The extent of my gaming lately has been on my brand new, 5.5th generation 80 GB iPod. Despite its initial appearance as an unnecessary gimmick (as if Apple needs any help selling iPods), there are some surprisingly playable games available that aren’t named Pac-Man. In this month’s Cultural Gutter article, I take a look at a few.

I never thought I’d start accessorizing my iPod mini this soon, but I picked up a Griffin iTrip mini on the weekend to put the equivalent of about 100 albums worth of music to use in my car.

Including a CD player in every car was probably a pretty good idea seven years ago, but that was before portable music playing devices became fashionable again. Remember those tape deck adapters you had to use just so you could enjoy your favorite CDs instead of hastily creating a bunch of mix tapes? Now in most cars you don’t have access to a tape deck, and so the FM transmitter becomes the solution.

I was always curious as to how these things work, and in true Apple-styled simplicity, you don’t have to do anything beyond plugging the transmitter into the top of the iPod mini to get it going. When you press play the iTrip will automatically begin broadcasting to a station at the bottom of the FM dial, which in most areas will probably contain static. Tuning your radio to this station will begin the flow of your personalized playlist. Though in Toronto this can be somewhat challenging; I’ve found that almost every station on the FM dial contains something – even if it’s just a partial signal from a neighboring frequency.

For those that want to avoid these problems, you can upload a series of short MP3 files that contain “frequencies” that the iTrip will recognize and begin broadcasting to when selected from a standard playlist. It’s rather ingenious and completely easy to set up. According to the user guide, volume on the iPod is also important: set it too low and you won’t get a clear signal, set it too high and the sound will be severely distorted. I was able to tweak these settings a bit in the car before leaving for work this morning and managed to get a pretty decent sound going through and out of the city.

For accessibility and strength of signal, my iPod was positioned in the cup holder at the front of my car. I noticed that in quieter or acoustic songs the static of the radio station will bleed through, becoming distracting at some points. Furthermore, despite having felt confident in the iPod and car stereo volume settings, the sound felt lighter, and almost blurrier than if I had been hearing it directly from the CD or a regular FM radio station.

The iTrip simply uses the iPod’s battery for power. There’s no noticable difference in consumption compared to listening to it normally through headphones. The price point is the same for both the regular iPod and the mini: roughly $60 CDN. Considering the software is freely available you’re really only buying the transmitter itself. It seems fairly sturdy, and I like how the mini version matches the form of the device, but the overall quality of signal output leaves a lot to be desired. I know I will get a lot of use out of this device from simple convenience, but the technology seems very crude to be of any interest to those wanting to preserve the fidelity of their MP3 encoded music. Instead the iTrip seems limited to gadget status: something you’ll love to show off while secretly cursing its wasted potential.

so cold in this house

The first, of course, being the inception of this website.

I once made a habit of sneering at anyone in possession of an iPod. They seem like such a fashion accessory, the owners flaunting them like it was some sort of status symbol. I laughed when the flashmugging site went online, and the subsequent downturn in the number of white earbuds I saw on the street. Forget subscribing to Apple’s school of over designed hardware – I wanted a Nomad Zen NX.

My flimsy shell of rebellion was swiftly shattered by my in-laws this weekend, who surprised me with a gift from Hong Kong – a 6 GB iPod mini. Something I never expected, because while I was over there I specifically avoided this type of technology because it was too much of a temptation (and still way too expensive). So now I join the ranks of the MP3 player elite, ashamed to be counted among this unstoppable marketing force. Though on the same token, eternally grateful for such a generous gift. I hear that the visions of Avril Lavigne t-shirt wearing high school students rocking out to their Minis eventually subside. Mostly.

After opening the obnoxiously arty packaging and rubbing my body with the deliciously sleek, silvery device, I decided to try it out. Apple loves to make their hardware completely idiot proof, but when someone other than an idiot wants to know how it works or configure the shit out of it, things tend to happen.

I remember downloading and installing iTunes when it became available for Windows. This was shortly after iPods became usable with Windows, and was considered a kind of watershed for digital music. I’ve always wanted to replace WinAmp with something less, well, WinAmp and figured that was the answer. Little did I know I was basically downloading Windows Media Player designed by Apple, and uninstalled the damned thing a day later. It had an interface that was smooth and appealing to the eye. In fact, it made sure to maintain the design conventions carried over from Mac OS. But what it didn’t tell you was what it was doing to your meticulously organized digital music library in the background. iTunes loves to make you think its doing you a favour, but it’s really just an annoyance dressed up in brushed metal. I have a 6 GB portable storage device, and the only way to use it is through that blasted program.

Loading songs onto my iPod mini was effortless, but I noticed that most of the ID3 tags were completely off (my own fault). The iPod onboard menu automatically organizes your songs according to album, artist, genre, etc., so this is pretty important if you expect to find a specific song to listen to. I can’t stand the singles-driven music culture that MP3s players foster, so for albums, track numbers are doubly important. Otherwise you’re listening to The Wall in alphabetical order, and suddenly “Another Brick in the Wall” Parts 1 to 3 are back to back and completely lose all their meaning. Adding or changing any of this information in iTunes will only update your library database, and not the MP3 file attributes itself – for that you have to “convert” the ID3 tags first. This made me constantly refer back to Windows Explorer and my beautiful hierarchical folder structure to correct them manually. Of course, this will only affect those that get tired of iTunes’ sluggish response and wish to use their old MP3 player. Custom playlists are easily creatable, and an “On the Go” function on the iPod itself will allow you to create playlists on the fly. I found that especially handy if I wanted to listen to a few albums in succession.

In the iPod’s Extras menu, you have the ability to store “To Do” lists, text files, contacts, and sync with iCal (if you have the program). This is a great idea! It’s not like any of this stuff takes up space. The coolest feature outside the obvious music playing one is the games. In this age of gadget-philia, everything must have games on it to be useful. The iPod mini sports Brick, Parachute, Music Trivia, and Solitaire. Solitaire definitely has the best graphics. I felt it was my actual hand on screen moving those cards. Brick is that age old classic Arkanoid dressed way, way down, but it’s fun to use the magic touchpad. I don’t know how often I’d play that one in public though, because it would defeat the purpose of wearing shitty headphones.

It’s hard to believe I can put half of my music collection on this thing, because in reality I doubt I’d ever make it through the playlist in my entire life. I think knowing that I have this capability makes this feel comforting, even though iTunes is essentially tying my hands.

as you claw the thin ice