iPod

I received a free iPod from Marlboro for promising to graduate. I would never have purchased an iPod for myself but was willing to try it out risk free. My impressions? So-so. Right away I started to have problems with it; I couldn't get it out of the plastic do-hickey attached to the box. It took a 14 year old that helps my wife with the horses to show me that you have to take the top plastic plate out of the box before you can see the instructions on the back of the plate showing you how to bend the plate to get the iPod out.

It was smaller than I expected it to be, too small. I was afraid I would break it or drop it or sit on it every time I touched it. Still, this class is all about trying new technologies so I "ripped" a couple of my favorite CDs to my hard-drive using windows media player, plugged my iPod into my computer (which recognized it immediately) and ... tried to "synchronize" with my iPod. No luck.

After some research (browsing) I discovered that only iTunes can synch with and iPod so I downloaded and installed iTunes (aggressively saying no every time Apple insisted I give them my credit card number so I could open and iTunes account) and tried loading the .wav files I had ripped from my CDs. Hmmm, apparently, only mp3 format files can be transfered from Windows Media Player to iTunes so I re-ripped the CDs in mp3 format and, finally got a couple dozen songs on my iPod. I listened for a couple of minutes and turned it off. Enough for one night.

In the subsequent days, I loaded a class lecture into my iPod and listened to a couple of minutes of that too, before turning it off. After picking it up and setting it down a couple of times, I concluded that I didn't like an ear-full of music, I liked a car or room full. Off to Best Buy to price my options. For car? SOL. I don't have a tape deck in my stereo (who listens to tapes any more) so hooking it up through my car stereo becomes an electronic problem. I can buy a very nice speaker set to hook my iPod into but I already have a nice set of Bose speakers and I'm not inclined to blow another couple hundred dollars for a lower quality sound.

Finally I said "screw it" and gave it to the 14 year old who had dropped hers in a puddle and tried to dry it out in a microwave.

For $35.00 at Radio Shack, I bought an attachment for my stereo so I can play MP3s from my computer on my house stereo. I'll keep you posted.