End of the mp3 player age

Where should I begin? What I think an mp3 player should have? Problems I've had with music players in the past? What I think get's the best BPB [Bang Per Buck] rating? Eh, I don't know, so I'll just start typing whatever comes to mind.

Over the last few months, I've been researching music players quite a bit. My main conclusion is this: The mp3 player age is nearly over! Terminated! Discontinued! Ceased! No more! Finito!

"But... mp3 players are bigger than ever,"you say. Frankly, I don't see much truth in that. Not because music is going to loose popularity [it's growing faster than ever], but because what we know as mp3 players don't just play music anymore. They hold pictures, video, games, internet, and, you guessed it, personal style. Think about it. The most commonly heard mp3 player, the iPod, has gone far past music. At this point, the only version that doesn't play video is the shuffle! The Creative Zen plays videos. The SanDisk Sansa is rarely seen without a 16-bit video/picture displaying LCD. The Zune is made for visual delight. Cell phones are becoming portable media players that become phones. With that said, I shall restate my early-stated conclusion: the mp3 player age is almost over!

From this point on, you shan't hear me use the term mp3 player, but I'll be referring to them as "media players".

Let's start with the brand I like to rant about the most- Apple. I dislike the way their media player became so popular that iPod became a regular word. I've seen people actually witnessed people call a SanDisk a "black iPod". Foey! Electronic devices shouldn't be improper nouns! It's blasphemy, I tell ya'!
Let's talk about the actual media player, shall we? To begin, I'd like to say that the iPod is way overrated, and just like most of the things Apple makes, overpriced. I'm not paying $150+ for a 4GB media player no matter how small! As long as it fits in my jeans' pockets (which is most media players), I'm good. Now there is one reasonably priced iPod that I wouldn't mind buying, however. The 160GB iPod Classic, $300 if you search in the right place. Holds more junk than you'll ever need (unless you put all your HD movies in there). Other than that, overpriced and overrated. The iPod touch is way too small space-wise. That would be alright with me if it had an SD expansion slot, but no such luck. 30GB is my usual standard for space, and 16GB for $350 just doesn't cut it for me, though [as painful as it is for me to say,] it is undeniable that the iPod touch's UI is pretty well thought-out. Maybe I'll get a touch when the new 32GB gets down to $300 and there are at least 30 decent widgets [with the help of the iPhone/touch SDK]. Maybe.

So what do I like? The Zune. The Zune 30GB to be specific. How would you like a media player that stores 30GB for under $200? Microsoft has that. Wanna know who else does that? Nobody. Yeah, the company that often gets blamed for overpriced electronics fires back! As for the Zune 4GB and 8GB, I'm not too excited. I know it's small, has the same screen resolution, and costs a tad less, but still, you can get much more BPB with a little searching. And as for the 80GB Zune: heh, neat. I like the touch interface (the 4/8GB has the same, BTW) and the fact that it packs 80 gigs into a small, sexy package, but for $250 [and no SD slot], I'm not buying just yet. I think it'll be down to $200 by the holidays.

I'd like to make a final "notable mensions" paragraph, but unfortunately, I can't find more than two worth mensioning. There's the $130 SanDisk Sansa 8GB that has an SD slot, and the all holy (but non-relevant to the subject) Nokia N800 with a touch screen, stereo speakers, handwriting recognition, wifi, SD, Skype, Mozilla, Widgets, remote computing to a PC, a very nice interface, and a Linux-Based OS, but it's made to be a cell phone, and deserves to be in a blog post by itself. Yes, that was a run-on sentence, but it's hard to refrain from doing so when trying to describe the N800 :P

So for all of you screaming "I know better media players than that!," then let me know in the comments box. I'll read it, don't worry. I read all my comments for the most part.

[BTW, a blog post side-image is comming up soon!]

The war is over! Blu-Ray triumphs

That's right, folks, Blu-Ray won the format battle with HD-DVD! It was inevitable, but doesn't it feel good to know that you won't have to deal with seeing HD-DVDs in the store anymore? For once, I'm happy for Sony's victory.

That's right, I'm happy for Sony! Seriously, BRD is the best thing they've made in a while! It definitely goes right next to the walkman and CD on my list.

Getting back on track, there's also news that a few certain companies are still being loayal to HD-DVD, despite the fact that it already lost. Sore loosers. But Toshiba is being smart [somewhat] by not calling their HD-DVD players "HD-DVD Player"s, but calling them an "Upscaling DVD Player with HD-DVD playback". Nice strategy, definitely something I'd do if I had tens of thousands of useless/obsolete pieces of hardware that I wanted to sell. But I still don't see any reason to keep manufacturing them, especially when almost all other tech giants have moved upward and onward to BRD.

Heh, after typing and researching this, I feel like getting a BRD drive. Besides, 2 Blu-Ray disks can back up my entire system, uncompressed.

A short collection of good songs [Updated 11-6-08!]

So many good songs, so little time. Here's a summary of my Songbird playlist entitled "good stuff" in no particular order:

Afterlife ~Avenged Sevenfold [self-titled]

Dare ~Gorillaz [D-Sides]

Faint ~Linkin Park [Meteora]

Paralyzer ~Finger Eleven [Them vs. You vs. Me]

The Pretender ~Foo Fighters [Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace]

Two Sisters ~Fictionplane [Two Sisters; single]

Empty Walls ~Serj Tankian [Elect the Dead]

Ten Thousand Fists ~Disturbed [Ten Thousand Fists; single]

Fake It ~Seether [Fake It; single]

_________________________________________________________

Okay, I noticed that this particular blog post has gotten a lot of views, so I decided to update it with newer ["gooder"] songs, as the ones above are soon-to-be old news (and my opinion on music has changed a bit):

Bleeding Love ~Leona Lewis [Spirit]

American Boy ~Estelle, ft. Kanye West [Shine]

Heroes of Our Time ~DragonForce [Ultra Beatdown]

Lost My Mind ~Shwayze [self-titled]

She's a Handsome Woman ~Panic! At The Disco [Pretty. Odd.]

Love Me Dead ~Ludo [You're Awful, I Love You]

Perfect Insanity ~Disturbed [Indestructable]

Lost! ~Coldplay [Viva La Vida]

Eye of the Storm ~Bullet for My Valentine [Scream, Aim, Fire]

Give it to Me ~3 Doors Down [Self-titled]

That's all for now, folks!

$60 cell phone bills are so yesterday's news! Keep your bills low with Skype and 3G

I've always had this theory that everything man-made in this world can be reinvented in a radically new way. For example, LCD replacing analog TVs, digital cameras replacing Polaroids, and the Tesla Roadster and Chevy Volt replacing conventional gas vehicles. And yet, there's still so much to be reinvented!

Anyway, over the last few days, I've been applying my un-named theory to "reinventing" my finances by trying to replace my cell phone and allowing for easier synchronization with how I live. So after lots of research, I've found a nice setup that is beneficial to anybody. Besides, it's about time I get rid of my old Razr and unreliable but economic T-Mobile phone service.

Imagine this: Instead of using your normal cell phone service and your antique camera phone to call, using a plan less than $50/mo that grants you unlimited minutes with free long distance, a network that covers almost the entire US, voice, text, video, and on occasion, games on a cell phone that's essentially better than the iPhone (and costs less). Oh, and and you'll be Sounds good to me. Probably sounds good to you. So why are we all just listening to it instead of actually living it?

Okay, so it doesn't sound easy to get together. That's because it isn't easy. So here we go:

 Step one: Get Skype. If you already have one, good for you! Now register for their paid service Skype Pro; It'll allow you to call land lines and cell phones in the US and Canada (if you happen to live in the States) and get a number of other features (like voice mail) as well as some nice discounts. Once you get that, get SkypeIn, which gives you you're own personal phone number at the area code of your choice so people can call you at local rates. Both of these services combined cost $8/month, and that's before Skype Pro discounts (60% off SkypeIn service).

Step two: Get the Nokia N800. If you already have one, then you're my new best friend. It has a touch screen, full web browser (Firefox core), mp3 player, stereo speakers, a Linux-based OS, WiFi, a webcam, and tons of other features. Oh yeah, and it has Skype. This phone is essentially another iPhone, but tons cheaper ($225 at Amazon) and it came out about 5 months prior to Apple's pride and joy. The only problem is that you can't get it in a bundle with a cell phone carrier.

Step three: Get a 3G/4G carrier. AT&T has a 3G that covers much of the US for ~$35 ($40 after fees), though I'd wait a couple of months before signing any contracts. Why? Because Sprint, Nokia, Google, Samsung, and other notable companies are making a combined effort to create a Next-Generation network that'll connect the US to the internet like never before! Think of it as a WiFi hotspot that spreads to the entire city. This project is called XOHM (pronounced "zom"), and it's network will be ready for use by the end of this year, delivering speeds from 800kbps to 4mbps, depending on signal strength.

But let's just say that you go with AT&T's current 3G PDA Personal service, paying $42 per month. Now you are connected to the internet almost everywhere you go! It's a good thing you're using the best deal in internet tablets to date, and that phone works with Skype, too! So now, you're paying around $48 per month for unlimited minutes nationwide on the strongest network in the world (and dirt cheap international calls). Oh, and you can call through your Skype account both on your cell phone and your PC or notebook. Definitely worth investing in, no?

By the way, because you'll be using Skype 99% of the time with this system, you can get a cheaper home phone service. You can get rid of it, but then you won't have anyone to call when an emergency arises (i.e., 911). So yeah, this setup is going to save me more than $350 after one year of use.

Can I get an Amen?

Amen!

Why the Corvette Z06 rules all

Okay, I happen to be in a rush today, so I'll make this a little more straight-forward

The Corvette Z06 can be compared to many cars, yet almost no matter what you pair it with, the Z06 emerges victorious. It's a budget-minded supercar. So to show how great the Z06 is in the performance realm, I'll compare it to the Lamborghini Gallardo (stats are from Road & Track road tests). While the Galardo costs $200K, the Corvette goes for around $65K. Gallardo, 520bhp, Corvette, 505. As for top speed, the Gallardo gets up to 195mph while the Z06 reaches 198mph. Breaking from 60-0, Gallardo takes 108ft, the Corvette is slightly longer at 118ft. The Lambo gets a 70.6mph on the slalom, and the Chevy gets 71.2mph. R&T Magazine got 9.3mpg while testing the Gallardo, and the Z06 wins again with 14.1mpg. As for 0-60 and 0-100, the Z06 wins that contest as well, getting 3.6 and 8.5 seconds (respectively), while the Gallardo gets 3.8 and 8.8 seconds. The Z06 wins in the quarter-mile as well (12sec@121mph vs. 12.1sec@116.9mph).

As you can see, the Corvette wins in almost every category. In addition, R&T named the Corvette's engine as the best sports car V8 (in a sports car showdown featuring an Aston Martin, Audi R8, and Ferrari F430). Gotta love it!

Oh, and the Z51 is even cheaper (~$45K), but not too much slower than the Z06. If you search hard enough, you can get the two Corvette models for $10K-$15K less when used. So with that said, I click the Publish button on the bottom right of my text box.

*click*