The iPod: A Gadget You Can Truly Love
By Jim Calloway

Some readers might wonder why we would discuss the iPod in the Oklahoma Bar Journal. They are just music players. Right?

Well, I’ve actually learned that lawyers use their iPods for many things, like backup of critical files or transferring files between the home computer and the office computer or "reading" books on tape, I mean, on CD. I guess I mean books on iPod.

I can justify a discussion of the iPod for lawyers several ways. Lawyers’ quality of life is an important issue, for example. But as we are looking at Apple Computer products this month, I’ll just admit that we are going to cover iPods just because they are cool. In fact, when I recently interviewed a group of former ABA TECHSHOW chairs about the most important recent technological trends, one of them named the iPod.

The iPod is a music player. There are lots of portable music players. You can find a large selection by searching for an MP3 player online or by going to your local electronics store. Many readers are very familiar with digital music, having downloaded your fair share (or perhaps more than your fair share) of songs online. Others are curious. Others have no interest and equate downloading music with nefarious Internet activity.

So let me make a point I’ve made before to many of you. If you had to choose, would you rather have a 500-page book of excellent legal forms or the same forms on a CD-ROM? Hopefully, everyone would agree that the CD is superior. If you need a book, you can print out the contents of the CD. Information is more usable, more powerful and more valuable in digital
format.

The same is true of music. Objections of some audiophile purists notwithstanding, the music purchased on CDs today and the music that is downloaded is more valuable than that on the vinyl records of my youth. Because if you do your backups properly, you will likely have this music forever; unlike LPs, most of which are no longer with us due to improper use, extreme temperatures or the demands of finite storage space.

Point one in favor of the iPod. I now have a complete backup of all of my music that formerly was only on the vulnerable CDs I had purchased. This could be done with many types of "jukebox" software for the computer. Many of you have already done that. Many of you hadn’t. I hadn’t. It was on my "round tuit" list.

Point two in favor of the iPod. I can take my music with me—all of it. The iPod is about the size of a deck of playing cards. (The iPod mini is smaller.) I loaded virtually all of the music CDs I own on the 20 GB iPod I received for Christmas and it is not even half full. Whether it is a visit to the doctor’s waiting room, an unplanned break or the stupefying experience that airline travel has become, I have the option to listen to music or digital books. Certainly there are other MP3 players with a 20 GB capacity. The same logic applies to them.

Point three in favor of the iPod. It is easy to operate. In the days of TV remote controls with 50 buttons, the minimalist iPod interface is refreshingly simple and easy to operate. The iTunes software installed easily on my PC. (As I noted, I don’t own a Mac.) I insert music CDs into the computer and they are copied to the hard drive. Synchronization with a database produces the name of each song for all but the most obscure CD. The next time I link my iPod to my PC, all of the songs are transferred to it. I can select among the music items by album, by genre or by artist—from Aaron Neville to ZZ Top.

Point four in favor of the iPod. Apple has gotten the music download business model right. One would have had to have been living as a hermit the last few years to miss the furor over file-sharing services like Napster and Kazaa and the legal counterattack by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). The iTunes store concept is simple. I can download a song for 99 cents or an entire album for $9.99. I’ll be able to listen to it the rest of my life, absent negligence or an unlikely misfortune on my part. And, we lawyers do appreciate that this is totally legal.

It is not my purpose to convince anyone to buy an iPod or another MP3 player that might serve your needs just as well or better. I just have to note that in a rather small way, the iPod has been literally life changing. It brought a lot of music back into my life. I’ve listened to music that had been gathering dust for years. I’ve listened to albums where I just liked a few songs and, therefore, rarely played the album. I’ve listened during children’s athletic practices and while waiting my turn in other venues. I’m listening to my iPod over headphones as I write this.

There are, of course, several downsides. I risk missing a pleasant conversation with another parent at a children’s athletic practice or perhaps hearing my name called in the dentist’s waiting room. My personal opinion is that we are already becoming too isolated in our society, and I hope my music doesn’t add to that.

But the primary downside I have noted so far is that there is a whole new group of things I want to buy to go with my iPod. Tulsa attorney Ken Bodenhamer told me that he was just about ready to buy an iPod until he added the cost of the iPod to the cost of all the peripherals he wanted to go with it.

The iPod is an expensive investment, so you really need to protect it with a durable case. The earphones that come with the iPod are OK for trying it out, but soon you’ll want at least one nice set of headphone or earbuds. (A high-end set of name brand external noise canceling headphones can cost as much as the iPod.) And as I’ve noted, headphones can be isolating or uncomfortable, so external speakers let you provide dance music for a party or soft background music. For the automobile, there are external devices that fit into a car cassette player or FM broadcast peripherals that let you play your iPod tunes over your vehicle’s stereo.

And, it is true that you can save word processing files, calendar entries, contact information and do many other important business tasks with your iPod. There’s even a photo iPod designed for displaying
photos.

You may have recently read news stories about a new phenomenon – Podcasting. Individuals can record radio broadcasts and place them on the Internet for others to download and listen to on their iPods.

And Apple has just released a very inexpensive version of the iPod—the iPod Shuffle, which sells for $99. I’m happy with the much more expensive 20 GB model myself.

The iPod may not be for you. You may not need any MP3 player. But, if you have finished this article, at least you will know what someone else is talking about when they mention their iPod.

Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal February 12, 2005 - Vol. 76; No.6