much of this post shall be, in truth, quite the rarity. this is because i am going to give a fair bit of compliment and credit to Apple. as in the technology company and not the class record label, look you see. well, for a sense of perspective, praise for what Apple used to do. undoubtedly there shall be a bit of a chance for me to make some derogatory comments about them along the way.
not so long ago, as in within (say) the last couple of months i came across a device that i hadn't used, seen or even thought of for close on a decade. that would be one of the first ipod things what came out, the ipod shuffle. as you will see in the picture below, one of them "USB stick" looking ones, with an at the time pretty remarkable capacity of 512MB. with not all of that dominated by sh!tty Apple operating software. from what i recall my (former) (considerably) better half got it with a phone contract or similar. just as well that she is highly unlikely to read this and ask for it back.
would, after all this time (and less than pristine or considerate storage) would the thing still work? that's likely the most pertinent question, and the answer is yes. not straight off the bat, of course. i had to charge it up, but was most delighted to find yeah, it charged, and it worked. retained all of the memory too, which we shall get to. or i will, you can to if you continue reading.
credit where it is due, then. not only for building a device that has worked and remains working for over two decades (!), but for the quality of sound. if you accept that the mp3 format sacrifices quality for the sake of convenience then absolutely no device plays these files as well as an ipod. yes, i have tried a number of different mp3 players, used high quality headphones and not one comes this close. rather a shame, then, that they ditched it. their business model is, of course, to get you to buy one of their phones at least once every two years and pay them monthly for the hideous thing that is "streaming" music. don't even get proper headphones anymore. by the way, yes, these are the original headphones that came with it too. also high quality.
on switching the device (the ipod) on and pressing "play" after charging a bit i was quite impressed to find, or if you will hear, that it really retained memory. the first thing i head was not just Speed Of Life off of David Bowie, but that song about a minute or so in. wow. assuming that the battery was going to be none more dead, that's some hardware they came up with to retain that. unless it's all a lot easier than i, being non-technical, would presume to assume.
just look at that above. yes, it is what you think - an Apple product with a regular, normal, actual USB connection thingie. how splendid. this was of course all before they insisted on developing their own such things to connect devices. simpler, happier days. quite easy to just plug it in and charge.
it was not, of course (we are talking Apple here), so easy to access (or "see") the music on it. my memory was that this device was one you could just plug in to a PC and "drag and drop" files without any sh!tty Apple software being required. either my memory was wrong or things have changed. at first i just got a blank folder when i plugged it in, which had me fearing it was "blanked", but then i went hang on, how could i have heard Bowie if so. reluctantly, then, i installed the dreaded "itunes", and after that had to install some "special app" that allowed itunes to access the ipod. they really don't like anything about customers other than their money. which, i suppose, is true of any business.
entirely fair to say that Apple now reflects the very worst of our world. that's the instant gratification, immediate and ready disposal attitude which prevails. quite rare that any of their "new" products are all that much of a leap forward or enhancement on the previous, but still people driven by the illusion of aspiration the brand has carefully (and ingeniously) cultivated want "the latest". i rather preferred them, even liked them, when they simply made an outstanding product that did the job better than anything on the market and let you get on with it.
perhaps the main overt difference between Apple then and now is buttons. from what i recall that supposed genius what established the company didn't like buttons, and so decided that no one else could like them and sought to get rid of them. again, exemplary reflection of how the world now seems to think. but, look at those buttons there. well, yes, ones on the front too. on the back you get a nice slider sort of thing that lets you move between off, shuffle and play in order, and a helpful button to give an indication of battery left. for the latter, no matter how long i leave it on charge it appears to remain red. oh dear. still, so far on strolls (not long or far) it has held up.
a really big plus with this model iphone is no audio (or volume) limiter at all. you just keep pushing up on the volume button and up it goes, right to the point that either the headphones blow or your eardrums bleed. from what i recall it was the French, or if you prefer les connards, who insisted on a volume limit getting forced on to the devices. quite typical of them. they did, after all, foist the horrors of "scart" ports on videos and teles across Europe too. who on earth would play any French music loud, anyway? oddly i ended up doing so, now that i think.
having taken the ipod with me on strolls now (2025) it's played a decent random (shuffle) mix. on my travels it has played Emotional Rescue off of Stones, the just mentioned Beautiful Thing, Hot For Teacher off of Van Halen (the drum intro was where i discovered no volume limiter), Six Months In A Leaky Boat off of Split Enz and the Carla Bruni recording of Absolute Beginners. yes, she is partially French, but not entirely from what i remember. oh yeah, also I Want To Live In A House off of the soundtrack for Star Struck (proper Australian 80s film of that name). whilst listening to that i had to remind myself that i was out in public and perhaps shouldn't be singing along.
a few shall (undoubtedly) scoff, scorn or mock the idea of "only" 512MB of memory on anything. the default these days is all in GB if not TB. you know what though, like the 90 minute blank tape (or 80 minute blank CD for that matter) it means you have to be careful with what you add on. one has to consider choices and select (or curate) only really boss vibes. having access to absolutely every song ever made sounds quite class, but what's better is just taking along the ones you dig.
yes, my plan was to get this ipod working and then create a whole new playlist (or mixtape) for my present day strolls and occasional train ride. to be honest, though, for now i think i will just get my groove on to the vibes i have found on it. it isn't a bad collection at all, if i do say (type) such myself. well, maybe some slight tweaking, but mostly i think i can just dig all these tunes for a bit.
do i think there will (or shall) ever be a full tilt ipod "resurrection" or revival? as in lots of people all of a sudden wanting to use them again? no. the "comeback" (or revival) of records, tapes and, quite interestingly, compact discs is because those physical formats contribute to and enhance the music experience. an ipod was always just the convenience, as brilliant as the sound is and as excellent and robust as this model remains. still, i am happy to have it all armed and fully operational.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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