New at Reason

February 10, 2007

Katherine Mangu Ward examines the iPodification of America.

Comments

Guy Montag|2.10.07 @ 9:12AM|#

City folk can be strange.

The theme that runs through these examples is that some city boy wants to hijack your attention, especially the unnamed mayoral candidate who literally wanted to engage in hijacking of people's attention.

Outside of the city people usually gather places if they want to hear someone else, like places of worship, fairs, parties, etc. Also, they have had mini-concert sized iPods for quite some time, they are made by Alpine, Blaupunkt, even Sony and others. Stereos in automobiles have been playing the user's choices ever since the Chrysler Motor Corporation put a turntable into a sedan.

Now, just a few cycles of 'evolution' for the pedestrian and the urban urchins are all in a tizzy that yet another bit of privacy and convenience has infiltrated past the "gates" and people actually enjoy a choice that was not imposed on them!

The 'independent thinkers' have lost their herd.


BTW, very good article and I glad you don't share the same 'tude as Sullivan.

Guy Montag|2.10.07 @ 9:45AM|#

Chrysler Highway Hi-Fi seems to have had more in common with modern personal music players than I realized earlier:
used special records, not a far shot from the special files downloaded for current players, had several interrations with CBS and RCA trading dominance in the field, it even heald 6 records that could play up to one hour each.

Of course, the turntables lost out to tape for several decades until CDs became reliable and replaced tape with digital files replacing that now that hard drives survive shock much better than they used to and we are back to platters.

With all of that, I don't remember a fuss over what people listen to in cars (when they keep the sound inside of the car) like this fuss over what people listen to when they leave their cars.

|2.10.07 @ 11:27AM|#

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/7/rosen.htm
http://nymag.com/news/features/27341/

|2.10.07 @ 11:59AM|#

I like the cheepo mp3 players you can get at CVS or Walgreens now. They are not as expensive or anyoyingly proprietary as the iPod, Zune and other big-name brands.

Guy Montag|2.10.07 @ 12:51PM|#

Antarctic Penguin,

I need to get back into the hardware hacking scene. The pile of stuff that I am going to wire together 'some day' into my vehicles has stopped growing for now, but the possibilities have blossomed.

Thanks for the tip on cheaper players, will have to check them out.

Need to brush up on my housing fabrication skills too, so all those sloppy wires and IR ports look really pretty :)

Grotius|2.10.07 @ 2:17PM|#

Yep, love my iPod. :)

Graphite|2.10.07 @ 3:09PM|#

I bought a fourth generation iPod back when they were really the only good player on the market. I'm eagerly waiting for a Linux port I can throw on it, which I'll probably use until the battery runs dead, at which point I'll sell it and buy a different player from a company that doesn't use its players as additional-revenue-generation devices.

|2.10.07 @ 5:32PM|#

I hate when people use iPods as the seemingly ideal example of how materialism is consuming our souls, especially considering how it helped take away the mind-melting monenotity of my old job of cleaning chicken grease out of a grill. Imagine how boring that would be in total silence.

|2.10.07 @ 7:53PM|#

"I hate when people use iPods as the seemingly ideal example of how materialism is consuming our souls..."

The people who scream about the alleged evils of "materialism" are usually the ones who want you to devote your energies to something "greater than yourself." These causes are always either freedom sapping ideologies that reduce humans to cogs in some great communal machine, or worse, religious movements that proclaim that humans must subjugate their wills to something that isn't there.

Pass! At least I know that my iPod Mini exists. I can't say the same for this "God" fellow. And unlike socialism, as long as I keep my battery charged, my iPod works.

|2.10.07 @ 8:11PM|#

Screw IPods; I'll keep my Creative MuVo (with its slick, candy-apple red paint job). Creative's the company that originally brought us the MP3 player (via aquisition of Diamond or the company that bought Diamond, I'm not so sure anymore--please correct me if I have my history wrong). Apple was late to the game, but took over because of a huge marketing blitz and humanity's lust for the trendy. IPods are not the best players; they're just the most advertised. (Apple has always been a company with excellent marketing, but it's never been as good as its hype. It's also one of the few big and "evil" corporations that somehow has managed to be loved by middle-of-the-roaders and alterna-types alike.)

|2.10.07 @ 8:32PM|#

"...into existence still one more competitor to the voice of God."

I rest my case. Say, it doesn't speak well to God's alleged omnipotence if He can be drowned out by pair of earphones.

Didn't some NRO shill recently made similar complaint that the iPod could drown out the holy prattle we wants us to comform to.

Turn it! Turn it WAAAY up!

|2.10.07 @ 8:32PM|#

Edit Turn it up!

Graphite|2.10.07 @ 9:28PM|#

Akira, your rousing exhortation just reminded of Autograph's "Turn Up The Radio," a great anthem to drown out the sanctimonious preachings of anti-consumerists and joyless religionists.

TURN IT UP!

Graphite|2.10.07 @ 9:28PM|#

Ugh ... reminded *me*

|2.10.07 @ 11:01PM|#

I was thinking of "consume your soul" more like the liberal train of thought of "we buy all of this stuff we don't need, man. People are starving in Africa while we are crying about our iPod not working"

Graph is right about the iPod not being the best (although I like macr computers, they are aesticly pleasing and more user-freindly). If I hadn't got mine for chirstmas a couple years ago, I would had most likely got a diffrent type of player. it doesn't suck, but their are certain features and lack of features with the thing that leaves me wishing for a better option.

|2.10.07 @ 11:32PM|#

Like it or not, Gospel and Worship music can be digitized in MP3 format.

|2.10.07 @ 11:37PM|#

Like it or not, Gospel and Worship music can be digitized in MP3 format.

Ahhh.. but the beautiful thing about freedom is that I don't have to listen to them. In point of fact, I have the aduidobook of Harris' "Letter To A Christian Nation" on my iPod.

|2.11.07 @ 12:17AM|#

I have the aduidobook of Harris' "Letter To A Christian Nation" on my iPod.

I haven't tried an MP3 audiobook yet, but it looks like a good value. The problem with books on tape or CD was the media cost 2 or 3 times as much as the paper version. And its OK with me if the book is not read by a semi-famous actor or other celebrity.

Single Issue Voter|2.11.07 @ 12:24AM|#

Akira,

I'd rather people "subjugate their wills to something that isn't there" than participate
"in some great communal machine". @0th century history has shown us which one is more dangerous to individual liberty(far more dangerous). Religion-excepting Islam- is voluntary.

Single Issue Voter|2.11.07 @ 12:29AM|#

jk

digital media files are "free" unless you have a fundamentalist respect for intellectual property law as it now stands.

|2.11.07 @ 1:30AM|#

digital media files are "free" unless you have a fundamentalist respect for intellectual property law as it now stands.

I am not qualified to discuss intellectual property law, but I am a fundamentalist about paying for services that I find valuable when those services are rendered with the expectation that they will be payed for.

FWIW, the controversy surrounding digital rights management (DRM) is not about the media being "free", but about whether or not the measures be taken to prohibit its theft are warranted.

SIV|2.11.07 @ 1:46AM|#

not theft-infringement at worst fair use at best

theft is when you take something from someone
piracy for profit would constitute taking

checking something out of a library or borrowing it from a friend or watching/listening to tv and the radio-and copying it are not the same thing

at least in any moral sense

I consider oop and unreleased material-or anything else not readily commercially available on the primary market "fair game"

|2.11.07 @ 2:05AM|#

SIV

It is the distinction between 'fair use' and theft that seems to be the basic problem. Add on to that some lobbying for laws that make 'fair use' impractical and we get you get saying theft is OK. Or, as you want to put it, its OK to rob the bank as long as give you give the loot to Sister Teresa's orphanage (or just keep for yourself).

|2.11.07 @ 9:06AM|#

I always like hearing the argument that "iPods aren't the best MP3 player.." Based on what criteria? Maybe it's not the best MP3 player for you, but maybe it is for somebody else. Maybe some people place a higher value on aesthetics than you do, or simply have a different standard of aesthetics. It is not that Apple brainwashed a bunch of dupes into thinking their player was better through some sort of "marketing machine."

And the idea that Apple has always had this great marketing machine is kind of funny considering that they could never get more than 5% of the market to use their computers.

Guy Montag|2.11.07 @ 1:30PM|#

It is not that Apple brainwashed a bunch of dupes into thinking their player was better through some sort of "marketing machine."


It is the latest twist on the 'logic' from The Affluent Society.

dhex|2.12.07 @ 9:44AM|#

one place where all these devices fail is in battery life and longevity, to varying degrees. my 1st gen ipod mini has been the suck in this regard (down to about 1 hour of life after a year and a half of ownership and a battery replacement), which is why i'm shopping for a non-apple mp3 player.

i believe i'm going to try something from the sansa e200 line, which i've heard good things about in comparison to all their other products, and the battery is removable and cheap - 20 bucks. it's also cheaper overall (8gb for 189, flash based) and it operates as a usb drive without too much rigamarole (no finished rockbox port just yet, however)

|2.12.07 @ 5:51PM|#

"Maybe it's not the best MP3 player for you, but maybe it is for somebody else. Maybe some people place a higher value on aesthetics than you do, or simply have a different standard of aesthetics."

Your entire post boils down to 'maybe some people value trendiness more than you do'. Fair enough, but trendiness does not make the MP3 player better at its stated function. It only makes it better at an unstated function. I can see your point, but you're being a little too technical (I never thought I'd say that). As far as features go, it appears that the non-iPods have way more features.
That said, I had a Toshiba Gigabeat awhile back that was, in my opinion, poorly designed.

|2.12.07 @ 6:48PM|#

I have owned only the iPod, but I did check out the competition in stores and I read up on features and ease of use. Apple won my vote. I trashed my 4g 20GB by dropping it a few times. Dang hard drive crapped out after a while. My lovely wife got me a 80GB for xmas, and I could not be happier.