So I'm pacing around the tech department at University of Washington's bookstore, treating myself with a piece of eye-candy before I slouch off to writing class. The store is a Apple showroom. Sparse in the middle, mesas arted up with gear mushrooming from the floor. Full of Macs and screens and other toys. I finally get my eyes on the new iPod Shuffle. I nearly laugh at it. So damn small. It's the size of a pack of gum, only lighter, sleeker and ripped from some alt.future where everything is bright, cool, and precise. It looks like a newborn piece of technology, maybe a pre-me. Locked away in an incubator as it struggles to grow and thrive. Next to its larger, bulkier iPod brethren, it's a runt. But oh-so-adorable. It's a tech-kitten, all petite and dainty. You cradle it gently, thinking it is going to break. And in your hands, it's nearly weightless. It is just the right size for electronics for me: Any smaller and I get fidgety about cortex implants.
It's a five-second revelation. Next to me, trying to strain a better view, are a couple of young Japanese girls. We all eye-dance with each other. They smile and I know what they want. They're smitten with Shuffle, too. I place the floor model back and step away. Their turn to fondle snow-colored plastic. They nod, step up, and thank me; we're all dreamy-eyed. Caught in the pull of consumer electronic toys. Me and them, boy and girls, white and Japanese. All under the sway of cross-cultural techno-lust for a device without words, only icons. I know now why Air Jordans sold a zillion units. It's beyond marketing. It's design and desire, sleekness and simplicity. It's guitars, cheeseburgers, and everything else that just is. No instructions needed. Apple makes items that are intuitive. You push start, you click the icon, you drag and drop. It's no surprise the funky, international, andro-urban appeal exists, but it's sweet (yet vaguely cultish) when you cross paths with strangers and have that same gleam in your eye.
One Word still has "Tossed" up. So, no entry.
2 comments:
oh no, another one of those new gadgets that may probably be creeping in on spoiled brat's ( my daughter toni ) wishlist. the creative minds of apple surely do not have the plight of parents in mind, tsk tsk tsk.
Yup. Apple threatens to suck money from the pockets of big kids, too.
The Shuffle is kinda cheap (starts at $99), but it's not as memory-fat as the old-school, more pricey iPods. I like the Shuffle since it makes the mp3 player not a warehouse, but a temporary media jukebox. Battery life is 12 hours, and file size is roughly 15 hours. When you bring it home to recharge, you can change your music files.
Maybe your daughter can save up money for it? Can be one of those life lesson things.
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