1) Make a new Pandora station from something you normally don’t listen to a lot or don’t have in your music library but still like. (If you’re not familiar with Pandora, it’s a huge catalog of metadata about music. Not just by artist, but by track. So, if you really like “Hotel California” you can create a station with similar tunes. Pandora is an outgrowth of the music genome project that aims to fully describe all music. Impressive goal, and they’re mostly spot on.) I just created a station based on Dave Matthews Band. I don’t have them in my library, and I generally like their sound. I won’t say all the music that has come up has been a five star rating, but it’s been mostly good stuff. You can also add to a station in order to broaden the selection.

2) Swap iPods with someone. This one doesn’t really work for me since I have an iPhone, but maybe have a friend fill up a Shuffle with some of their favorite tunes that you don’t currently have. This is a great way to expose yourself to new music and to learn more about your friend in the process. A related practice (that I won’t recommend for Brett since he’s married) is a podswap. If you’re on the subway or bus and there’s a cutie sitting nearby, swapping iPod jacks can be a great way to strike up conversation without having to say a lot and you can learn a lot more about someone by the music they listen to than by most anything else.

Hope these ideas help, Brett. And when you do find some new stuff that is totally awesome, I hope you’ll send a heads up my way.

When Apple releases an update, those participating in the hacking festivities have to decide whether or not to upgrade. With the iPhone 1.1.1 update, we got a slew of new features including home button double-click, the double space shortcut, additional SMS notification tones, and the iTunes Wifi Music Store to name a few. This makes it harder for hackers to lag in their upgrading.

So, now, it’s up to the hackers. They’ll get back to work on breaking into the iPhone and iPod Touch. That goes without saying. And as the dance continues, Apple will need to continue to push out new features and provide other compelling reasons for users to upgrade their device software.

So, the reason hacking matters is because it’s good for users. And not just for the intrepid users who are making use of the hacks. Hacking puts pressure on Apple to provide compelling reasons, i.e. new features, for users to upgrade, and that is good for all users.

[I]t does look like a true, calls-over-WiFi VoIP client for the iPhone could be just around the corner.

In my opinion, this is precisely why Apple is so aggressively guarding the iPod Touch from hackers.

The quality of VoIP and the ubiquity of WiFi in many areas makes this a clear choice. It’s not just about the price difference between the iPhone and iPod Touch (which is likely only a minor consideration if you’re considering one or the other). I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t jettison an AT&T relationship (and its associated bill, of course) for a free or dirt cheap VoIP option.

This may relate to VoIP explicitly, but I see it more as a general rule of protecting their interests. In the wake of yesterday’s flurry of applause for Amazon’s new MP3 sales service, I can precisely see where Apple wouldn’t want a native version of Amazon’s Downloader for iPhone or iPod Touch as that would put at risk their most long-awaited feature for any iPod as well as the cash cow that is the home base iTunes Store.

In this respect, I see a certain degree of paranoia coming out of Apple. Maybe it’s a result of dealing with music and movie publishers. (I would also add mobile phone companies to that list.) Whatever the reason is, it’s unbecoming of Apple.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)