I hate iPods.
Oh my god. Please tell me that people don't actually get paid money to write crap like this.
Why I'm turning a deaf ear to the Pod botherers
I was going to just link it, but they make you register. I was then going to give out the username and password I set up, but the password contains words I can't post here.... so I'll paste it in:
OK, the common sense alarm should be going off. iPods are not for everyone. If you have a music collection that you get tired of listening to, and get bored with in a month, chances are that the iPod IS NOT FOR YOU. Is it really necessary to write a ****ing article about how much you hate something? Don't buy it, bitch.
*sigh*
Why I'm turning a deaf ear to the Pod botherers
I was going to just link it, but they make you register. I was then going to give out the username and password I set up, but the password contains words I can't post here.... so I'll paste it in:
Quote:
Bryony Gordon will not be intimidated by the white-earphone brigade
It's Friday night and a group of my friends are relaxing in the pub. Then Mark arrives, and as soon as I see those white wires snaking up the side of his coat and into his ears, my heart sinks. I know where the conversation is heading. "You bought an iPod!" exclaims Sarah. "Is it 20 gigabyte, or have you gone for the full 40? What's on your playlist?"
Wired for sound: Apple's bothersome iPods
\t
The table is in a state of excitement. "I went for the whole 40 gigs; I want 10,000 songs in my pocket," beams Mark. "Last night, I downloaded all my dance stuff on to it. Tomorrow, I'm going to do all my hip-hop. And Sunday is David Bowie day."
Soon, the rest of the crowd have produced their identical white iPods and are chatting about how cute and tactile they are, how amazing the sound quality is, and how they've categorised their favourite pop/reggae/soul tunes.
Everyone except me, that is. "When are you going to get an iPod?" they ask, with a mixture of pity and bewilderment. I stare at my pint before admitting, to shocked silence, that, actually, I'm not planning to join their cult.
I hate iPods. I mean, I really, really hate them. There, I've said it. My feelings towards Apple's oh-so-clever digital music player have left me feeling ostracised and hopelessly out of the loop.
Every time I slip the latest CD into my Walkman (£35), part of me wonders if I'm a freak for thinking that £400 is too much to spend on a portable music player. Am I culturally impoverished for failing to understand why it's essential to have 10,000 songs in my back pocket when I pop out for a pint of milk? Am I the only person who doesn't get over-excited by the sleek, minimalist design (a "touch wheel", how clever)?
In fact, am I now the only person in Britain who doesn't own one? Apparently, two million of these gadgets have been sold, but judging by the number of annoying white earphones that I spot every day on the Tube, there must be many more than that.
Because once you start to notice them, you realise that they are everywhere, worn like badges of pride. iPod owners give each other knowing glances on the bus or in the Post Office queue ? "Ah, another believer!" I wouldn't be surprised if they even have a secret handshake. Judging by the way some people bang on about them, their relationship with their iPods seems almost spiritual. "It has completely changed the way I listen to music," one friend tells me, with the zeal of a religious convert. "When I broke up with my boyfriend, I put my iPod on random play and the first track it selected was I Will Survive. How spooky is that?"
"I'm intimately connected to it," says another, alluding to something deeper and more meaningful than the fact that she has shoved two bits of plastic into her waxy earholes.
But there is dissent in the air. I am not alone in my loathing of Poddies (as they like to call themselves), or iSpods (as I like to call them). Last month, Wired magazine announced that the iPod was "tired". I have found a growing army of iPod-haters out there and we will no longer be intimidated by the white-earphone brigade.
Joe Muggs, a 29-year-old music journalist and occasional DJ, admits to being a "music geek", but believes that people's attitudes to their iPods are a "triumph of style over substance".
Adam Atkinson, a marketing consultant, is not impressed, either: "I find 'Pod botherers' so boring. iPods are the Tamagotchis of middle youth. Faffing about with them with a smug look on your face is as tiresome as showing off one's 'Prince Albert'."
Even former iSpods are joining the backlash. John Simons, a publishing executive who was given an iPod for Christmas, has already lost interest. "There's a bit of software on it that allows you to give each song a `star' rating. Soon, you end up only listening to the tracks you've awarded five stars to. Then, you start getting bored of your five-star playlist. So you end up thinking that, if you don't even like your favourite songs any more, your entire record collection must be crap. So you stop listening to your iPod altogether and switch to Radio 4 instead."
Bryony Gordon will not be intimidated by the white-earphone brigade
It's Friday night and a group of my friends are relaxing in the pub. Then Mark arrives, and as soon as I see those white wires snaking up the side of his coat and into his ears, my heart sinks. I know where the conversation is heading. "You bought an iPod!" exclaims Sarah. "Is it 20 gigabyte, or have you gone for the full 40? What's on your playlist?"
Wired for sound: Apple's bothersome iPods
\t
The table is in a state of excitement. "I went for the whole 40 gigs; I want 10,000 songs in my pocket," beams Mark. "Last night, I downloaded all my dance stuff on to it. Tomorrow, I'm going to do all my hip-hop. And Sunday is David Bowie day."
Soon, the rest of the crowd have produced their identical white iPods and are chatting about how cute and tactile they are, how amazing the sound quality is, and how they've categorised their favourite pop/reggae/soul tunes.
Everyone except me, that is. "When are you going to get an iPod?" they ask, with a mixture of pity and bewilderment. I stare at my pint before admitting, to shocked silence, that, actually, I'm not planning to join their cult.
I hate iPods. I mean, I really, really hate them. There, I've said it. My feelings towards Apple's oh-so-clever digital music player have left me feeling ostracised and hopelessly out of the loop.
Every time I slip the latest CD into my Walkman (£35), part of me wonders if I'm a freak for thinking that £400 is too much to spend on a portable music player. Am I culturally impoverished for failing to understand why it's essential to have 10,000 songs in my back pocket when I pop out for a pint of milk? Am I the only person who doesn't get over-excited by the sleek, minimalist design (a "touch wheel", how clever)?
In fact, am I now the only person in Britain who doesn't own one? Apparently, two million of these gadgets have been sold, but judging by the number of annoying white earphones that I spot every day on the Tube, there must be many more than that.
Because once you start to notice them, you realise that they are everywhere, worn like badges of pride. iPod owners give each other knowing glances on the bus or in the Post Office queue ? "Ah, another believer!" I wouldn't be surprised if they even have a secret handshake. Judging by the way some people bang on about them, their relationship with their iPods seems almost spiritual. "It has completely changed the way I listen to music," one friend tells me, with the zeal of a religious convert. "When I broke up with my boyfriend, I put my iPod on random play and the first track it selected was I Will Survive. How spooky is that?"
"I'm intimately connected to it," says another, alluding to something deeper and more meaningful than the fact that she has shoved two bits of plastic into her waxy earholes.
But there is dissent in the air. I am not alone in my loathing of Poddies (as they like to call themselves), or iSpods (as I like to call them). Last month, Wired magazine announced that the iPod was "tired". I have found a growing army of iPod-haters out there and we will no longer be intimidated by the white-earphone brigade.
Joe Muggs, a 29-year-old music journalist and occasional DJ, admits to being a "music geek", but believes that people's attitudes to their iPods are a "triumph of style over substance".
Adam Atkinson, a marketing consultant, is not impressed, either: "I find 'Pod botherers' so boring. iPods are the Tamagotchis of middle youth. Faffing about with them with a smug look on your face is as tiresome as showing off one's 'Prince Albert'."
Even former iSpods are joining the backlash. John Simons, a publishing executive who was given an iPod for Christmas, has already lost interest. "There's a bit of software on it that allows you to give each song a `star' rating. Soon, you end up only listening to the tracks you've awarded five stars to. Then, you start getting bored of your five-star playlist. So you end up thinking that, if you don't even like your favourite songs any more, your entire record collection must be crap. So you stop listening to your iPod altogether and switch to Radio 4 instead."
OK, the common sense alarm should be going off. iPods are not for everyone. If you have a music collection that you get tired of listening to, and get bored with in a month, chances are that the iPod IS NOT FOR YOU. Is it really necessary to write a ****ing article about how much you hate something? Don't buy it, bitch.
*sigh*
Comments
The last standing defender of the common sense, the white knight (oh, sh*t..)
...and they're onto our secret handshake.
No, really. Like murbot said, it's not for everyone. I think some of the assertions they make are a little off-base. For example, I don't give EVERY song I have a star rating. I use them for only my favorites, giving a varying star rating to those songs that are a cut above the rest (in one way or another). Sometimes I only want to listen to those. Sometimes I want to venture away. It's a good balance that doesn't make my playlist boring.
One thing that I have noticed that's a bit of a downer about the iPod is this: Now, whenever I get a new CD, I listen to it ONCE in the car, rip it into iTunes, and never look at the CD again -- or listen to the tracks in the right order (iPod is always on random). I kind of want to enjoy the CD in its linear entirety and appreciate its artwork more before I randomize it and turn it into little 1's and 0's on an iPod. I guess I'll have to set up a "rule" that whenever I get a new CD, I won't rip it until after at least 4 full plays of the disc.
All in all, there are plusses and minuses to the iPod. I personally believe, however that the iPod has WAY more plusses than minuses.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
Some folks are just contrarian. Let's face it, a lot of Mac users would otherwise have this same attitude were it not an Apple product.
But only because it probably wouldn't work right (or at all) on a Mac.
Why? My roommate is buying one. And I'm going to be soo effing jealous that I'm just going to HAVE to buy one...
Of course, I'm going out of the country for the summer, so ideally I'd wait until afterwards... but.... ohhh... ohhh... dammit
Many people didn't know what it was when I first got it, and only a few recognized it from the rap video. Slowly but surely they all love it...they think it's really cool and many of my friends have found new groups they like by listening to it.
I wish I had portable speaker for it though, we were at a friends cabin this weekend for senior skip day (on friday) and we were all in a room just killing the final hours of the night before we went to bed and everyone wanted music to listen to, but I was only with my ear phones (which I don't like to share). So they brought in the 'radio' I think they called it and were soon filling the room with music with just enough static so that you could tell the difference between music and static...bad reception in the mountains (Poconos) I guess. Alas I had to shut mine off as the bad music plus the talking all mixing with my music got to me.
The radio was so bad though, it wasn't even listened to, just loud background NOISE.
Talking and music is ok. Talking music and more music is not ok.
Originally posted by ast3r3x
... wish I had portable speaker for it though...
An iTrip would've taken care of that problem. Slam one on top and you could've entertained the whole room.
Then again I'm drunk. I was also pretty hung over when I started this thread.
Originally posted by sunrein
An iTrip would've taken care of that problem. Slam one on top and you could've entertained the whole room.
Couldn't find my AudiaX before I left
I would use it though. I hate burning CD's and switching CD's in and out when I want to hear maybe one song.
The guy in the article really needs to get a life.
Hahaha... still an amusing little piece.