Twelve Black Code Monkeys

Well, a new generation of iPods has just been announced. Looks like they are not the revolutionary changes that some people were hoping for, including color screens, support for playing video files, larger storage capacity, greatly decreased size, etc. They are, instead, an evolutionary development with a very slightly decreased form factor, consolidation of controls, longer battery time, multiple on-the-go playlists, and ability to speed up or slow down audio books without changing the pitch of the narrator’s voice. Oh yes, they are also cheaper by $100! All in all, I think these set of improvements are very nice, especially considering the lower price.

Back in April, I took advantage of a $100 off deal from Audible.com* and ordered an iPod Mini from Amazon.com. Almost four months later, I still have yet to receive it. Amazon has yet to ship it. My shipping estimate has changed twice, and the latest one is set to start in four days and go till August 6th. I have little confidence that even this date range will be met. With the introduction of the new iPods at lower prices, I wonder if the Minis will be decreased. My sense is they won’t be because there is such a great demand compared to supply that they could probably increase the price without harming sales! The new iPods are apparently now on sale in Apple stores, although I haven’t actually been by one to confirm this. So far they aren’t listed on Amazon. If the Minis continue to be delayed and it looks like Amazon will actually have stock to ship the new iPods without having to wait 6 months, then I think the price differential of $50 between a 4GB Mini and a 20GB G4 iPod is enough to make me ditch the Mini altogether. It was actually supposed to be a birthday present for my wife (her Birthday is in April) and she’s waited way too long as it is. Somehow I feel we should be compensated for all this waiting, but what can you do?

Oh yes, and when I first wrote about my iPod when I got it back in September of last year, I titled it “iPod, Therefore I am.” Newsweek has gone and stolen my tagline! Damn them! So the title of this entry (Newsweek please take note!) is copyrighted, trademarked, and otherwise owned my Twelve Black Code Monkeys. Any use of this title is strictly prohibited without the express major consent of Twelve Black Code Monkeys. Now play ball!

* Audible.com is a subscription-based audio book service where you can download books off the internet and play them on your computer or portable device. They don’t use open file formats like MP3 for fear of copying, but the proprietary file is more widely supported than you would think. I can play it on my PC, on my iPod, on my Treo 600, and if I ever got a Pocket PC or a Mac, I could play it on those as well. Because of the nature of spoken word, it can be compressed more with less quality loss than MP3. An hour’s worth of crystal-clear audio with no digital “artifacts” take up less than 15MB of space, whereas the standard 128Kbps bitrate MP3 file would take up over 60MB!