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New iPod nano in the house

March 5, 2006 › Sandy McMurray | comment

My son Alex has a new iPod nano. It's the latest release -- the 1 GB model, which holds 240 songs. Alex chose stylish black over the standard milky white colour. He has already transferred several CDs (and audio clips from Homestar Runner) to his new portable music player.

Before we could escape from the Apple retail store in Toronto, Alex discovered the giant wall of iPod accessories. He bought a wallet style iPod case, and I bought him an A/C connector for the rechargeable battery. (More on that in a moment.)

The iPod nano was a birthday gift from both sets of grandparents, who probably muttered darkly about "kids today and their high tech toys" before sealing their money inside the birthday card envelope.

Actually, the grandparents were quite cheerful about it. I'm the one that's muttering. I'm jealous. Alex is the first person in our family to own an iPod.

That last sentence might surprise you. I write about tech all the time, and often focus on Apple products. You would think I would own an iPod by now.

One of the joys of writing about technology is you don't have to buy most of the hardware and software you review. The latest and the greatest is delivered to your door for testing and review for free. You get to unwrap the box and play, without all that inconvenient paying for things.

The down side of this happy arrangement is that the couriers come back and take the gadgets away, usually after a week or two. Software may stay for good, but hardware goes back after the review.

That's as it should be, of course. You don't want your editorial judgement tainted by the lure of free stuff. (That's the theory, as it's been explained to me by serious journalists. I've been given enough really bad software and hardware over the years to think that this is not really a serious problem, but I can see how sending everything back helps to remove any doubt about editorial impartiality.

When free stuff is coming and going like this, there's very little reason to buy any gadgets you don't need. Although I have a strong preference for the iPod over any other digital music player, I haven't needed to buy one.

But I digress. My point here is that Alex has an iPod and I don't. At some point in the future, I may have a better iPod for a couple of weeks, but right now I'm jealous.

I'm also a little frustrated. Our elderly iMac is about five years old -- the last of the colourful egg-shaped iMacs -- and it does not speak the same language as the iPod nano. The high speed FireWire connector that Apple originally used in its iPods has been replaced by another plug called USB 2. This is fine for anyone who owns a relatively new Mac or Windows machine, but older computers (like our iMac) have the slower USB 1 plug.

This just means that it takes more time for the iPod nano to talk to the computer. It also meant that we needed to buy an adapter so the iPod nano could recharge from a wall outlet instead of charging from the USB connection. Problem solved for $20 -- less than the cost of upgrading the computer to handle USB 2 devices.

We got out of the Apple store with the shirts on our backs, and Alex is loving his new toy. All in all, a pretty good birthday.

Now we just need a new hard drive on the iMac, to make room for Alex's music...

March 5, 2006 › Sandy McMurray | comment on this item