I used to have to spend a long time on buses commuting, and would (in a superb demonstration of hard core nerdery) read Gunther Schuller's book(s) and 'listen along' with my ipod, usually making sure I had all my Ellington, or all my Armstrong or all my Goodman. This was a totally awesome way of 'reading' Schuller - I could listen to the songs he was discussing and see if I could understand the way he read the score/recording. It was so nerdy, but it was absolutely the best way for me to read the book.
I stopped using an ipod when I started riding my bike hardcore - it's dangerous to ride a pushbike and use headphones at the same time on city streets. And then I just forgot to use the ipod generally.
But these days my partner has an ipod touch, and he uses it all the time. He fills it with TV shows, music, his email, the photos he's taken, website content, email, etc etc etc. I have another friend who's an illustrator who's just started some work making comic content for ipod touch(es), utilising the 'interactive' features of the tool - ie the swipe/page turn, etc. My photographer buddies use their ipods as 'folios' to show people their latest pics. And of course, you could use it to listen to music. Or to DJ with while teaching dance classes.
The ipod touch is a fabulous little tool. Its strength lies in its 'convergence' of different media tools - sound, vision, audio-visual, internet, etc. I don't use it because I love to read books and read every spare second of the day (which is probably why I can't keep on top of my music for DJing), but I certainly appreciate the ipod's wonderfulness. As with all technologies (whether we're talking internet, vinyl or pen and paper), the use-value is most important. And use-value is context and individual specific. So, if you can't find 'value' in an ipod (or a pen and paper or a vinyl record), then it's perhaps more to do with your lifestyle or the way you imagine that technology. In themselves, the ipod or a pen and paper are just objects that have no intrinsic value. It's through their use that they become useful or valuable.
... the corollary to this is, of course, that value is limited by imagination or creativity. I hadn't thought about the way the ipod touch's ability to 'know' when you've turned it sideways could be applied to writing a comic. But my illustrator friend was all over that. And I'm still amazed that so few people have thought to listen along with Schuller....
...oh, wait. Actually, that's not so surprising.
