Pod Envy

Pod Envy

I watched part of Squawk Box this morning and happened across talk of Apple introducing a new line in the iPod series so, I logged on to check.

The iPod photo complete with color display (the one I like to call the maxi-pod,) has been reduced to $350. The iPod mini (also called, I’m told, podling, minipod, or podette) now has a price entry point of $199. It also offers a battery lifetime of 15 hours, as opposed to the (older) 8 hour variety. The maxi-pod gives up 12 hours of life without a recharge.
This has induced a state of what I like to call frantic pod envy. I’ve wanted a pod (podling, maxi-pod, whatever) for a while now, I just can’t decide upon which one. I keep looking at the different models, wondering which would be better, or which would just work for me.

The podling sounds like the best choice if you want to just travel and listen to music. The maxi-pod has the pretty color display, would match my computer, and can be jerry-rigged to work with a CompactFlash card reader (a feature which might actually come in handy to me, since I’m a photographer.) The maxi-pod, until today, rivaled the price of a laptop so I wasn’t seriously considering it as a valid option (although, I’m just as guilty as the next guy in saying, “it’s oh-so-cute.” Just keep saying it over and over again, when you find yourself looking at Apple gear, it’s easier than trying to buck the trend and you know, deep down inside, it is all really “cute.” Well, about as “cute” as an MP3 player can get although, admittedly, that’s pretty darn cute in the case of the podlings.)

I have this DiscSteno device which, on one side “eats” a CompactFlash card and, on the other, “spits out” a CD containing the results (the “burn.”) It’s a handy-dandy little device if, say, you were traveling to points afar, taking a lot of pictures, and wanted to re-use your CompactFlash memory. You could start shooting, burn a CD, and then whack the CompactFlash (re-use it) all without having to use a laptop. Only trouble is, there’s no way I’ve found of actually verifying that the CD you burnt is valid. If, say, the CD didn’t burn right, you’re out of luck, since you’ve already whacked the memory and you don’t have a laptop to use in checking out the CD (can you say international “internet cafe” anyone? I thought you could.)

This is where the maxi-pod might come in handy. If you could connect, via USB, the DiscSteno to the maxi-pod, and flip, with your thumb, through the thumbnail images on the CD, you’d have a way of checking, rather quickly, that the CD were all nice and toasty. Only trouble is the maxi-pod, until today, was like $599 and you could have bought a laptop for that. Leave it to Apple to complicate my life in an honest attempt at simplifying and improving things. (“Let’s one up society, introduce an entire new realm of technology, and screw Carol yet again in the process!” It could be the new Apple motto, if that weren’t actually, “We are THAT Cute! And oh-so color coordinated” instead.)

I know I want a hot poddy but still can’t decide. Anybody have a coin I can flip?

Until next pod…