Our iPods arrived today. Productivity plummeted, as practically every person in the building queued up to get their free, sleek little talisman of style from our office manager. Incidentally, the things happen to play music, too. Like most everyone else, I took my Podlet back to my cubicle, admiring it in its package for a few moments, before opening it up, savoring the acrid whiff of plastic that accompanies new electronics. Ahhh, iPod. I removed it from its impeccably stylish packaging, and plugged it into the free USB port on my G4’s keyboard.

Aaaa! No iPod! The computer didn’t recognize it, not even registering it as plugged in.

I ended up having to fumble around in the back of the G4 to plug it into a powered port before it was recognized. It’s funny how un-Apple Apple can be sometimes. Despite, for instance, being recognized as usually occupying the pinnacle of industrial design savvy, they still just can’t get their shit together with things like this. This means that in order to charge my iPod, I have to either buy a dock, buy a powered third-party hub, or unplug an existing USB device from the back of my work G4 or home iMac so that I can awkwardly plug it in there, amongst the tangle of USB, Firewire, and network cables that live back there. Come on, Apple. Get a clue for once. Provide power to the USB connections in the keyboard hub, and maybe put an extra port or two on the keyboard itself.