The IPOD has changed my life. I don't listen to much music, but this small
device has changed my life.
Until acquiring my first IPOD in the past month I was addicted to live
radio. I gave it up gold turkey (although it's worth noting that baseball
season hasn't started yet). Podcast is my new favorite word. I've
"subscribed" to a wide array of Podcasts that automatically get delivered to
my PC every day or every week. The sleek IPOD with its companion iTunes
seamlessly manages my personal collection of downloaded audio shows. I get
tidbits from NPR, I get a weekly dose of left wing doctrine from Mother
Jones magazine and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for a change of pace I get in
touch with my inner bastard with a small sampling of Tom Leykis and I
enjoy listening to people's computer problems with KFI's tech guy
Leo Laporte. All commercial
free!
But the podcasts go beyond repurposing radio for an IPOD. I also subscribe
to an eclectic set of other podcasts including a replay of NBC's Meet the
Press, a funky Science Fiction story of the week, and a London-based Howard
Stern-like DJ named Chris Moyles. There is even a Harvard sponsored lecture
series on Constitutional Debates as well as a seemingly infinite list of
quirky hosts and topics.
The IPOD allows me to listen when I like, pause when my ears are required
for other activities and then resume again. The sleek design, colorful
screen and intuitive controls do much more than any of the previous three
MP3 players I have owned. Now I have a problem with those white ear buds
that define the IPODs (even the black ones). My IPOD is personalized with my
more masculine black and blue Panasonic ear buds as well as my name
carefully engraved on the back.
I periodically return my IPOD to the mother ship where it mates with its
software companion iTunes. iTunes has been busy scouring the web
updating my podcasts automatically and once linked to the IPOD it carefully
checks to see what I've listened to (and erases it) and what's new and loads
it to my IPOD--all without a key stroke or button.
But it doesn't stop there. I
purchased a software product called
Replay Radio.
Essentially it is a Tivo for live Internet streaming radio stations. And if
you haven't noticed virtually every radio show is being broadcast on the
Internet. Select the show, and it automatically records the show saving it
to an MP3 format. When it is done it automatically adds the finished file to
my iTunes software. Since many streamed radio stations have no commercials,
there is also a feature that eliminates dead air making these almost as good
as the commercial free Podcasts. Since not every radio show offers a full
podcast version, Replay Radio is the perfect IPOD complement.
This might be too much media freedom for any one talk radio junky. So,
beginning at about 10pm each night I've been recording programming from all
corners of the globe. I'm up to speed on international and local issues from
Australia to South Africa to the UK and Washington DC. I found a show on
terrestrial activity, a demented songs radio show and it all gets captured
while I sleep.
At just $149 (1GB Black Nano) this device is a bargain in my book. I
was listening to tech guru
Leo
Laporte the other day and he had a caller who began like this: "I've
been a Windows user since the beginning. I like getting in underneath the
surface and am pretty good at making it work and fixing it when it doesn't.
I really enjoy my Windows computer and I've been anti-Mac just because I
have so much experience with Windows. Frankly I just can't be bothered to
learn a new operating system. Then my son game me an IPOD. I was fascinated.
It was so much easier to use that I would have thought. The device was
better designed than any technology product I had ever touched. I loved it.
And so I marched into the computer store and purchased a Mac computer...."
I'm still using Windows computers and have no plans to buy a Mac, but I have
to agree that the IPOD is the best designed product of the century and has
opened up my ears to a wider world than my local radio or lowest common
denominator TV has been able to offer. If only I had a longer commute!
