iPod Shuffle

First of all, the stupid thing is called the iPod Shuffle, not an iShuffle. This is one of the things I learned while spending 90 minutes on the phone with Apple's technical support yesterday morning. I also learned his name was Paul and he was in Prince Edward Island, dubbed PEI by the locals, apparently. You can imagine this isn't exaclty the best way to start out with your (hopefully long) ownership with the product. The short story is that my computer hardware seems to be having trouble dealing with it all. I got it to work on the wife's computer, which is ok but inherently problematic since we'll now need to manage 2 song lists on one machine. I'll deal, but what the fuck do you pay for?

Anyway, like they say, Buyer Beware. I'll write that as if it's a proper noun since it's pretty damn important. Apple is going to rape you for money if they can help it. There's a 1 year warranty on the thing, but if you need to send it in after 6 months, you'll pay $30 for it. That's a warranty? To say the least, Apple's strategy is to gouge you with adds on and service rapes.

I shouldn't use the word "rape" as such, since it's obviously an egregious use of the intended word. Still, I feel like these big companies are out to get you with these products. When my wife bought her iPod last year, we immediately had to go back to the store and pay for a $30 USB converter because - amazingly - the product is not PC compatible out of the box.

Having said that, this thing is awesome when it works. I've used the full sized iPod and the Shuffle and there's no question that for me, the Shuffle is far superior for my needs.