My favorite gift this Christmas

Several years ago in graduate school, I came to Indiana University as a graduate student.
Deciding to make an investment in my educational future by purchasing a new computer. I had been using a VERY old Apple Macintosh. So, I bought a new "Power Mac" or whatever it was called. Shortly (like less than a year) after that, I started working with Annie Lang. She was (and is) a hardcore PC user and was somewhat reluctant to try to integrate system.

So, in 1995 I also became a PC user and--in all honesty--found them much more in-line with the type of work I like to do.

So, for the last two years or so I have struggled with PC-based portable music systems...primarily using my Palm pilot to listen to podcasts and music that I downloaded from Rhapsody. The trouble with Rhapsody was that darn licensing agreements made music that I thought I had just downloaded would not play. Very frustrating!!

And all around me were people using their ipods and raving about them. And, the huge market share that Apple was able to establish in the category. But, I couldn't bring myself to even much investigate an Apple product. I was a snobby PC user.

So, my absolute favorite Christmas gift this year was my ipod Nano.
It is the COOLEST thing. So convenient, and small, and light. And all the music plays without the annoying messages saying that I don't have the proper licensing agreement.

And on the itunes store site there are more podcasts than I'll know what to do with.

Great gift (from my inlaws...THANKS) and great design.