iChangemymind

Like Brad Pitt with the new Beetle, I too have changed my stance about a piece of pop-culture technology. I've decided that I no longer hate the iPod. At first, I thought of it as an icon of yuppie, hippie college kids, and being an Apple product, I thought of it as annoyingly flashy and expensive. All of Apple's products are ridiculously over-priced when they're first released, and initially the iPod was only suitable to early-adopter budgets. It was only recently that the iPod worked it's way down to a more practical price.

See, when the iPod Mini's came out, I noticed their prices were similar to the regular iPod, but had smaller capacities and shorter battery life. My first thought was of those three, big, capital letters, "WTF?" Some months later, the iPod Shuffle caught my attention again, but at first, I didn't get it. I saw "iPod" and then I saw "$99" so I assumed it was merely an accessory for the regular iPod, because there's no way you could buy an iPod for anything under three weeks salary, right? Well, I still like Apple computers, and I found out through browsing their site that the Shuffle actually was a tiny iPod that sold for $99 or $149 for the 512MB or 1GB versions, respectively.

I could never figure out what yahoo could fill up a 30GB iPod anyway, because all the mp3's I have on my computer take up a bit over 6GB and I don't even listen to half of them. So the Shuffle looked much more practical and upgraded my opinion of the iPod from "contemptible" to "remissible." Then, I noted that iPods prices have gone down across the board.

So, in summation... you may see me owning one someday. I've been thinking about it. Not seriously, but if I had an extra $400 laying around, I'd do it. You might be shocked to know that I actually went and looked at the iPods at Best Buy the other night. But after I'm done writing this, I'm going back to apple.com to check prices there (there are student discounts on iPods, just like on their computers).

The reason I bring all this up is the fact that I heard this news story on the radio on Monday, about George Bush's iPod, and I thought it was ironic. Trent Reznor went out of his way to complain about a presidency that hasn't affected him in the least and whined his angst-ridden heart out about corporate greed, yet bought iPods for his entire staff because apparently Apple isn't a large corporation looking for a buck. The iPod I saw as a staple of the artsy, know-it-all, liberal college student's lifestyle is now shared by the man in the White House that they all hate for no good reason.

And before you ask, no, I didn't change my mind about the iPod just because W has one. I was coming around already. The irony of the situation just made me decide to bring it up, and I came to the conclusion this week.

And on a side note, being tax week, I'm sure many people are using their returns to buy iPods, as I would probably do if I had a tax return over $40... and if I hadn't done my taxes back in January and already gotten my return and spent it 10 times over (you slackers.. happy tax day).

Update: Oh yeah, here's a brief history of the iPod, if you're curious.