I caught on to the MP3 trend quite early. I was working at a company with a leased-line that was always dialled up to the Internet. At the time, the point of downloading music was to play it on your computer, and I had my own little corner office from which whatever variety of tunes would echo down the passages.
People thought I was a music guru. My ability to turn up any song that one of my co-workers could suggest became legendary. Granted, the download times generally stretched into hours, but, as we always pointed out, this time was pretty much equal to what it would take us to make our way to a music shop to purchase the thing.
Although this was illicit for a number of reasons, those heady days before bosses had learnt to create network policies that banned "file sharing on peer-to-peer networks", were great fun. My colleagues and I mourned the closing of Napster, but at around the same time, I left the company and with it my foray into piracy.
Play the music
However, soon after, I learnt of portable MP3 players. These new, incredibly sexy widgets became the most desirable items on anyone`s Christmas list. We were all blown away by their ability to hold a couple of CDs worth of songs. And with expansion memory cards, you could carry around 10 CDs worth of music around with you at any time. Imagine.
This was only the beginning. Today, my entire CD collection has been ripped to my iPod. Aside from the sheer convenience of this device, the iPod is also a thing of great beauty. Its minimalist styling beats any brushed chrome/orange plastic fascia that other manufacturers would care to offer. Its touch toggle is streaks ahead of any clunky click-to-play machine.
And now, you can get gadgets for your gadget. I was recently given an iTrip - a little device that clicks into the iPod and allows you to transmit a radio frequency, so that you can tune your car radio to receive it. No more messing about with wires and jacks, like we used to in the old days of MP3 players.
Other widgets
My passion for cooking is also now being supported by gadgets.
Georgina Guedes, Editor, ITWeb Brainstorm
It doesn`t stop with iPods. The other night, I went to see the boyfriend of a good friend of mine play in his band. They are from Cape Town, so my friend wasn`t up here to see them play their first gig, but I gave her blow-by-blow accounts on SMS.
At one point, she asked me if I had a camera phone, and if I could send her a picture. I don`t. I have a phone and a digital camera, so I`ve never seen the point. All of a sudden, the gadget lust hit, and I now know that that`s what I`ll be angling for in my next upgrade.
My passion for cooking is also now being supported by gadgets. Aside from all the usual kitchen appliances (I particularly love my hand blender), I have managed to secure ownership of a cr`eme brulee torch (to caramelise the sugar crust) and a handheld cappuccino frother.
Life doesn`t get much better than when it has a little rechargeable, battery-operated gizmo to make things more interesting!
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