So, now the RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use. I am so tired of hearing the recording industry whine about not getting enough money from the rest of us.

Engadget has a story about the record labels wanting more money for songs when sold through the iTunes Music Store. One of the reasons they state is because less people are buying the full CDs and just buying the songs they want, so they are making less money. I wonder though, if Jobs refuses to increase the price on songs, will the big record labels stop producing full "albums"? There always seems to be a few songs on a CD that are destined to become singles and then there are other songs that maybe don't fit the "format" for a hit single. Will the record labels force artists to only churn out "hits"? I hope not. Whenever I have bought a CD in the past for a couple of songs that I had heard on the radio, I almost always found other songs on it that I never would have heard on the radio, but I liked a lot.

Engadget has a story about the record labels wanting more money for songs when sold through the iTunes Music Store. One of the reasons they state is because less people are buying the full CDs and just buying the songs they want, so they are making less money. I wonder though, if Jobs refuses to increase the price on songs, will the big record labels stop producing full "albums"? There always seems to be a few songs on a CD that are destined to become singles and then there are other songs that maybe don't fit the "format" for a hit single. Will the record labels force artists to only churn out "hits"? I hope not. Whenever I have bought a CD in the past for a couple of songs that I had heard on the radio, I almost always found other songs on it that I never would have heard on the radio, but I liked a lot.

So, I finally got an iPod about a month back and I have been looking at different ways of listening to it in the car. I tried the Griffin iTrip. It is a pretty slick device, but I had two problems with it:

• I live in Phoenix, so it is difficult to find a station that is not in use or doesn't have interference from nerby stations.
 
• I have an iSkin eVo² silicone cover on my iPod. It is just thick enough to cause the iTrip to pop up out of the headphone jack.

Now, the iSkin website says you can use the iTrip with the iSkin on, but don't believe it! It will plug in and it works, but then after a few seconds it will pop up just enough to disrupt the connection. Since I wanted to keep my iPod protected and I like the iSkin eVo², I decided to take the iTrip back. I thought about getting another FM transmitter, but I couldn't find very favorable reviews of ANY of them.

Now what?!? Well, I decided to take a look at the manual for my receiver. I have a Kenwood KDC-316S. It's an AM/FM, CD player. It also has the ability to control and take input from a Kenwood CD changer. It has a plug on the back with a bunch of pins. I looked around on the web to see if there were adapters available for 1/8" miniplug or RCA jacks. I found one at Discount Car Stereo made by Precision Interface Electronics. It has two RCA jacks on one end so I took an RCA - 1/8" miniplug cable I had laying around and plugged it in. I put some duct tape around the connectors so they don't vibrate loose and tucked it all behind my car stereo. The miniplug end feeds through an open space under the dash and I just plug it into my iPod. The sound is great, much better than the FM transmitter ever sounded!

I noticed something weird the other day when I saw the new iPod advertisement with U2 performing Vertigo. Bono starts out the song speaking Spanish, "Uno, dos, tres, catorce..." Sounds like he is just counting off the start of the song, but that translates to "One, two, three, fourteen" in English. Where did he learn to count?!?

Update:  Thanks Chris! You're right, this is their 14th album, now it makes sense!