I've got an essay in the San Jose Mercury News on the present and future of the iPod. It's on the Web site now, and is scheduled for publication in the Sunday paper:
From iPod to ourpod: Will it become a more social machine?
By Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
About a week before my last birthday, my 6-year-old daughter started thinking about what kind of cake I should have. In her world, birthday parties have themes, and birthday cakes are serious business: She once talked my wife into making a dome-shape cake, decorating it like a ball gown, and putting a Barbie in the middle. (The effect was a bit like Evita Perón at the prom.) After a few days, she figured it out. "You should have an iPod cake," she announced.
I should have known. This is a girl whose drawings of me always show me plugged into my iPod. She leaves off the cell phone and the portable flash drive I wear around my neck -- both of which I also carry all the time. Like all good artists, she abstracts to catch a deeper truth: Other technologies are conveniences, but with my entire personal musical history -- 22 gigabytes of music organized into 100 playlists -- my iPod is no longer just a product. It's an extension of myself. It's myPod.
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