{"id":488,"date":"2010-04-27T12:28:26","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T20:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/?p=488"},"modified":"2025-08-18T12:46:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:46:45","slug":"i-thought-it-was-a-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/i-thought-it-was-a-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"I thought it was a computer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fact is, I’m behind on the gadgetry. I don’t buy anything in its first year, and sometimes it’s several years. I am not enchanted by the new. I’m running 10.4 on my matte-screen iMac on my desk next to my rotary dial phone. So just as the iPad came out, I bought an iPod Touch. I figured it would be cool to load it with music and movies (well, one movie – I got the 8 GB). And, in wi-fi range, I could get on the internet and do, well, everything else. (I also figured they’d start phasing it out with the iPad coming.)<\/p>\n

I have not had an Apple mp3 device since the Shuffle. Since then, for my audio I’ve used my beloved Phillips mp3 player\/recorder\/FM radio for everything. For movies, I borrrowed a DVD portable player (also, as it happens, a Phillips).<\/p>\n

On my little Phillips, I have become accustomed to making my own folders, dragging and dropping my audio files. I use iTunes for burning CDs and converting audio to MP3 — I don’t have a zillion iTunes proprietary folders. So I now have this beautfiul $200 device (it really is gorgeous) and I’m so impressed that I can hold a movie (coverted with VisualHub, of course) in the palm of my hand! But I have to use iTunes to load it up. Um, OK. Then I realized I can’t even really access the files on the sucker. I can only create packages in iTunes and upload to the iPod. Can’t go the other way. Can’t even see the iPod’s files listed in iTunes. It isn’t independent.<\/p>\n

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I knew the software was proprietary. I knew I had to connect it to the iMac to fiddle with its files. I had no idea the entire device was tethered to iTunes, a proprietary piece of software inside a proprietary piece of software, like a pacifier to a baby. What the hell is this?<\/p>\n

So now I understand the complaint about the iPad, and the iPhone (here’s a good article at Gizmodo<\/a>, begging for an iPad killer). Up to now I didn’t really get the big deal. Most computers are Windows whether I like it or not, so for a toy (it really is just a toy) who cared what the system was? And you have to plug it into some computer anyway. I really didn’t get all the people up in arms about a piece of cool-looking gadgetry.<\/p>\n

Well, now I do. I have just read a great article in Wired<\/a> on how Radio Shack, which used to be for the electronic DIY folks, now sells (since it’s Tandy days) mostly pre-made gadgets. This leaves tinkerers with nowhere to get parts and build stuff. Tinkering and putting stuff together is what made America great (trust me, I’m a historian), and I can’t even move around the files on an entertainment device? I either have to be three full steps away from the real technology, or I have to go underground and jail-break the sucker?<\/p>\n

Yes, I’m still happy about a movie in the palm of my hand. But I feel I was deceived about what this iPod device truly is. It’s a peripheral. I thought it was a computer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fact is, I’m behind on the gadgetry. I don’t buy anything in its first year, and sometimes it’s several years. I am not enchanted by the new. I’m running 10.4 on my matte-screen iMac on my desk next to my rotary dial phone. So just as the iPad came out, I bought an iPod Touch. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9869,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/9869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}