Gadgets

A Requiem for the iPod

Alan Cross 1 Comment

My first iPod–my gateway drug into the whole Apple ecosystem–was a 4GB iPod Nano. “I’ll never need any more than 4 gigs!” I told myself, “This is the only Apple product I’ll ever buy.” Of course, that was a like. Several more iPods followed (including a red-and-white U2 iPod) before I moved on to the Touch. The Touch led to a Mac, which led to an iPhone, which led to more Macs.

I’m using a PC to post this story, but given the hideousness that is Windows 8, it’ll probably be the last PC I’ll ever own.  I currently have an Mac Mini on order to add to my home studio, which is all Mac already. It will replace a seven year-old PC which I stupidly upgraded from XP to 8. The new Mac will have Parallels installed so I can switch between Mavericks and Windows 7.

Dammit. How did this happen? It started with that damn Nano.

If you’re still in mourning over Apple’s gadgecide of the iPod Classic last week, you’ll appreciate these first stories.  First, CNET remembers on what it was like when the iPod was first introduced and “music was first set free.”

Then there’s this eulogy from Wired:

Have you ever loved a car? Maybe it was an old truck you drove for hundreds of thousands of miles, or maybe it was your very first car: where you had your very first beer and your very first kiss. You can love a car and keep on loving it as long as you don’t crash it. If you’re willing to maintain it, you can keep driving it basically forever. Maybe some day it’ll be old enough that you’ll get thumbs-ups from cool kids as you putter down the street in your charmingly vintage car. This is not the case with gadgets—even though, for many of us, our old gadgets were way more important than our old cars.Gadgets come and go from our lives. Technology marches forward so rapidly that even if you could replace a broken part—which often you can’t—doing so just wouldn’t make any sense. Other times, the networks and services those gadgets depend on to keep running go away entirely. Gadgets die, even the ones we love.

Continue reading. But take heart. Look what the new Apple Watch can do with music.

 

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38986 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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One thought on “A Requiem for the iPod”

  • Andrew
    September 15, 2014 at 9:40 pm
    Permalink

    So does this mean the cd wins?

    Reply

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