robglazebrook.com

About a month and a half ago, my old MP3 player and I parted ways. I don’t know whether I lost it, or it was stolen, or (more likely) some combination of the two—as in, I left it somewhere and somebody else made it their own before I thought to look for it in that particular location. Whatever the case, it’s been MIA for six or more weeks. In fact, I’m not sure if I had it when this semester started. Maybe it was lost in the move. Long story short: Robby’s music go bye-bye.

Yesterday afternoon, I was finally fed up with not having an MP3 player. Having one comes in handy more than you’d think. A player allows me to tune out Justin’s television shows while I’m doing homework in the next room, provides an additional level of white noise in a crowded café, and helps me ignore the crazies on the bus who like to talk to their imaginary friends about the people around them. It also gives me an opportunity and excuse to listen to music. That may sound obvious, but when I don’t have portable music, I rarely have the chance to listen to music at all. And a life without music is sad.

I just now realized I was on a tangent again. :)

So I decided I needed a new MP3 player. I wanted one that would be really small, seeing as how my pockets are already decently full, considering I carry a digital camera, a cellphone, a flash drive, a pen, a pencil, a highlighter, and whatever change I happen to acculumlate, all on a daily basis. Since Justin and Quinn both have iPod Shuffles and are very fond of them, I decided I’d get a Shuffle too. So I headed to Durham Hall during my lunch hour to buy one.

I walked in, walked right up to the first sales representative I saw, and told him I wanted an iPod Shuffle, 1GB, please and thank you much. He reached to the shelf behind him to grab me one, and I heard myself say, “while I’m here, do you have an iPod nano I could play with? I’ve never seen one in person.” So the guy hands me a Shuffle and a nano at the same time. Shuffle in my left hand, nano in my right.

Sigh.

I ended up buying myself a 2GB white iPod nano. It was about $60 more than the Shuffle would have been, but it also holds twice as many songs, has a color screen, and lets me have more than one playlist (think one for the bus, one for exercising, and one for studying), so it’s sort of a trade-off. I didn’t let myself buy the 4GB version because it was $50 more, but I almost wish I had now… I was amazed to discover last night that I have nearly 10GB in music on my home computer. Who knew?

I do love it so far. Apple designers are some of the best on the planet, still. I’d never used an iPod before yesterday, and nobody has a user interface quite like Apple’s (seeing as how it’s copyrighted and all), but I’m already comfortable with it. When I don’t know how to do something on the screen, I try something, and I usually get it right on the first try. That doesn’t mean I’m a genius or anything… that means Apple did a fantastic job making an intuitive interface.

One of the smartest things Apple did, though, was ship the nano with a charged battery. I hate it when I excitedly open a new piece of electronics only to read the words “Please charge the battery 12 hours before turning the product on!” I pulled the nano out of the (wonderfully designed) box, turned it on, and was playing around within five seconds. They harnessed my excitement about a new toy and turned it into positive feelings for the product. I want to work for a company this smart someday.