iPod

Battery replaced with ipodjuice.com

In Review, iPod on 3 April 2008 with 6 comments

Almost two and a half years ago, I replaced my iPod battery. It worked great until a few months ago, when I started to notice that it won’t hold a charge.

Last week, I finally forced myself to order a replacement battery. I didn’t go with iPodResQ (which is now iResQ) because they are one of the companies that send two small, inadequate tools. (Oh yeah, look closely at the picture — one of mine broke!)

ipodjuice.com offers a longer-lasting battery — 1100 mAh, compared to 850 mAh from iResQ. Plus, ipodjuice.com sells the iOpener, which is larger and more sturdy compared to the other iPod “tools.”

The only problem that came across was my fault. After I finished installing the new battery, I closed it up, and turned my iPod on. I got an error — a folder with an exclamation point on the screen — which meant I didn’t plug the hard drive back in all the way.

I had a harder time reopening it the second time around because I dulled the iOpener a bit. The manual said I could use sandpaper to resharpen the edge, but all I had was a razor blade. After a mixture of pure perseverance, sweat and fury, I finally reopened it. With the connection to the hard drive reseated, the iPod worked fine. Awesome!

Note: There’s a micro screw that got loose. I’m not sure how big of a deal it is, so I’ll keep in a plastic bag for now. Other than that, it’s fine.

Conclusion — If your iPod battery isn’t lasting as long as it should, go to ipodjuice.com. They rock.

How to speed up podcasts for free with Audacity (v2)

In How-to, Open Source, Podcasts, School, iPod on 18 April 2007 with 18 comments

This is an update to the How-to article, “How to speed up podcasts for free with Audacity.”

In Audacity 1.3.2 (Beta), configuring the batch script is easier. The developers moved the location, though, so you might be lost if you recently updated to this version.

First, setup the chain: File > Edit Chains

In the left pane of the window that pops up, you’ll need to add a new chain. Title it “Speedup,” or whatever you like. With it selected, the right pane should have only one parameter: END.

Select that command, then at the bottom of the window, click Insert. Another window will pop up, and you’ll want to choose Change Tempo. Change the parameter to 25.000000, then click OK. (Later, you can increase the tempo if you’re comfortable.) Again, click Insert, select the ExportMP3 command, then click OK. Finally, OK out of the Edit Chains window.

Then, if you want to run the script, go to File > Apply Chain. Select the chain you just created, click Apply to Files, then browse to the folder where the podcasts are stored. Like I mentioned in the previous How-to, I copy the MP3s to the root podcast folder, so I’m not limited to one show (folder) at a time.

Conclusion

This’ll empower you to listen to podcasts, or any other supported audio files in a shorter amount of time, and you can convert multiple files at once. In addition to podcasts, I also speed up class lectures. 80-minute classes reduced to 64 minutes — awesome!

How to speed up podcasts for free with Audacity

In GTD, How-to, Podcasts, School, iPod on 20 June 2006 with 7 comments

Update 4/18/2007: This post is outdated. Audacity 1.3.2 (Beta) changes the method a bit, which I describe here.

Over a month ago, Lifehacker linked to an article: “Speeding Up Podcasts and Audio Books“. Here are the two sentences that caught my eye:

It lets you play one minute and fifteen seconds of audio for every minute you listen. In other words, you get an extra 25% of content.

However:

It’s the feature that Apple introduced with the 4G iPods back a couple of years ago. The feature is the ability to speed up (or slow down) audio without changing the pitch (if you are familiar with variable speed tape recorders, you understand that simply speeding up the playback of something tends to also make the speaker sound like a chipmunk).

I have a 3G iPod, so I don’t have this feature. The article mentioned Amazing Slow Downer, but it’s not free. Fortunately, Matt commented about Audacity:

Audacity is great for this, at an unbeatable price ($0). [..] It is cross platform, open source (free), and [speeds] up audio excellently, [in addition to] being a general purpose audio editor. There was a beta of the next version last time I checked that allowed bulk conversion. Unfortunately no command-line. (Effect [menu] > Change Tempo is the command you want.)

So, if I want to speed up podcasts, I have to do some work. Except for the tempo increase, it won’t be automatic.

(more…)

Lost an iPod?

In iPod on 4 April 2006 with no comments

It’s amazing to read that there’s honest people out there! If used properly, the internet is a great tool:

Maureen Silliman felt her empty pocket and gulped. Her new US $300 iPod must have bounced out as she ran to catch a train. While she sobbed, her boyfriend suggested a message on the lost-and-found section of Craigslist, an online bazaar of classified ads. [...] Within 24 hours, Silliman’s iPod was back.

Full story (via lajo.biz)

Tech links for 3/28/06

In Firefox, Software, iPod on 28 March 2006 with no comments

Some of these maybe be old and/or outdated, but I still think they’re worth looking into. These posts won’t be as length since I’ve accumulated a lot of these over a period of a few weeks.

The Complete Guide to Backing Up iPod & iTunes Music
Using iTunes to backup your music
Firefox Search Bar Hacks – An alternative to this is adding Smart Keywords, it all depends if you can remember those keywords; otherwise, use add engines to your search bar
Life Without Mouse Tips & Tricks – Just learn a little bit at a time, then it’ll become second nature and you’ll see an increase in productivity (Update 2009-04-07: Link broken. Try these tips. Thanks Amelia!)
Create a torrent feed to keep up with your shows – this also falls under GTD, because for those without TiVo or a PVR, you don’t need to tie yourself to the network’s time slots
FindRun Robot – No need to use your mouse to sift through the Start Menu. Just press the hotkey, type in a few letters, then select the program you want to run.
Get your PC custom-made – Other than the fear of getting over a small business or individual support your computer, these are a great way to go. I haven’t had too many complaints about the systems I’ve made. (Building custom PCs is my side job.)
Using the correct image formats
PureText – Strip formatting from text and paste with one hotkey; no need to copy into notepad, paste, copy, then paste into Word. Yes, I know about the “Paste Special > As Unformatted Text” item in Microsoft Word.
Burn to the Brim
Fix Stubborn Windows Install Errors
Ten Wikipedia Hacks
10 Ways to Please Us, the Customers
Are You Infected by Sony-BMG’s Rootkit?
How-To Download music videos from Yahoo with LyFOX & VLC

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