Recently at the small-town tradition we in Hinesburg like to call “Garage Sale Day,” I was puttering through many various bits of junk that people didn’t want any more and lo and behold I came across an mp3 player, complete with accessories such as an AC charger, headphone jack converter, and a USB 2.0 cable. I was really surprised when I discovered that it was an iPod. Or was it?
I took it out of the rubber case which was also included and contrary to it’s unusual size and shape it said iPod on the front. It was like no iPod I had ever seen but “Who cares?” I said to myself. It’s an iPod with accessories and probably songs for only $5! So, with some apprehension, I bought it.
With more careful observation, though, the guise of being an iPod soon faded. The thing listed it’s features on the front and even the name “iPod” appearing on the front was misguiding. An iPod does neither. The headphone port wasn’t even a regular one, it needed an adapter for use with my headphones, and it was scratched a lot. I felt that my five dollars had been wasted. However, when I turned it on, I was surprised yet again. The thing had not only music (which worked) but was also AMV capable, could record (!), had FM radio, could display photos and e-books, and, the cherry on the Sundae, could play “Russian Block,” a cheap version of tetris. I was amazed.
Then, another loop in the roller coaster of this so-called iPod, it breaks. And I mean really broken. I was biking around town that day and dropped in to Arthus’ house to show him. When he tried it out he was amazed enough to offer to buy it from me for up to 1000% of what I payed originally (keep in mind, that’s only $50, but still… A fact I find interesting: I have since gotten an offer for it for $200!)! We tried to connect it to his computer, but to do this it had to be reformatted. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that, so I told him not to. When we disconnected it it didn’t work any more. Any time you tried to do anything, a bright orange “Disk Error!” alert popped up. Only the menu and the game worked.
When I brought it home later that day (after biking up my hill, more on that later), I showed it to my mom. She and my sister both hinted that they wanted an iPod and that now I had two (I have a blue mini as well), my sister a little less subtly (”I want one, it’s no fair, how come he gets two?”), and seeing as tomorrow was Mothers’ day I decided to give it to my mom. The only problem was, how could I give a non-functioning iPod to her? I’d feel really bad that she’d gotten so excited about having an iPod only to realize that it didn’t work. My dad and I worked fervently to get the thing working, but to no avail. I slept on it.
The next day was Mothers’ day. In the morning I tried taking it apart to see if it was a hardware issue. Apart from a bent pin or two and several pieces of masking tape (yes, I was wondering too…) nothing was amiss. To make a long story short, I took it to school the next day and reformatted it. I figured “What the heck, it’s broken now anyway,” and pressed the button. I gave it to her the next day and it works fine now, but for one thing. It won’t play m4ps. UGH!
Pretty much the whole point of this story:
Does anyone know about a good way to convert m4ps to mp3s? 
