Rob Schultz blogs about the new place that iPods are taking at the table of everyday life. In one story, an iPod is sent down trapped coal miners in Australia, along with life essentials like clothing, food, and water. In the other story, Rob talks about being on an airplane and seeing two strangers, one quite airsick and the other trying to be helpful, exchange iPods and find comfort in each other’s playlists. To the point that the airsick passenger soon forgot she was airsick.

I’m discovering my own uses for an iPod. I recently took my Nano with me on a 10-day road trip to the Oregon coast with my family.  I loaded up on Scientific American podcasts and found that my 11-year old son enjoyed listening as a way to pass the hours in the car.  I think he actually spent more time on the iPod than on his Game Boy.

In addition to entertaining restless boys, I found the iPod to be a quick energy boost when the day seemed to run one hour too long on the road.  A quick play of Louis Armstrong’s Real Ambassadors seemed to perk up everyone in the car and we soon were humming merrily on Interstate 84 through the golden hills of Utah.

So how does one describe an iPod these days?  Life essential? Valium substitute? Game Boy alternative? Digital energy bar? I imagine that more uses will be discovered as the price comes down and iPods become the next cell phone–something my mother has and that the rest of us couldn’t imagine not having.