This Is My Last

Happy 25th Birthday, iPod (And 25 Things About iPod and Me)

1: My first iPod was a blue iPod mini. My last iPod was an iPod touch. It was only about four years between the two purchases, but the iPod era was huge for Apple.

2: I really liked the iPod earphones; they were comfortable for my ears. But they do easily break. And I did buy a lot of earphones from Apple.

3: Except for the earphones, I never bought any iPod accessories from Apple. Not the iPod Hi-Fi, nor the iPod socks. The socks are silly, in my opinion.

4: I am not a music person. But I wanted something to replace my portable FM radio so that I can continue to listen to programs when my commute went from above-ground to underground, halfway during the journey.

5: I can't dance. (The only thing about me is the way that I walk.)

6: iPods had Audible support built-in, and listening to audiobooks reversed my ever-decreasing annual read-count since getting out of school and into the adult world.

7: The first audiobook that I listened on an iPod was Stephen King's Bag of Bones. Audible sold audio books by credits, so obviously I chose a credit-worthy long audiobook.

8: Apple added Podcasts into iTunes + iPod shortly after I brought my first iPod. That greatly increased the value of the iPod for me.

9: Out of the many podcasts from that first year of podcasting, there are two that I am still following today: The Dawn and Drew Show, and Evil Genius Chronicles.

10: We used to 'subscribe' to podcasts, but Apple changed it to 'follow'.

11: I purchased radio SHARK to record audio programs off RealAudio. Yes, there was a time when there weren't enough podcast episodes in the world to fill my days.

12: Yes, I did watch video podcasts back in the day. Yes, there were video podcasts back then, and they weren't on YouTube.

13: Yes, I also did watch actual movies on that little tiny fat iPod nano screen.

14: I played Vortex a lot on my iPod nano. Got to keep my eyes and fingers busy while my ears are reading books.

15: I learnt AppleScript so that I can automate playlist creations on iTunes.

16: iTunes was a very cool app, back in the day. Apple Music, the app, is still a mess today.

17: I am not impressed by the half-and-half iPod user interface that Apple introduced. Neither am I impressed by Cover Flow. (Sorry, Steve Jobs.)

18: I've never purchased an iPod classic. Since I mostly listen to audiobooks and podcasts, I don't need that many songs in my pocket.

19: I never have any reasons to buy an iPod shuffle; but now that it's gone, and I am surrounded by screens, I wish I’d one.

20: The click wheel was a good user interface, and many of us thought the iPod phone will surely have a click wheel too.

21: There wasn't an iPod app on the iPod touch. You are already holding an iPod, for goodness sake, and you don't need another iPod in your iPod. (Today, of course, there is Apple TV service in the Apple TV app on the Apple TV box.)

22: I played a lot of Super Monkey Ball on the iPod touch.

23: The only worthy competitor, in my opinion, is Microsoft's Zune. The fatal flaw is that it only arrived on the eve of the iPhone's launch. Everyone else was only building half a product, failing to even try competing with iTunes.

24: Apple made fun of Windows and Intel chips a lot in their commercials, but they never even bother to mention PlaysForSure. There's no need; it was a clear failure from day one.

25: I have named my AirPods 'iPod'.

Happy birthday, iPod.

~

Link: