iPod has left the building
iPods are ubiquitous here in the UK. Maybe they are back home by now but somehow i don't think so. There's something 'haunting' about personal music players, the way they insulate people from the world around them.
Now don't get me wrong, I would love to have one, I think it's pretty cool being able to amuse yourself on the train or a flight with your own music but when you walk down a crowded street and see every second person with those little white cables coming out of their ears... i feel like someone is going to do a donald sutherland on me (think invasion of the body snatchers, the very last scene before the credits).
So i guess for me, there are places where you really are just strangers jammed in together (the tube, a flight, a bus) where you really don't care about anyone else - and then the rest. There's something energising about being 'around' people without being 'with' people and i propose that to be a part of this energy and not merely consuming it, you have to embrace it with all your senses.
If going to a cafe by yourself and reading a book sounds like the activity of a madman, then i guess you don't understand what i'm talking about - move along, nothing else to read here. The place that springs to my mind when i think of this is a) London, anywhere and b) Chapel St in Melbourne. If you've been to either and not felt as though community and vibe are real things to be savoured and appreciated then you're lost to me, i can't even begin to understand how you interact with people on a day to day basis.
This wanders slowly into my post topic: I can't buy an iPod.
Yep, I put it off until I had a long flight coming up when I would really appreciate it and then when i went to the mac shop, they guy said 'only XP or OSX 10.3'. This bummed me out big time, i have a mac at home with iTunes and i have been using it WAY LONGER THAN ALL YOU XP WANABEES and now, i'm old and crusty and need to be shunned by the uber-cool white brigade. I can't even download a patch to run these iPods on 10.2.8, i thought back-compatible was standard these days? Apple won't even back-date 6 stinkin' months!
I tracked down a compatiblity chart from Apple and the best iPod i can get is a special edition U2 pod with colour display. I hate U2, and to think I now have to wear their label just to play some freakin' music... and don't get me started on the competition! I've got a PhD and can't make $hit out of the technical specs they quote. All i want to know is: how many songs does it hold and can i plug it into my stinking Mac? you'd think it'd be on page "£$%"£$ one, but no, it's acronym soup with a side of condescension. Get stuffed if you think i'm risking £200 on a piece of kit that probably won't work and i've got bugger all chance of making work.
Screw you Apple, I love your products but i can't afford to upgrade every year.
PS anyone know anyone with an old iPod they're trying to get rid of? i'll even settle for a black U2 one....
Now don't get me wrong, I would love to have one, I think it's pretty cool being able to amuse yourself on the train or a flight with your own music but when you walk down a crowded street and see every second person with those little white cables coming out of their ears... i feel like someone is going to do a donald sutherland on me (think invasion of the body snatchers, the very last scene before the credits).
So i guess for me, there are places where you really are just strangers jammed in together (the tube, a flight, a bus) where you really don't care about anyone else - and then the rest. There's something energising about being 'around' people without being 'with' people and i propose that to be a part of this energy and not merely consuming it, you have to embrace it with all your senses.
If going to a cafe by yourself and reading a book sounds like the activity of a madman, then i guess you don't understand what i'm talking about - move along, nothing else to read here. The place that springs to my mind when i think of this is a) London, anywhere and b) Chapel St in Melbourne. If you've been to either and not felt as though community and vibe are real things to be savoured and appreciated then you're lost to me, i can't even begin to understand how you interact with people on a day to day basis.
This wanders slowly into my post topic: I can't buy an iPod.
Yep, I put it off until I had a long flight coming up when I would really appreciate it and then when i went to the mac shop, they guy said 'only XP or OSX 10.3'. This bummed me out big time, i have a mac at home with iTunes and i have been using it WAY LONGER THAN ALL YOU XP WANABEES and now, i'm old and crusty and need to be shunned by the uber-cool white brigade. I can't even download a patch to run these iPods on 10.2.8, i thought back-compatible was standard these days? Apple won't even back-date 6 stinkin' months!
I tracked down a compatiblity chart from Apple and the best iPod i can get is a special edition U2 pod with colour display. I hate U2, and to think I now have to wear their label just to play some freakin' music... and don't get me started on the competition! I've got a PhD and can't make $hit out of the technical specs they quote. All i want to know is: how many songs does it hold and can i plug it into my stinking Mac? you'd think it'd be on page "£$%"£$ one, but no, it's acronym soup with a side of condescension. Get stuffed if you think i'm risking £200 on a piece of kit that probably won't work and i've got bugger all chance of making work.
Screw you Apple, I love your products but i can't afford to upgrade every year.
PS anyone know anyone with an old iPod they're trying to get rid of? i'll even settle for a black U2 one....
posted by Joe at 11:51 AM
2 Comments:
"'only XP or OSX 10.3' ... I can't even download a patch to run these iPods on 10.2.8, i thought back-compatible was standard these days? Apple won't even back-date 6 stinkin' months!"
Backward compatible means you can run your old stuff on your new stuff, not use your new stuff with your old stuff.
To be fair, 10.4 (Tiger) was released in April(?) last year, and 10.3 (Panther) in June 2003, so your 10.2.8 based on the 10.2 line could be said to be 2.5 years old. That's a ling time in IT and an eternity in consumer electronics.
thanks boyd, always nice to have the cool, calm voice of reason intrude on a one-sided red-in-the-face rant post. still bummed though.
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