Of course, my iPod dies the day before a 12 hour drive. I keep getting the "sad iPod" image on the display. It was a 40GB 4th generation iPod with the greyscale screen. I've had it for just over 3 years. A few months ago I probably would have replaced it with another iPod, even though I think iTunes is a piece of junk. But with the release of the new Zunes, I figure the best replacement is an Zune 80.

Why a Zune? A few reasons:

Software

iTunes seems to have gotten worse over the years. Plug in your iPod and then try to do something with the software. It is painful. Apparently, the developers haven't heard of multi-threading. Coverflow is kinda cool, but not really that useful. The podcast support is pretty good, I'll give it that.

The Zune software on the other hand does not bog down when you plug in your Zune. It is also nice looking. Omar compared iTunes to a spreadsheet, and I agree. The Zune software still needs some work though. It doesn't have an equivalent for "smart playlists" like iTunes has. The podcast support is decent, but I can't figure out how to get it to automatically remove podcasts I have already listened to. That was one thing I really liked about iTunes (although sometimes it didn't work).

Hardware

The Zune 80 is a really nice MP3 player. The screen is big, the controls are great, and the size of the player is reasonable. I was really sick of swirling my thumb around to navigate a long list of items on the iPod. The "squircle" works well, although sometimes I scroll instead of selecting an item. I figure that will lessen as I use it.

I bought the Zune while I was on vacation, so the drive home was much better than the drive out. I got caught up on a bunch of podcasts.

I got Ubuntu installed. It was pretty painless. The installer is very easy to use and quick. Now I need to figure out which app to use to manage my iPod. There are a number of choices. I want one that works with pdocasts and syncs them properly to my iPod so they keep bookmarks. After that i need to get my T-Mobile MDA to sync with Evolution. If I can get those two things working, I think I'll be able to stick with it this time.

So, now the RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use. I am so tired of hearing the recording industry whine about not getting enough money from the rest of us.

My wife recently got me the Logitech mm50 speakers for my birthday. I can't believe how good they sound for their size. They run on a rechargable battery and allow you to "dock" your iPod right into them. When the unit is plugged in to the wall outlet, it will even recharge your iPod. Surprisingly, they put out a very decent level of bass. There is even a remote included. It doesn't seem to work real well from more than about 10 or 15 feet, but that's enough to keep you from getting up off the couch to skip tracks.

For $9.95 + $0.99 shipping, you can get an Earbud Clip. How is that much different than doing this:

There, I just saved you $11.00!

I figured out my problem with iTunes syncing my iPod contacts with Outlook. The 5.0.1 update of iTunes now pops up a message telling me why it can't sync my contacts. Turns out I didn't have Outlook set as my default email and contact manager. Once I did that, It started syncing just fine.

iTunes 5.0 has been released. I like the changes so far and was excited to see that it can now sync Outlook Calendar and Contacts to your iPod. I have the Calender sync working, but I cannot get it to sync my Contacts. I keep checking my iPod after a sync and the Contacts menu has nothing in it. Is anyone else having this problem?