Every convert has one… here’s mine:

It was july of 2000 - I was in New York City to see the culmination of a 2-year odyssey that was the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band reunion tour. My collegiate pal Hank (from DC) and I (from Philly) travelled up to see the last two shows of the 5-night stand. We met up with this other guy from college, known only as “Shoats”, (because his shoes were as big as boats), who I didn’t really keep in touch with anymore but knew realatively well back in the day.

When we arrived I was introduced to this girl, a friend of Shoats’, called “Swish”, who was also heading to the show. She was one of those mysterious girls who may have been appealing or attractive, but I can’t say for sure. After the show, a bunch of us went back to Swish’s pad to add a few more beers on top of the too many we’d already had, and ended up crashing there that night. To this day there are two things I rememeber about Swish’s apartment: 1) it was the most disgusting apartment I’ve ever set foot in, and 2) she had TiVo. Read the rest of this entry »

Before continuing, read Part 1 and chapter 2 of The iPodessey.

In my various and sundry internet research throughout this process, I recall reading posts by several folks who were able to reformat with a Mac and then bring the device over to a PC successfully. I don’t have a Mac at home, but since I had exhausted all of my options there, my next step was to find a working Mac and give this one more try. Luckily, I have access to such a machine at work, and was able to get some alone time with it. I downloaded the latest iPod software (on my PC, since our Macs have trouble — shockingly — connecting to the network), installed it on the Mac, and hooked up the iPod. It was successful. I was rolling with a few demo songs within 10 minutes. These Apple devices actually do work well with Macs!

When I got home that night, I hooked the iPod back up to the PC and attempted to reformat using the original software I downloaded (the latest version). It worked! No problems at all, just reformatted, disconnected, and I was loading songs via iTunes in no time.

And, since the car piece was already in place, the next morning I was jamming digital music in my car. The process was a bit convoluted, but it sure beat shelling out $300 for a new iPod. Plus, I got what a true geek always wants — a challenging problem to solve that took perseverance, creativity and patience.

Let’s recap what we have learned:

iPods work great with Apple Computers.

There’s a major breakdown of usability when trying to bring a Mac-formatted iPod over to a PC.

An iPod with a busted battery is still extremely useful.

A little computer knowledge combined with a little eBay can pretty much solve anything…

Perhaps eventually I’ll attempt to crack this baby open and install a new battery, but that’ll have to wait a while. For now, I’m just going to enjoy this little victory. (and digital music!)

If you missed it, first read Part 1 of The iPodyssey

I realized that these old iPods didn’t come with USB adapters (either that or it was lost somewhere in my teenage sister’s room, so either way I was screwed). I’d need a firewire PCI card in order to connect this little guy to my PC and actually manage the songs contained within. Luckily, it was not difficult to find such a card, again on eBay, this time for the unbelievable price of $0.99 (plus ONLY $9.99 shipping!). Again — padded envelope, this time perhaps a total cost of $1.50. (For the record, I’ve now spent a grand total of $26.93, however if we don’t count the first adapter inherited by my GF, we’re really only at $19.97.)

After installing the firewire card, I came to the unnerving realization that the firewire cable that connects to the A/C Adapter also connects to the computer, meaning I can’t keep my pod charging while plugged into the computer. Since the battery barely keeps enough charge to play one song, I thought this could be the end. Pressing on, I hooked her up anyway, and was pleasantly surprised to see it seemingly charging while connected to the PC. Crisis averted. (I do plan to replace the battery, but I want to get her up and running first, before spending $25 on a new battery.)

Let’s just get this out of the open: I don’t like Macs. I once was a die hard Mac fanatic, but over the years I’ve watched as Microsoft beat Apple at their own game, creating easier to use operating systems that were actually more reliable. Mac fanatics will battle to the death on this one, but this recent iPod experience only confirmed what I already knew — Apple products are difficult to use and consistently problematic. Figuring out how to format the iPod for Windows was an odyssey in itself, taking a full three days to conquer. Read the rest of this entry »