iPod Mini Out-of-Box Experience

We took a test at school once to find our what kind of career we might be suited for. When my results came through I went to the careers advisor’s office to be told that he thought “printing and packaging” would be my best bet. At the age of seventeen, I thought that sounded suicidally boring and swore I would never show any interest in such things ever. And so it has been until yesterday, when a colleague had a new iPod mini delivered to work.

The iPod (and indeed all Apple products) are supposed to be meticulously well designed, even down to the packaging, so we reverently performed the unpacking. A sleek, white box emerged from its cardboard housing and unfolded to reveal a silver iPod gleaming like a stone in a freshly cleaved peach. The power supply, leads and accessories then fairly melted out onto the table before us.

Such a pity then that written on the plastic screen guard on the device were the words “Don’t steal music” in large, unfriendly type. Hard to think how they could have wreaked the preceding experience any better than that.