Playlists are great, but who has the time? Outsource the creation of playlists I say
I don’t have nearly as much time to spend listening to and enjoying music and selecting it according to my own tastes and needs for the music, such as for relaxation or for upbeat workout music. However, I recently discovered that iTunes has pre-selected song lists full of workout music! There’s a great running mix that starts out with a few warmup songs and even has cooldown tunes at the end of an approximately 45 minute play list. Plus, the song lyrics are running- or racing-themed, such as “Counting Blue Cars,” “Run” by Snow Patrol, and “Drive.” I had already manually created a few running play lists, and even took the suggested songs from a Runner’s World magazine article and created my own iTunes list then published it for others to use as well. Runners World has a Long Run Mix and a Tempo Run Mix with different speeds of music to run to.
Here’s my version of their Tempo Run list:
- Out of Control: U2
- What Difference Does It Make?: The Smiths
- Run: Snow Patrol
- The way You Wear Your Head: Nada Surf
- Breaking the Law: Judas Priest
- Capital Radio One: The Clash
- Third Uncle: Brian Eno
- Disorder: Joy Division
- Jenny: Stellastarr*
- Thick as Thieves: The Jam
- Evil: Interpol
- Alright: Supergrass
My version of a Long Run list:
- Diamond Dogs: Beck
- Take California: Properllerheads
- Olsen Olsen: Sigur Ros
- Champagne Supernova: Oasis
- Run: Snow Patrol
- Politik: Coldplay
- The Scientist: Coldplay
- This Is the Last Time: Keane
Now, get out and actually run. With shoes if you prefer.
Now, along that same line of technology blended with iTunes and iPod, I have been looking into the Nike iPod Sport Kit. As it turns out, the Nike+iPod uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), and it transmits a unique ID in the 2.4 GHz band. So there is no accelerometer to measure your pace, instead, it just monitors how long your foot holds your weight (running faster means less time spent on each foot). The people at SparkFun discovered all this and wrote this fun article about the underlying technology. http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/present.php?p=Nike_iPod-Internals
Now this Wired article, Nike + iPod = Surveillance, feel the device makes it a little too easy to track someone while they’re wearing it. On the flip side of that, I’d imagine one could feel safer on a run if a trusted friend knew your path and estimated return time.
iTunes concert calendar trick
I also found out about iConcertCal at http://www.iconcertcal.com/ which lets you see local concert dates and times in a calendar in iTunes. Now that is a wonderful iTunes trick, especially if you’re like me and need to plan babysitting far in advance. (One of our sitters here in Austin was booked for New Year’s night four months ahead, I’m not kidding.) You install the iConcertCal application, then open iTunes and click View->Visualizer->iConcertCal so that there’s a checkmark next to it. Next, click View->Show Vizualizer and a monthly view of all upcoming concerts fills your iTunes screen. Works on Mac and PC, whee.