About a year ago, I received my first piece of Apple hardware.
The ipod was simple, slick and incredibly cool. I can�t remember the last time I have been that happy with an object like that. The ipod borders the status of piece of art. No wonder its followers are quasi religious about it.
Of course, it also has shortcomings. The chrome body takes about every finger-print imaginable. The screen is easily scratched. The harddrive skips when you run with it. The battery needs frequent stops to a power station (although this has improved a lot with recent firmware).
And last but not least, the simplicity of its design is a challenge itself after years of being used to complex options, panels and buttons. One of the first things I remember what I started using it was to ask �how do I turn this things off ?�. The answer : you don�t. It turns off by itself when you stop using it.
Now, a year and a few scratches later, the ipod is still as loveable as it was the first time I took it out of its box, and as a way of celebrating this anniversary, Apple even thought about another surprise – the release of iTunes for windows.
Once again, it is love at first sight, but this time, with some Apple software. iTunes is simple, sleek and cool just as the ipod is. There is no menu to edit titles or album information – just click on it and edit. No �search� or �go� button – just type in the search field and the list of songs is filtered as you type. After years of Winamp, Sonique and MusicMatch, using iTunes is refreshing.
Now if Apple would release OS.X for PCs…