Death of a Disco Dancer

After nearly four years of heavy uses, my iPod has entered the last days of its existence. For about two months the click wheel has been constantly frustrating me. It started by not going back to the previous menu when the 'menu' button was pressed. It acted like the select button. Lately, the wheel has been so touch sensitive that scrolling usually ends up causing something to be selected. The final blow occurred when I plugged the iPod into my laptop, and iTunes said that the player was corrupt and I wasn't even allowed to alter playlists or add anything new to it.

Despite the inconvenience and the timing coinciding with somewhat of a momentary money pinch, I shouldn't complain too much. This is a machine that was obsolete within a couple months of purchase. I have one of the last generation black and white models that I've heard is one of the most reliable of the brand. It lasted four years of constant daily usage. My iPod is more important to me than my cellphone.

It's amazing to think how much an mp3 play has effected my music listening. I still buy CDs; last year was one of my biggest disc purchasing years for me in quite some time. However, the ability to carry almost two hundred albums worth of music in my pocket has been incredible. I enjoy making playlists and I buy songs off iTunes as one would buy a single. In addition, the ability to edit and recraft an artist's album by subtracting songs and adding session B-Sides is complete music geek joy.

I find the iPod Touch to be very appealing. Wifi internet, touch screen, bells, whistles, no phone plan, but I don't really need it. Besides, for the same money I could get an iPod Classic with a color screen that plays video and has way more memory. Storage space and reliability is more important to me than all that other really cool stuff.

Of course, I could get a new cellphone that plays mp3s. Still, there's the issue of storage space, interface, and playlist creation. I haven't really explored those options, but I have a feeling that those machines will understandably be phone first, mp3 player second. That LG Dare looks tempting, though. It's the Verizon answer to the iPhone and I've read good things about it.

In the meantime, I'll continue to yell at my iPod and wrestle to get it to play the song or podcast that I want to hear. At work, I should be fine, since I subscribe to Sirius and I stream it through the computer. My commute to work is very short, so Morning Edition on the way to work and All Things Considered on the way home should entertain and inform me enough. I could always dig out some old cassettes, too.

Breaking News! As of this posting, my iPod now occasionally will stop in the middle of a song, pause for about five seconds and then move on to the next song. This happened for about three songs in a row before I got to listen to one in its entirety. The horror... the horror!