Shake, Shuffle, and Roll
by Shane Jackson
If you are like me at all, you love iTunes. It is an awesome player, and it does a great job of keeping many Mac users very happy. Did I mention that it comes with Mac OS X? Yes, that’s right; it does, and it is quite simple to use, after one has a few days to play with it. With the new iTunes 8, blind or visually impaired people now have access to the Itunes Store: something that was not available until 09 September, 2008. After much writing to Apple and a great deal of feedback being sent over to their tech support staff, iTunes has come into its own. Blind Mac users are grateful to Apple and are very excited over this latest development in the accessibility of the Macintosh platform.
While iTunes is cool,, it is not always a good thing to stay tethered to your Mac. It would be nice, therefore, to take your library with you wherever you go. Apple has obliged us by creating the line of players that we know as the iPod. Most reading this article know full well what an iPod is, but for those that don’t, here is a brief explanation.
The iPod has been around for many years now, and it has three basic types. Firstly, there is the hard-drive-based line of iPods. This would include players such as the Mini, the classic, the Video, the Photo, etc. Next, there is the flash-based type of player. This would include the Nano, and to some degree, the Shuffle. Third, there is the Shuffle. Now, hang on a second. I said there were three types but I have included the Shuffle in the second and third groups. Why would I do that? It’s like this. The Shuffle is categorized as a flash-based player,, like the Nano, because that is the type of memory it uses. There is no physical hard drive, with moving parts, as is present on the first group of iPods mentioned earlier. Why, then would I also include it in the third group? For the simple reason that the Shuffle is the only one not menu-driven, and is therefore quite unique among iPods.
Having described the three types of iPod, let’s talk briefly about how these iPods are used by the blind. One of the methods used to control an iPod if one is visually impaired is the clicker feature. The clicker is onboard most iPods that are menu driven, but it is not present on the Shuffle. Most users that do not choose to use this clicker feature use an alternative firmware package which will be discussed in the next paragraph. One other note about the Shuffle needs to be mentioned before we move on to the next subject. Audible.com books work really well on the Shuffle, and if one does not prefer to have his or her music categorized into different playlists, the Shuffle has been ideal for a visually-impaired person. The Shuffle models run on a one-folder structure with no menus, so they will be excluded from any further discussion in this article.
As for the menu-driven iPods, many people choose not to use the clicker. They use a third-party firmware package that is downloadable from the Internet. This package is called Rockbox, which runs on the iPod as a separate firmware in its own environment. The Apple firmware is not deleted, as Rockbox runs alongside it. One can easily switch back and forth between the native firmware and the Apple firmware, so many users prefer this method. Advantages of this Rockbox firmware are that one can use digitized speech to read most menus and spell out names of tracks and other information. Also, Rockbox can be made to speak the names of the same tracks with a special little program that uses the speech files that one can download from the net. The disadvantages of the Rockbox firmware are that one can’t play Audible.com content, and there is no way of playing protected music from the Itunes Store. Among Mac users, it is safe to say, then, that the clicker method is used more than Rockbox, so that is what this article will focus on from this point forward.
Mac users utilize the clicker built into the menu-driven iPods to get around the iPod menu structure and to learn where their on-board Itunes libraries are located. Blind or visually impaired users have memorized the the locations of such content, so they know to count the clicks. Unfortunately, Apple has seen fit to keep the click at a lower level, for the most part, so blind folks who may be hard of hearing, like the author of this review, can’t use these iPods very successfully.
Enter the 4th generation iPod Nano. It is a longish device, that looks like an old pack of Dentine chewing gum, but maybe a little thinner and a little wider. It has the usual click wheel, and it has a hold switch on the very top of the iPod at the left edge. The headphone jack is located at the bottom right, on the end beside the docking connector. What is so special about this particular iPod model? Can you guess? If you said it speaks, you’re right! For the first time, outside of Rockbox, there is an iPod that talks to it’s user. Although not all menus are accessible, certainly the most important ones for daily use are able to be made to speak. How does the iPod Nano speak? It is not text-to-speech that it uses. It works on the same idea that Rockbox does, with one difference. When one syncs his or her iPod Nano for the first time, the Nano gets information from the user’s Mac. It determines the system speech used, the speed, pitch, volume, and rate used, and it transports that over to the Nano in the process of syncing with the Mac. When unplugged from the Mac, the iPod is speaking and ready to go.
Blind people can now take their iTunes with them, everywhere! The world’s first true talking iPod with native firmware on board is at your service and ready to give hours upon hours of listening pleasure!!! Now, why the weird name of this article, you might be asking yourself? There is a new feature built into this fantastic device, and it is known as the accelerometer. This is a feature that causes the 4th generation Nano to shuffle automatically when shaken. One has to give it quite a good shake, as the folks at Apple designed it not to shuffle at every slight shake of the unit. Also, another cool thing about this new iPod is that when rolled over on its side, it displays the library contents in the "cover flow" view, and when righted, it displays everything in the standard view. This feature, like the shaking feature, is also used by gamers when they load their favorite games on their Nano. The speech on a visually impaired person’s iPod Nano will let him or her know when he or she is in "cover flow" versus standard–or "now-playing"–view. How cool it is to be jogging or walking, and just give your iPod a shake, and you have an instant party, at which you have no clue what the next song is.
iTunes has a new feature called the "Genius Bar." This is also included on the new 4th generation Nano, so you can sync up your Genius library between the two, and it will provide many hours of fun. The Genius playlist feature takes songs based on a song or songs in your library, and it tries its best to find songs that are related to the particular selection you’ve made, and a playlist is created. Truly amazing, and now, thanks to the "Shake, Shuffle, and Roll" iPod Nano, you can take your Genius playlist everywhere you go. If you want it shuffled up, just give it a shake, and roll with it!!!
In conclusion, then, let’s sum up what has been written in the last few paragraphs. iTunes is a fine player for the Macintosh platform, and it is included with OS X. It is now more accessible to blind Mac users than ever! These same users are now able to take their iTunes everywhere they go, thanks to the new talking iPod Nano! Just load your songs up, play it, shake it, shuffle it, and roll!