Thursday, October 26, 2006

Five years of iPods

Monday, October 23 was the fifth anniversary of Apple's launch of the iPod. So I'm a few days behind on this post. I just re-read my post from September 2004 where I discussed my then-brand-new iRiver MP3 player. At that time I described myself as "not an iPod guy" and said that I resented all the iPod owners I saw on the subway. Well, as a recent buyer of an iPod of my own, I guess I have to eat those words. Part of it was industry peer pressure. There are more accessories and third-party support options for iPod owners than for any other player, due to the iPod's overwhelming market share. And as much of a pain in the ass it has been to re-tag all of my music files so that they show up properly in the iPod's menu, it was a job that I'd been putting off for too long. Finally, while my old iRiver player had more built-in features, like an FM radio, line-in and microphone recording, and a dedicated line-out jack, I can count on one hand the number of times I used any of them (and in fact I never used the record function). I ran out of reasons NOT to buy an iPod. And having bought one, I'd have to say I'd get one again. I don't know if I'll run out and buy the rumored "widescreen video iPod" that iPod fanatics expect Apple to announce any day now. But when my current iPod is ready to go to gadget heaven, I'll probably go to the Apple store and get a new one.

I'm still resisting the temptation to get a Macbook.

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