I didn’t buy the iPod when it first came out. I bought my first iPod as soon as Apple introduced Windows compatibility through MusicMatch Jukebox software (if you even know what EphPod is, you’re awesome). It still, however, had the original iconic design. I remember saving a little from each paycheck from my job at the UCI Bookstore to save enough money to buy one. Luckily, I had a student discount and was able to get it for a little under $300 after taxes. At first I was embarrassed to tell people how much money I spent on something that “just played music”. But I didn’t care. For me, the greatest thing was being able to carry a thousand songs with me, all over campus with enough battery to last me an entire day.

The original iPod was the first Apple product that I purchased and it eventually converted me to the Apple fanboy that I am today. I’m proud to say that it still works. Every once in awhile I’ll take it out and set it next to one of its descendants, my iPhone 3GS and just stare in amazement at where ten years has brought us. I can’t wait to see where the next ten will take us.

Just for fun, here are a couple pictures of my original iPod through the years, from its unboxing to different trips I’ve taken it on.

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As of June, I am now a technology writer for TechZulu.com. I’m always on the look out for something that I enjoy and I can make some extra money from. I know what I’m doing now is not what I’m going to do for the rest of my life so I’ve been a little more active in trying to find out what it is I ENJOY doing. I noticed that a local tech site that I follow was looking for a writer to post reviews, interviews and articles on local startups. I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years and have been posting tech related posts to my site for about 7 years so I figured, why not? I was a little surprised when the CEO responded to me via Twitter and wanted to contact me. After a phone interview and an in person meeting, I was welcomed aboard as the newest writer for TechZulu. I’m about two months in and while I feel like I’m still getting a feel for actually writing for a site other than my own, I like the fact that my articles will be read by a wider audience than my own personal blog. You can read what I’ve written for TechZulu here.

I’m a little late to the iPad 2 bandwagon but last week I won one for a contest at work. I relented on buying an iPad 2 when they were released because I didn’t feel that there were enough features to get me to upgrade. Once this contest was announced at work, it was a no brainer. All I had to do was do what I normally get paid for, AND get an iPad 2? Sure, why not?! At first, the contest said we were going to be allotted a 32GB WiFi only model but for accounting reasons that I’m not complaining about, our manufacturer sent us enough money for a 64GB 3G+WiFi and a Smart Cover. I’ve had it for almost two weeks and while a full blown review would be a little outdated, I’ll write down some quick thoughts about it in a future post.

The previous side gig on the Dos Chinos truck has slowly grown into something that, if I really wanted to, could replace my main source of income. Since I last posted, our truck has been featured in a New York Times article, on KTLA and on The Cooking Channel’s Eat St. And now, the owners are close to opening up a brick and mortar location in Downtown Los Angeles. Hop, one of the co-owners of the truck, has been really pushing me to jump on with him full time and help him launch the restaurant. It’s a bit humbling that he’s tapped me as one of the chosen to help launch the restaurant, but it could also open doors to something that I’ve always wanted to do on my own.

And on a final note, while I don’t like to get too personal, too often on this site, I’ve found myself in probably the last relationship I’ll ever get into. She’s turned me from cynical and jaded to hopeful and extremely happy. I’m thankful everyday that our paths crossed again and she’s back in my life.

If people still follow posts on this site, please know that I’m more interesting, and post a lot more on Twitter.

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As it turned out, however, the DVD business was not just a way to bide time while the network caught up. It laid the economic groundwork for the streaming business to become established because of the need to license content…

This is why I admire Netflix as a company. Their CEO had the vision to see that one day we would be streaming entertainment into our homes. Compare that with Blockbuster. We all know how that turned out.

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• A native iPad app. I use my iPad primarily for reading, surfing the web and watching video. While I do have some music on my iPad, I’d rather save the space on my iPad for movies, TV shows and apps. Since I can now stream music through Rdio, I can give up some of the space I had for my music collection for more video and apps. While I use the iPhone Rdio app on the iPad upsized to double resolution, a native iPad app would make the Rdio even more enjoyable.
• Ability to hide unavailable music. One of the downsides to licensing laws is that, for whatever reason, not all music is available for streaming. Nothing is more frustrating that looking for an album and finding out it’s not available for streaming. I’d like for there to be an option to hide any music that’s not available to stream. If it’s not available, why even show it?
• More social integration. There are some social media aspects to the site but I’d like to be able to interact more with my friends. There is Facebook and Twitter integration but the only thing I can see from this is searching your friends to see which ones are on Rdio. While you can subscribe to your friends’ playlists and can collaborate on playlists, I’d like to be able to make fun of someone when they add a questionable artist to their collection. Or be able to tweet that I’ve added an album to my collection or post that someone released a new album from within the app.
• A more streamlined app. The native Rdio app for Mac is way better than the previous option which ran on Adobe Air. It’s set up like iTunes and feels very familiar to anyone who has used iTunes but I feel like there could be a better way to view your collection and playlists while having the browser to view the Rdio library.

I already have been singing the joys of Rdio but if they made these small changes, Rdio would be near perfect.

Up until recently, most subscription based music services generally involved you paying a monthly fee and allowed you to stream an unlimited amount of music to your desktop or a device that worked with their DRM. In most cases that DRM didn’t include the most popular music player, the iPod. If a service wasn’t on the most popular device, it was doomed to fail. In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone and later the iPod Touch and the App Store. This opened up opportunities for companies to create apps that let you access libraries of licensed music for a monthly fee. One of these companies that has done this is Rdio.

Rdio’s business model is similar to what others have done in the past. Ten dollars a month lets you access up to 8 million songs in their library. The reason why I like Rdio compared to what I’ve seen before is their desktop app and their iPhone app. Their desktop app scans your existing iTunes library and if they have it in their library, it adds those songs to your collection within the Rdio desktop app. Once you browse through the Rdio library you can choose to “Add to collection” so you don’t have to search for an artist or album each time you want to listen to them. It’s like adding them to your iTunes library. What makes Rdio worth it to me is the iPhone app. You also have the option of syncing to mobile. Next time you open the app, it will sync any tracks you’ve opted to sync for mobile. The app has access to all of Rdio’s library and for some reason music sounds better when you’ve paid for it and you’re streaming it over the air to your cell phone. But there are times when you don’t have the best data connection. Any track you’ve marked to “sync to mobile” will still be available when you have no data connection. So for me, just this feature alone makes me feel like I’ve “purchased” those tracks. Also any artists you add to your collection and playlists you create from the desktop app show up in the iPhone app. It really does feel like iTunes in the cloud.

I’ve only explored the service for about a week and I’m sure there’s a lot more I haven’t discovered. I haven’t gone over Artist Radio (similar to Pandora), collaborative playlists or even the social aspects of the service. I highly recommend signing up. There are two options, $5 for access to the Rdio library from a web browser or the desktop app, or $10 which adds syncing to the mobile app. And be sure to add me to take a glimpse into what I’m listening.

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