Here are a few examples of how this clean, easy-to-use device has improved my life.

• It has increased my interest in exercising and staying fit. Carrying a CD player at the gym is not fun, but carrying the iPod is painless. On the slopes, I find I can turn down the volume enough to hear other skiers around me but leave it loud enough that I get a brilliant soundtrack that actually helps me ski better. I've gone on long walks during which I started dancing, feeling only a tiny bit silly for acting just like those silhouetted people in the ads.
• As others have discussed here, listening in shuffle (random) mode has inspired me to dive deeper into albums I have had for a while; to purchase individual songs when most of the songs on an album don't do much for me but one or two knock me out; and to make playlists and think about great segues between songs, as I used to do when I made mix tapes many years back.
• It has helped me in my work. When I was writing yesterday, for example, the music I was listening to helped me with one of my characters in my novel. Sometimes it is a phrase or an emotion, but some element of the music often just seems to fit what's in front of me.
• I bought noise-canceling earbuds and find that it's easier to face mundane household tasks -- especially the loud chores like vacuuming and mowing -- with a musical accompaniment.
• As someone who is easily fatigued by excessive ambient noise but is inspired by music, the iPod has become indispensable on flights. I'm so much less exhausted after a flight if during the voyage I can listen to music instead of the roar of the airplane's engines.
• The last time I had surgery, the anesthesiologist agreed to allow me to listen to my iPod before, during, and after the procedure. Studies have shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety and pain levels as well as recovery times. (Just Google this to find out more.)

Yes, there are things I don't like about Apple and iTunes (I still prefer buying CDs to buying tracks and albums online, both because of the sound quality and because of the limits on how many times you can "use" a track). But I agree with the author that the iPod is a vast improvement over the old portable CD player and has had a profound effect on the way I listen to music.

Cheap crap, that's what. Cheap, cutesy crap. Cheap cutesy crap that doesn't work out of the box or falls apart after three months. "Lifestyle appliances."

Hewlett-Packard, for instance, used to make awesome printers that worked forever and came with a three-year warranty. Can you imagine that? A three-year warranty!

Now they make cheap plastic junk that looks pretty and either doesn't work properly or breaks within six months.

And you are lucky to get a one-year warranty.

And Apple is directly responsible for that, with their cutesy plastic crap aesthetic.

PS. When your hearing goes I'll be pushing to have hearing aids and treatments excluded from health plans for all you self-abusers. But maybe Apple will be making medical devices by then?

Suckers.

I don't have an ipod. I don't have a cell phone, PDA, TiVo, DirectTV, or Cable TV. I don't even have a TV. That's right - no TV all. We got rid of it when my first daughter was 2-and-a-half and awoke one morning instantly asking to watch her Monsters Inc. video. My wife said it best: "She needs to be making up her own stories". I'm not saying this because I think we're superior, just to illustrate that you can get by without all the digital media.

We live in the middle of Portland Oregon where it seems like most people are hooked-up to something like a cell phone, laptop, or iPod all the time. Sheesh, no one even talks to one another anymore in the cafes - they're too busy adjusting and maintaining thier gadgets. We have a great city for bikes and there are so many idiots plugged into iPods while they ride...in traffic...without a helmet...or a light that it drives me nuts.

Please wake up!!! Apple and eveyone else just wants your money! By keeping you plugged into your digital toy, they mean to SEPARATE YOU FROM REAL PEOPLE. This is not a cultural phenomenon, this is a money making venture and you are buying what they are selling.

Maybe this can be an alternative vision: My most recent purchase was a button accordion and a method book to begin learning how to play it. After 2 months, I already know 5 tunes and have performed with it once with my Celtic band. In that group I play the fiddle, something I didn't take-up until I was 24. I'm now 33 and I'm putting together a group to play French/Breton folk music. I'm getting together with a potential singer for the band in a few hours.

This summer, we finished a play house/garden tool shed in our back yard made out of cob (clay dirt, sand, and straw). It has a limestone plaster on the outside with colored glass globes for widows and colored tile set in as decoration. The inside has colored clay plaster finish with little nooks for the kids to put their toys and secret treasures in. I got help from neighbors and strangers to mix and set the cob over the summer (Adults secretly love to play in the mud).

I guess I just want to encourage everyone to resist the consumerism and commercialism that is such a pervasive part of our everyday lives. There are scores of marketing and advertising departments who want your time, money, and attention. Sometimes the best way to resist them is to go cold turkey.

Respectfully,

Ian Clemons

A few words on the subject of compressed audio:

One of the "flaws" of the iPod is really a flaw of contemporary music mastering processes. When you play back your songs on shuffle play, you'll notice wildly varying volume levels from song to song. There's a little "sound enhancer" feature built into your iPod that compensates for this problem with some further compression and limiting.

Part of the problem is that there is no real industry standard when it comes to "perceived volume" on a CD. Some record labels master their recordings for a natural sound and some master their recordings to sound nice and loud over really crappy boom box speakers and tiny tinny headphones.

The unfortunate thing is that they make this decision for you. Say you want to listen to a reissue of a classic rock album, and hey look: It's been "Digitally Remastered." More often than not it's been processed to compete with a contemporary hip hop track in terms of perceived volume. Sadly, it is physically impossible to do this to a piece of audio without introducing some distortion and other ear-fatiguing artifacts.

Since we're all so terribly modern now, it makes good sense for the music industry to master everything for a natural, audiophile sound. Then Apple can install a robust compressor/limiter in their iPod and the consumer can switch it on whenever they feel like it. Then I could listen to more than one song by Muse without getting an earache.