Pneumonochrome

Well, it looks like Apple has released some new iPod software for the 5th (5.5th) generation iPods.  It just lists “Bug Fixes” as the content of the new update, so I don’t have much hope of having any of the cool features that the 160GB iPods do on my 80GB model, but maybe some day.  I can’t see any real reason I wouldn’t be able to have those features on this one, the video system seems pretty much the same.  Meh, I didn’t notice too many bugs, except those associated with syncing with Outlook’s Calendar, and I’ve worked around those already.

Maybe they’ll surprise me though… or maybe not.  It just finished restarting, and it doesn’t look like it’s got any new features.  Oh well.

iTunes recently stopped syncing with my Outlook calendar. The more I look around, the more I realize that this is a really common problem and that I’m far from the only person having it. See, it will sync my contacts just fine, and it even tells me that it is syncing my calendar, but when I check the iPod calendar, it comes up blank. This is frustrating beyond reason. And it gets even more frustrating when I check Apple’s support forums, and I realize that the general attitude towards those of us using iPods with Windows and Outlook is, “Meh. They’re Windows users, screw them.” This is exactly why I dislike “Mac-ies” so much. They just don’t seem to know how to play nicely with others. After lots of searching, it seems that sometimes this problem is caused by annually repeating appointments. I just moved all the annual appointments off my main calendar onto another one, and viola! It’s syncing again. Time for me to go hit the Apple support forums and try to help out all the other poor, stuck people.

So, I really love my iPod.  It’s nice to have my whole music library with me, ready to be listened to whenever I want.  I sync my iPod with my desktop machine at home, because that seems to be the most convenient place to leave my music, and because I don’t want to have to haul my laptop out every time I want to sync.  But sometimes I’d like to be able to connect my iPod to my laptop via the dock cable and play the music from the iPod (not transfer it back to the laptop) through the laptop’s built-in speakers, be able to control it via a software remote, etc.

The hardware is not prohibitive in this, as far as I can tell, because you can connect your iPod to a small set of speakers, alarm clock, or any other number of gadgets and control it from the docking unit there, I just can’t seem to find any Windows software that will do what I want.  iTunes can show me what music is on my iPod, but it won’t play that music from the iPod as far as I can tell, and if I open up iTunes on my laptop while the iPod is connected, it wants to delete my music from the iPod because that isn’t the machine I sync the iPod with (another irritation of mine, actually).

It would be really nice if a program existed that was a software “remote” of sorts for my iPod, though, that would let me turn my computer into a remote-control and host speaker system for the iPod.  That would be really, really nice.