Apple today announced BootCamp, a product that will allow users of the newest (Intel-based) Macs to run Windows in addition to the MacOS and Linux. This is such an astounding announcement that if it had been made 4 days ago, many would have assumed it was an April Fool's prank, even if it appeared on Apple's website.

While this isn't strictly an iPod-related post, it points out that speculators should use their brain before making guesses about what Apple will announce and when, because Apple is surely using theirs.  

iPREPpress announced today their release of Merriam-Webster's reference materials for iPod. Marginally neat, but I can't for the life of me imagine who will use it. For the Palm maybe, but the iPod interface doesn't seem well-suited to navigate throgh a dictionary. Good luck to them anyway.

Having said that, iPREPpress incorporated a navigation feature that Apple would do well to incorporate into their standard navigation on the iPod: the alphabet. I have music from hundreds of artists in my iPod. The click wheel is good, but it's still a pain in the butt to get to a particular song, due to the long list of artists and the speed with which the iPod scrolls once you get going. The solution I have desired for a long time is the incorporation of an alphabet into the navigation when the list gets too long.

For example, instead of the navingation going like this:

Music > Artists > Albums > Songs

it would go like this:

Music > Alphabet > Artists > Albums > Songs

True, this would make the content one menu deeper, but overall I think navigation would be quicker because the 500-item Artist list would be replaced with a 26-letter alphabet list and an artist list limited to just that letter.

Comments anyone?

(Does anyone actually read this blog? I'm starting to wonder.)  

Just last week, Mr. & Mrs. FreeiPodGuy were at a diner with a nice old-fashioned Wurlitzer jukebox. Mrs. Guy was looking for a particular song, and, sure enough, it was the last one in the list. Listening to her track of choice ("Splish-Splash"), I mentioned in passing how they should have some kind of easier interface. Being able to find a song in less time than it takes to listen to the song is probably a good conservative rule of thumb, even for 1958.

Sure enough, Tech Digest has posted a note about the new Wurlitzer One More Time CD/iPod jukebox. Basically, it's just a regular CD jukebox with an iPod dock on the front.  

Apple Computer turned 30 years old yesterday. In anticipation of the anniversary, many people (not me, because I have two brain cells to rub together) made insane predictions about fantastic new product announcements that would undoubtedly be announced yesterday. Apple didn't.

And I love that.