Other Stuff I'd Like to Synch with My iPod

- 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 Synch 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. Synch to your outdoor thermometer. The utility of such a thing is so obvious an explanation is not necessary.

4. Synch 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. Synch to your house and all of its sensors, temperature controls, power consumption, etc. You could increase security, energy efficiency, and comfort simultaneously.

6. Synch 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. Synch 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 synch 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 . . . synch to your lips...) Especially in France.

10. You know what I want, what I really, really want? How about an iPod that'll synch 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™.

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