iPwnd

I would like to start out by saying my iPod Touch has the short-term memory of a hamster.

That is not to say anything about its long-term memory; in fact it has yet to forget a song that I loaded on it. As far as mp3 players go, this is not particularly remarkable.

However, the demonic workings of Steve Jobs have ensured that it will not remember what it had previously been playing if I decide to make use of any of its other functionalities, such as web browsing, e-mail, or any of the applications. What is particularly odd is that the first-generation one, which I used to have, did not suffer from this issue. Instead it just crashed all the time, and then it would forget what it had been playing.

I like to shuffle through songs so I'm not listening to the same tracks every time the iPod decides to forget what it had been playing. The iPod will not have any of that, though. It plays the songs in a random order, but in the same random order. Every time.

This necessitates a press of the "Shuffle All" button on my car stereo. This action brings peace to the world.

That is, until the iPod decides it wants to play the same tracks as yesterday and the day before, just in a different order.

It also has a tendency to forget that it was playing in shuffle mode. This means it starts playing in order by artist.

I recently got a new computer, and because iTunes is designed to make humankind a more miserable species, importing the library from the old computer is more difficult than importing nuclear weapons from North Korea. In fact it is so difficult that I ended up resorting to third-party freeware, which easily accomplished the task Apple wants you to think is impossible.

In the import process, however, all of my play counts were lost. This, however, enabled me to find out just how much more frequently some songs were being played. It has been revealed that out of the 3,170 or so songs in my library,about half are yet unplayed since the migration. Of those that have been played, over 130 have been played at least three times, with a handful having been played as many as six times. I can't be bothered to find out if this is statistically significant, but it does seem rather high.

Sure, the screen is nice and because it's an iPod, it's compatible with all the accessories and aftermarket products out there.

Or is it? I have a USB cable that worked with the first generation model I had, but doesn't work with the second generation model because Apple changed some of the pins around.

I also have Bluetooth functionality, which magically became available when I upgraded the firmware. Imagine, a software upgrade that enables a new hardware feature. If Microsoft pulled that stunt, people would be up in arms crying foul. But because this is Apple, such gestures are welcomed with glee and celebration.

You can be sure my next mp3 player will not be an iPod. And it may not be long before I get a new one, because the iPod Touch has been terribly unreliable in my experience. On the first one I had, one of the two moving parts in the entire assembly (read: button) failed.