At 23 Oct 2007 22:14:15 -0700 Mr. Strat wrote:

> The iPod is an excellent example of a do-dad that was engineered
> brilliantly...so much so that even a dummy could use it...and they
> captured the market with it.


I know I'll simply sound like an Apple-basher, or a "dummy" and perhaps
my perspective is clouded by being a nerd, but explain to me WHY it's so
"brilliant?"

I own a Nano (Gen 1) and find the nested menu system no more "brilliant"
than my original Rio 500's- the iPod's only easier to use because it has
a large display instead of a 2-line LCD.

And iTunes seems needlessly complicated to me. (I'm only ranting because
I used it last night for the first time in months to put "Pomp and
Circumstance" on the Nano for my daughter's "graduation" from Daisy scout
to Brownie."

I added the song to the library with the Nano connected, and couldn't for
the life of me figure out how to copy it to the Nano! I couldn't find a
"sync" or "update" button, and eventually just undocked/redocked to
initiate the sync. (I assume I was doing something wrong!)

(I should probably add the Nano is rarely used in my house. It was an
"impulse buy" I scored relatively cheaply when the Gen 2s came out, and
my wife had been wanting something small and thin for business trips and
commuting. Neither of us use it much- I upgraded her phone to a
smartphone shortly after, and despite the iPod's "brilliance" a single
device is easier to carry than two. The Nano is generally only used now
as background music for "public performances"- entertaining, school
parties, etc, when we don't want the music interrupted by a phone call!
;-)

I've offered the Nano to my daughter, but she prefers her crappy $40
Mattel "Mini-Media" MP3 player, because Mattel knew something three years
ago that Apple apparently didn't discover until last month- people want
to watch VIDEOs on small MP3 players, and for all of my $150 Gen-1 Nano's
"brilliance" a $40 Mattel "toy" with 128MB on board released around the
same time could handle MP4 video!