Anyone who has been around the block on the net lately knows that the web is AWASH in "free iPod" offers. The trouble is that most of them are either total and outright scams, or they are part of a certain highly publicized offer in which a company gives away free iPods to people who (a) participate in a certain number of promotional offers by third party companies and (b) recruit several other people to also participate in those offers.

I think both sorts of offers are garbage. The scams are simply immoral, and the "recruit a friend" type is much harder than it sounds. They are what inspired me to launch FreeiPodGuy.com. I'm just a guy running an honest giveaway--not a big nameless company who is out for the big bucks.

Here's the problem: There are now fifty-seven bajillion 15-year old kids on the net who are trying to recruit other people into completing these offers. They are sending e-mail to everyone. They are posting off-topic pleas in unrelated public forums. In short, they have become a whole new class of spammers who are not welcome.

This makes it very difficult for me to get the message out about FreeiPodGuy.com. People don't want to hear about "free iPods", because they've heard it so many times before from the iPod spammers. They assume I'm just like the rest.

This is a problem not only for FreeiPodGuy; it's also a problem for all the good American souls who want a free iPod from FreeiPodGuy. FreeiPodGuy buys giveaway iPods from revenue earned through the FreeiPodGuy.com website. The revenue won't come in unless there are visitors to the website who find value in the advertising and the website's other revenue-generating features. Those visitors won't come if I don't publicize, and I can't publicize if everyone's been jaded to free iPod offers.

So, here's the long and short of it. [Que inspirational patriotic background music...] If this project is to be successful, it's going to be because participants like you tell your friends about it. It's going to be because you decided you're NOT going to let the spammers take away the promise of free iPods.

Yes, I know. It's an uphill battle. But people need their iPods. You can't change the lives of all the iPodless masses, but you can tell one person. One person who, if they win, will be grateful to you forever.

Do what you know is right. Tell a friend about FreeiPodGuy.com, today.  

Claudia writes:

Dear FreeiPodGuy: I am 56yrs old and don't really know what an iPOD is or does. I am just learning how to use a computer so I am coming into the 21st century. If you get a chance please email me and explain an iPOD. Thank you.

How CUTE!

Since most readers know all about the iPod, I won't bore you with the long explanation I gave Claudia. Suffice it to say I started with the difference between records and CDs, explained song files, and then on to digital audio players generally. I concluded with this:

The iPod is the most popular of these digital audio players, and for reasons that cannot be fully explained by mankind, iPod owners love them. And I don't mean they really like them. I mean they love them with the kind of love that is usually reserved for spouses, chocolate, and classic cars.

Claudia, meet iPod. iPod, meet Claudia. With a little luck, you'll get to meet in person some day, and form the kind of sealing bond that only love and ear wax can bring.  

Our first 24 hours have gone by, and the number of entries received for FreeiPodGuy's giveaway is satisfactory (for the first day, at least). However, we'll need to do better to achieve my goal of giving away at least one iPod a month.

Don't hog all the iPods for yourself, Mr. SelfishPants. Go! Tell your friends! Now!

Sheesh.  

Macworld UK performed an online poll which found that only 57% of iPod users (UK) use their white earbuds. The rest use other headphones. Some reported that they were dissatisfied with the earbuds' quality (I think they're as good as any of the other sub-$30 earbuds I've used); others said they were too big (I agree for the old 5GB iPod's earbuds; later ones worked better); but Macworld's slant on the article is that most users are fearful of getting mugged.

I haven't linked to the article, because it isn't scientific and may be worthless. However, it raises a topic worth discussing.

I personally use larger headphones, partially because I rolled over my iPod earbuds in a wheeled office chair, but also because the larger speakers in these headphones are capable of lower volumes--which I like in quiet environments--and is incapable of higher volumes. (iPod's earbuds go too loud for me.) However, I must admit that as a rider of public transportation, I'm perfectly happy to not have all the strangers around me know that I'm carrying around something more valuable than a $30 CD player.

What do you think? Are people over-reacting?  

And just when you thought it was passe to badmouth AOL. A new version of the Opanki worm (Opanki.Y to be exact) is spreading via AOL's Instant Messenger. First discovered a week ago, it isn't spreading quickly, but it's something that AOL-using iPod users should be wary of.

The worm arrives in an AIM message with the text "This picture never gets old" and includes a link to a file that, when downloaded, is installed as "ITUNES.EXE." If this .exe is run, it installs four adware applications.

Like practically every worm, virus, trojan horse, and bad user interface in existence, it only affects Windows users.

(Oops, FreeiPodGuy's bias is showing again!)  

AppleInsider reported today that Radio Shack will be selling the full line of Apple iPods in time for this year's holiday season. The chain currently sells the HP-branded version of the iPod, but Apple was able to offer superior price protection.

(Evidently Apple doesn't need HP to get iPods into the hands of the masses anymore.)

If the iPods do well, plans are to stock Radio Shack with Macintosh computers.  

The Boston Herald reports this morning of a several-months-old copy protection scheme that was quietly rolled out by Sony BMG and EMI, which prevents iPod and iTunes users (and apparently no one else) from loading the music onto their iPods. From the article:

iPod and iTunes users will find that CD copy protection does more than limit CD burning. So far, Apple has refused to license its FairPlay software to Microsoft or record labels. As a result, music transferred from protected CDs through a PC won't play on iPods and iTunes. "It's an issue with Apple,'' said [Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG president of Global Digital Business]. "We can't do that much about it.''
...
Bill Werde, Billboard senior news editor, believes consumers should not have to deal with such inconveniences. "Customers . . . just want to play music where they want to play music,'' he said. "And music fans shouldn't have to care about (the standoff between Apple and record labels). That's a back-end music issue that should have been resolved before this (technology) was released to the masses.''

And FreeiPodGuy says amen to that. A rapidly increasing number of listeners are buying CDs to exclusively on their iPods, and the record companies are producing music that can't be easily used for that purpose. Apple, meanwhile, provides listeners with another (cheaper) option: the iTunes Music Store.

My guess is that the record companies will blink first.  

Unless it's a hoax (which is a distinct possibility), it appears that the "Linux on iPod" gang is near a breakthrough, running a Linux GameBoy emulator on the iPod. Intriguing, but even if it works, controlling Mario with a Click Wheel just might suck. A very small number of games may be well-suited to the iPod--Pokemon Pinball, maybe.  

From Digital-Lifestyles.info: Apple are already said to be talking to major music labels like Warner, EMI, Vivendi, Universal Music and Sony BMG about acquiring licenses to sell music videos through their hugely popular iTubes online store.

iTubes? What is that? A music-enabled water park?

Typos notwithstanding, this interesting article has a mockup of what a video iPod might look like. (They call it a "vPod" and Contractor UK calls it the "ViPod", but given past naming conventions, "iPod Video" seems more likely.) One of the smarter points of the piece is when they call Steve Jobs' bluff. Jobs has remarked in the past that the iPod won't ever do video, because there's no content, no demand, and the screen is too small.

I used to agree with that assessment. Then I got a TiVo DVR.

I started thinking... I now have more digital video content than I can watch. There are times while traveling (not driving) when I could be watching that content. And, I wouldn't mind at all watching it on my iPod's screen. I'd rather look at moving pictures on my iPod than static ones, yet both full-size iPods now have photo functionality, causing the former product name "iPod Photo" to be a redundancy.

Sure, many users would prefer a larger screen. I would too, but I'm not sure I want to sacrifice the ability to stick the thing in my pocket. Give me an iPod Video that's the same dimensions as the one I have now, except with a touch-sensitive full-front screen that emulates the current click-wheel functionality, and I'm there.

Prediction: the iPod Video is a virtual certainty, probably before Christmas 2005, but absolutely before Christmas 2006.  

Japan Today reports that Nissan has become the latest is a growing line of automobile manufacturers to allow integration of the owner's iPod into the car's audio system. The navigation system, whose 7-inch display dwarfs that of any iPod, can be used to control the music player. Nikkei reports that Apple will be working with other Japanese manufacturers to incorporate such systems in their models as well.

Hopefully the trend will continue. Perhaps one day even FreeiPodGuy will be able to afford a car with iPod integration.  

From MarketWatch:

Have you heard of Sony's latest creation, the Walkman Phone? If not, you're not alone. According to a recently released study on digital music devices by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, more than 140 million adult Americans have not heard of it....However, while consumer awareness levels are important, acceptance levels may be much more so. According to Kambanis "our findings suggest that the Walkman Phone is poorly positioned for a head-to-head match up against Apple's iPod or Dell's Digital Jukebox."

Guess what... I'm not FreeJukeboxGuy either.  

A pair of stories in the Wall Street Journal back up the rumors that Apple is preparing for a run on the video market. First, look for music videos available for purchase from the iTunes Music Store in September. Reports are that Apple is working on the Big Four Labels. While music videos are a far cry from selling downloadable movies online, there's no question that Apple is setting up an infrastructure that could do it if they so choose.

The WSJ rumor mill also reports that Steve Jobs has approached top brass at Disney about licensing Disney content for play on a future video iPod. However, Jobs (as King o' Pixar) doesn't have a fantastic history with Disney and licensing issues. We'll see how it goes....  

From an article in Sunday's LA Times, Microsoft Courts Hollywood Allies:


When Apple Computer Inc. transformed the digital music scene in April 2003 by selling songs over the Internet, the richest man in the world was not amused.

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates had struggled for a decade to get his software into consumers' home entertainment systems. Now the digital media party was finally starting, and he wasn't invited.


The article goes on to talk about how Microsoft is now trying to succeed in movies where it failed (utterly) with music.

The question that I have is, why do they even bother? Apple OWNS music, and if recent rumors prove true (and there's every reason to think they will) Apple will soon OWN movies too.

Microsoft dabbles in a lot of stuff, and I'm sure they had high hopes for music marketing a long time before iTunes debuted, but you wouldn't know it by their level of success.

Seems to me Microsoft ought to just stick to what they do well (Office) and what they can sell even if they don't do well (Windows).  

Apple has just sold it's 500,000,000th song through the iTunes Music Store. If you had bought the 500,000,000th song, you would have won some very nice gifts. But you didn't. So you probably don't care about this too much.

You can however take solace in the fact that this shows that Apple's iTunes Music Store and the iPod are here to stay, and you can just ignore all the claims about the latest "iPod killer" to come off the line.  

Here's a free music download for your WMA-compatible (non-iPod) music player. It's good for only one song to one person. If you use it, please comment to save others the trouble of trying to redeem it. Go to http://www.deltaco.com/digitalsummer/winner.html and use the code DBG7F4FE.  

It seems like a month ago that I had the idea of becoming FreeiPodGuy, but mere days have passed since, while lying awake in bed, the thought occurred to me. Unable to sleep due to all the ideas that suddenly were running around my brain, I finally got up at 2am and registered the domain name.

I'm excited about the concept, which if successful, will result in free iPods for many. (And just maybe a new toy for me; see the FAQs).

Be sure to submit your entry every day to increase your odds of winning, and keep an eye on this blog, where I'll be bringing you new contest news, as well as iPod and iTunes related news with my own personal spin.