Why I love(d) my iPod shuffle

My iPod Shuffle tracklist.
I don't actually do this: I keep it in my head.

(n.b. since I wrote this I've got way in the other direction with an iPhone, how sad)

I love it because it’s pared down, because it fits into a new world of linked products and services and makes use of our brains as much as new technologies. Let me explain. The Shuffle is a device with no screen, where the user holds all the information about the contents in their head. Obviously that’s why they only come in 1 gig and half gig sizes, the human brain can’t cope with more than that. Maybe that’s our brain’s maximum ram! Also it could never have happened without the product language of the iPod and iTunes.

I recently bought a new one as my old one died. When I was in the Apple store I looked at the Nano etc and thought maybe I should get one of them. But it wasn’t just the extra (but not too much extra) cost. It was the screen that put me off. I thought “I spend too much time gazing at my phones screen I don’t need another screen to distract me”. I keep my tracklist in my head: I’m “proud to be flesh” as they say at MetaMute.

"Proud to be Flesh"
MetaMute.org

One of the reasons I’m writing about this is because of the way that students, research groups and companies stick screens on products willy-nilly. Sticking a screen on does not make a product smart.

I once had a conversation with a call centre agent who wanted to give me a new mobile phone. “Why do I need a new phone?” I said, “Waaaahlmmmf…well it’s got a colour screen!” he said. “Why would I need a colour screen to use my phone?” I replied. I objected to them forcing excess products on me (even for free). And the phone he did send, (he even said, “Just give it away if you want.”) was truly crap but did have a colour screen. I gave it away.

What makes the Shuffle smart is its part of a bigger picture. The world of iTunes is a service world, the iPod is just the part you take away with you. The focus is on in the software. It’s a great example of a product service relationship. Some idiot-people say, “services are just on phones” or, “what do products have to do with services?”

Well, milk or newspapers have been delivered to our doorsteps for 50 years, aren’t those services that involve a product. So there is a long history there. Milk is a great one because it involved recycling bottles and leaving information about amounts etc.

So look at your iPod in a new way, it’s a representative of a much bigger system. And look at the Shuffle: think how your brain does the work of the display and treasure that relationship and be, “proud to be flesh”.