- 2006.05.24
iPods and Nike shoes . . . who 'da thunk it?
Well, you know what product announcements do to us over here at the
Lite Side . . . they make us haul out the ol' List-o-matic
and generate
Other Stuff I'd Like to Sync with My iPod
You can already synchronize cameras and computers and shoes to
iPods. But here are some other ideas for Apple:
1. How about synching to your TiVo or DVR? If for no other reason
but to download TV episodes. You could do it via the Mac or not;
copying content you've already paid for, or charging a fee to make it
mobile. On the TiVo, you mark the files you want to transfer, plug in
the iPod, and whoosh.
2. How about synching to your wristwatch? I'm thinking mainly alarms
set in iCal. Seems like I remember something about a Windows-compatible
watch promoted by Gates a while back. If you just limited it to alarm
events and didn't go crazy trying to make the watch an iPod substitute,
then that'd be fine. Maybe iPods will get small enough you can wear
them on your wrist like a watch, and that's that.
3. Sync to your outdoor thermometer. The utility of such a thing is
so obvious an explanation is not necessary.
4. Sync to vending machines; the vending machine reads your bank
account info from the iPod, just like a magnetic card reader. Oh, the
humanity! How about a magnetic stripe output device that attaches to
your iPod and substitutes for all of your credit cards? eCash, sorta
kinda. Hackers will love this gizmo. Banks won't though.
5. Sync to your house and all of its sensors, temperature controls,
power consumption, etc. You could increase security, energy efficiency,
and comfort simultaneously.
6. Sync to your sink. Determines the number of gallons per day
you've been consuming.
7. How about a gizmo to attach the iPod to the various brands of
sensor probes used in schools? Check it out, it finally gives schools a
legitimate reason to buy bulk iPods for student use! Your iPod can
measure temperature! Pressure! Force! Acceleration! Take it to the
amusement park on physics day! Holy cats! Magnetic field strength!
Partial pressure of dissolved gases! Just think, your entire semester
of research stored on an iPod, so you can take all those MB's home and
process them there!
[time passes]
Sorry, just got a little dizzy there.
8. Sync to your car's sensors, get yourself a hybrid-like readout
on any car you happen to be driving. "See here, Fred, it says you're
getting less mileage when you take off so fast from the
stoplight...."
9. If everyone at a concert were using iPods, you could all sync to
the same concert tape, control the volume of your own earbuds, and more
people could enjoy the concert with less hearing damage. Perfect for
lip-synching. (Hmm . . . sync to your lips...) Especially in
France.
10. You know what I want, what I really, really want? How about an
iPod that'll sync to my brain so I can remember all the stuff I'm
supposed to be doing while I'm sitting here pounding out yet another
Lite Side List™.
