A few weeks ago I faced a truly horrible event in my life: My venerable iPod, a 20GB 4G model, which I've used regularly for about five years, finally gave up the ghost. I'll spare you the story of trying to revive it. It was dead, and probably long overdue at that. While I pondered buying a new one, I began instead to wonder: Had I gone soft? Had the iPod and iTunes walled gardens made me ...