iPod Touch External Speaker Not Working

I use my iPod Touch as an alarm clock. Kind of a cool use for it. One day, I don't get my alarm. I wake up and look at it and the alarm is set. No wakey though. I start checking around and I have no sound at all on my external speaker. Yikes!

I start Googling around and I just cannot find a solution. Lot's of people have the same problem, but no solution. I read a lot of things along the way trying to figure out what happened. I still have no sound on my external speaker. I can plug in the headphones and all is well, but nothing else. I kept trying to think what I did that was different, backtracking to the time the problem started.

Suddenly, it hit me.

I had used a thing that you plug into your car power port (cigarette lighter) that plays your iPod over the FM radio. My truck does not have an auxiliary plug. I had unplugged my iPod incorrectly from the FM device. I had just grabbed the FM player device and unplugged it from the power port without removing the iPod Touch first. That is the mistake that causes the issue. I've figured out that there is a proper procedure to follow to unplug it correctly. If your iPod is also not playing on the external speaker and you have this type of FM player device you can easily fix your iPod Touch.

When you have it plugged into the FM player device, the music volume slider bar disappears as shown in the picture below.



What you have to do is make sure your iPod Touch is powered up with the screen visible. Before you unplug the FM player device from the car power port, you must unplug your iPod Touch from the FM player device first. When you unplug it, you will see the volume slider bar appear again and push the "previous song", "play", and "next song" buttons up. You can see this configuration in the picture below.



If your iPod Touch is stuck, just go out and plug it in again. Make sure you follow the directions above and unplug your iPod Touch from the FM player device with the iPod in full power mode. Your speaker slider bar will be reset and you will be good to go.

Enjoy, and I hope this helps someone out there.

Oh yeah, and "Just Dance". :-)

William Orbit, not Nostalgia, Found by Shazam App!

I love Sirius Radio, but they do have a song or two wrong on the display. One that was frustrating to me was a song that is listed on the display as "Occulta Fama" by Nostalgia. I've downloaded that song because it is OK, but that isn't the song that Sirius is playing.

I've searched the internet trying to find what the real song is to no avail. Recently I got a Blackberry though. I saw that the Shazam application was available (at a cost, not free like on the iPhone) and so I snapped it up. I finally got a chance to give it a test on the mystery song. I am driving home from Birmingham in the middle of the night. The mystery song starts to play.

I start Shazam.

First try... "try again". Oh man.
Second try... "try again". Noooo.
Third try... SHAZAM!

"Story of Light"
William Orbit from Cafe Del Mar Volume 1.

The original album is Strange Cargo 3. The Cafe Del Mar series is a compilation of songs from various artist. I have downloaded songs from many of these sets, including Volume 1. It was funny that it was pretty close the whole time. I post this here simply to see if it can get picked up on search engines. I did find a message wondering what this song was on a message board somewhere at some point. Hopefully I can help someone find this song in the future.

Shazam really is awesome. If you get no return at first, keep trying. The third time was the charm on this song. I finally have the right song in my iPod.

Pens Win The Cup! Hossa Is Still a Loooooser!

I am so happy the Penguins won the cup. Hey Marion Hossa, I think it is safe to say that you are cursed! You played as bad as you could for the Atlanta Thrasher so you could get traded. Karma is coming around to bite you at this point. Those of us that saw you phone it in over and over here and saw you do NOTHING during the Thrashers playoff games a few years back are sending you nothing but negative waves.

So, what do you do next year? Lose!

iPhone ---> iCan (maybe iCon)

Well, AT&T continues to be high flying buttheads and continues to ignore its customers. I mean really, is that surprising? An interesting blog today talks about how AT&T didn't even show up for the Apple WWDC release of the new Apple iPhone 3GS. I am as shocked as I was when I heard that rocker Adam from American Idol is gay (like who didn't see that coming, duh, and should have won). The only thing I see AT&T staying focused on is calling my place of business every couple of weeks asking us if we want to drop our current provider (T-1 line) and switch to their DSL service for business. How many times do you need to hear "no".

I certainly hope Apple gets it soon. AT&T sucks. I love my Verizon service and don't want to change. I want the iPhone really bad, but I continue to wait. I am past my Verizon phone contract "new every two years" time-frame, but I continue to wait. I'll stick with my LG enV phone for now. I've had a taste of the Apple technology with my second generation iPod Touch.

Hey Apple, I've got an idea for you.

Verizon would probably go for anything you ask to get the device Apple offers. AT&T continues at their own pace (basically their hands in their pockets). One thing I have seen is that Apple may call the new device something else. Since the iPhone is way more than a phone at this point, don't go in the "iPhone Light" direction. That is moving backwards. Instead, call the new device the "iCan" or something progressive. Your technology is a full communication package after all. Don't hold back on features, move forward and put stuff in it that AT&T continues to ignore. Show AT&T that the "hands-in-your-pockets" and "too-good-to-show-up" attitude doesn't cut it these days. Leave AT&T in the dust and make *them* work to get better technology for a change. Complacency is the sure-fire way to be left behind.

Apple, don't fall into the AT&T sleep mode.
Verizon customers are here waiting for you.

Maybe the iCan could be the new icon. :-)
Call it the iCon, the icon of the communication world.

Dogs and Cats

The saga of the new kitty continues. Bobo has been diagnosed with Feline Aids. It is only contagious to other cats and only through bites. Since Bobo was fixed he has chilled out pretty much. We were concerned about him fighting with neighborhood cats. If he did, we were going to put him down. We cannot keep him inside at this point since he owns the dog door. He tries to play with Bubba, but he doesn't try to bite him at least. Bubba is too old to play, so it doesn't get too far. He is really turning into a good cat, though we know that he probably won't last for more than eight or ten years if we are lucky. He is a cool kitty and pretty affectionate. It is too tough to put him down.

In the back yard where he likes to hang out, we found a wild catnip plant. No wonder he likes it back there. If he sees me go back there he follows to make sure I leave his shrine along I think. We bring some of the catnip in for Bubba (inside only cat). So J.C. decides that if the cats are eating something, it has to be good for him too. Oh yeah, he LOVES catnip. It obviously does not make him crazy like it does cats, but he really wants his share if we bring some in. The boy will eat anything. We thought lemons and limes were odd enough. He is a crazy catnip loving puppymonster. What can I say.

Bobo and J.C. do still play some in the backyard. It is so funny to watch the two of them chase each other around. J.C. has a funny quirk. Every night at 9 PM, he begins his milkbone dance. You can pretty much set the world clock by his antics. The funniest part is that he wins I think. Daily milkbone. Too funny.


Dogs and Cats. Love the dudes.