This isn’t so much a letter but a question… What’s all this
stuff i hear about the iPod? Before you answer, yes, I am
aware that the iPod is a mass digital storing device which
features playback of the most common audio formats…
What i mean is, whats the big deal?
Sure you can hold thousands of songs, and carry them
around without the bulk of say a few small storage sheds
full of cd’s, but lets not forget about the other great
alternatives.
I’ve personally owned everything from the ancient relics
known as the 8-track, record player, and real to real, to an
amazingly diverse number of portable digital toys. People
seem to be swept up in the Digital Revolution, changing
the world from cd’s to mp3’s and are getting a lil lost in
the hype.
i would just like to try to bring people’s attention to a
product that was once viewed as the cd’s replacement
long before anyone even heard of…. umm… What is that
freaky lil blue thing in the commercials called anyway?
THE MINI DISK (MD) drums>
Okay, I know some of you are saying.. ” the what?” but
hear me out. Originally they seemed to be the bastard
child of a cd and a 3.5 floppy disk, but from that tremulous
childhood has come one of the greatest (in my personal
opinion) music breakthroughs of all time. Granted at first,
the MD had the potential to be great, but somehow it went
the way of the lazer disk and sank into relative obscurity.
Lately though, it’s coming back with a vengance.
An MD (mini disk) for those of you who have never beheld
their beauty, is about 3/4’s the size of your Colonel Card
and about half as thick as a box of matches. Originally
they could each only hold about 80 minutes (thats one
average cd length) but due to the same file shrinking
goodness that crams all those beloved chart topping hits
on your mp3 player, you can hold on one disk up to a few
hundred songs.. Before you start yes yes yes, i DO realize
that the iPod can hold thousands, but how many tracks
do you really want to try to skip through to get to the one
you want? Even with grouping songs by artist or genre
thats still quite a bit of flipping around. The key advantage
with a mini disk player is that while you do have a
somewhat smaller capacity in terms of number of tracks
on a disk (and the same grouping features that make
mp3 players and the like, tolerable), there’s no need to
find a computer to add, change, or replace songs in the
player; just switch out the disk. On any given day I usually
carry around 8 or 9 disks and theirs no inconvenience
what-so-ever assoiciated with it. i can go from the entire
Pink Floyd collection one minute to the latest and
greatest of Tool the next. How many of you ‘pod people’
can vouch for that kind of versatility on the move? Besides
even with a “student discount” of 20 bucks you’re still
dishen out a pretty hefty sum for something as
extravagent as an iPod. Sony has a mini disk player out
right now that features the same file formats as an iPod
called the Net MD. For about $80-$90 (depending where
you shop) you can get the player as well as a fully
functional sound suite that lets you easily switch from
one file format to another. Best part is, there’s no
sepparate disk burner to buy. The player has one built in.
Unfortunaltly for the iPod, it is relatively useless withought
a computer, where as with the mini disk you can still
easily find a variety of the lost artifacts of it’s former would
be glory days (many new revamped models are hitting
the shelves too) and create disks from your favorite cd’s,
cassets, even your vinal collection is easily converted to
the portable, shock proof, mini disk.
Sorry to all the Heinlen styled invaders out there, but the
Doctor is in.(MD get it? hey its about as funny as that ‘pod
people’ thing okay?)