About four or five years ago, can’t really remember, I burned some credit card points on low end, 6gb iPod Mini. Actually, I think it was about a month before the first iPod Nano’s were announced. I was sort of chapped that I’d just “bought” a discontinued model.
I didn’t really take to the Mini at first, but then started heavily using it in 2006. I found its actual physical heft to be comforting. Some if it was an attempt to get back in the gym, but I also had some long car rides. Then when I got back East and drove from Leesburg to Arlington for about a year and a quarter, it really helped me keep my sanity. When I switched to riding a commuter bus and Metro, the Mini still kept me company. Recently it had fallen out of favor, because I always broke out the laptop on the bus. Might as well just use iTunes there. However, I still pretty much carried it around everywhere, including a trip to Boston. The Mini was still pretty handy for airplane rides.
I was climbing some stairs in MIT’s Stata center. Concrete landings in an open plan, architect’s office style space. Got up to the second level then hear, “clink, PING, ….. POW”. The poor thing had slipped (jumped?) out of my pocket, fallen 3 feet to concrete, bounced, then flew for another story, before almost braining a poor grad student.
I went down and retrieved the Mini, but it was too late. All it does now is display the unhappy folder sign. It was from a generation of iPods with disc based harddrives. I’m guessing there was a head crash.
I found myself with a pile of rewards points yet again and decided to move into the modern era. Cashed ‘em in online, and five days later had to stop by the post office to pick up a package. Now I have a spanking new 4th generation 8Gb iPod Nano. Very sexy. Thinner, richer (more storage), and purdy (“high resolution” color LCD screen). This portable images and video thing might just catch on at some point.
I think it’s a keeper.