iPod

I love music and I am a frequent traveler so for years carried around a portable CD player along with a fair supply of CDs and a set of headphones. I always found it a challenge to pack my backpack with CD player, CDs, headphones, a book, a dictionary (Spanish) along with my computer and all its parts. Needless to say, I looked in awe every time someone pulled out their iPod.

Once a year or so while rushing off a late flight to catch the last connection home on a Friday night, I would leave my CDs in the seat back losing them forever. Each event resulted in the loss of $150 to $250 in CDs. As a result, I started looking into MP3 players. Being an engineer, I had to have the best value player with high fidelity sound. I wanted FM and the ability to listen to about 6 hours of music. A player with 512 MB to 1GB of RAM would have worked fine. My wife put an end to all that when she bought me an iPod for our anniversary.

My new iPod had a color display and 20 MB of hard drive space. It was easy to load up my CDs and operating the iPod itself was easy to learn with its intuitive controls. I had no complaints about the sound quality as long as I used my own headphones.

I did try out iTunes and was pleasantly surprised that I could burn a regular CD for use in my car. I could not tell any difference in the sound quality of the CDs from iTunes and store bought CDs. My only complaint is that the selection at iTunes seems limited. I also do not like the partial albums they offer. I want the whole album if I'm going to buy the album.

The limitations of iTunes is minor in comparison to the convenience when while traveling. I now have plenty of room for my books, computer equipment and audio equipment. And best of all, there are no CDs to lose.

Magobrillo