Stop-Gap Audio
(Tue Jan 11, 2005) [/Misc] #
I've been contemplating buying an iPod for years. It never happened because I couldn't justify (to myself) paying over $200 to listen to music in the in-between times. (Yes, I know there are other MP3 players.) See, I don't care to have even close to 20-GB of digital audio entertainment on a separate device. I own that much music, but I only listen to a fraction of it on any given day through the convenience of iTunes playlists. And when I'm sitting here, or in a hotel, or in an airport with ample power outlets, then I listen to digital audio on my laptop.
It's during the in-between times---driving around town, mowing the lawn, pedaling the mountain bike, carving snow on the board, or desperately seeking serenity on a plane while trying to conserve precious laptop battery---that an iPod would come in handy. I think the iPod Shuffle, announced today at MacWorld, fits the way I see myself using an iPod. It's a stop-gap solution for my laptop. So I ordered a 1G model, because the 512MB model wouldn't hold most audiobooks and the $50 price difference seemed to be a good value. (It also doubles as a portable USB flash drive, another device I'd find useful.) At $149, the 1G iPod Shuffle lacks many of the features of the iPod Mini, but it's also a full $100 less. And for me, less is more.
I'm not yet convinced I'll use the iPod that much while snowboarding because I rely so much on ambient sound for safety. But I will use it on the drive up to the mountain as the truck's AM/FM/cassette leaves much to be desired. 240 songs is more than enough to keep me entertained to and fro, and at the end of the day I come home to the laptop and a new selection of playlists.
