Just too much to pass up

[jaunthie]

I should really know better by now. I've known humilitas for (yikes!) around 20 years, and when she says she is a Certified Bad Influence, she ain't kidding.

We met for coffee and chat on Sunday morning, since it had been entirely too long since we'd seen one another, and I thought I was going to head on into work, so it made sense to make a slight detour and get together first. In the course of our conversation, which ranged over many, many subjects, she happened to mention her sister had a spiffy new iPod with video capabilities and everything. Humilitas is a confirmed Mac-user, and loves her own iPod, but had to 'fess up to new-iPod envy.

I said something along the lines of "hm, yes - but video?" and she agreed that it wasn't really necessary, but having a 30 GB portable hard drive that also played music, kept your calendar, and so on - and is about the size of a hard-sided business-card case - was cool, and the crispness of the video was impressive given the miniscule size of the screen.

I nodded, not really convinced - as I'm sure she could tell. I've long been skeptical of the need for iPods. Sure, they're really cool devices, and don't get me wrong; I love technological toys. I also happen to like Apple computers, going all the way back to the Macintosh lab days in college. But iPods are expensive, and they're really obnoxiously ubiquitous in some circles, and the whole "technological device as status symbol" really raises my hackles as a general rule.

Humilitas just nodded wisely at me and said that someday soon I too would be convinced by their utility, their form factor, and their general coolness.

I should've just detoured right then and there to the Apple store.

Instead, after coffee I decided that I'd rather work from home, so I could cycle laundry and attend to other domestic chores in between working online. While doing so, the iPod idea so insidiously planted by humilitas keeps working around the edges of my conscious mind. I am reminded in the course of the morning that my portable USB drive (256 MB) has recently given up the ghost; it's not being recognized anymore by most computers. I do need to get a replacement, and something with small size but lots of storage is definitely worth considering. And I've just returned from a trip, where I couldn't listen to music on the plane because the portable CD player we brought didn't function.

I mention humilitas' comment about iPods to fisherbear, who immediately pipes up with "yeah, I've been thinking about maybe getting one of those, so I can easily transfer image scans." Never mind that he has a laptop that he's been using for that purpose for a long time, and that the film scanner he's been using for medium-format work isn't likely to be available much longer (alas!). He's interested too.

Uh-oh. And there's an Apple store not 2 miles from our house.

Not wanting to go overboard, I suggest that fisherbear check out the price and size ranges of USB drives. Needless to say, they're a lot smaller but also a lot cheaper than iPods. Then, perhaps inevitably, we venture out to the Apple store to check out what the fuss is all about.

I must confess I was not blown away by the user interface as some of the hype would suggest I should be. Any gadget that a) plays back media for you to listen to on headphones and b) does not have an obvious volume control or off switch is problematic, particulary upon first exposure. It's not an intuitively obvious gadget in several ways, at least not to me. And the iPod Shuffle is just silly. But overall, I was intrigued enough that I was inspired to inquire at the counter if the model I was considering was available.

It was.

I dunno. Maybe it was pure deviltry. Maybe it was the gods whapping me upside the head with a clue, a sign, whatever. In any event, the next words just popped out of my mouth. "Any chance there might be a discount for employees of other technology companies?"

"Sure, some of them," the nice young man behind the counter replied. "Which one?"

So I named the company I work for. Those of you who know me know which one it is. For the rest of you, just suffice it to say that it could be construed as a rival of Apple. It can also be construed as a partner, as we do develop stuff for them. The former interpretation is much more likely, and given the somewhat notorious history between the two companies, I rather expected a quick "no, no, of course not", possibly followed by a hasty escort out of the store.

"Oh yes. It's X percent."

The world shuddered to a halt, creaking to a stop on its axis while I pondered between bursting into hysterical, manaical laughter, falling over in a frenzied fit, or just recognizing Fate when it bites me in the butt. The joke was really just too good.

The world is turning again, and Bree (for so I have named the iPod) is sucking up songs into its prodigious drive as I write this. For the record, I must say this: Bree's already crashed once, when I first plugged it into my primary home computer, so no obvious victory of the superiority of Apple over PC about crashes and bluescreens, thank you very much. I had to figure out how to reboot the darn thing, which is not at all obvious - and made even more difficult by the fact that they don't include ANY documentation in the product packaging. Fortunately I had an online connection, and their online docs are pretty good once you find them.


Apple, I will go on the record as saying you've built a really neat product. I'm very happy with my new gadget so far. But one word of advice from a long-time techie: it is not so user-friendly and perfect that it does not require ANY documentation in order to set up and use. Next time, consider including at least a small booklet of documentation inside your super-glossy packaging.

Of course I am prejudiced in favor of documentation. But even so. ;-)

Comments

[hiker-chick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally did not get how to adjust the volume and spent an entire workout straining to hear music rather than standard gym noise (machines, fans, grunts, etc.) When someone showed me, it made sense, but I was still miffed.

Humilitas is, indeed, a wise woman. You know, there's this thing called a TiVo... ;-)

[fisherbear.livejournal.com]

Heh. Somehow every conversation we have about TiVo wanders off into the merits of building a media PC, at which point I run off and start pricing fanless heatsinks and she adds another DVD or two to her Amazon wishlist. I suspect the status quo has legs for awhile yet. :)