I am a loyal Crackberry owner. I loved my Zune so much, I bought two of them. I still use Winamp. I don’t appreciate monopolies, particularly in my user interface, and so I have done everything I can to steer completely free of Mac products. The entire Mac culture gives me the creeps, to be honest. I went to an Apple store once with a friend who needed to pick something up, and I felt more watched over than I do in a Catholic church. Being inside those too-brightly-lit white walls made me feel like maybe Big Brother wasn’t a thing of fiction.

But then a few weeks ago my Zune was pick-pocketed. And I’m looking at needing to open an iTunes account for the first time (because Derek Evry’s releasing his solo cd on it, and I have to have that cd, even if it means contemplating opening an iTunes account against my better judgement). And I’ve been thinking, has my preconditioned hatred of all things Apple kept me from a superior musical experience? Does my distaste for ‘iPhone people’ change the way I interact with the world & the technology that moves it?

What it really comes down to is this: I can fit more music for less money an iPod Nano than on anything else.

Heavy questions, my friends. What are your thoughts? I’m still not giving up my Blackberry Tour for anything in the world (seriously, it could BE Big Brother in a PDA, and I’d swear my allegiance), but would branching out in this one tiny way be the beginning an all too dangerous, slippery slope? Or would I be safe from the black turtlenecks of the world?