Tag: ipod

Target: Your iPod

Post ImageIf you’re an iPod owner, no doubt you’ve at least once donned your white earphones with a certain pride. White means you’re part of the club, you get it, you’re cool. And it also means you’re a prime target for thieves. It seems that the supposed iPod robberies in New York have jumped the Atlantic (or returned?):

iPod owners are increasingly being targeted by muggers who can spot the digital music players by their distinctive white leads, the country’s most senior police chief has said. The desirability of the players is partly to blame for a steep increase in robberies on the streets of London, according to Sir Ian Blair, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

When stories like this come out, it’s only right to question them. Are thieves really robbing people for their iPods? The numbers in London seem to suggest that’s the case, as “street thefts of iPods have risen from 10 in November 2004 to 52 so far this month. All crime in which an iPod was stolen has more than doubled to around 400 so far this month.”

Just one more reason to buy a music player that isn’t overpriced, and won’t lock you into one store! Or if you like paying a premium, being restricted to purchasing music from one place only, and walking around with a big “ATTACK ME” sign on your person, go ahead and buy that iPod.

[Disclaimer: I own a first generation iPod, but my Creative Zen Touch has since replaced it!]

Read: The Independent

The extinction of the CD

When’s the last time you played music with from a CD? I don’t remember the last time, to be honest. I play music from my computer almost 24/7, and when I’m out and about, I’ve either had my iPod or my Zen Touch. The concept of a disc that only holds 20 songs seems so foreign to me now! And even if I have used a CD more recently than I can remember (perhaps in a friend’s car), I know for certain the last time I bought a CD for myself was eons ago. Any music I have bought recently has been purchased online.

I don’t think I am alone. There’s probably tons of other people who also never buy CDs anymore. Digital is the way to go, and so we are, but there are many problems that still exist. Mark Cuban has written an excellent piece on the topic, and offers advice on what the music industry needs to do:

MP3 players are changing peoples listening habits. We don’t carry folders filled with CDs anymore. We carry our library in our MP3 players. We don’t listen to CDs. We listen to playlists that we adjust all the time. We don’t burn CDs anymore, it’s too time consuming. We copy all our music to our MP3 players so it’s all available at our fingertips.

All of our music in a single device. Available to us wherever we are, for whenever we want it. Music how we want it, when we want it. Easy and breezy. That’s how we want to consume music.

That’s not how we are being sold music.

Makes you wonder what will happen to outlets like HMV, who sell hardly anything besides CDs. Why haven’t they done anything to move into the digital space yet? Or even WalMart or other retailers for that matter. What’s taking so long?

Read: Blog Maverick

iPods banned at Sydney's International Grammar School

Those crazy Aussies in Sydney at the Internation Grammar School have decided to ban iPods because, apparently, they enable students to “avoid communication with others” and may lead to “social isolation or escape from our community.”

Anyone else think this is dumb? I mean, really, it’s not the iPod that causes social isolation, it’s the headphones! If students didn’t use headphones with their iPods there would be no problem right? If I was an administrator at that school that’s what I’d have done, ban the headphones. Problem solved. Sheesh.

Read: Engadget