What I bought this morning…
…instead of an iPhone (and 200 songs to go with it).
Resonator pipe/muffler. With a CD player and a digital AM/FM radio built right in, my car has everything I need to play the music I want to hear. The $600 iPhone can store up to 8 gigabytes of music — enough for about five days. But the car has enough room for every CD I’ve ever owned, and the passenger seat can hold a stack of the 30 or 40 I might want to hear on any given road trip. With the new muffler and resonator pipe, the car runs quietly enough that I can hear every note.
Constant velocity joint. The iPhone’s software allows users to scroll fluidly through websites and lists of songs or contacts. A CV joint allows a car’s wheels to maintain balanced friction and pressure levels when making turns. According to Wikipedia, failure may cause “the vehicle to stop moving or lock up, rendering the car incapable of steering” — not a good thing to have happen when I’m driving around the city, enjoying the tunes.
Labor. I could have spent $200 on 200 songs, further enriching Apple and a number of record companies — and allowing a few musicians to buy some more of their rock and roll drugs — but I chose instead to hand it over to a couple of guys who may or may not have spent several hours under my car. If iTunes figures out how to make me fear for my safety if I don’t buy digital music recordings, I might go the other way next time. I’m sure the RIAA has some ideas.
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