They are everywhere, and not only everywhere, they look too cool. Since its launch in 2001, 10 million have been sold and 8 million in the year 2004. So welcome in the next generation. 8 tracks, records, tapes, CDs, and now iPods.
I do not have one yet. My first feeling was when my friend had, and asked if I would care for him to use on my computer. By now immediately recognizable hip cream-colored headphones, I could not be any eye-to-feel-iPod on me with curiosity and perhaps a little jealous. I even started walking differently. Listening to Led Zeppelin, then Radiohead, and then some Bob Marley on his way to school, there is certainly more spring in my step and I was sitting in the class in a much better mood than usual. For two days, that’s all I have and immediately I could feel as his cult sucked.
And why wouldn’t you’ An iPod lets you put 10,000 songs inside something the size of a pack of cigarettes. Gone are the heavy, fragile CD cases and the Discman that skips after each step.
Is the iPod changing the way we listen to music’ Undeniably. With an iPod, we can take our music anywhere, and not just one album like we could with the walkman. Now we can carry our entire collections everywhere we go. It can play mixes at parties. You can bring it on the commute to work or for a jog. You can save Microsoft Word documents on it and photos for that matter. Don’t like a particular song on an album’ Delete it. Thanks to the iPod, music has become an even bigger part of our lives because now it’s just a click away, and it’s exactly how we want it.
Apart from the possibility of our entire collections being with us at all times, the iPod’s capabilities have done something even better. By being able to store over 700 albums, the iPod is encouraging us to try types of music we might not have listened to before. When burning a CD to an iPod takes a short few minutes, what’s there to lose’
But is it all just a trend’ Doubtful, especially with people spending on average 100 pounds on iPod accessories. It’s difficult to picture something people now say they can’t live without vanishing, unless Apple CEO Steve Jobs finds another way to outdo himself yet again. And on that note now Apple has come out with the smaller, cheaper version of the iPod called the iPod shuffle. Will it have the same impact as its predecessor’ Only time will tell.