iPod Nation

I got a 20G iPod for a Christmas from my 'urban family'. So far I have loaded it with 2075 songs and I only have it filled about halfway. I also have my MS Outlook contacts loaded and a few notes files including my travel itinerary for my Christmas travels to my parents. It's VERY cool and I am enjoying it quite a bit. I thought that I would share some observations in no particular order.

The interface to the iPod is simply great. Great engineering, great ergonomics. Super.

The Apple music store is a great concept. It's very easy to buy music and have it loaded into your playlists. In fact, they make it so easy that it's very compelling to buy music this way. The only beef I have is that while I have bought about six songs so far, I really can't see buying whole CDs this way. First of all the price of a whole CD is not much cheaper than a real CD but the product is not as good. The bit rate is 128kbps which is inferior to a CD and of course it is a soft copy only. If the computer crashes, it's gone. Sure - you can make backups (to CDs!) but that's inconvenient. I'm hopeful that price pressure will make these electronic songs MUCH cheaper than the corresponding CDs - I think it will be good for the artists and the consumer. Simply put, more music will be sold. I was looking for Charlie Parker today and a very well respected three CD package goes on Amazon for about $50. It's about $40 on Apple iTunes. For about $20 to $25 I'd probably grab it online and live with the slightly less fidelity and hassle of making backups. That's $20 to $25 that the retailers and artists aren't getting now.

I think it's only a short time until some of our mobile devices get integrated better. I really believe it's kind of silly to carry around an iPod, a cell phone, a digital camera, a PDA, a satellite radio, etc... It is silly but right now we're at a point where we are only starting to see the integration of these type of devices. It won't be soon enough.

A tip: You can record streaming audio digitally and transfer it to your iPod for listening on the fly. I have used this to record some back programs on NPR (All Songs Considered, Fresh Air, audio articles on things that interest me, etc..) for listening to on the airplane. You have to buy additional software to do this. I bought a package called Total Recorder for $12 and it works great. Of course when you record a stream, you are recording in real time - but you can do other things while it is recording. Some may find that they want to record some of the great streaming digital music stations around.

Oh - I upgraded the headphones to Sony earbuds (MDREX71SL). They stay in the ear a bit better and eliminate more background noise. Not as good as my studio headphones but pretty good for 'going mobile'.