I have to confess that when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod five
years ago today, commenting, "With iPod, listening to music will
never be the same again," my initial reaction was something like
whaaaaat?!? A pocket digital jukebox seemed like such a radical
departure from what Apple had previously signified to me
. . . sort of a Walkman
for MP3s, only more elegant. And the price made you suck in your
breath. Slow on the uptake, I guess.
I
shouldn't have underestimated the triple-whammy effect of the power
of music, Steve Jobs' promotional magic, and Jonathan Ive's sublime
design sense. My daughter immediately wanted one and bought one of
the first revision A models that made it here to Nova Scotia.
It was indeed a cool little gadget, but even once I got my hands
on one, I still didn't perceive it as the engine that would propel
Apple to massive profits and regained market share, not just in the
digital music player category - which it quickly dominated - but
also the so-called "halo effect" with increased computer sales
riding on the iPod's proverbial coat tails.
The iPod is . . . the definitive
consumer product of the first decade of the 21st century.
Part of my cognitive failure to grasp the significance of the
coming of the iPod or to imagine the enduring trend it would spawn
was that I don't think the profundity of the Sony Walkman
revolution, of which the iPod as a socio-cultural phenomenon is a
logical extension, had ever really sunk in. The iPod is more than a
paradigm-busting product for Apple; it's secured its place as the
definitive consumer product of the first decade of the 21st
century. Who'da thunk it?
I have a (cassette) Walkman; my kids and my wife all have
portable CD-players; and I have an iPod now, too. I love my iPod,
which I received "preowned" as a gift from a kind individual who
had moved on to a newer and better one, but the whole idea of
nonstop music in an "ultraportable package you can take everywhere"
(to quote Apple's original "prophetic" hype) just didn't grab me
and never has.
I don't recall ever actually going for a walk with either my
Walkman or iPod playing, both of which more often than not have
been used hooked up to a pair of powered speakers, although lately
I've been using a set of pro Proporta ear buds that I really like a
lot. I'm more oriented to listening to my music sitting down.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a music fan with a wide range of tastes
from baroque and classical to rock, jazz, pop, and country. I've
rarely missed an episode of Canadian or American Idol over the past
few years. And yet the sweetest music to my ears is often complete
silence, which is available where I live. I'm fortunate enough (at
least in my estimation) to live in a peaceful and isolated rural
redoubt where it's dead quiet most of the time.
I suppose it's a different dynamic when one is surrounded by the
racket of urban life, as most people are these days, but I still
have to wonder what the ultimate socio-cultural effect of so many
people spending large proportion of their time listening to
recorded music thanks to the convenience and ubiquity that devices
like the iPod facilitate.
By the same token, I've never been much for listening to music
in automobiles, right from the days when I had a big old buzzing
AM-only (no hardship, since there were no FM stations within range)
tube set set mounted on top of the transmission tunnel in my '61
Austin A55 Mk II back when I was 16.
A car radio was obligatory even back in the 60s (and the music
was pretty good) if you didn't want your friends and your
girlfriend complaining, but when I was alone, I found that I
preferred listening to the engine, the sound of the tires on the
highway, and "the windshield wipers slappin' time" if it was
raining. I still do to this day and have run into other motor-heads
who say the same.
I rarely even turn the car radio on except to catch the news and
weather. My car and my truck (both early-to-mid 90s vintage) have
decent cassette decks that I have never used.
Consequently, I find myself bemused at the priority emphasis
being placed on automotive sound systems these days. I was noticing
the other day that more than half the descriptive text in newspaper
ads for the new 2007 Dodge Nitro and Jeep Compass crossovers
(introduced this month) is dedicated to audio system specs
(including iPod docks). Lost on me, I'm afraid. I'm more than happy
with an AM/FM radio in my car.
But even Mac aficionados who don't have an iPod and have little
or no interest in obtaining one have plenty to thank the little
critter for. It has breathed new life and a brighter future into
the Mac platform - along with OS X and the switch to Intel
processors.
My iPod is a revision A 5 GB model identical to the one my
daughter bought back in '01. The hard drive died in hers last year,
and I got her an Apple Certified Refurbished 4 GB iPod mini to
replace it, but mine is still going strong - with a new lease on
life since I installed a high capacity TruePower battery from
FastMac earlier this year.
So far 5 GB has proved ample to contain my modest collection of
MP3s with plenty of room to spare. In I ever get around to figuring
out how to rip my collection of classical vinyl LP recordings to
MP3, I might test its capacity, but right now it's plenty - indeed,
even a 2 GB iPod nano would be. I could probably even get by
quite happily with a iPod shuffle, since I use shuffle mode most of
the time anyway.
As for iPod video, after failing to grasp the importance of iPod
mediated audio at first, I'm not inclined to be dismissive. Perhaps
portable pocket video will be a big thing, too. Personally, the
concept of watching a movie or a one-hour TV show on a 2.5" screen
doesn't seem all that appealing, but my daughter thinks it would be
great, so who knows?
Anyway, happy birthday iPod. I'm really not an "iPodoclast", and
I wouldn't want to be without one now, although, as I said, my
elderly 5 GB unit suits me just fine for the present.
And maybe I'll even warm up to iPod video eventually.
Go to the Miscellaneous Ramblings Review index.
