Swoop

Well, after much deliberation, a purchase of an Ipod has been made.
There were two choices. A nano or a classic. The nice salesman enquired whether I am a "jiggler" or not. If one actually "is" a jiggler, then the Nano is more suitable. Those who jog, for instance, abuse the device to a greater degree...
The quantity of classics that appeared to have issues led me to decide on the Nano.

OK, for a non-computer nerd, there should be more in the package... like a disc with itunes on it??? Like fuck there is, you have to find this from the interdweeb (65mb) and load it onto your 'puter. Then it simply takes over your life.
It wants to charge the pod, update the software and then molest your computers hard drive for anything it finds interesting.
It felt quite at home massaging all of the mp3 files it found, into ipod format. Ringtones, jokes, etc...
There is nothing like getting the thing up and running and listening to a song ending... then hearing the bloody cellphone ringing... and realising it is the f*cking pod having a wee chuckle at my expense.
This brings me to the difficulty in deleting shit off of itunes!

Locating a manual for the Nano was eventually successful, but it showed me how to put a limit on the volume so as to protect the users hearing. "Nice idea" I thought, and proceeded to place a comfortable level in place. The next day, away from the quiet of home, the road traffic was sufficient when walking along to hear exactly zero. Zilch. Nada.
Not having a memory larger than a Sinclair zx computer, I couldn't fucking well remember where you go in the damn menu list/sublist/sub-sublist to adjust it back!
Oh well. Better just find a quiet place to hide at work and listen there.

A bit of a challenge getting CD's onto itunes, but that is gradually bloating out. Allow time to upload around 5 CD's a night and the collection will be fully loaded in ... a month?

I still need to learn about synchronisation issues and do NOT ask me anything about uploading pictures or movies. That may take a while...

Sitting here with the nano on shuffle. It is playing Run Like Hell from the Pink Floyd Pulse album. I haven't listened to this in yonks and this is exactly what is so good about it. It makes you go through all your albums, and then gives you the pleasant surprise of great old songs. This happens time and time again!

It fucking ROCKS!




Update: 26/2/09.
While I am extremely happy with the Nano, itunes is a different matter entirely.
"Bloatware" is an apt description of this. A computer that has behaved itself and does everything quite quickly, has now become bogged down when running itunes.
It has also chosen to not upload two CD's. Van Halen Best Of Volume 1 will successfully lock the entire computer up, forcing a complete reboot.
The Superjesus, Jet Age will not do a thing. I have uploaded this album on Monday but there are massive pauses in the music and it is quite unpleasant to listen to. I deleted it from itunes and attempted to re-upload. I bet the Apple-ites have made something that records the amount of times you upload a disk!
Bastards! The CD works fine!

Update: 16/3/09.
New earphones fitted. The standard ipod "earbud" appears to like falling out of one ear in particular. Aftermarket units have a small silicone piece that helps keep out a bit of extraneous noise while keeping the speakers happily in place.
Happy camper? Yes!

Update: 9/10/09.
Well. The "reboot" process is interesting. Twice yesterday the unit locked-up and then went blank, requiring a reboot. Hold the menu and centre button for about 10 seconds until the apple logo appears.
...I thought windoze was a bad operating system...


Update: 7-5-12.
Fuck itunes.
With a big hammer and nuclear explosions.
It likes to take tracks from a CD and randomly scatter them around, preferrably as "an album" with only the one track. Can you manually "herd" these tracks back together, to be reunited with the other tracks from that album? Can you fuck!
Until recently I was considering an iphone, as compatibility with this music management programme was desirable, but now Mr Andriod will be the desired option.