If youive read any of my previous ramblings, then youive likely read my lament about buying an iPod. Budget constraints continue to leave me iPodless, though I have had the occasion to play with one for a while. All that did was make me want one even more. So, in essence, Iim worse of than I was before.
You know how it seems that thereis always something that gets in your way just when you are about to achieve a long sought after goal? Such is my karma, it seems, because every time I scrape together enough soda bottles and pennies found in the gutter to purchase portable digital music bliss, some need will arise like a tree stump-weilding ogre, and bar my way to iPod nirvanna. Iim not a poor man, mind you, I make a fair wage, but I donit make enough to treat US$300 as pocket change. So, I grouse a bit after enviously eying iPod people, stare longingly at iPod ads on the tube, and start looking for pop bottles and pennies all over again.
I heard the rumors about a new iPod before MacWorld-SF this past January, and I did get a little excited. Those rumors claimed that Apple would release a dinky music player for around US$200. Depending on how dinky, I could see myself picking up one of these new players, if, indeed, the rumors were true. As it turned out, the rumors were both true and false: Apple did announce a new, smaller player, but the price tag was a tad higher than US$200.
The iPod mini, at first, seemed like a device looking for an audience to me. The price was the biggest point of confusion: For US$249 you get a music player thatis lighter and smaller than the iPod, but not substantially so, and you get 4 gigabytes of storage, which is substantially smaller than a full grown iPod costing a mere US$50 more. For the life of me I couldnit see who would pay for such a device. As Mike Tyson might say about such a circumstance, "Itis ludicrous!"
Well, Iim going to buy an iPod mini, a blue one, and when I get it, Iill like quote Mike again and proclaim that, "Iim ecstatic!"
Mike Tyson really has a way with word.
Many of you, including Mike, may be wondering why, on Earth, would I buy an iPod mini-me. In truth, I wondered that myself, especially after listing all of the reasons not to buy one; but my dear grandma once told me that it is usually best not to pick oneis nose in public, and it is always best to look at a problem from all sides. So, as I have listed reasons for snubbing the dinky digital player from Apple, so shall I list reasons to buy one.
My reasoning for seriously considering an iPod mini goes like this:
- The iPod mini is cheaper. Itis still US$50 over my US$200 budget, but if I rob my daughteris piggy bank and go without lunch for a month, I can swing it.
- Do I really need 15 gigabytes or more of portable storage in the guise of a music player? I currently have about 300 CDs and I have no intention of ripping all 300 into my Cube. Just ainit gonna happen. What I will do is rip whole albums and songs that I like and create a nice little playlist of favorites for road trips and excursions to the beach. If 900+ of my favorite songs arenit enough to keep me happy for a day in the sun, then something is seriously wrong with me.
- I get to pick a color. Donit get my wrong, I like the looks of the original white and silvery iPod, but Iim an expressive sorta guy; I like things just a tad off-center. A green or blue iPod mini speaks to me. It says, "Use me, Vern! Use me until my batteries run down!" I just donit hear that from an iPod.
- I could join the ranks of the exclusive iPod People, and even be more exclusive than they. Itis a shame Steve Jobs didnit push for making the earphone cables a matching color, that way I could be instantly recognized at an iPod mini owner as I bop down the street.
- The iPod mini is bleeding edge. Itis got the latest in wee hard drives in it, yet it retains all of the coolness of the original iPod. Schweet!
- And last, but not least; I just want one, dammit! Thereis nothing wrong in admitting that I prefer my iPod with some color on it, and that I like that itis smaller, even if it isnit that much smaller. Itis cool and I want one. So sue me!
So, since Friday, February 20, 2004, at 6PM, I can buy an iPod mini. Some say that Apple missed the boat on the iPod mini by selling it for US$50 too high. I say my daughter will never miss the change, and I could stand to lose a few pounds.
We must have our priorities, after all.