I’ve been wanting a new iPod for a long time. Well, it didn’t _have_ to be an iPod because most of my music these days comes from Amazon (thank god for 256kbit MP3s). Though it is fair to say that iPods are still the best portable music player on the market. Plus if you go to the lower end ones, they are fairly cheap. I had been thinking about getting an iPhone 3G, but that just looked like a mess. I already carry a work phone with net access; the last thing I needed was a second PDA phone with data service (specifically data service that I’m paying for). If they made the data service optional, like it was on the first iPhones — then I would have been more tempted. I was also tempted to buy an iTouch, after all Lauren got one and I was totally jealous. But, really… I wanted something that plays music. I’ve never cared for portable video and wifi access doesn’t matter to me. At home I have no wireless (mostly because I don’t need it) and would have my computer anyways. When I’m “out” I have my AT&T Tilt for what little data I need (like my email). Granted, I also borrowed one of my boss’ iTouches for a while and it was also very, very shiny to have. But you know the main problem? No hardware buttons. With a normal iPod I can feel my way to “Next”, “Back”, “Pause” and Volume. Not so much with a Touch.
I listen to my iPod a lot more these days, as I go for a bike ride and walk (for an hour each) almost every day. I had been using a 2G Nano, but then my Mom wanted to replace her 1G Shuffle, so I gave her my Nano. That left me with my 5G Classic. Which isn’t a bad device, but hard drives are not good for exercise, it is dieing (battery and hard drive) and mostly I don’t want to sync it and nuke it because it has lots of old music I possibly/probably lost. So after much debate, I decided it was time for that new iPod. Really all I needed was a device to play music and if it couldn’t be integrated into my phone, then smaller would be better. So, I decided to go buy a Nano. Of course it doesn’t have the cool wow factor of many new toys… but that’s ok. I thought it would be nice to get away from the “standard” color scheme, so I got the 8 GB iPod Nano (PRODUCT) RED edition. Not because I really care about their stupid charity, but because I like red.
I must say though, if you look at the iPod Red page, you may think to yourself “well the color seems… like a light red”. Of course it isn’t “Pink”, because there is a normal iPod Nano in pink. But truth be told, the (RED) edition really could stand to be a deeper, darker red. I’m still happy with the device because the color really isn’t that important (it isn’t like I paid any more for it), but it would be nice to have it a tad darker.
In related news. The Apple store was a freaking disaster. Even a week plus after the iPhone 3G’s came out, there are lines outside of the stores for them. When I left, I counted 22 people in line, and at the rate it was moving — probably at an hour wait. Come on people, it is just a god damned phone. GO HOME. SPEND TIME WITH YOUR FAMILIES. FOR FUCK SAKE DO NOT STAND OUT IN FRONT OF AN APPLE STORE TO BUY A PHONE (WHICH YOU ALREADY HAVE) IN THE MIDDLE OF SUBURBIA.