To ditch or not to ditch my iPod?
Let’s just get one thing clear: I love my iPod. I’ve had it well over a year now - longer than any romantic relationship I’ve ever been in and it’s arguably given me as much pleasure - so I don’t intend to part company with it in the foreseeable future. Late last year, however, saw the arrival of what could be the closet thing to a rival for the iPod: the Microsoft Zune.
While most of the online reviews for the Zune seem to be fairly negative, the online promotional campaign has been second to none. The boys at Microsoft have commissioned a number of animations and other pieces of art work based around the Zune’s slogan, ‘Welcome to the Social’.
For all my cynicism towards Microsoft, the videos have definitely been made by creatives with a passion for music and a slightly leftfield sense of humour. My personal favourite is ‘two little birds’, which involves one bird passing a song on to another telepathically and then the second bird going absolutely crazy and spontaneously combusting before, like the phoenix, being reborn anew from the ashes. For me, the video captures the excitement of hearing a life-changing song for the first time. Other promos feature Lily Allen and Regina Specktor and can be checked out at www.zune-arts.net.
On a different note, few things are more annoying than walking around campus and seeing someone else in the same t-shirt as you. Let’s face it: this is York, with shopping options for guys pretty much limited to Topman and H&M. I can just about guarantee that if it hasn’t already happened to you, it undoubtedly will during your York career.
Fear not though, trendy young boys and girls of York, the internet may just be your salvation. Threadless (www.threadless.com) is a community website where aspiring designers submit their ideas for t-shirts to be voted on by the user community at large, with the highest ranking designs being made and sold on the website for very reasonable prices (usually ranging from £10- £20). With so many different people contributing designs, Threadless offers a great selection of unique tees, ranging from the poignant to the hilarious, and because t-shirts are voted on by users rather than decided upon by cynical businessmen, you are pretty much guaranteed that the designs are going to look good on your chest.
In fact, I can tell you from personal experience that they certainly don’t take any old tat. In a moment of rather gross self-delusion, I thought that I would enter a design of my own and easily walk away with the cash prize awarded to successful designs. While I did get a few words of positive feedback from other users, my design was resoundingly rejected by the community at large, scoring a poor 2.1 out of 5. That’s democracy for you though, and having just a couple of nice comments from the unwashed online masses still made my day.
So if you want to stand out from the crowd then definitely check out Threadless and stock up on some trendy new t-shirts – whatever you do though, just don’t buy the same one as me.
iPod - Simply the Best
Hi,
I think the iPod is just the best tool you can have. Independent from some problems there might be connected with it is the most convincing player.
Regards
Dave