Two days ago, an iPod Classic came into my life very unexpectedly. Joy, I thought – this new gizmo is really sexy.

How wrong could I be?

To start, I’ve discovered iPods appear to be obscenely proprietary in nature – even the USB cable HAS to be the apple USB cable – a normal USB cable won’t work.

Then I discovered the device only works successfully if you use iTunes software – anything else and you’re in for a real crappy day.

New to iTunes, I soon realised that its sole reason for existing, is to coerce you into buying something from the Apple Store – to that end the software is littered with buttons and links that do just that – off to the store we go…

Worse was to come.

Every now and again my iPod disconnects from my computer for no apparent reason, the machine locks up and becomes unresponsive.

A quick Google and I found that I’m not alone – hundreds of posts on different forums all saying very similar things. Why is it then, that my no name £20 MP3 player works straight out of the box – no huge software installation, just copy and go. Even my Sony phone is simpler – and they wrote the book on ‘proprietary’. (No normal headphone jack etc) All this from a company who sells itself on simplicity and easy of use – I can honesty say that getting this iPod working has been hell – and I’m was a huge fan of Apple Design.

Then I looked up the cost of this delightful bit of kit – £150!

This is fantastic news – I will eBay it immediately!