iPod Woes (Well, Sort Of)

I never thought that I'd turn obsolete in one month.



Thirty-two days after my happy transition into the digital music world with my new black 30GB iPod Video, Apple makes my iPod obsolete and, as is their wont, introduces a newer, huger model - the inevitable new specs object for the tech-crazed blogosphere this Christmas season.

The New iPod Classic - and a New Price For an Old One

My 30GB cost $250 when I ordered it. Now the 30GB has been replaced with the 80GB at the same price point. Had I waited I would have gotten about two and two-thirds times the storage space for the same price. The 80GB's old spot has been taken by the absolutely brobdingnagian new 160GB iPod classic. "Forty thousand songs!" the advertisement reads.

One hundred sixty thousand minutes, assuming four minutes per song.

One hundred eleven days of continuous playback (by my experience, something like two hundred battery charge cycles, though Apple's inflated battery life estimates would put it closer to 66 cycles).

But I'm absolutely satisfied with what I have now (slight twinge of buyer's remorse at passing up the 160GB model notwithstanding). To give a little context, my existing iPod offers a mere twenty days of playback. I've already got 3,200 songs and something like five hours of video on the sucker (and a hearty 14GB of space remaining) and haven't even gotten close to listening to it all. So, I'll stick with what I've got for now - at least, until the inevitable moment when Apple unveils the new 3TB iPod Classic* with a Pez dispenser and flashlight (still no FM tuner, of course).



*How long can Apple keep using that word "Classic" until we realize they're lying? Let's all get on the same page: the only "classic" iPod is the first one - the one shaped like a first-generation GameBoy and a mechanical scroll wheel. A mechanical scroll wheel, for crying out loud.