On the cover of the Rollin...U.S.A. Today?

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OK, so I am horribly quoting a good old song. Sue me. I guess I should apologize for jumping on a bandwagon, but when I saw this on the cover of today's USA Today, I found it amusing and dumped $0.75 into the box for a copy.

The article is nice and fluffy, but interesting nonetheless: "In iPod America, legions in tune".

For the record, I have owned three different iPods (a 10GB 3rd gen, that now belongs to my nephew; a 40GB 4th gen that is at home charging, and the new 1GB iPod shuffle that is hanging around my neck as I write this), and love them. Of course, I am the target demographic: a tech geek, an Apple/Mac fan/user, and an "early adopter".

I have been playing around with other music formats (Ogg Vorbis recently) and looking at other players to see how they compare (most notably iRiver). I like the way that Vorbis sounds as good with smaller file sizes, but has little support with most mainstream players. The iRiver experiment was a failure: too expensive, too many features I did not need (does anyone who enjoys listening to music actually use an FM radio anymore?), and the interface between player and computer so inelegant as to be annoying.

So, for now, I hang the cute white stick around my neck, jack in a good pair of earphones, and smile as the music plays.