Mention "Apple" or "iPod" in a post....

...and you get on every search engine. What is it about that company? So proprietary about their product/image that it rubs off on the consumers...

I got read by some Apple fan, who left a comment:

Anonymous said...

(Visit my friends and upload all of their music...ooooh...)

i love it when people justify not using an ipod (or complain about using an ipod) because Apple makes it harder to steal music.

nice.

I live it when people leave snarky comments anonymously. Or read one sentence in 10 (in parentheses no less, and with a silly "ooooh...") and take that as the primary meaning.

• Did I mention that my Archos thingamabob also voice records? (Cool.)
• Did I mention that I can make playlists on the thing too? (Something to do other than just look at it when listening, wishing I could do something with it....oh, sort of like an iPod) [Oh, I'm gonna get into trouble!]
• Did I mention that it took almost 4 hours to put the support software for the iPod on my PC? It was like dueling banjos. With my unit, I could be anywhere away from my computer (traveling, at work) and be able to plug it in to any Mac or PC and actually use it as a portable hard drive with no extra software or preparation.
  

But can I just rant for a second about these righteous people who assume that everyone, but them, is stealing music left, right, and centre? Show of hands, folks, how many CDs (or tapes, before CDs came into being) have made a CD for a friend, or had a friend give you one they made?

Did you know that record companies view that as stealing? Here's an article commenting on the Mac point of view, from 2001. Here are the Recording Industry Association of America's official definitions of piracy (with a bit of fear-mongering "we're coming to get you" attitude).

Oh, I've tried to download music (gasp!) illegally, but I'm not good at it: I already own the music I want to listen to. I end up with a Beatles tune....Oh, right. And a couple of Eminem tunes to find out if I like him enough to actually buy an album. (I have yet to listen to them.)

Metro and I bought a Napster 3-month unlimited membership over Christmas (we were buying them for the kids we knew)....I'm a little nervous about using it -- will I find enough that interests me to download?

Especially since we have a full rack of Metro's old cassettes sitting around, and:

• My new unit records in-line, with a very simple interface that even allows me to create a new recording for each song on a cassette (and it came with the correct cord)

So, Anonymous, thank you for the blog topic. And next time, take some responsibility for your words.

Lori