MP3’s and the iTune Mythos

Most of us are using iTunes to download music these days. They have a huge library of music and a user-friendly environment in which to purchase them. The downside upside of this is that you are confined to an iPod of some variety, including two Motorola phones with iTunes built in.

This is not the end all, be all of MP3 downloading, in fact, Apple is not selling you MP3's. They are selling DRM'd (digital rights management) M4P files, which uses apples "lossless" encoding process. You cannot port your iTunes to a non-iPod device. There is no convenient way to convert your iTunes to standard MP3 files. The only way to do it is to burn a regular audio CD from iTunes with your new music on it – then import that CD back into iTunes by way of MP3 encoding. It's tragic and silly, but there is currently no way around that.

There is of course, AllofMP3.com. A Russian website, with it's own music browsing software (aptly named, AllTunes) selling music for far, far less than $0.99. The upside is that you get an actual MP3 file and are not limited to iPod's.

There are a LOT of great MP3 players with video and everything for far less than you'd pay for your iSnob. In Apple's defense however, the reviews all say iPod's have extremely good sound quality. I would have to agree.

Check out MP3.com for reviews on all the latest players.

Mac and PC – Choose wisely

Mac and PC, it's go time.

Pick your own operating system. The only thing that really matters is your productivity needs. There is simply more software available for PC than Mac. Mac's now pack Intel processors and can boot to windows. Why would they do this? To lure PC users away from their systems, saying "yes, we can do that!"

You don't see Microsoft caring to do this. There's no reason. Microsoft XP Professional with service pack 2 is one of the most stable operating systems I've found. Anything a Mac can do, a PC can do just as well. Mac users cannot say this, instead they lay claim to not having viruses and spyware. Well folks, there's a reason for that. A virus, like any program, is designed for a specific operating system in mind. Mac's represent about 2.7% of the market share, this hardly seems worth it if you want to waste time programming evil.

So, to buy a Mac to run Windows means you have paid more money for less value. A computer, any computer (Mac, Dell, Sony, whatever) is just a box with a bunch of equipment inside. Generally speaking these motherboards, RAM, hard drives, video cards and so forth are made by manufacturers other than the brand of computer you've purchased. Meaning that a Mac with a Seagate hard drive, is no different than a PC with a Seagate hard drive. The difference in all of these manufacturers is quality.

Choosing a computer really comes down to who puts the highest quality equipment in their machines. This means two things: reliability and compatibility.

My recommendations are: Dell, Sony, Apple. They all put great equipment into cute little metal-plastic boxes.

Verizon vs. Cingular, Windows Mobile vs. Blackberry

There's been a lot of hype lately about Motorola's Q, the Blackberry 8700c and the Treo 700w. For the Q and 700w, service is only available on Verizon's CDMA network. If you're not travelling outside of the United States – this is the way to go. I've been with every carrier now, the phones may be cooler or more "open" (I'll get to that in a little bit) on the other networks, but it's hard to beat Verizon's coverage.

What it lacks, at least in the case of Santa Barbara, is a highspeed data network. Here we are limited by Verizon's 1x data network, which downloads at a rate of about 15 KB/sec, or about 1/10th the speed of your home cable/DSL package.

This is where Cingular's EDGE network cleans house. Phenomenal download speeds are available with certain phones/PDA's on Cingular's network. This makes a huge difference in web browsing and data download. It does not make a huge difference with push technology. Push happens when you're not looking and is basically designed for low data consumption.

As far as push is concerned, Blackberry still owns the competition. Microsoft's mobile push/ready sync technology has infrequent but annoying errors. This is largely due to the service provider and not a completely error-free mobile operating system. The advantage of Blackberry is that they do all the hosting and talking with other servers. They've taken the hard part out of the job.

Just like the Mac/PC battle, Microsoft's Mobile OS wins out in outright expandabilty and functions. A built-in Microsoft productivity suite (word, excel, powerpoint, etc.), windows mobile media player and large scale memory expandabilty in the form of SD cards win out. You will see more software available for these devices than Blackberry.