I am interested in your article and enjoyed your blog！

Please keep it for us.

Thank you!

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=B6550089&fnode=home/shop_ipod/ipod_accessories&nplm=MB051LL/A

We still use iPods for our permanent collection, but they aren’t tours per se. It’s sort of a “create your own” tour. There’s probably 100+ stops on those iPods, divided into categories. People can pick and choose what works they want to listen to for more info. We don’t force a path on people.

For Picasso though there are, I think, 17 stops, so it’s much less info to deal with.

Nice lo-tech approach! I thought i’d share some of my experiences with doing SFMOMA’s iPod tour content and upload: Apple was able to secure a small vendor (sorry I don’t have their name) to create a charging rack for the 100 iPods(!) in SFMOMA’s inventory. The issue that I have consistently run into is that there appears to be a maximum of 20 iPods that can be mounted. (Looking at your screenshot, I counted 19, so your site is consistent with this finding). Also, your screenshot shows mounted disks for the OS, but not within iTunes, which may or may not show all mounted disks (can’t remember offhand if I saw any logic to this, though I do remember a problem the other way, when the ‘enable disk use’ option somehow became disabled on some previously set iPods)

The bottom line is that, despite some back and forth with Apple, the iPod is a consumer device, and as such, it has its limits in doing things like this–your solution works as well as a bespoke charging rack, and for less money–the only caveat is that it won’t scale up with a larger inventory of iPods;>

Regarding other issues, the iPod is at its best for shorter tours, as longer ones require more scrolling, which isn’t quite as handy as a keypad-based system. Also, while its a handy feature to be able to tag images to audio stops, the square format and small size diminishes the readability of images–Picasso isn’t so bad, but the work of abstract artists such as Brice Marden doesn’t come across as well.

As for teaching people how to use the iPod, our first track on the iPod is an instructional piece called “How to use this iPod”. If someone doesn’t know we play that for them (if they can’t figure out how to play it themselves) and this has cut down a lot on people asking how to use them (we still get a few who need help, but this has cut it down a lot).

I agree it’s a juggling act. In many ways it helps prove our original idea of letting people use their cell phones in the galleries for the same content. Everyone knows how to use their own phone, and we don’t have to make any transaction for them to use it.