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- |Changes [Feb 26, 2009]
The cameraPerhaps the most fascinating aspect of the iPod is that people are continuously finding new and unintended ways to use the thing. While all of these iPod derived activities are logical in the sense that they simply exploit the less obvious features of the device in some way or another, it is still interesting to see all of the relationships that people form between their environment and their iPod. Whether meant to enhance the educational experience, make shoplifting more discrete, let people live out fantasies of radio stardom, or to provide a new angle on life, all of the following activities are perfect examples of the intimate and unexpected relationships formed between people and artifacts.
The iPod is the New Graphing Calculator
In the fall of 2004, all incoming freshmen at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina received an unprecedented welcoming gift: a brand new 20GB iPod engraved with the Duke logo and the phrase ‘Class of 2008.’ Coupled with a voice recorder attachment, the University hopes that the investment made in giving all 1650 freshmen will help establish the device as a powerful educational tool in addition to its established reputation as an entertainment only gadget. Preloaded with helpful information about campus and hints about college life from current students, Duke established immediately that they intended these iPods to be far more than toys for their new students. Additionally, the University plans on having students use the technology for collecting field research data, integrating into language classes, and recording lectures. The Duke experiment is still in progress to see if college students can accept the iPod for anything other than its entertainment functions, but the first steps in crossing the bridge between education and entertainment have now been taken.
The iPod may also be a reason for electronics retailers to more carefully monitor the contents and activity of display computer kiosks. It turns out that pirating music from the internet is and simply storing the stolen content on an iPod is not the only illegal activity afforded by the device; according to an account from a CompUSA shopper in 2002, he witnessed a teenager with an iPod plug the included FireWire cable into a display machine and proceed to load the entire Microsoft Office for OS X suite onto the iPod along with a few other programs in around a minute thanks to the speedy interface offered by the FireWire. Also, though it was built to prevent music files from being put onto multiple computers, the iPod has no such filtering system for any other file types that may be stored on its hard drive, such as the installation files for the $500 Office suite. When the iPod doesn’t even have to leave a thief’s pocket, and therefore renders the boxed software product meaningless, all existing retail safeguards to prevent shoplifting become obsolete. Perhaps this unforeseen use for the iPod will force store owners to drastically reshape the retail model in order to ensure the protection of their merchandise.
Though there is no radio antenna built into the iPod, clever users have devised a way to experience personalized radio broadcasts through a combination of internet blogs and Apple’s device. Adam Curry, a former MTV host set out to create a way to avoid manually updating the content of his iPod and ended up co-authoring ‘iPodder’ software that not only automatically sends content posted on a website to the player’s music management software, but allows anybody with a laptop and a microphone to become a DJ for their own radio station. While this developing brand of broadcast distribution is still rather clunky, a consequence of Apple’s commitment to the connection between iPod and personal computer, Curry hopes that the connection will be able to be made via wireless networks in the near future and a podcaster’s library will update automatically as soon as she walks in her home. Essentially, podcasting takes the mass customization philosophy of the iPod as practiced by Apple and the myriad peripheral product manufacturers and puts the means of content creation in the hands of the user.
Lastly, what was first merely an element of the iPod’s sleek and space-age design has unexpectedly turned into an amateur photographer’s godsend; the reflective metal surface on the back of the artifact has turned into a portable rearview mirror of sorts, allowing shutterbugs to vastly expand the possibilities of creating a photo-within-a-photo effect. Luckily, the photo galleries at iPodlounge.com proved to be the perfect forum for solidifying the visual appeal of the iPod that accompanies its other association with the musical arts. Take a look here at a few of the pictures from the ‘iPods Around the World’ gallery at iPodlounge, or follow the link to see the whole gallery for yourself:
