Microsoft Zune vs. the new iPod line up

First off CNN.com says the following: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5348674.stm

They actually say, “short on time”. How is there going to be a late entry into this market? Suddenly, there’s no room for competition. No competition from a company with more money and market power than God himself? That seems like kind of a ridiculous comment to me.

The Zune has both video and audio and FM radio. Another comment was made that there are no movies or shows available on the Zune site, just music and pictures. Well, cry me a river. What they possibly don’t understand is that there are a great number of PC/Zune users that actually know how to collect and create videos for themselves. Microsoft understands this and knows we can put the two together fairly easily. My one hope is that Microsoft does NOT try to emulate Apple’s business model in any way.

And it looks like they haven’t. Apple has an extremely difficult DRM (digital rights management) system, which is essentially bullshit. Believe it or not, the law states that you own personal rights to the music (art) you purchase – you can do whatever you want with it at that point. Apple attempts to “protect artists rights”, but that’s really code for “protect and secure iTune sales”. It’s so see-through it takes my breath away.

Zune actually goes to the next level and enables over-the-air file sharing direct from one Zune to another using WiFi technology. Now, it would not be convenient to share 30 GB of music via this system, I’ve watched it and it’s a little slow. But to say, “hey, you need to check out this song/video/whatever”, that is awesome.

Long live inventiveness.

The MacBook Pro: Righteous or Stupid?

So, I just dumped 2500 pre-tax dollars into a MacBook Pro for a client’s son.

Let me tell you what this buys you in the wide world of Apple:
15.4″ wide-screen monitor
2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor
1 GB of Ram
100 GB hard drive
DVD/CD burner
256 MB Video Card

That sounds pretty good, but let’s see what $2500 pre-tax buys you with, say, ohhh, an exploding Dell?

Almost the exact thing. I kid thee not. Other than a 17″ monitor – which kind of defeats the purpose of a laptop. Apparently, the days of the over-priced Apple are over. I have no idea what’s going on here. On top of that, you can run Windows XP via Boot Camp for Mac. My biggest problem with Apple computers is their crappy OS. Now, I know all the MacNazis say that it’s better, but I’m sorry, there are just more apps for PC – and I can actually FIX a PC if something goes wrong. And yes kids, things DO go wrong with Macs. They still crash. They just crash ‘differently’. I have proof – I was just at CompUSA playing with the MacBook Pro 17″ and as I’m scrolling through the application bar, it magically locks up. No kidding. Just freezes. “Nooo, not an apple! it couldn’t be!”

Yes folks, I’m sorry even Mac’s are still just computers – not magic chalices of goodness flown down from heaven by Steve Jobs.

Honestly, I’m the last guy on the block to say, “dude, buy a mac.”

But, I’m making an exception in the case of these laptops. There is still no reason to buy a Mac desktop, but the laptops are just really, really nice.

Just one thing though Mr.Jobs, where the hell is the right-click? GIVE UP ON THE ONE BUTTON THING, IT WAS MEANT TO BE EXPANDED UPON. There, I said it and I feel better now.

UPDATE 9/15/2006: Okay, upon further recent research, I would not buy a Mac. I just priced out a Dell XPS laptop with a LOT more do-dads for the same price. AND it comes with a two-button mouse. Once again, I’m sorry Mr.Jobs, you will not see my checkbook today. Better luck next time.

iPhone: fact or fiction

Okay, so there’s yet another fake iPhone ad here: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/another-fake-iphone-ad-191320.php

And the folks at Gizmodo.com are saying that in one week we’ll have our iPhone announcement. What I don’t get is that if there is an iPhone, it will be available through one carrier. Let’s say… Cingular. So, if Cingular carries this phone, everybody will want to be on Cingular until Apple says, “okay it’s been a year, now everybody can have it.”

This seems to be the general mentality of the cellular companies. No real competition over deliverable service – just ‘who has the coolest devices’. I think people are more apt to switch companies over a particular phone/PDA than the actual quality of what is delivered. I say to hell with that.

Make all phones chip/CDMA ready and available anywhere. Market will dictate the prices and customers will choose which carrier they want. Just by the nature of the technology and government controls within that technology (line licensing) this will open the doors to new providers and force prices down. A win/win for all.

AMD owns ATI!

This is huge news. CPU manufacturer AMD (the big competitor of Intel) has bought video card giant ATI (the big competitor of nVidia) for $5.4 Billion: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3367&tag=nl.e622

What does this mean? Some people are thinking AMD will use ATI’s technology to make a single GPU/CPU combination chip.

GPU: Graphics Processing Unit
CPU: Central Processing Unit

Let’s expand on the history of things a little bit. AMD has been Intel’s biggest competitor for years now, but they have never investing technology in graphic processors – even basic on-board models. They simply have not bothered. Their current CPU’s are arguably the fastest and most efficient on the market. Dell has an AMD line as do just about every PC manufacturer on the market.

ATI has essentially the same reputation as AMD. They are generally treated as second in popularity when put next to nVidia’s graphic boards. Much in the same way that people think of Intel and AMD. This is despite the fact that they generally have a faster graphic board than nVidia. This is not always true, sometimes Intel and nVidia have the more powerful chipsets. The main factor is that ATI and AMD sell their chips at a lower price than Intel and nVidia, based on name recognition and being “second” to these larger companies.

So, you have two companies that are essentially thought of as the alternative to more expensive product lines – merging. I love it, and I hope our new company will hopefully not re-brand into a string of nonplus initials – I can’t imagine anything less recognizable than ATIAMD. Maybe Smartel or MoreIntel. Just an idea…

One thing that’s important to keep in mind when thinking about upgraded graphic and central processors is what drives them and why we need them. Games. Computer games are driving technology right now. Nothing pushes the limits of hardware like explosions and 3D environments. Chances are, your kid (or 31 year old) is the real reason technology is moving forward.

Finally, a REAL electric car.

Sexy, yet economical. Powerful, yet green. Fast, yet FAST.

http://jalopnik.com/cars/news/tesla-electric-car-pics-leaked-188556.php

I’m gonna get me one. Just not right now, there’s something about the sweet smell of gasoline…

How the internet really works.

I’m just not sure this guy really knows what’s going on. I could be wrong.

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/07/jon_stewart_on_net_neutrality.php

“This is Gordon Gecko, can I help you?”

Okay, someone has finally made a retro cell phone. Your time has come tiny cell phone users. This is the phone that REALLY feels like a phone.

Check it out: http://www.mobile.11-fingers.com/html/retro_brick.html

“That’s not fair he had muscle augmentation….”

I know these articles aren’t technically related to computing or cellular or anything other than cool factor – but check it out.

Ever wanted muscles 100 times stronger? I do, I’ve read comic books.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4817848.stm

What about titanium laced bones? Or some killer X-Men claws?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5140090.stm

Blackberry will rule the planet

Okay, that’s a little over the top, but they are adding several new features to their already fantastic handsets. Features include: audio (mp3?) player, video and picture recording with new camera feature, and memory expansion.

This will basically shut down the need for any other device a Windows Mobile device. On top of that they will be allowing 20 other non-blackberry devices to use their “Blackberry Connect”, and plan on adding more to this list in the future.

Hooray for blackberry: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1983066,00.asp

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.