Part of having an iPod is the need to use it. And use it in any situation possible. One of the most interesting places that you can use an iPod is in a movie theater.
Obviously there are a number of issues with using an iPod in a movie theater. You need to play it at a volume low enough that only you can hear, and not your neighbors; if a cell phone is rude, then how rude would a music-player be? You also need to be aware that some theaters do not like to see their patrons with electronics of any kind; the fear of bootleggers runs too deep.
Why would you want to bring an iPod into a movie theater? Most common situations are:
1. The most obvious reason is so that you can survive a bad movie, one that is so bad that you know that you lose brain cells just walking in, but nonetheless need to see either for class.
2. When your friends have picked the movie and have dragged you along.
3. You may also be a serious movie geek, and so have downloaded trailers and images from the movie to share with friends, as well as podcasts about the movie, or related to it, and want to bring them so you can share them with friends.
4. You may just want the vicarious feeling of doing something naughty, or want a back-up plan in case the movie is annoying.
5. You could have chosen a bad movie on purpose in order to take advantage of the air conditioning, and need something to keep your mind off the movie.
No matter which reason you choose, you still need to get inside the theater. When it comes to sneaking it in anywhere, the size of the iPod is your greatest ally. The easiest way is to slip it into an inner coat pocket, and then run the earplug up through the coat; it will usually be ignored. You can also keep it in your pocket and just run the earphones up your shirt or jacket. If possible, grab some dark headphones, as the default white ones are too obvious and will give you away.
Remember to upload your favourite music to iPod – you must have something to listen to. Use iPod AudioBook to create audio books for your iPod from OGG, FLAC or any other file.
Just bear in mind that you are going into an environment where people have paid money in order to enjoy something, and that you have decided to bring in something that may disrupt their enjoyment. If the ushers throw someone out, it’s going to be you, so remember basic courtesy and either go into a theater that’s basically empty or keep the volume down as low as you can. You really can enjoy your music anywhere; just be nice about it!
Next time you go to a movie pay attention to the amount of people with playing iPods:)
P.S. Does your iPod give you real freedom?
May 29th, 2007
iPods have added more capabilities; not only can they handle audio, a number of them can handle video and images as well. Because of these added capabilities, a lot of people are creating a lot of content for iPods in preference to other content.
Obviously online video is changing. In a way, iPods have frozen the technology, as the videos are essentially perfect as they are for iPod purposes. The screen size is great for the small screens, and the low memory size allows a number of them to be downloaded into the device. And this applies to more than just the funny stuff; obviously you can download all the usual parodies, satires, and just funny clips, but it also means that you can have anime music videos, personal movies, and even episodes of some television programs available for play anytime. Grandmothers can share videos of their cutest and dearest, allowing them yet more ways to annoy and embarrass their children and grandchildren.
At the same time, enterprising teachers can tape their lessons, and then convert these lessons either to mini-movies or keep just the audio. A number of schools already encourage their teachers to do an audio track for their classes in order to help handicapped students; this is just a logical evolution to that. Given the ease with which anyone can create video, and the helpfulness, some teachers have already taken advantage of the new technology.
Even grandmothers have learned to love the iPod. As it’s easy to load anything unto an iPod, it’s easy to load a large number of images unto the iPod. The only thing to remember here is to convert the pictures to the image formats iPod supports (JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG). Unfortunately for the rest of us, this means that grandmothers can load a summer’s worth of pictures for the debatable pleasure of those around her. Throw in a few videos of the grandkids, and you have a veritable threat of portability.
Of course, the grandkids are even worse. Besides the obvious musical threat, kids can share viral videos with each other, as well as pictures of what they’ve done. A camera phone can be used to take a picture, which can then be uploaded into iPod, and that can lead to entirely new levels of boasting; it’s one thing to say you did something, and definitely something entirely different to have the proof to back it up. Better yet, throw in a bit of video, and you have something that can be tell its own story.
If your looking at it in terms of providing entertainment, a number of sites have started providing a different form of older entertainment: comic strips. As comic strips are basically images, you can easily download comic strips for either later viewing or sharing them with friends. This adds a little more profitability to webcomics (like comics, but limited to the web), which can now leave the internet and go out in the world. By providing webcomics a new avenue, the artists can take advantage of their strengths (being edgier, less limited by the normal funnies rules, and aren’t limited by genre).
The iPod is an interesting piece of technology. It’s going to be interesting to see where they end up going!
P.S. Find out the benefits of an iPod in a movie theatre;)
May 25th, 2007
