iPodder

Usually, I'm an early implementor on technology, particularly software and technique. The one place I just wasn't impressed, wasn't moved was the iPod. Why do I need another level of complications? As a veteran of the Broadcast.Com to RealPlayer to Real to Windows Media -- what could possibly make it worth it to move my MP3s once again. I could copy them straight to players, like the old Axim V51 and now my ATT Tilt. Who needed another system, another device.

Of course, all the Dell DJs weren't enough for my oldest, he got his iPod a couple of months ago. My wife had complained about the difficulty of moving files (what, honey, you just drag and drop) on her various MP3 players. My 11-year-old daughter, she's a Napster plays-for-sure swapping fool.

But, the breakdown of Juice and Vista has driven me to try iTunes and a Classic for podcatching.

My co-workers were shocked to overhear my conversations with our New Media director and Kyle Kellams over at KUAF as I was deciding between a Nano and Classic. After listening to my rants about iTunes jacking up desktops (which, lets be frank, it use to do in a corporate environment), they were stunned to learn I was crossing over. A week of fitzing with the interface on the iPod, I have something to say:

I

Was

Wrong

Oh, so, incredibly wrong. How much of my life was waisted on learning the ins-and-outs of various Windows-based players? I have learned one thing -- only old people have Classics. When I bought it, the 17-year-old at the checkout looked at the box with some kind of twisted nostalgia and proclaimed, "Huh, it's been forever since I've seen one of those."

Yeah, but I've got 80 gigs of jams, dude; a lot of it the original versions of the things you're banging your head on you Nano.

Chalk this one up for all those people who've said I was inflexible. Hah!