Here Be Dragons

iPOD

Oooo new iPODs are sexy bitches. Somewhat like Hamish, only sexy.

I have for some time (literally years) contemplated portable media. I almost angst over it, fortunately I grow bored and move on, but I have never made a decision. For the first few years dsicmans were the leading contender, but I never bought one as I was poor. Then finally people (like Si, then Nic) got themselves mini disc players (although Nic hasn't worked out that he needs a portable player, otherwise they are renderred obsolete by his CD burner) and then eventually came MP3 players.

Wang. Now MD players took a slight lead over CD players, but I was never convinced I really needed one, and I was pretty sure I would never bother to copy heaps of my CDs onto MD and thus would just piss around (this may be tied to the fact that I never got the whole "mix tape" groove on back in the day, but perhaps not). So that was that.

MD did eventually bring out long play, and that was better, but at x4 the quality is ultra crap, and therefore... crap.

MP3 Players?

Ah yes. MP3. How I love it. What I don't love it sod awful shitty little capacity devices. "Oh we are so small and sexy" they scream in their advertising, "look we are the same size as a stick of gum, or a match box or something" the shrill hoping to get my money. Look at your 64mb capacity! Look at your filth.

What would be the point of a 64mb player. You would spend all your time transferring music on and off, off and on, and no time listening. Even if you did listen it would only be good for short journeys, or jogging. I would be utterly useless for the type of purpose I like portable music for; journeys. Be it on buses, automobiles, trains or planes, having music with you is super.

Some of the HD based MP3 players have dealt with the capacity problem, and indeed don't seem to suck too much. Except when you look at them, or weight them. They are ugly. They are big. They are heavy.

Now on the ugly side, many of them are just outright ugly. Won't debate this, just accept that some people should not be allowed to design things (that would be people like me by the way).

On the size side, I'm not actually too worried. I'm OK with discmans as they stand, and anything smaller than a discman gets my vote. I just don't get some people going all ga ga over MD players "because they are soooo much smaller than discmans." Yes they are a bit smaller, but don't you have pockets? I think you do. Some people really go for this and they are the suckers that fall for the memoery stick MP3 players "oh they are so small and cool." Perhaps, but they play 10 songs. So again, sod off.

On the weight side of things again I'm not too worried. I'm certainly not a weight nazi like some reviewers appear to be, but I do think they should be pretty light otherwise they aren't portable, they are simply heavy.

Wang! iPOD solves all problems. Yes, yes it does.

The largest iPOD (30 Gig) weighs only 175 Grams. How small is it? fits in your hand as per this goon, this thug and this hand.

They are cool. I wants one. Harl didn't seem to think they were too flash, and suggests 30 Gig is not enough (or that they won't put out bigger ones) At this stage I don't care. 30 Gig is larger than my hard drive, and while I may one day have that much, I'm not going to worry about it for some time. Even if I had 40 Gig of MP3s would I need to take them with me everywhere? No. I wouldn't.

Sod. They don't do everything I wanted. They don't pick up FM (they can transmit it though).

Perhaps this is my weird want. Others want it small, or sexy or light, and I want it to pickup radio. Perhaps perhaps perhaps. Nonetheless I have always wanted it.

And the iPOD don't got it. Harl seemed when I talked to him about it that this wasn't important as he doesn't listen to the radio anymore he just has his MP3s. That in my opinion is crap. How do you hear new music? (The answer all new music is crap will get you smacked (down)). For example Lis, she in general doesn't listen to the radio. So does she hear new Pearl Jam songs when they are released? No. She doesn't not for ages, perhaps it is OK to wait to hear them (ie someone eventually points the song out to you, or they release an album etc) but what about all the other songs you might like that you hacen't ever heard. Seems a bit silly to me to just say "I have MP3s and radio is DEAD." I guess I could download songs I didn't know, but having lived with non-broadband, that is a pipe dream for now.

This really is unstrtuctured isn't it.

Tough. In conclusion, I like what I see in iPODs, and need to find one to play with and test for "actually being cool." Coupled with one of these Sony gadgets, my FM tuner problem should be eased if not completely satisfactorily.

Posted by luther at April 29, 2003 10:13 PM