Apple iPod

I have to admit that before I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase an Apple iPod of my own, I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. My friends who had iPods absolutely raved about them and insisted that I didn't know what I was missing. All I saw was another portable music player that I didn't need. I had recently spent several hundred dollars on a minidisc player and really couldn't afford to buy another "toy".

But everywhere I went, I saw the ubiquitous white headphone cords that marked people as iPod users. I also read about these music players all over the Internet, and, surprisingly, almost all the news was positive, which never happens for any product. That made me finally think that I really was missing the boat here. I then saw a special offer from an audiobook website that convinced me to purchase an iPod after holding out for a couple of years. The audiobook site would give me a certificate for a $100 rebate on an iPod if I signed up for a yearlong membership. I was actually going to sign up anyway, so I thought I would take advantage of that offer just as an added bonus.

After my iPod arrived (I went with the Mini model), I was instantly hooked. I loved how tiny it was and how easy it was to set up. I spent the next several days converting my CD collection to MP3 files so I could fill up my new player with lots of different songs. I even went to the iTunes music store and purchased a couple of songs, which I had never done before in my life. I also had several audiobook titles from my new membership, and those were soon added to my iPod library as well.

All at once, I understood why these little music players were such a big success. They were just so cool and convenient! Now I didn't have to flip through all the pages of my CD case in order to find a particular song that I wanted. In fact, I didn't have to carry my CDs around at all anymore. I put them all in a closet and haven't touched them since. With my iPod, I could get to any song in a matter of seconds by rotating the fun-to-use click-wheel that was standard on all Mini models at that time. I could also create playlists so that my favorite songs could come on in a particular order, or I could turn the playback mode to "Random" so that my favorite songs could come on in no particular order at all.

The next step for me was to buy all the cute iPod accessories that I could. I bought a Neoprene skin to protect it from scratches, a neck strap for hands-free use, and an antenna that allowed my iPod tunes to be piped into any FM radio. Yes, I had become one of those people that never left home without it!

Even though I've had my iPod for a couple of years now, I am still as addicted to it as ever. This is by far one of the best gadgets I've ever owned and I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about buying a portable MP3 player.