Now that I’ve sold my iPod Nano 2G along with my PowerBook G4, my thoughts naturally turn to what will replace it. And after rolling my eyes at the thought of the Shuffle I was presented with one recently, and found myself loving iPods all over again. I’m not sure why, but there’s something about getting surprised by this tiny little gadget that makes the experience fun again. In DC I existed between Apple’s earbuds and put miles on my New Balances with my iPod. It held my entire music library and allowed me to play the occasional movie file if need be. But it was all about the commute on public transportation there; now that I’m driving myself to work every morning watching videos is out of the question, as is searching through 5,000 mp3s.
And I really thought there must be tons of people out there with long commutes who thanked Apple and Sony daily for these gadgets that could entertain them with tiny movie clips. I was wrong. So now I’m thinking: yeah, a video iPod would be pretty kick-ass, but beyond the coolness of mere ownership I have no use for such an item. Will it be an engineering marvel? Of course. Just look at Apple.com to see some of the sheer genius these guys are capable of. For further proof, crack open a shippin (or even discontinued) Mac and look inside. Macs aren’t engineered so much as birthed. So the birth of the viPod will be cool, and I’ll belly up.
Until then I’m marveling at this Shuffle and how it manages to illicit hell yeahs from me every time I use it. ~