The iPod is sleeping in a million backpacks. It is easy. It is frictionless. It will win.
Then, I drag that file into the Windows window. The emulator shudders. The fans on my iMac spin up. The cursor becomes a spinning hourglass that is somehow even more anxious than the Mac’s beach ball. SonicStage detects the file. It does not like it. SonicStage wants WAV. SonicStage wants ATRAC. It wants blood. sonicstage mac
I do this again. And again. And again. I learn the incantations. Never use AAC, always WAV. Never transfer more than three songs at once. Never touch the mouse during the “Write TOC” phase. Always eject from Windows, never from the Finder. The iPod is sleeping in a million backpacks
A progress bar appears. It does not move for two minutes. Then it jumps to 34%. Then it stops. The music from the Mac’s speaker (a single, tiny speaker) stutters. The whole system freezes. I cannot move the mouse. It will win