I'm back, and I brought TUNES!

And I just want to say "thank you" to all those who said that they missed me. It is always nice to hear that your work is appreciated as a writer, so thank you very much for that sign of friendship. And now onto the post.

As many of you know I am a bit of a gadget buff. So I thought for my "Music 4 my Monday" post I'd go through the years of my audio gadgets to see how they've changed. As a bonus, I'm also going through my cell phones as well, there's a reason for this, trust me.

Now, our journey begins in 1986, where a precocious 6 year old is taken to the stores to relieve his pregnant mother from his, let's call it "overabundance of spirit". His aunt takes him to the electronics department and tell him that he can have something for being a big brother soon. Inside the case, the little 6 year old saw a shiny new red AM/FM walkman, and thus it became my first audio device.

(1986-1999)THE WALKMAN:

Cost: $40-$60

Yes, over the years I had a plethora of Walkman's. I had the shiny red one, a purple one with a red transformer glued onto it, also AM/FM only. Then, in Junior High school, I got my first casette walkman, WITH INCLUDED BELT CLIP! I was stylin now. I had pretty much every model of SONY walkman except for the yellow waterproof variety. Why did I have so many, well, first off they weren't made very well, and survived 1, maybe 3 drops at most on the school floor. I learned some of my first lessons about fixing electronics by trying to resuscitate one of my walkman's which broke every 6 months or so throughout highschool. Either the doors wouldn't shut, it would start eating tapes (remember these were cassette players), an earphone would cut out. The picture above is of the last walkman I had in 1999 (yes I was a late digital convert), it's key selling features include the switchable MEGA BASS option, and a digital AM/FM tuner.

Most popular tunes played: "Ghostbusters" by Ray park, "Back to the future soundtrack", "Beach boys", assorted oldies.

Fate: Given to Dad who kept it in a cushioned cookie bin and made it last 5 + years. Truly impressive.

(1999-2002)First Cell Phone: Nokia PITA

Cost: Free with contract

Ok fine, so it wasn't actually called PITA (Pain in the ass), but it might have well been. This phone had 60 minutes of talk time (on a good day), a monochrome LCD screen, and had to charge for 5 hours! Keep in mind, this was an average phone for the time period. I had this PITA phone all through college, and it is responsible for some of the most memorable conversations of my life. It was my phone through 9/11, it helped me wake up during senior year for my rides to school. It was a good phone for the time, of course it wasn't without it's problems. This phone is also responsible for having to make phone calls with my head hanging out the open upstairs window in winter due to low reception periods (aka AT&T screwed up and was working on the network), failed me during a VERY important call to my best friend. At the moment where the conversation had reached a critical point, IT DIED on the charger. By the time I had taken the 13 stairs downstairs 2 by 2, and redialed on the land line, the moment had passed, and I was PISSED!

Key features: The ability to call mom without having to bum a quarter (yes this use to happen kids), Alarm clock, Crapping battery life.

Ringtones: The Nokia ringtone and the "ring ring" nokia tone.

Fate: Garbage

(2000)Discman:

Cost: $60

After 1999, I started paying for my own gadgets, and thus my personal technological evolution began. Before this year, i was at the whims of my parental technology choices. I quickly found that I had different/better tastes. Honestly the Discman was a dissapointment in every way. I got it at the turn of the millenia, and I never could get behind the format. Keep in mind that in the year 2000, to upgraded your computer to be able to burn CDs (DVD's weren't common yet) cost multiple hundreds of dollars in upgrades, so being able to make your own CDs was a computer elitistest privelege only. The reason I never liked it is because I generally don't like full CDs, and so the format held little interest for me, due to only being able to play 2-3 songs per CD. Then why did I get it you ask? Well, it was suppose to be an upgrade to the cassette, and the internet wasn't really to the point yet where you could look at 50 different reviews of every tech product that came out, at least it wasn't for me.

Key features: Anti-skip protection, progressive scanning, digital CD format (no more rewinding!)

Most popular tunes played: Every Blink 182 CD, Green day, Star Wars soundtracks.

Fate: Gave to Mom when I upgraded 6 months later.

(2001-2002)MINIDISC :

Sony's Mini-Disc format was suppose to replace CDs in the early 2000's, yet almost nobody has heard of these fabulous devices. It held 90 minutes of music per mini-disc, sounded as good as CDs, and could record like a cassette from a headphone jack. It's form factor was also really thin, and I use to carry a hip pouch that had the player and like 10 minidiscs that was half the size of a regular cassette walkman case. Why did this format fail? Cause a little company called Apple invented the Ipod. That release which was the same year, coupled with Napster's launch and subsequent explosion of popularity killed the minidisc before it ever had a chance. So much so, that when mine broke due to droppage a year later, there were no models left to buy.

Key Features: Recordable like a cassette, but played like a CD. Thin form factor. MINI-Disc format. Sounded as good as CD players at the time.

Most played tunes: Blink 182, "Latin invasion", Nsync (don't judge, they were everywhere)

Fate: Door broke beyond repair, and couldn't buy a new one. I believe it's in my father's garage with some of my old toys.

Nokia 1200 (PITA jr.) (June 2002-March 2003)

Cost: Free with contract (last phone that would be)

If you're thinking, "Hey Riley, that looks alot like your old phone", then you are right. I got this phone as an upgrade when my original phone stopped holding a charge. I could have bought a new battery, but the contract was up, and we were due a new phone anyway.

Key Features from previous model: Smaller form factor, internal antenna, "sharper" mono-chrome LCD screen. Also, battery life was greatly improved, and call quality was better.

Ringtones: same as previous

Fate: Fell out of pocket while walking home from Florida Gym job.

(2002-2005)MP3 CD player

Cost: $100

I bought this to replace my beloved MINI-Disc player. This CD player was a success however due to it being able to play MP3 CDs, which were now commonly available on every computer. This allowed me to carry 100-200 songs on a single CD, which was alot at the time.

Key features: Digital RED LCD screen to display song info, Ability to play and read MP3s, anti-skip, progressive scan.

Most played tunes:I had basially my entire music library (as sad as that is) on like 4 cds.

Fate: Given to mother when upgraded

Nokia American Idol Phone (2003-2004)

Cost: $40 with contract (extended)

No, I'm not a huge american idol fan, basically it was this and extend my contract or 200 dollars. This phone was an interesting one, but nothing special. The main addition was the use of a vibrating feature (standard from then on), and custom midi tone ringtones of songs (for free). It also was the smallest candy bar style phone I ever owned.

Key features: Backlit mono-chrome LCD, New "texting" feature, odd button layout (which made texting next to impossible), and interchangable faceplate. Also, got many calls looking for "Kim and John", apparently these siblings used the same number when going out to clubs and brushing people off. Very fun, NOT. Also, for some reason included a flashlight, which while handy during the 2004 hurricane season, was superfluous.

Ringtones: Custom midi tunes (like the old cell phone rings, but in the tones of songs)

Fate: One day, the internal non-replacable battery just stopped taking a charge.

(2004-2006) Motorola Flip Phone
Cost: $300

This phone served me very well. It cost alot, but not as much as the $500 RAZR that had just come out at the time. I'll let you stop laughing at that before I continue. Despite my reservation of flip phones at the time, call quality was good, battery was great, and texting was much easier. This was one cell phone purchase I never regretted.

Key features: First phone I had that could play snippets of songs for ringtones, external LCD to see who was calling without flipping and answering. First Camera phone.

Fate: Stopped responding to network just on my block, AT&T's customer service drove me to verizon. Phone unfortunate casualty.

(2005-2007)IPOD Nano:

Cost: $200 dollar, given as gift

For the first birthday that we were together, my girlfriend(now wife) bought me the black IPOD Nano that I wanted. A year later I'd get the second gen Nano, and give the first gen one to her, so that we could both exercise to music together.

Key features: 1000(then 2000) songs held in something the size of aproximately 2 sticks of chewing gum. Color LCD screen, some minor games. It's an IPOD. I believe you all know the features of these.

Fav tunes played: "Lose yourself" eminem is one I listened to alot, but again i had my whole library on these things

Fate: 1st gen, Sold to Father-in-law when wife acquired Iphone, 2nd Gen sold to Steve at work to fund first Iphone purchase.

(2006-2007) Verizon Wireless XV 6700 aka "The Brick":

Cost: $300

I bought this phone out of anger. AT&T had given me the shaft, so I switched carriers. I also had wanted a smart phone so I could have internet as my then exetremely dull car rental job, which had me sitting for hours staring at a computer screen, without the ability to do anything with it but rent cars. So i got this phone, and it served the purpose I bought it for, but it fought me tooth and nail every step of the way. Ringtones had to be "hacked" onto the phone, mail didn't sync properly, apps were expensive and sucked. It was just a badly designed phone. Shortly after this, I got my current job, where everyone had these as the current "next-gen" business phone, so I didn't feel so bad. I began researching gadgets online now, something learned on the job, and soon saw the answer to the problem I had, but didn't know I had.

Key features: Full sucky Windows mobile operating system, mobile web browser, slide out full querty keyboard, ability to hold music, but headphone jack sucked. Battery life SUCKED! I'm talking 3 hours, and this thing was toast. I charged it constantly at work or whenever I wasn't using it. It showed me the advantages of a smart phone.

Ringtones: Full songs (no edits)

Fate: tried to sell it on craigs list, but nobody bought it, currently sits on a shelf at home.

Oh, and when I said brick....I meant it.

So what happened after this, well in January of 2007, Steve Jobs delivered his keynote at the Macworld expo. At the end of the keynote he added "One more thing...", and revealed the Iphone to the world. It would come out 6 months later to much fanfare, and I would be the 23rd person in line at my local AT&T store. A year later I would be in line again to score a Iphone 3G, and give the original IPhone to my then new wife. And just this weekend, the original Iphone, which lasted faithfully for 2 years stopped functioning within normal tolerance levels (it started dropping calls, and apps wouldn't open anymore. Even with a software restore it still didn't work right.) So on Saturday, we went to the AT&T store again and got the Iphone 3GS for me, and my wife now has the Iphone 3G. I really can't say enough good things about the Iphone. As a Phone and multimedia player it surpasses all competitors and imitators. Apple basically just has to add a few minor features every year, because they have redefined how smart phones, and cell phones in general are designed. And when you redefine a genre of products...you basically can call the shots.

(2007-2009) Apple IPhone

Cost: $600

Key features: OSX powered Touch UI, incredibly thin form factor, ability to sync songs and pictures to phone, Multi-touch gesture control, Full powered web browser, Google maps, mobile youtube.

Features added later: GPS-like functionality, mobile itunes store

(2008-present)Apple IPhone 3G

Cost $300

Key features: True GPS functionality, new design, 3G data speeds, Apple App store (huge increase in functionality), couple of other tweaks.

(2009-present) IPhone 3GS

Cost $200

Key features: More efficient use of 3G network resulting in faster speed, new processor and graphics chip to handle larger more complex UI, "cut,copy, paste,and MMS functionality" released in Iphone 3.0 software update.

Fav tunes to play: Entire music library again, so I can't pick favorites, but I do love that I can have my iTunes playlists on my phone.

Fate: Original iPhone is retired, don't know what I'm going to do with it, and the other two are still being used.

I hoped you enjoyed the last ten years of my audio and cell phone history. Something I discovered while looking at this list. In 1999, I had an (at the time) average computer. The device I now carry in my pocket, has more memory and processing power then my first computer. I watched and lived through the evolution of it, and sometimes I'm still awed by it.