David Friedli

By the Dashboard Lights

10/25/07 iUnderstand

iUnderstand.

Until recently, iDidn’t get the entire phenomenon around the music industry surrounding personal music players.

My kids had one. A majority of students at school had one. When athletes and coaches stepped onto a bus to travel to away games, it seemed everyone but me was plugged in.

That changed this week.

iHave an iPod. The iPod is the personal music system developed and marketed by the Apple Corporation.

Using technology that won a Nobel Prize for innovation, the iPod is a tiny electronic gizmo can store and retrieve digital music, photos and video.

i’Ve seen many innovations in the music industry over my 50 years. The last 30 years has brought a revolution with personal computers becoming a mainstay of daily life. It seems only natural music and technology have joined forces to take a giant leap forward.

iWouldn’t have an iPod today had it not come as part of my responsibilities coordinating a grant for our school. Even when iGot mine, iWasn’t quite certain i’D use it.

How wrong iWas.

My kids tell me my iPod is the best, biggest and newest out there. All iKnow is it supposedly holds 20,000 songs, and if iBuy an iTunes card and go online, iCould even download full-length movies which will play back on the unit.

i’M not sure why anyone would want to play movies on something with a 3.5” screen, but they tell me it can and is done.

What iFound was the concept of music on the move is addictive.

Mobile music isn’t exactly a novel concept. As a kid, iRemember a leather-covered transistor radio which Mom said Dad bought when they first came on the market. The 1982 annual from Lyons High School shows Jeff Schoch sporting his Walkman cassette player. A few years later, Jeff Haye loaned the first CD disk iEver saw for a yearbook cover photo collage.

iHad all those things. But let me tell you, there is real freedom and convenience in this iPod. Of course, the kids helped me rip music and download it to my new player. iPlugged the earphones in and headed out the door to walk the dog.

That duty never passed so quickly. Accompanied by commercial-free music which did not skip, it was over an hour before our steps brought us home. Cold supper not withstanding, it was a great experience. My iPod library consists of “only” 250 songs at this point, but it is impressive. Don’t want rock and roll? Folk and jazz are a button away.

i’M hooked on my iPod, and iCan see why so many other people are too.