CATEGORY: The Missing Feature - Our running list of the most essential things we wish our software and gadgets could do...but don't, yet. We'll keep this blog stocked with the most user-friendly, timesaving suggestions we can think of. When word gets out about our great ideas, well, it's only a matter of time before the engineers at Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft respond, right? Remember, you saw 'em here first.
J.D. Biersdorfer, author of iPod: The Missing Manual, Sixth Edition, longs for a radio component, and an in-the-box cable for her iPod that she doesn't have to spend extra money for.
My name is J.D. Biersdorfer. I’m the author of iPod, the Missing Manual, editions 1 through 6, and the feature I think I’m missing the most on the iPhone is I have to say I really miss having a radio option.
I know they’ve got the accessory that you can get the FM radio. When I’m out and about, I just want to really be carrying one device for my music and I would like it if I need to get a traffic update or some kind of weather report, I’d like to have that FM radio function where I can really just switch off, get some real-time news and then go back to whatever music I was listening to.
So, that would be really cool if they could work that in. Maybe there’s battery issues and they can't figure out how to fit that into the iPod thing yet outside of the little external FM radio remote thing.
I’d like to have a cable that came with the iPod that would just be there and I wouldn’t have to buy it extra so I could play my TV shows on my TV. I know Apple’s got a business to run and charging $50.00 for the cable is what they need to do. But, it would be nice, ‘cause in the old days with the iPods of yore, 2002 would be yore, you got all of these great accessories in the box. You got a power adapter and you got an AV cable if you bought the iPod photo and you got all these really great things. And, you got an AC adapter and you got extra cables and you got all these really great things in the box that they don’t do anymore. And, even though this is regressing, we used to have this. I kind of miss having the AC power adapter as something that came in the box.
So, that’s my little regressive wish. But, other than that, I’m just kind of looking for the future and hopefully they’ll catch up with my dreams of what I’d like the iPod to have.
Before the iPod existed, I used to listen to a Walkman cassette player with a radio built in. The only times I ever used the radio was if I ran out of cassettes to play on my walk, or if my batteries were running down and the radio worked but not the tape. I would get totally frustrated trying to find a station that I could stand to listen to. There are too many commercials screaming in your ear. I would rather walk in silence. Now that I use an iPod, I get the benefit of radio by listening to podcasts or music. I also still listen to audiobooks. If the iPod were to have a radio included, I would like it to be something like Sirius--with no commercials!
Before the iPod existed, I used to listen to a Walkman cassette player with a radio built in. The only times I ever used the radio was if I ran out of cassettes to play on my walk, or if my batteries were running down and the radio worked but not the tape. I would get totally frustrated trying to find a station that I could stand to listen to. There are too many commercials screaming in your ear. I would rather walk in silence. Now that I use an iPod, I get the benefit of radio by listening to podcasts or music. I also still listen to audiobooks. If the iPod were to have a radio included, I would like it to be something like Sirius--with no commercials!