Docking the user experience

I was surprised that my new 20GB 4G iPod didn’t come with a docking cradle. Come to think about it, almost no electronics come with docks anymore. That’s why we have multiple $300+ gizmos tethered to our computers or power outlets with nests of cables, twisting in the breeze. It just ain’t right.

Anyhoo, here’s some neat iPod tips, tricks and hacks I’ve found:

* Winamp5 ml_iPod plugin So you don’t have to use iTunes.
* GoogleGet Downloads news and weather headlines to your iPod’s Notes section with the click of a button.
* iPodAgent Sync your Outlook calendar, email and contacts without having to manually export everything and drag them into the iPod drive (What’s with that, Apple??). You can even use it to run regular backups on your PC’s files.
* MusicBrainz This software, together with the massive online song database, will automatically tag all your MP3s with the proper artists and albums, just by listening to them. Its accuracy is about 50%, but that’s still 50% less songs to manually tag.
* Hackaday’s list of iPod hacks, both of the software kind and hardware kind. Void your warranty today!

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