Filed under: iPod Family, Cult of Mac
USA Today: iPod is lifechanging
USA Today recently chose 25 inventions they felt had changed people's lives in the last 25 years. Along with cell phones, laptops and DVDs, USA Today chose iPod as their #8 life changing gadget. It has, they suggest, reinvented the way people walk down sidewalks. Presumably before the iPod, no one had apparently ever heard of, let alone used, the Sony Walkman. But that's just a small quibble. We here at TUAW aren't argumentative. If USA Today says that the iPod is life changing, who are we to argue?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tom said 2:22PM on 5-23-2007
"If USA says that the iPod is life changing, who are we to argue?"
I assume you mean USA Today rather than the state as a whole?
Who are you to argue? Someone with perspective perhaps?
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Fred said 2:27PM on 5-23-2007
I would say that the iPod changed my life to a degree. It's one of the few things that I have with me almost all the time. It certainly expanded my musical palette. I had Walkmans, etc before, but the capacity of the iPod, or other comparable DAP (is there one, really?) make it a much more usable item.
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Joe said 2:59PM on 5-23-2007
I think it improves the experience significantly enough beyond what the walkman offered that their statement is valid. The walkman was great for its time, but with a maximum of 45 minutes of music without flipping or replacing a tape, people didn't listen to them as much as they do iPods. When people have thousands of songs at your disposal, they tend to feel the need to listen to them as much as possible. People almost strive to listen to everything they have, and look forward to failing at that, because it means they have a lot of choice.
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Luna Lovegood said 2:59PM on 5-23-2007
"If USA Today says that the iPod is life changing, who are we to argue?"
In June, if USA Today says that the iPhone is not life-changing, who will you be to argue?
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Doug Stewart said 3:05PM on 5-23-2007
Fred is right. If you wanted to limit yourself to one tape or CD, you could bring your music with you. Now you can bring so much content with you its overwhelming.
You can program an entire cross country flight on your tiny iPod shuffle. Try that with a walkman.
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Greg said 3:06PM on 5-23-2007
Remember that the Walkman actually arrived more than 25 years ago, so perhaps it was excluded from consideration. Still, it made music portable well before the iPod. What it did not let you do, though, was take ALL your music with you. That and the lack of instant shuffle did not provide the same level of immersion, IMHO.
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Noah Ramon said 3:20PM on 5-23-2007
I think that Joe and Doug hit it on the head - if I had my WalkMan with me, I had to carry (X) number of tapes with me as well, and it was (by necessity) only a portion of my collection and only a small one at that. The MP3 CD players were a useful bridge, in that I could carry MORE music, but I still had to juggle what was on which CD at any given time.
An 80 gig iPod (or other large-capacity MP3 player, granted) gives me random access to much, MUCH larger percentage of my music collection at any given time.
For a junkie like myself, that's pretty darn intoxicating and also AMAZINGLY liberating.
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Karim said 3:25PM on 5-23-2007
1954, transistor radio: portable music, with content determined by networks (radio station)
1979, Walkman: portable music, with limited amount of content determined by user (cassette tapes)
2001, iPod: portable music, with user's entire music library
One small life-changing aspect of that difference is that my apartment and car are no longer cluttered up with media (cassettes and CDs). I don't need a "CD jukebox;" I don't have to worry about whether I left one of my favorite CDs in the car.
The whole iPod ecosystem is also life-changing. I remember the first time in 2003 when I realized I had forgotten to swing by the music store to pick up an album that had been released that day. Instead, I went to the iTunes Music Store -- and the album was there! Ten minutes later, I was listening to it. I didn't have to get in my car, burn fossil fuels, drive for 30 minutes, find a parking space, etc.
Audio and video podcasts have also proven life-changing. There's a great radio show called "Selected Shorts" that airs locally on Mondays starting at 1 AM... collections of the show were available on CD for $28. Well, it recently became available as a FREE podcast. So now I don't have to stay up until 2 AM to listen to this show anymore -- I can hear it when I want.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=253191824
Likewise, Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac" airs locally at 6:50 AM -- a bit early for me. The free podcast means I can listen to it at any time, and save shows I like for repeat listening.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=136642066
The iPod may not be a religion, it may not be a way of life :-) -- but it is most certainly NOT just an updated Sony Walkman, either.
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karo said 3:55PM on 5-23-2007
It's also life-changing in the way that it not only captured an existing digital music market, it helped it explode by being accessible to consumers who did not consider themselves tech-savvy and would not have ever thought to purchase a digital music player prior to its launch.
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Joe Bella said 5:44PM on 5-23-2007
Sure the fact that the iPod contains most people's entire music collection is a big change.. but you can also argue that this generation never had a walkman.. and the iPod is this generations discovery of what was cool about a walkman. What I mean is that when I was growing up, I had a walkman. It fit in my pocket and I could walk down the sidewalk and listen to some music, and it was fantastic. Kids these days have CD walkmans which never really captured the original experience because they were always so bulky. You couldn't throw a CD walkman in your pocket, you always had to hold it in your hand. And you had to be careful of how you walked otherwise it would skip. Sure there were other formats such as minidisk and those funky 3" cds.. but they never really caught on here in the US. I suppose what I am saying is that with portable electronics.. size matters. Which also explains why the iPod took off and the bulky hard driver players of the time didn't.
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Vincent said 5:53PM on 5-23-2007
I think what changed my life was more iTunes than the iPod. Sure, the interface is slick, but I've had other MP3-players before. And the one thing that's so sweet is that I can have access to this whole digital world and it syncs flawlessly with my baby. I guess that's what they call an iLife :)
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(01) said 9:17PM on 5-23-2007
I listed to various CD players through HS, had a TERRIBLE 1st gen MP3/CD player, and picked up an Archos when I was a senior in college at the same time my friend picked up a 2nd(3rd?) gen iPod. I thought it was pretty slick, but couldn't afford one at the time. It was a pretty solid player overall, it had color display and played video and had a pretty decent memory. Fast forward 4 years and 2 iPods later and I'm STILL pulling music I haven't heard off my 5th Gen. 80 gig video iPod. Funny how much an interface can change the way you listen to music.
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El in AZ said 11:07PM on 5-23-2007
The credibility of that entire list is suspect... Or at least the way they've numbered the list.
TiVo has changed one of the highest-profile industries on the planet... Television. It certainly is more important than bagged lettuce, the StairMaster and oversized golf clubs.
Puh-lease!
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Tony said 1:15PM on 5-24-2007
"I assume you mean USA Today rather than the state as a whole?"
I assume you mean the country rather than the state as a whole?
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C said 4:52PM on 5-25-2007
"but you can also argue that this generation never had a walkman.. and the iPod is this generations discovery of what was cool about a walkman."
Well, I'm in Generation Y, and I had a Sony Walkman and then later on...a Sony Discman. Now I have an iPod. I didn't miss out on anything, really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y#Howe_and_Strauss:_.22The_Millennials.22
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C said 4:55PM on 5-25-2007
To clarify my previous comment...
Obviously I didn't have reel-to-reel, an 8-track, or a record player, but you get my drift about the Walkman.
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