I never owned a classic iPod, though I did have a B&W PalmPilot and a color successor. They day SHU gave me an iPad, I carefully collected all the cords and manuals and put my Palm away in its original box. I still feel a little guilty that I didn’t even bother to synch it one last time.
Less dramatic was the decline of my relationship with digital voice recorders. I really liked falling asleep with my finger on the “next” button, so that if an audiobook chapter ended and I was still awake, I’d push the button for the next chapter. If I fell asleep, I didn’t push the button, and I’d know where I left off. Because my iPodTouch doesn’t have physical buttons, I can’t manage my audiobooks that way.
Gadgets come and go from our lives. Technology marches forward so rapidly that even if you could replace a broken part—which often you can’t—doing so just wouldn’t make any sense. Other times, the networks and services those gadgets depend on to keep running go away entirely. Gadgets die, even the ones we love.
