In 2008, a mere 26 years since their introduction, I have a CD player in my car. This revolutionary change was not acceded to lightly nor without honorable rearguard resistance. It was prompted by my exhaustion of the Books-on-tape supply in Berkeley Public Libraries during last summer's Canadian Sojourn. All the new Books-on-tape, and most of the old ones, are in fact Books-on-CD.
Within an hour of the new gizmo appearing in the dashboard with its ridiculous styling and useless lights, I had been to the library and was playing "Emma" by Jane Austen. Nothing like a 200 year-old novel on 20 year-old technology in a 13 year-old car for keeping up with the times.
But I was either astute about planning ahead for when I will have heard all the books-on-CD at the local library, or I was a gullible fish, and got the fancier model that comes with an iPod cable to the glove box. The theory here is I should be able to download books-on-what? from the central public library online as digital files onto an iPod, then play them on the radio. The caveats here are that I don't have an iPod, have no current plans to get one, and am not perfectly clear on the concept of what they are.
As I understand it one of the things they do is to digitally store and play movies. The object is apparently to avoid your 30 to 60 inch television or even your 15 inch computer screen so as to watch it on your 3 inch iPod screen. The reason for doing this I understand is portability. One can watch the movie while driving for instance. Or while riding BART so as to find oneself in Livermore when one was going to Berkeley. But most of all, one can watch the movie in class while flunking out of whatever school one was formerly attending. Since these things are primarily for the youth market one can reasonably assume that the movies will be of the car chase, explosions, Bruce Willis, and special effects variety. Those just have to be great on a 3 inch screen with ear buds for sound.
Anyway, sooner or later I will get one, and my car will be ready. It will be 26 years old, but iPod ready.
iPods are great. We got one, put ALL of our 350+ cds on it, and use it instead of playing the discs. Those are in crates in the garage, along with the cd player, tape deck, and turntable. The iPod sits in a dock connected to the amp. When we go on trips, we take it and plug it into the Prius and have all of our cds available in the car. It also has a kid movie and Sesame Streets on it if Mia gets bored on long drives.
ReplyDeleteWith all the cd's, Sesames, and the complete movie Mulan, the thing is only half full.
Sorry to sound like such an antediluvian yutz, but how do you get the CD contents onto the iPod? With a USB cable from the computer?
ReplyDeleteNo, I put all my cd's on my computer. Stick a disc in, it goes directly to iTunes. Once all my music was in iTunes, the iPod fits in a dock that is connected via a USB. it takes about two minutes to transfer 30 gigs of data. The movies are also in iTunes, downloaded from the iTunes store.
ReplyDeleteiHarvey
I am deleted to discover that this is not an Apple plot for force me to buy a Mac. I downloaded iTunes for Windows which is an Apple plot to force me to buy music from the Apple store.
ReplyDeleteThis will work out doubly well. I found a blog that has instructions for loading audiobooks onto an iPod. I can check out every Book-On-CD the library has, copy them all onto the iPod, return them and check out the rest. Then I can play them on the car CD player without schlepping all the CD cases in the car with me or worrying about them becoming overdue. I will have to spring for another CD player for the Pachyderm so I can do the same there. Then when I set out on the bicycle, I can take all the books with me without schlepping anything but the iPod. Hmmm. What kind of batteries does it use?
No batteries to buy. It recharges as it is plugged into the stereo.
ReplyDeleteI am bicycling through FarAwayistan. In the audiobook I am listening to, Lex Luthor has made Superman helpless with kryptonite and is about to throw him over a cliff. Suddenly the sound fades as the battery craps out. What do I do? Is there some sort of charger I can put the iPod in so as to find out what happens to the Man of Steel?
ReplyDelete