Specifications vs. reality
Lileks hasn’t been using his iPhone for music much:
a) I don’t listen to that much music when I’m out and about, and b) I was convinced it would drain my battery in 42 minutes. (Factory specs says 43 minutes, but that’s under ideal conditions when you have the volume turned to 1 and you’re playing 4’33″ by John Cage.)
Had I an iPhone, I would so be testing this premise: 4’33″ is these days available from the iTunes store. It’s in three movements, so it’s $2.97 for the download; apparently it’s not available as a ringtone. More’s the pity.
(If you’re unfamiliar with the piece, you must be new around here: I mention it pretty much every chance I get, and I’ll even send you to the video of a live performance.)
fillyjonk »
11 September 2009 · 8:29 am
“apparently it’s not available as a ringtone”
Damn. I can think of a lot of people I’d recommend that piece to as a ringtone. :)
McGehee »
11 September 2009 · 8:32 am
I can play music on my Pantech Matrix but I have to choose between running down the battery or sharing my music with anybody within earshot — the headphone adapter plugs into the recharge slot. Fortunately I (usually) remember to recharge it overnight.
What I don’t do as often as perhaps I should, is turn the phone off and cycle it back on again. Every time the power goes off it forgets what I have in my music folder, and when I want to use the music player app the phone spends several minutes rebuilding the index. When I do power it down and back up I now routinely boot the music player just to get that out of the way first thing. But it’s still a hassle.
McGehee »
11 September 2009 · 8:34 am
BTW, I made ringtones from the intros to a bunch of my favorite tunes. Taking, say, the first ten seconds of 4’33″ should be no problem.
John Salmon »
11 September 2009 · 9:07 am
In a perfect world, the use of force to shut up obnoxious ringtones and cell-phone talkers would be encouraged, not punished.
Dick Stanley »
11 September 2009 · 8:26 pm
SWMBO uses her iPhone for music, as well as everything else it does. Even gave me the old iPod.