This Christmas I (and around 14 million others, if the figures are to believed) bit the bullet and joined the ipod bandwagon. I’d resisted for a long time, reasoning that I could play MP3s on my all-singing-all-dancing HP iPaq 4700, but the 4Gb card in my iPaq was full, and an 8GB card costs more than an actual ipod.
Naturally, I plumped for the top of the range model – a 60gb ipod video (in black – you never really get over Goth!). I really can’t see myself watching videos on it, but the color screen does display the album art very nicely, and I reasoned that with 60gb to play with I wouldn’t run out of space in a hurry. They say you can fit around 10,000 songs on it. So far I have ripped about 600 of my 800 CDs to it and have used a mere 35gb so I think I’m good for a while…
The ipod itself is great, and I do enjoy having all (or at the moment most) of my music collection at my fingertips. I’ve been sticking it on shuffle and have been hearing a lot of stuff for the first time in several years (prompting several moments of “What the hell was I thinking?”). But the itunes software that comes with it is disappointing. Where Windows Media Player will happily go off and find the album art for you whenever you rip a CD, itunes won’t. It also seems to store the art at the song level rather than the album level, which seems a bit wasteful. That said, I can forgive Apple that, for the ‘dynamic playlists’ option, where you can set criteria (release date, rating, genre…) to use for a playlist, and itunes will automatically add songs that match those criteria. The ‘music quiz’ is also a nice feature – it plays a random 10 seconds from a song, and you have to name it from a multiple-choice list. Fun.
What really annoys me though (and something that put me off getting one for so long) is the whole industry that has grown up around ipods. The selection of third-party accessories is astounding – from leather cases, to external speakers, to chargers, cameras, bluetooth adapters, etc. I swear, the other day I saw a car advertised as “ipod ready” – like anyone in their right mind would base a $20,000 purchasing decision on whether or not it was compatible with a $300 toy! But I can still feel myself being sucked in – my customized, leather Vaja case is on its way, and my (black) ipod sits in its pristine (white) docking station because I’m too lazy to plug the cable in myself. And that AirTunes adaptor is looking like I might just need it…
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