HW: Vinyl, t-shirts, etc.

[Paul Mather]

On 19 Mar 2007, at 9:47 PM, Keith Henderson wrote:

> Finally....a question about iPods....
>
>   I would like to finally get one of these things that everyone  
> else has, for my travelling.  Ideally, I would have it soon and  
> loaded up with music before I fly to Germany.  In this case, I  
> would be buying it in the US, designed for charging with 120V/60Hz  
> power.  Is that going to be a problem?  Can I simply buy a new  
> charger in Germany that would be for 110V/50Hz?  How much would  
> that cost me separately?  Is there any other issue here? The  
> batteries are the same, right?  (Or can you buy a "European" model  
> in the US?)

If you are going to buy an actual iPod, you charge it via the USB  
port of the computer on which you run iTunes (which is how you load  
tunes onto the iPod).  So, there is no charger issue.

As for batteries, the iPod uses a built-in rechargeable battery that  
can't be user replaced.  There is some minor controversy about  
battery life and premature obsolescence with some people complaining  
about too short a useful lifetime for their iPod.  Most people seem  
to love them, though.

I've noticed that modern portable electronic device AC adapters have  
universal international power supplies that work across all voltage  
ranges.  My iBook G4 laptop, for example, has an AC adapter that is  
100-240 V, 50-60 Hz.  I guess that's so business travellers can use  
their laptops anywhere in the world, and all they need to worry about  
is having an appropriate universal plug adapter so they can plug the  
thing into a wall socket to recharge the battery.  (My external hard  
drive AC adapter is like that, too, letting you use the HD anywhere  
in the world.)

Of course, by "iPod" you could have meant a generic high-capacity  
portable music player.  There are lots of those about.  For example,  
I hear the ones by Creative are well recommended.

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
  deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
         --- Frank Vincent Zappa