Impulse Buy


originally uploaded by sabellachan

Um, oops? I just seemed to have impulse bought a nice new green iPod shuffle.

Yes, I have no self control.

And yes, I do already have an iPod (my beloved third gen, four year old lovely).

So why do I want a new iPod, especially an iPod shuffle that only holds 240 songs when I have a 15gb beastie that still has room for another few thousand songs on it? My reasons are as follows:

  1. It’s colourful. Not white/silver, but GREEN. I had a bit of a “do I want green or blue?” moment, but in my mind I had a green one, and I try to go with my gut on things like this. I like colour and am frankly a bit bored with this whole sterile white/silver thing. Sure, it looks beautiful, but I’m a girl who needs a bit of funk in her life, you know what I mean?
  2. My current iPod is starting to show it’s age. The battery can still just about get me airport-to-airport on a transatlantic flight, but the screen is dim (yes I know the shuffle has no screen, that’s the next point), and it’s starting to randomly turn off mid song for no apparent reason.
  3. The shuffle has no screen, (which also relates to the next point) which means less scratching when I throw it in my bag. So my current iPod is scratched and dented to hell anyway, but I still feel bad when I just hurl it in my handbag. With a shuffle I wouldn’t have to worry.
  4. The big iPod isn’t gym-friendly, having no practical solution for affixing it to pocket-less sports clothes. The shuffle, whilst it holds less music, can be clipped most anywhere. When you’re going full tilt on the cross trainer you don’t want to be looking at the screen to change tracks anyway. The shuffle would be loaded with music I wanted to listen to, so no need for a screen…
  5. The shuffle costs less. My iPod goes with me pretty most everywhere, and I am VERY conscious that if I lost it, I’d been shelling out a good ร‚ยฃ300 or more to replace it. I don’t have that type of cash. I do have ร‚ยฃ55 to stretch to a new shuffle if I need to.
  6. My iPod serves as my home stereo and alarm clock. As such, it’s permanently docked and plugged into speakers. This means when I take it with me to work each day or the gym, I have to remember to plug it back in when I get home or there’s nothing to wake me up in the morning… It seems like a little thing, but I have the memory retention of a brain-injured goldfish, and at least once a week I wake up in the middle of the night going “bugger, forgot to plug the iPod back in”. I know, I know, cute :P. Still annoying
  7. I play all my music on random anyway.
  8. I want one. I can’t rationalize it, I just want one. I work hard for my disposable income and, well, I want one. All my friends seem to be getting shiny new technology at the moment – I feel left out.
  9. Did I mention it’s green?!

So there you have it. Just chalk me up as one more victim to consumerism and Apple fan-boy-ism. When my new toy arrives (hopefully by Saturday, most likely next week when I’m back at work *le sigh* more fights with the postal service) I will of course do a review. Till then, I’m going to go and lock my credit card away before I can do more damage.

28 thoughts on “Impulse Buy

  1. I know, I know, cute ๐Ÿ˜› . Still annoying

    Get out of my head! ๐Ÿ˜›

    I’m The King of impulse buys, I think we all know this by now? So I’ll I have to say is that I’m so proud of you. ๐Ÿ˜€

    One question though, why did you order it as opposed to just going to a store and walking out with it?

    (comment typo edited at Jay’s request)

  2. D’oh, while it’s in moderation, can you fix a typo? That should say STORE, not STARE. ๐Ÿ™‚

    *poke* ๐Ÿ˜‰ (and you can just delete this comment if you please)

  3. I was thinking about getting one too, actually.I already have two – a 20GB one and a 4GB (built in to my phone) but neither are really perfect. Too fiddly, too big, too ugly (yes, seriously, these things matter), and too not Apple.

    My phone’s one is awesome but it kills the battery and I always forget to charge it which leaves me with a dead battery by lunchtime the next day.

    And.. oh Lord I just talked myself into buying an iPod.
    Thanks.

  4. I’m interested in the audio quality of these coloured ones; wondering if they’ve improved since I looked at the first ones at the Apple Store a few months ago. There was an audible “hissing” that was not present in the G1 Shuffles that turned me off of the G2s.
    I’m looking at buying Surly’s (future) Spouse a Shuffle of her own for V-Day, so I’ll be curious as to your assessment of it.

  5. Oh, and I wanted to add that I recently bought a 2GB iPod Nano, which was another impulse buy.

    AND I figured out why you ordered it.. to get it engraved. What are you having written?

    (for the other commenters, there’s a comment of mine that in moderation, so all this will make sense soon enough)

  6. Jay – no store near me, so I couldn’t just walk in. And as for the engraving, I couldn’t decide on what to have engraved, so the back of my iPod shuffle is going to remain unviolated as Jobs intended. You are indeed the king of the impulse buy! I normally feel decadent when I buy the odd book or dvd! You couldn’t see your way to impulse buying some airplane tickets though, could you ๐Ÿ˜›

    Rich – sorry ๐Ÿ˜• Then again, you work to have money so you can buy what you want. Have a little fun ๐Ÿ˜‰ (Sorry, I am the worlds WORST person to go shopping with!)

    Surly – I’m not that much of an audio-phile, but I will keep my ears open for that hiss. If it is that audible the damn thing will be going back (most likely) and I will be buying a, admittedly less sexy) boring mp3 player.

  7. You made me grin is all, so I thought I’d let you know.

    I’m still all smiley. What more could a girl wish for from her bloggy-goodness?

    N

  8. You couldnรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt see your way to impulse buying some airplane tickets though, could you

    It’s crossed my mind, but alas, it’s ever so slightly out of my range at the moment. Specially after all of these recent impulse buys. ๐Ÿ˜‰ (but will see what I can do when the time gets closer)

  9. LOL, I’d have bought the blue one, but that’s my choice.

    My “old” iPod 40Gb 4th gen is still watching me from the desk: I remember the first thing I thought after buying it was I-can’t-touch-you-until-you-get-some-protection, so I searched for a plastic cover on eBay.
    I know that cover is just a horrible mixture of yellow and black (altough it seemed awesome on photo), but it works well, and my iPod is still alive and working (no matter how many scratches it has).

    Well, and of course I can’t afford an iPhone, but I think the new iPhone shuffle will be cheaper, don’t you? ๐Ÿ˜›

  10. You could have saved that ร‚ยฃ55 on an shuffle that you don’t need towards the mattress that you doneed. Therefore I am banning you from complaining about your mattress for at least 3 months.

    you didn’t want ironic pink? ๐Ÿ˜€

  11. Moose, I did seriously consider the ironic pink, but I don’t think I could be THAT ironic all the time. And ok, no more complaining about my mattress (though to be fair, I haven’t said anything lately)

    Jay – … Nope. I’m all out of come-back on that one. Damn you.

  12. baah. wish i had nt bought my ugly grey shuffle before xmas. that was stupid…. i wish Apple would stop bringing out such nice stuff in rapid sucession, cn’t they give us a break?

  13. You’re always going to get that with Apple unfortunately. It’s nice that they keep driving forward an all, but they are REALLY not friends of the early adopters who have no cash!

  14. I bought my wife a silver one for Christmas because I couldn’t afford the Green Nano that she wanted.

    She’s now bugging me for a green Shuffle…

    Darn you APPLE!

  15. I’m just counting down the days till it arrives! (the ‘three to five’ day postal time has somehow become ten days… I keep forgetting how BAD Apple/their couriers can be with delivering stuff).

    And welcome to Bright Meadow and the comments James ๐Ÿ™‚

  16. I ordered an adapter from the Apple store on Tuesday, it came today! … but sadly I ordered the wrong one so I had to send it back and reorder the good one, which I did bout an hour after receiving the wrong one. Now I just got an email confirming that it’s been shipped already, I should get it Tuesday or Wednesday! I think they rock! ๐Ÿ˜‰ (but I’m closer to them I guess)

  17. Oh, I just have fond memories of the when the delivered my PowerBook… It took over a month, and that’s after they lost the first one *bored*

  18. Pingback: Bright Meadow » Thumbs Up for Apple

Comments are closed.