What about me?

I own an Apple iPod Nano. I bought it about a year ago, which makes it a First Generation Nano, since they've recently come out with "Second Generation" Nanos.

Recently, Apple upgraded their iTunes and latest iPods to support what's called Gapless Playback. Gapless Playback is a feature that allows MP3s to be played continuously one right after the other, without gaps (hence the name). Where this might come in handy are albums that seamlessly flow from one track to the other, such as live albums, classical music, and even some rock albums.

Before the upgrade, the gaps between my tracks of gapless albums were not too bad, a brief pop or millisecond silence between. After the upgrade? Still the same. Why? Because Apple is not upgrading the First Generation Nanos. Why are they not upgrading the "old ones?" Simple. Money. That's the only reason. And that's why I'm ticked off.

There exists an open source (read free) software for my iPod Nano that supports the Gapless Playback, which proves that it is possible to have such a feature on an "old" piece of equipment. Why not upgrade mine? They want me to go out and buy another iPod!

I paid a good $250 a year ago for the iPod and already Apple wants me to buy another one. Is this the beginning of an iPod subscription program? $250 a year for iPods? I can find other ways to spend $250 that will last me a lifetime! (foreshadowing for a future blog)

I used to think that Apple was a pretty cool company, always being creative and attentive to detail. But recently, I'm starting to think that Apple is like Microsoft- looking out for no one but themselves. (Microsoft shows this by coming out with their new operating system Vista that doesn't improve anything except security for the benefit of Microsoft). If Apple really took care of the customer, the loyalty from the customers would most certainly pay off in the long run.