snoozePod
I tried to remain strong. I did. I was going to wait until I could get it at a slight discount through a friend of mine. But I kept thinking that I wouldn't get it before I got 'the call'. So Saturday I went out and got an iPod. I got to the store around 10:15 or so and there was a decent sized line, everyone there buying iPods. The box is small about 8"x8"x8" I'd guess. It folds out and one side has the iPod, the other has the power adaptor and firewire cable (which is used for syncing up and for recharging).

I'd ripped a few CDs earlier in the morning so that I'd have something to sync to it when I got home. So I unpacked the thing, plugged it in, and it sync'd up immeadiately. It was pretty slick, and very fast. The interface on the iPod itself is wonderful. You can browse music by artist/album, or just go through the whole list of songs. To scroll you use a dial on the front of the device that speeds up as you scroll through a long list, making it quite easy to quickly scan through hundreds of songs.

I gave it a good test this morning during my workout. It worked perfectly while on the treadmill (even though I was only walking). One thing it did make me realize was how much I miss portable audio. I used to always have a walkman on me, and in the past day or so wondered why I didn't as often. I think one of the biggest reasons was probably that I hated carrying a bunch of tapes around, which now isn't even an issue.

Apple is definitely targetting the general consumer market with this device. It is something that I feel is simple that my parents could use. I think the hardest thing to teach them would be how to rip audio from CDs, and even would be pretty easy if done by example. So far. I give the iPod a big thumbs up.