So I've used my iPod and iTunes enough to write about it. Similar to my ex-roommate's (why does that prefix 'ex' have such a negative connotation??? it shouldn't!) experiences, it's so easy to use. So try to stay away from the store. There is DRM which limits each song to being played only on 3 computers. ARghhhhhh.

But in any case, issues I have with the iPod:

1.) Horrible Battery Power: The site says 8 continuous hours. Yeah, right. More like 6 hours. Furthermore, my meter doesn't read properly half the time; I'll have charged the battery all night and it'll still say it's only 20% charged. Good, one Apple.

2.) The "Let's Turn On" problem: Whenever I plug in my iPod to charge, it turns on. And starts playing music. How retarded is that? Even if the hold button is on and the iPod was off prior to plugging it in for charging, it'll turn off. If the iPod is off before I plug it in, it should remain off when I plug it in.

3.) Freezing? I'm not sure if I'm expecting too much, but sometimes the iPod freezes. Little jerks here and there. Once in a while it'll just do a complete freeze (in which case I have to do a hard reset).

4.) Bad touch sensitivity: This has mostly to do with the "off" button (holding the 'Play/Pause' button for "3 seconds" will turn off the iPod), but half the time, it won't respond. I have to then try AGAIN to turn off the iPod. Bad bad bad sensitivity.

5.) "Touch" Screens: I don't like the touch buttons. It's hard to "use" my iPod without staring directly at it. My CD player I can operate completely without looking at it by feel. The iPod I have to take OUT and then make changes.

6.) Intuitive? Uh, right. I don't care who tells you what, the iPod is *not* intuitive by any measure. If you start using it for a while, then it becomes intuitive. Whose idea was it to not even set a "shuffle mode" explicitly on the iPod? I have to set the option of Repeat - All to shuffle through a selection. And the selection, oh goodness. Where is the option to "play this one song then shuffle through everything on the iPod?" As it is, I have to set the "Songs" Folder to display the songs, select the song, and set the "Repeat - All" feature. But who wants to display the "Song" folder? It's not really effective to manage 11 gigs of songs through the "Songs" album.

7.) Bad playlist management: You can only manage and create playlists through iTunes, with the exception of the "queue" list. Why can't there be an app where I can create playlists within the iPod?

8.) Useless extra features: Contacts list? Address list? What the heck? How about you scrap the useless crap on the iPod and give me some useful features?

15 gigabytes of storage is nice, but sometimes I think the iPod is a bit overhyped. I haven't used anything else so I really don't have much to compare to ... but there are a *lot* of things wrong with the iPod that one would not expect with a company of Apple's standings.