Believe it or not, people could listen to music without an antenna, tape or CD before the iPod.  What Apple did was create a sleek enough device to help validate the price tag of a larger capacity drive.  Nobody would have cared at the time if it wasn't white, hundreds of dollars needed to do more than introduce something 'new' to the uninformed or else it just wasn't going to sell.  Gigabytes means nothing to a lot of people, and as sad as that is, I still think the size of an iPod purchased today depends on the person's fear of accidently swallowing it in their sleep, not the size of the disk.  Over a decade ago, I had an HP Jornada that would happily play mp3s.  Granted, it only held a few without expansion, but this sort of thing was mysteriously unnecessary to the world.  The device also collected my email, held my contacts, and ran played NES games via an emulator, all packed behind a touch screen.  It would be old and clunky now, but it existed and few cared.  The iPhone comes down in its spaceship, and everyone bends over and accepts it for all its worth.  (I would like to add that my Jornada, running Windows CE, was able to copy and paste.)

I did a fair share of research before purchasing my mp3 player many years ago.  I was looking at the Creative Zen and pairing it up with the iPod Photo.  I sometimes regret the decision, because once I finally got to listen to a Creative device, I realized though it lacked in a sharp, pretty interface, it had far superior audio quality, regardless of the headphones you use.  Ah, the ear buds.  I recall vividly tossing my Apple ear buds in someone else's drawer after opening up my iPod.  I refused to fit their brand, though I was guilty of using their product.

I've paid for it over the years.  I've been lucky.  My iPod was one of the few that was not implanted with the doom seed.  Most Apple products (don't get me wrong, most electronics) have a mystical kill-switch that kills them dead about two to eight months after the warranty runs out.  This is justified; Apple releases a new one every 14 minutes.  Minus a few instances of not turning it on, it has survived in my car year round for several years without a break.  I give them that.  I have a decent product that has lasted long enough that I wouldn't curse Steve Jobs' name if and when it were to go to where dead iPods go.  

I'm not without complaints.  I absolutely hate iTunes.  I know there's a slew of other ways to get music on an iPod, but when I expect to put minimal effort into adding a few albums to my library, only to find out that my Library has kicked the bucket and won't restore from an older export, it pains me in the place that hurts.  I know I ask a lot as a consumer who thinks he could plan it better, but this is the fabled perfect mp3-utopia and the iPod has graced us all.  I shouldn't have to go through and reorganize ID3 tags for seven hours just so it knows the difference between Backstreet Boys and Back Street Boys and Backstreet Boys feat. Aaron Carter.

With the new iPhone out, and everyone going bonkers over it, it really makes me wonder why there is so much appeal when everything can be done with other phones.  Are they purchased to help complete the set of unjustly priced Macbook Pros that can't even run Steam without voiding your warranty?  I can appreciate a slick interface, but not at the sacrifice of functionality.  Everyone seems to think that graphic design is done better on a Mac, or that web design is better on Macs.  You don't need a Mac to write code, and it sure doesn't help to have a one-button mouse that can be mistaken for novelty adult swag when using Photoshop.  Humans have five fingers, and Apple needs to accept that.  Of course, I'll still stick with my theory that Mac users don't want a machine that is designed for getting things done, but instead they want to dick around and accomplish very little while making as many things spin and glide on the screen as possible.  That, and they only have the motor controls to use one finger.

I will spare you and not link to any of Apple's marketing campaigns, but if you ever want to feel good about your ability and knowledge of computers, they are a great pick-me-up.