Last night Margaret Throsby was whispering in my ear as I pee'd. And I liked it!
Okay, let me explain. Technically, I didn’t get a free iPod; I bought one, and received approximately the same amount of cash for free thanks to a boo boo by someone at a particular department store. It’s Karma, I believe, as we only recently had to shell out $500 excess to get Lynette’s car fixed. It was broken into at Kentlyn, with ~$1500 worth of damage to it! But that’s another story.
The iPod: 1st gen iPod Shuffle, 512 MB. I’m about to go out to lunch (for my usual ~2km walk) so I’ll tell you more about what I think of it later – Finally I now have something to listen to when I walk. But first impressions are good. When I got home last night, I took it out of it’s packet, plugged it in to my iMac, copied across the songs I wanted to listen to, put them in the order I wanted them in, unplugged and started listening to them.
It works seemlessly with iTunes – I don’t know yet how it would go as a data storage device, but it looks quite easy to change how much space I want dedicated to music and how much to data.
I tried it with three different headphones on the same song. The first set was the standard ear bud Apple 'phones that came with it, and it sounds nice to me. The 2nd was a pair of Sony flat type ones that cost about $30 four or so years ago, and again, it sounded nice. The 3rd pair, was a $40 pair of Altec Lansing wrap around (I know I’m getting the terminology wrong here, but stay with me) 'phones, where I was a little disappointed. I don’t know if it’s because of the headphones or the iPod (I can’t adjust the EQ settings on it), but the base (and general volume) was significantly lower on it.
Useability: Again, I might need to get back to you on this, but last night it was completely straight forward. The major complaint about this model was that it didn’t have an LCD screen – I think people were okay in the beginning, but really started to miss it after a while. For me, I don’t think I’ll need one. It’s only 512mb, so it’s not like I will fit a LOT of songs on there, and I can control the playlists through iTunes when I need to.
As much as the new 2nd gen iPod shuffle looks practical, I can’t say I think it looks that nice. The 1st gen one has a built in USB connector, whereas the new one requries a cable. TBH I really do prefer the look of the 1st gen iPod shuffle.
The price? Well, I knew Big W had them for $68 on special from $99 (the new ones are now starting to hit stores). I checked out DSE, as they have a pretty flexible returns policy, and they were also selling it on special. When we arrived at Dick Smith in Mac Square, they had signs up everywhere about having a 1st birthday celebration. Man, they were flogging so much stuff at discounted prices! I ended up getting the iPod and a silicon protective case for $68. Plus, we bought something else.
We have been wanting to get a digital camera for a while now, but due to funds we have been olding off. This, I couldn’t resist though. Basically, and Sunny you might want to cover your eyes for this, we just wanted a point and shoot camera, with decent zoom capabilities. Link. Note the RRP - $699. Kinda high considering it really isn’t a GREAT camera, IMHO not worth the $699. But is it worth $299? Tim says – sure! DSE had it marked down to $647, then ~$347, and I ended up getting it for $299 thanks to a roaming guy giving away tons of stuff throughout the store.
Again, I realise it may not be a fantastic camera, but it has everything I’m looking for. Easy to use, decent zoom, reasonable MP. I’d love to go out this weekend and put it through some considerable tests – I’d especially love it if you could come along Sunny. I hope to really test it out in the next week or so, and hey, if I’m not happy, I’ll return it and get something else.
So how did I get that free iPod? Well, as I said before I basically got around $65 for free due to a stuff up at another store. Instead of charging us for what we were buying, and the cash out, it seems we were only charged for the cash out. For anyone that has heard some of the other stories of Lynette’s luck when it comes to these sorts of things, you’ll know that this kind thing happens all the time to her. Maybe that car break in thing WAS Karma, but the other way around!?