A few days Google ago announced its new beta Google Music. It’s a cloud hosting service just for music. It enables music fans to upload their music on the internet and access it from any location via computer or phone. For a limited they are letting people sign up for the free beta. I received my invite for the Google Music beta today. I’m currently uploading my 5,000-plus music library. So far I really like the service.
It’s easy to use. The download manager finds all the music on your computer and uploads them automatically. It even syncs with iTunes. The manager imported all the information (ratings, play counts, artwork) out of iTunes. That’s a huge plus considering that I’m OCD about keep my music labeled correctly.
The beta has an upload limit of 20,000 songs. That an enormous amount of space. Google hasn’t announced how much the service will cost when it comes out of beta. For me, Google Music means the end of the iPod. The only real reason I still have an iPod is a way to back-up and carry all my music. Now that everything is backed-up on the cloud and I can access my library from my phone the iPod is obsolete.
Now I can finally free my computer from the space resource hog iTunes. Hopefully, Google Music won’t be too expensive.
Three years ago I purchased a 30 GB iPod to use at work. I love it. It’s been a great purchase. Unfortunately, one of the problems with iPods is that the battery starts to lose its charge after about two years. Apple offers a battery replacement program, but it’s really just an iPod swap and it costs around $80. Plus, you have to wait for a couple of weeks.
Before my annual trip to Priest Lake I decided to replace the battery myself using iPod Juice. iPod Juice is a Texas-based company that supplies iPod batteries. They have a couple of different options: replace the battery yourself or send it in. Their prices are a lot more reasonable. I purchased a new battery and it came with a kit with detailed instructions on how to replace the battery.
It took me about 15 minutes to complete the switch and the iPod is working like a champ. The best part is it only cost $30 and it’s a better battery than the Apple counterpart. However, I’m not sure everyone will be able to replace the battery themselves. It might be daunting for people who are not used to taking things apart. I’d still recommend using iPod Juice’s battery replacement program. It’s much more cost-effective than going through Apple.
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