we can create and listen to different play-lists based on our personal star ratings. That feature would be fantastic because I am tired of the horrible renditions of “I’m a Salve 4 U” and “I Love Rock N Roll” by Britney Spears showing up on my 5-star play-lists

10. Automatic ID3 tagging using GraceNote MusicID technology: This technology is way too cool to pass up! Quoted from GraceNote: “…Using audio waveform fingerprint technology, MusicID can identify individual songs or albums in a user’s collection regardless of source, format or tag information.” And that means no more meaningless Track01s in my music collection. Every single track would have the correct cover art, artist and album information! That’s enough eye candy to instantly cure all of my OCD!!

What are your wish-list features for your favorite music player? Start commenting away now!

Technorati : iPod, iPod Nano
Del.icio.us : iPod, iPod Nano

Yes! The “2GB 1st generation Black iPod Nano” arrived yesterday at the auspicious time of 11:35am yesterday! Exactly the one I wanted.

All this excitement might sound so 19th century, but you need to know the full story to appreciate the unrestrained fervor…

I already have a 2nd Generation iPod Color with Photo that I share with my wife. I am a great fan of the iPod + iTunes combo and an avid listener of several podcasts. But every time I am enthused about listening to some new podcast, my wife sneakily steals it away for her morning commute, even before I wake up. I have filed several petitions with her to acquire another iPod (a Nano this time, because I wanted to use it for my so-called workout sessions). But she rejected them all, claiming that we already have one and do not need to waste any more money on a music device (she did spend a cr*p-load of money on some “groceries”, “cleaning supplies” and “cat litter” though)

In the end, I did any honorable, law-abiding, well-bred citizen would do; I started a collection at work around a year ago specifically targeted to raise $199.99 within 2 months. Initial results were very encouraging (colleagues generously threw pennies and nickels into a pan I carried to all of the meetings) and the mug I used for the collections started filling up fast. But as people started “having kids”, “getting married” and “pursuing other jobs”, they completely forgot about this splendid cause. The last contribution to the mug was an “IOU $76.39″ note from Kevin Ombler!

So, I switched strategies and started looking for ways to get an iPod Nano for free and came across this promotion from TD Ameritrade: Fund 10K in an account and get an iPod Nano FREE. It was that simple! All I needed to do now was start a collection for $10,000. Just kidding! I was planning to divert some of my funds from an existing account to an investment portfolio anyway. This was a perfect opportunity.

Subsequently, 6 weeks of restless waiting and sleepless nights later, the iPod Nano Black 2GB arrived via UPS yesterday and am having a blast showing it off to everyone. (Also by sheer chance of luck, the stock market has done mightily over the last few weeks so I also made over 500$ on my original investment)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot… I added $5.45 to the collection at work, to buy a $6.95 clear hard case for the iPod. So, thank you, my beloved and generous colleagues in contributing towards my iPod collection. The fund did serve its grand purpose… sort of.

Technorati : Apple, Free iPod, Nano, eTrade
Del.icio.us : Apple, Free iPod, Nano, eTrade

I’ve mentioned Podcasts once before on my blog but I thought it would be appropriate to reiterate the topic now that I am completely hooked onto them these days. I am slowly gaining control of the family iPod and am redeeming myself of the guilt by listening to interesting podcasts. I spend around 1-2 hours each work day listening to the podcasts while doing routine work and I have to claim, that is actually increasing my efficiency. I have about 4 hours worth of new podcast updates coming in every week and I plan to take that up to 8-10 hours, to have enough content for the week.

Anyways, here’s a list of my current podcast subscriptions:

Technorati : podcasting

Last weekend suddenly Maanasa had this irressitble urge to get an iPod. You see, she commutes to downtown on the Max train and has been watching numerous commuters stylishly show off their iPods. We had gift cards for 200$ and that would’ve been enough to buy a decent 4GB iPod mini. But, being the overambitious and think-ahead-in-time kind of guy, I insisted that we pay 350$ to get the brand new iPod photo. Believe me it was in very good judgment.

Anyways, I spent the first two nights playing with the different features on the iPod and the best feature I like is the way we can view the cover art while listening to a particular song. At first I started downloading the cover art from IMDB, amazon and yahoo for each song but soon realized that it was quite a daunting task. Then I found the iArt software which first catalogs all the songs in your iTunes and then goes out onto Amazon to find the appropriate coverart and embeds into the song. The software is slow but works very well.

I believe this is only the beginning of the usefulness of our iPod. Before Maanasa realizes, I intend to fill up the entire 30GB space on her iPod with geekier and geekier content syndicated from the various podcasts available via iPodder. Say good bye to Maansa’s 2-hour commute of fun-filled Z100-type music listening. Here comes iPodder!!!