Idiots did price your device. But who cares?

By Adwait at 6 January, 2010, 11:18 pm

We all love music. No doubt about that. There are a million genres of music, each one having its own set of listeners and creators. Making music is an art and a talent. Many individuals have mastered it while a few others are on the verge of stardom. But the most important component in the structure of stardom, is the listeners, the fans, the ears in which the two ear-phones fit in.

Music is a BIG chunk of everyone’s life. Whether it is the morning chants from a nearby place of worship, Jagjit Singh’s ghazals, heavy AC/DC guitar riffs, Lennon’s voice or just the simple melody of Mozart; it’s a part of life, a very interesting and important part of life. Around ten years ago, Walkmans and Discmans were the thing. They were incredible. Putting the required double AA’s in the Walkman, plugging in the ear-phone’s and BOOM – There was Bob Marley, performing for you while you were walking down the road to get some grocery.

This world that we inhabit is subject to constant discoveries. Newton discovered gravity, Armstrong walked on the moon and so on. Music too got a makeover and more importantly the devices which brought you that music in your ears kept getting smaller and came at a price too. The most recent product of technological evolution is called the Apple’s iPod.

The iPod was launched in October 2001. It was different and that’s why I think it worked. iPods were drive based and not flash based. This gave apple to allow its users to have up to 160GB’s of music in their pocket. (I myself am a proud owner of a 120Gig one!). This was a boon to all lovers of music. Carrying it around everywhere was a dream, which Apple made come true. Apple made it all, starting with a 512MB Shuffle, a pocket sized, no-display player then the classics coming out in 20, 30, 60, 80, 120 and 160GB’s and most recently the iTouch. Let’s not go to the iPhone; that’s a completely different boat altogether.

So what makes the iPod so different from the other media players that people will continue to be fascinated by it despite its exorbitant price? - The user interface.

The iPod has five simple buttons. Play/Pause, Back/Rewind, Next/Fast-Forward, Menu and a centre button for action. But out of all these, it’s the click – wheel which stole the hearts. All the scrolling and adjusting of volume is managed by the wheel. It’s a simple circle and where the thumb can nicely rotate.

The iPod has become like the Nike/Adidas/Reebok of the portable media players. There are many brands, known and unknown, but at the end of the day, when you’re buying shoes, you always go for something form the above three. I guess it’s likewise for media players. Who would want something else?

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Categories : Entertainment