Takes a Licking & Keeps on Ticking. Sort of.
So are you as bothered as I am that Apple did away with their iPod Classic? My interest in the iPod was/is purely as a portable repository of my music library. Plugging in my headphones when out and about in public keeps me from getting into trouble by permitting me to pretend I can’t hear anything above my music. Ask me a question or otherwise attempt to engage me in conversation? I point to the headphones, smile and shake my head, thereby avoiding discussions that can end badly for me.
I’m an old bag. I’m not interested in electronic games. My cell phone has a camera. I can send and receive texts and emails with my cell. What I can’t do is store my music library thereon. Nor can I do it with the latest version of the iPod, which does include all of the above. I read a post online by a reviewer who stated, correctly, that the new iPod does several things and does them well, while the iPod Classic did one thing but did that one thing supremely well. Why that one supremely well done thing has been tossed on the scrap heap I cannot understand.
Why, a couple of years after the demise of the Classic am I writing this? Because the unthinkable happened to me recently. Normally I guard my Classic as if it is one of the crown jewels, knowing full well that it is irreplaceable. However, in my usual absent-minded fog I took off the headphones, put them and my Classic in their case, and then put the lot into my jacket pocket. Laundry day comes along and into the machine goes my jacket. This feels a bit heavy, I thought. Naturally, I checked the pockets; nothing. Laundry detergent in, machine started, walk away. Time to return and move the wash to the dryer. Lift the lid and choke back my horror – my cherished Classic lay sopping wet in its case at the bottom of the washer.
My heart sank in despair. Thinking all was lost, I started cruising the internet in hopes of finding a replacement. The $400 – $500 price tags put me off. So I stuck my soggy iPod and earbuds in a container of rice, closed the lid and prayed. 24 hours later water was still evident behind the screen, so back into the rice. Another 24 hours and the screen looks dry. Reboot pushed – an apple appears on the screen! Hooray! Except not. Weird noises and an error message. I decided to try Apple and see if they could repair it. On my way in, I noticed a light emanating from the iPod screen. I picked it up and saw the menu screen! Great! Only all the music was gone. No problem; I’ll download from my PC.
Arrive home, PC doesn’t recognize my iPod. Only now I see the music is there. I put it in my iPod player and voila! Music! And then it crashes. Plan to go back to Apple. Being determined, what the heck, one more try connecting to the PC. iTunes recognizes my iPod! Ran an update, ran a sync. Seems to be working! Crashes again. And so it went. A few days of this and thanks be to God at long last no more crashing. The cherry on my sundae? The earbuds work, too!
Ok, now here’s my point – not only is my iPod supremely good at storing and playing my music; my iPod is a tank of a device! A full laundry cycle, a few days of drying out and the darn thing works! Apple, bring back the Classic! You had a beautifully functioning, solid – super solid – piece of machinery. Why abandon it? There have to be more folks out there like me who would leap at the chance to pounce on a Classic again. People, call or write Apple. Call and write Apple. Wire your congressman. Or woman. We want our Classics! Please!?!?