PlasticBits

Service Pack 3 Just In Time

2008-04-28T01:34:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I installed Windows XP on my Mac today and the longest part of the process was installing all of the critical updates for Windows with Service Pack 2. It's been a while since I had to reformat my old Windows machine so I had forgotten how many updates there were on top of Service Pack 2 now.

The final tally: 101 critical updates. Yikes!

Installing all of these took around 30 minutes and most of them were security patches. IE 7 is now considered a critical update (I never understood why it wasn't when it first came out), but WMP 11 is not, which makes no sense to me. The primary media player for the OS is now two complete versions ahead of the one bundled with the OS and it's not a critical update!? I would guess that media probably consumes at least 25% of computer activity these days - How is that not critical?

Service pack 3 should roll up all 101 of these updates into one neat little package this week as it rolls out to users, which seems just in time as the number of critical updates crosses the century mark.

Review: Apple Boot Camp

2008-04-28T01:03:00.005-05:00

I installed Windows XP on my MacBook Pro today so I could use a few necessary applications that are Windows only, mainly AutoCAD and the ARE practice software (which might be the most antiquated, poorly written piece of shi...I mean software I've ever used, but I digress). I won't go through the process as I'm pretty late to the Boot Camp party, and a lot of other really good Boot Camp guides currently hang out on the internets.

There is a level of comfort in knowing that you can dual boot to use some Windows-only software or use a Windows-only device, but what I find really cool is that Boot Camp basically gives you a second computer for around $100. I would have loved to install Vista on my machine so I could get a little more familiar with the OS (and have a new toy to play with), but my software required XP. Thanks Prometric! I think Boot Camp is a really good solution for people who are curious about Macs and don't have to heavily lean on Windows for productivity outside of the office. Fusion and Parallels are also good, but Boot Camp is free and it runs at native speed, which is nice for heavy software. Boot Camp provides an easy way to delete your Windows partition if you decide that the big W is too much ugly or too much evil for your new beauty to handle.

The install tells you to print out the "Installation and Setup Guide" (26 pages) prior to starting your Boot Camp party, which you'll need to do as you won't be able to access a digital guide during the process. The guide is nice and detailed with graphics to help you recognize certain points along the way, although the Windows portion could be a little more detailed - There are several moments during the Windows installation where the computer sort of freezes for a minute or two and there is no note of these pauses in the guide, which would be nice for impatient people like me. I also had one hiccup during my installation where my computer completely froze and would not boot from the Windows disc until I rebooted the machine.

Not a whole lot to the install and once it's done, it's just Windows....on your Mac. My install runs fine. All of the Leopard drivers work perfectly, my Apple Bluetooth keyboard paired without any problems, and the Boot Camp utility makes rebooting to the OS of your choice a snap.

The part of Boot Camp that takes the longest........installing all the critical Windows updates.

Review: Logitech V470

2008-04-07T02:54:00.002-05:00

I was looking for a Bluetooth wireless mouse to compliment my new MacBook Pro, when I found this one from Logitech. I've enjoyed some nice Logitech products over the last few years including several mice. I didn't even consider going the way of Apple's Mighty Mouse as they've deemed the well established scroll wheel "unsatisfactory" in favor of their "scroll ball" for some unknown reason. I've tried the "scroll ball" and it's completely broken in terms of CAD usage (where around half of your commands are executed with the middle, third mouse button). The Logitech V470 is not much different - Namely, it's completely broken.

The Good - The price is right at 25 bucks after rebate, in fact it might be the cheapest Bluetooth mouse around (for good reason). The design is pretty good. I like simple mice and this one is very simple with just three buttons. I've never really found a reason for forward/back buttons on my mouse - I'm not in that much of a hurry. The materials are pretty good for the price. They feel nice to the touch and the size/weight of the mouse feels nice in the hand. Syncing the device with the MBP could not be easier. My notebook instantly found the mouse and synced. That's where the good ends and the fail begins because the performance of this mouse is a joke.

The Bad - A mouse has to have near perfect performance as it acts as the main bridge between the user and his/her computer. Any slight deviations in movement are easily noticed as we use our hands constantly for almost every action daily including computer usage. The Logitech V470 has noticeable lag between the user's hand gestures and their translation of movement on the screen. While the lag is only fractions of a second, it's significant to your eyes and hands communicating with each other. In short it makes this mouse a nice paperweight, but there are more problems. In order for wireless mice to save battery life, they power down after a designated idle time (the V470 seems to take about ten seconds or so before it sleeps). Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the V470 takes a second or two to come out its sleep, which is extremely annoying. You end up sort of shaking the mouse for a second before you can use it......every ten seconds! The problem is actually much worse if you actually power down the mouse using the on/off switch on the bottom of it.

The V470 comes in blue and white, but this fact shouldn't matter as caring about the color of this product would equate to caring about the color of a new car without an engine in it. There's not much else I can say about the V470 as I don't have it in my possession anymore. I sent this one back the next day. Come on, Logitech.

Review: Creative MuVo T100

2008-04-07T02:27:00.004-05:00

First, let me explain why I like to buy small, cheap DAPs like they're going out of style.....which they are. These things get thrown around with the rest of my daily possessions like my keys, wallet, and mobile phone so I put them to work pretty hard. If one breaks, it's no big deal as they're fairly inexpensive and I don't get attached to them at all. I've used a few different usb-stick form factor DAPs in the last few years and the MuVo T100 is the best to date.

The form factor and design of the T100 are really nice despite a few flaws that are easy to get over. The player is very solid feeling despite its tiny footprint. The plastic is extremely scratch resistant and the little thing is durable - I've dropped it several times on the pavement with little to no scratching and no damage to the function. The player is light and the usb cap snaps into place firmly and easily (it's never once come off by accident). There are only a few buttons. The front of the player is mapped exactly like the first generation iPod Shuffle (play, pause, volume up/down, and track forward/backward). The right side has a "Bass Boost" button that has three settings, all of which I find similar and somewhat useless on a player like this. The left side has a toggle switch that will put the player in shuffle mode or cycle through folders stored on the player. The folder cycling can actually be extremely useful if you simply drag and drop several folders of music into memory provided that your music collection is nicely organized on your computer to begin with.

The T100 has 2GB of memory and it doubles as a flash drive so you can store all sorts of files it. Compatible audio formats (MP3 / WMA / WAV / Audible) are simply found by the device and played back despite their folder location. At 2GB, it holds around 500 songs. The player charges quickly over usb and battery life is pretty good rated at around 10 hours, which I've found to be pretty close to actual usage. No software is required to use the T100 as it just works drag and drop style like a flash drive. I find the attached usb interface extremely useful as I can load podcasts on the fly from any computer as they are published through the day as well as charge the player without having to remember a cable or dongle.

A few gripes include some bugs that occur after using the player with a Mac and some buttons that could have been designed better. Deleted files still play back until a format after interfacing with a Mac and the set of buttons on the face of the T100 are too flat and occasionally invite undesired button pushes. One nice feature of the player is that it remembers stop points of audio tracks really, really well. Even after loading more data into memory or deleting data, the player will retain a memory of where it left off.

For $39 the durability and versatility of the T100 are hard to beat for a small, light player to compliment workouts or abusive, daily use.

TV Is Dead

2008-03-17T00:18:00.001-05:00

I've been blabbing about this for a while (not here) but I think TV as we know it is dead. The concept of waiting around for shows or having to record them for later (no matter how easy DVR or Tivo make it) seems completely antiquated to me. Maybe I'm just a geek, but I don't really watch TV anymore - I've replaced the idiot box with another idiot box known as my computer. If I'm in my car I'm usually listening to audio podcasts, and when I'm home I can usually be found hunched over my desk getting lost on the Internet. All of this stuff is on demand when I want it - even if something I love is on live, I usually will just try to catch it later via download (with the exception of sports). Even Sportscenter, which I used to be able to watch a few times a day (of the same highlights over and over) seems like a waste of time to me now when I can get the same news in my car or in a few minutes via Internet video.

What actually made me think about this now was a recent browsing of the iTunes video podcasts selection. It's amazing how much video content is being produced that is actually very good (and free for that matter). Even more amazing is the variety of content - much, much more than what's on television. I think TV will eventually have to pattern itself after the iTunes sort of model where content is released and viewers subscribe to a channel of content or a specific piece of content and pay per subscription. The concept of paying for 150 channels, 5 of which you watch with some consistency, will eventually be recognized for what it is - a huge ripoff.

Switching - A Few Quick Bits

2008-03-10T02:48:00.001-05:00

Like I said in the previous post, I'm not ready to do any kind of review of the MacBook Pro or OS X yet, but I thought I would post a few quick bits on things I've noticed since the switch.

OS X has pretty eye candy (of course), but the polish, clearness, and efficiency are what jump out, especially after using Windows Vista a little bit. Things are located in one place and one place only because the designers knew it was the right place - not where people would be looking for it from previous versions.
The slot-loading disc drive on the MBP is a little sloppy. Instead of smoothly taking in discs, it sort of violently sucks them in when they are pushed in to a certain point that triggers the grabbing mechanism.
The System Preferences pane in OS X is very clear as it should be. You don't spend time looking for things. Everything is contained in the same place and is clearly marked by the correct name and icon.
Syncing Bluetooth devices is really easy, period.
OK, this is a personal belief, but every OS should come with a stand-alone address book application that integrates with other apps called what else.......Address Book.
The MagSafe adapter is brilliant (and the magnet is stronger than I thought it would be).
The sound seems really good or at least a lot better than my last machine.
FrontRow seems cool but somewhat useless.
The backlit keyboard is beautiful.
Buying a Mac can be dangerous as it seems to open the floodgates towards more Apple purchases. Damn you Apple.

On Switching....

2008-03-10T02:18:00.002-05:00

I decided to make the big switch and jump onto the Mac bandwagon this past week. Actually I decided to do it a while back and I've been waiting for a good time to take the plunge. After the somewhat minor refresh to the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines a week ago, the older models were ripe for the picking at a nice discount, so I snagged a 2.2GHz MBP. I don't think I'm really ready to give any kind of a real review yet as it's my first Mac and I'm still "moving in."

As a geek and someone who has used Macs in the past out of curiosity, I'm pretty familiar with OS X and some of the applications for Macs. "Moving in" to a Mac is a strange experience, however. I've been using Windows for my entire computing life which translates into way more hours than I want to think about or guess at. On top of that, I've been using Windows XP for about the last six years so not only was I completely comfortable with XP, but I had my computing routine completely refined in terms of how I worked, what programs I used, and what kinds of settings I preferred.

I'll say after a few days with the new machine, it's getting a little easier and actions are becoming more natural, but the first couple days were rough as I would constantly look for shortcuts and apps from my previous machine. You could say I was suffering from Windows withdrawal (although I'm still able to get my dirty fix at work every day). I still need to move all of my belongings into the new computer and get a few apps (including Windows, although I haven't completely decided on BootCamp vs Fusion - that's another post), but moving into a Mac has been pretty fun so far (especially video-chatting with a friend easily within five minutes of booting up the new machine). Saying goodbye to the old beast will be tough.

Firefox 3 Beta 3 - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

2008-02-25T00:59:00.001-06:00

I heard that the new Firefox 3 Beta 3 was a good build of the new Firefox browser so I decided to try it. I've recently gotten very sick of Firefox 2 as it crashes semi-frequently and is a lot slower than it used to be. I wrote a post about how a few sites like Engadget were extremely slow in Firefox 2. I've actually found the public beta of Safari 3 for Windows to be the snappiest of any browser on my machine, which just doesn't seem right (jeez, Microsoft). I actually really like Safari except it doesn't support all of the extensions that I like to use in Firefox (mainly Google Bookmarks).

The Firefox 3 Beta 3 is noticeably quicker than Firefox 2 and it hasn't crashed on me yet after a few days of usage. I've also noticed that the Firefox 3 Beta 3 seems to be less of a memory hog. My extensions don't work yet but at least when they do, Firefox will be better, faster, and more stable than its bloated little sibling.

My little work-around for the lack of a Google Bookmarks extension (in Firefox and Safari) is to turn on the Bookmark Toolbar (which I usually leave off) and just keep Google Bookmarks in it. When I need to access a bookmark or create one, I just open a new tab and hit the shortcut in the Bookmark Toolbar. Not as convenient as the extension, but better than local bookmarks for sure.

Harder, better, faster, stronger.

Oscar Predictions

2008-02-24T20:59:00.000-06:00

OK, so the Oscars have already started, and I should have written this post earlier...but I had Internet problems earlier. All of the big awards (except Actor in a Supporting Role) have not been announced yet so my predictions are still in time (Bardem was a given for that award in my mind anyway).

Actor in a Supporting Role - Javier Bardem

Bardem was absolutely terrifying in No Country for Old Men. Not only was the movie one of the best I've seen in a while, but Bardem was probably my favorite villain ever. The hairdo was definitely the icing on the cake.

Actress in a Supporting Role - Saoirse Ronan

Tilda Swinton was good in Michael Clayton but I think Ronan was pretty good too even though I didn't really care for Atonement. Damn, Swinton just won as I was writing this.....she was deserving.

Actor in a Leading Role - Daniel Day-Lewis

DDL was incredible in There Will Be Blood. The movie was one of those films where I want to see it again just to see DDL again. Clooney was really good in Michael Clayton, definitely worthy too.

Actress in a Leading Role - Kate Blanchett

Blanchett could be splitting the vote here with herself in the supporting category, but....alright, this is pretty much a guess. Ellen Page was good in Juno.

Score - Atonement

While I didn't really like this movie at all, the score was actually really good.

Editing - No Country For Old Men

The scene where Brolin shot the dog coming at him was good editing.....I think. I really can't say I have a lot of knowledge about this category. The movie was good. I know that.

Directing - No Country For Old Men

This was by far my favorite movie this year (and one of my favorite movies period). Maybe I'm just rooting for this one, but I think it's going to win a bunch tonight in a lot of close races with There Will Be Blood.

Best Picture - No Country For Old Men

I hope the Coens get the award this year because I enjoyed this film so much. I'll be buying the DVD and watching it again the day it's released. There Will Be Blood is a strong contender, but I didn't think the film was as good as Daniel Day-Lewis' performance.

More Strange Apple Memory Prices

2008-02-18T02:54:00.000-06:00

My friend and I have written about how Apple ~~rips off~~ offers questionable prices on memory to its customers. I discovered another strange memory pricing scheme in Apple's iPod Touch product line. Here's the pricing.

8GB model - $299
16GB model - $399
new 32GB model - $499 (ouch)

So 8GB of extra memory will cost you $100 if you are going from the 8GB model to the 16GB model, but 16GB of extra memory will cost you the same if you go up to the 32GB model. Bulk pricing? Who knows. I would guess that the extra 16GB would come at a higher premium since there are more chips crammed into the same space but not so.

On a related note....I know they are not the same components but this makes the Macbook memory upgrade prices (linked above) seem even more ludicrous when you can get an extra 16GB for $100.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

2008-02-18T01:14:00.002-06:00

If you like video games, you'll really like this movie. If you don't like video games, you'll really like this movie. Seriously....this documentary is one the most entertaining films I've seen in a while. The story, which boils down to good vs evil, is classically great, the film's pace is perfect (entire length is only 79 minutes), and the characters are extremely memorable (geeky, weird, duplicitous, hilarious). It's hard not to get sucked into the emotion of the story and you'll probably find yourself on the edge of your seat rooting for Steve Weibe by the end. I promise, you'll enjoy this movie if you watch it. The DVD came out at the end of January. It's about $20 on Amazon right now - very much worth your time and money.

The trailer is really good. Enjoy.

Xerox

2008-02-11T00:35:00.000-06:00

Xerox has decided to change their logo that they have had for the past forty years or so, which has to be considered one of the worst rebranding ideas in a while. The old Xerox logo was extremely recognizable and unique - The new one not only looks like every other current 2.0 logo (Xbox in particular comes to mind), but will fade out and look dated very quickly. The original logo was somewhat timeless in its simplicity. A $14 billion company should know better, no?

Here are a few similar logos.

Definr

2008-02-10T13:44:00.000-06:00

Definr is the cleanest, most simple, and definitely fastest online dictionary I've come across. I don't think it's very widely used yet (probably because it's somewhat new and because people may not trust it since it doesn't have "Webster" or "Oxford" written across the top of its page), but it's a great tool if you ever use an online dictionary. Definr.com is based on Princeton's open WordNet 2.0. They have a few different ways to look up words including a Firefox extension (my favorite), which has a really good auto-suggest feature.

To get an idea of how unknown Definr.com is, a search of "definr" on all three big search engines (Google, Yahoo, Live) will not return links to Definr's actual site, which I thought was kind of amusing. I hope Definr doesn't change a thing as it gains more users because it's rare to come across a tool that's near perfect through its simplicity.

My Experience With Fox's Digital Copy

2008-01-28T01:29:00.000-06:00

I bought Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest. It's a pretty funny movisode (I can't quite call it a movie since it's only 48 minutes, but it's not really an episode either). Either way, it's a pretty good waste of $15 and 48 minutes of your time. The interesting thing about it is that the package includes two discs. One contains the DVD that plays in your standard player. The second disc contains a digital copy of the movie for you to rip onto your computer (and watch on the tiny ass screen of your choice). This is cool if you ask me, although packaging a separate disc seems clunky for some reason - a free digital download would be better.

Anyway, when you put the digital copy disc in your computer (I use a PC running Windows XP) a prompt appears asking you how you want to use the copy, which translates to Windows Media Player or iTunes. I chose Windows Media Player since I don't use iTunes all that much (I have some issues with it....and yeah, I have bigger issues with WMP....). After making my selection, I was greeted with an error without explanation stating that I could not transfer the media. I tried a few more times and got the same result so I decided to try iTunes....worked fine.

This brings me to two gripes, one fairly small and one much bigger.

How can a piece of Apple software do this better on my Windows machine? It's going to become more apparent how bad Microsoft has dropped the ball on digital media when things like this keep happening. Microsoft wants me to rip/organize digital media using WMP, but they want me to buy/manage other digital media using Zune Marektplace/Xbox 360 (these accounts are tied). How is all this DRM going to be handled/tied together and managed in one place across one account? And the process has to work without error first.
Are we really going to have to go through the same long process with video DRM that we did with digital music? It took years for the record companies to give in and distribute files without DRM and I believe the only reason they did so was because they realized they could make more money. If I wanted to steal this movie, I could have. Including the digital copy of the movie with the purchase is not going to stop people from getting it for free. So now people are left with a single DRMed copy of their movie that may or may not work the way they want it to. And the digital copy isn't free - it's just added into the cost of the package just like the included fee that we already pay to cover for people stealing the thing.

End gripes.

Blue Harvest is pretty good if you like Family Guy and Star Wars. The best moments are the subtle jokes that poke fun at some absurd moments in the Star Wars film. A better alternative for digital copies can be found here.

You Suck At Photoshop

2008-01-28T00:16:00.000-06:00

This is a series of hilarious Photoshop tutorials that will at least make you laugh if you don't learn anything. Actually, the tutorials are not that bad despite having a lack of detailed explanations of commands and menus. The tutorials are pretty good for beginners but better for moderate users because of this, and because the funniest jokes are really just inside Photoshop geek humor ("I saw you do tha....you we....you went for the eraser tool, we're gonna erase the background off."). Is it just me or does the guy's voice sound like Will Farrell's?

Phone Books

2008-01-21T08:35:00.000-06:00

My recycling was probably 25% phonebooks this week. I think we've reached a point where phonebooks should be a paid for item (outside of taxes). Nothing outrageous, maybe 25 cents, 50 cents, a dollar, anything to make people think about getting them - The same way that some grocery stores are now charging a small fee for bags. With the internet tubes, GPS, 411 (free 411 at that), do we really need to produce giant, heavy books that have to updated and reprinted every year. The phonebook might be as antiquated as the broom.

TV Firmware Upgrade. TV?

2008-01-18T00:02:00.000-06:00

I just upgraded the firmware on my television. I have a Samsung plasma HP-T4264 (great television by the way) and it has a known issue that I have been too lazy to fix until tonight where the audio cuts out occasionally when connected via HDMI. The issue is easily fixed through a firmware upgrade, which I thought would be a pretty long, painful process since I would have to call customer service to obtain said firmware through email. I just completed the upgrade and it couldn't have been easier. This whole process took about ten minutes.

Get television customer service number off Samsung website and call.
Give them my information and explain my problem.
Samsung tells me I need a firmware upgrade (which I already know from reading about my TV's problem a long time ago).
Samsung emails me said firmware upgrade.
Put said firmware onto USB thumb drive.
Power on television and put thumb drive into slot (while praying I don't have a power outage).
Navigate through menus to perform firmware upgrade-hit "yes" button.
TV power cycles.
Done.

Easy enough. Does TV look better now as well or is this just my mind playing tricks on me?

Some Podcast Favorites

2008-01-14T08:59:00.000-06:00

I've been up all night working with only my podcasts to keep me company. Here's a list of some of my favorites divided by category.

Technology

This Week In Tech

Diggnation (sort of tech I suppose)

Buzz Out Loud

Sports

The Dan Patrick Show

Pardon The Interruption

Other

This American Life

Give them a listen. Enjoy. This one is just in time. :-)

Macworld 2008 Predictions

2008-01-14T01:14:00.000-06:00

I'm going to pile on to the rumors and predictions (like every other blogger) for the upcoming Macworld Conference & Expo happening January 14-18. Here are my predictions guaranteed to go wrong.

Apple will NOT release a sub-compact notebook or tablet. I consider a sub-compact notebook to be one smaller than 11", maybe even 10" (has to be small to be considered a sub-compact, especially after playing with Asus' eeePC, which is really cool if you haven't seen one yet).
They WILL release updated 13" Macbooks with aluminum shells in silver and black just like the iPod Classics. These will pretty similar to the current Macbooks, but might have SSDs and probably will have external optical drives. I think they will have the same white keys on the keyboard just like the current Apple keyboards that come with the iMacs and Mac Pros. They will probably have LED back lit screens too. These will replace the current Macbook lineup.
iPhone will get updates with an SDK and 16GB of storage along with other fixes that should have been there in the first place that Apple will sell as new miracles (ehem, cut and paste).
iTunes movie rentals, which at this point isn't even really a prediction.
I'll say that they won't update the Apple monitors at all. They've needed updates/refreshes for a couple years now and they are still the exact same. Why now?
Some kind of big deal with Google. I'm not sure what this is going to be, but I'm thinking they do something with Google soon involving data storage/delivery.
Some other little updates/speed bumps to the current lineup of products. Maybe some kind of revision to Apple TV to make the thing somewhat relevant.

Chunnel 2.0

2008-01-07T01:45:00.000-06:00

In 2099 you could live in New York and work in London....or maybe eat dinner in London and have dessert in New York. Well, maybe....with 13 trillion dollars and 100 years of labor.....five miles under the Atlantic Ocean's surface. This is a really cool series of videos courtesy of the Discovery Channel and stolen by YouTube that show how this could be possible. If you've got some free time (and like that Extreme Engineering show), I highly recommend them. Make sure to watch the other parts that it is broken into. Enjoy.

Engadget Slowness

2008-01-07T01:34:00.000-06:00

Ever since Engadget redesigned their site a while ago, it's been really slow on my notebook. I don't visit the site much because I have their feed loaded in my RSS reader, but I occasionally will visit the site to read/post comments. The new site takes a really long time to load (mostly the ads, the text loads at fairly normal speed) and once the page is loaded, my browser has a hard time scrolling down the page smoothly (the scrolling lags and is extremely choppy).

Engadget recently said that they have tweaked the site to make it faster (just in time for CES overload), but I haven't noticed any improvement. I thought the problem was probably due to the aging technology inside my CPU. I regularly use Firefox but will occasionally use Internet Explorer if I have to or if I want to test something, etc. For some reason, IE does much better with the Engadget site on my laptop. The pages load faster, the ads are displayed quicker and the page scrolls smoothly. I've started to notice this with a few other sites since (IE displays them faster). I have no idea why and I don't want to use IE regularly, although it's not as bad as it used to be. Any ideas why Firefox sucks on some sites? They need to fix this before V3 (in addition to the obscene amount of memory that it hogs).

More Kindle Burning

2007-12-24T01:38:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about the Kindle more and I've decided why I think this thing is going to go down in flames.

Amazon was too ambitious with the Kindle.

At its core, the Kindle is meant to be used as a book or collection of books and Amazon got away from this. They tried to appeal to the wrong audience: the gadget geek, not the book lover. The device tries to be something that it's clearly not - a browser, a newspaper, an RSS reader, an audio player. It's a jack of all trades and a master of none. Opinions aside of whether you like to read a book digitally or not, the form factor and screen function well as a book - The physical size is similar, the text layouts are identical, and there are some nice features built in to the device that make it an efficient book-reading tool (built in instant dictionary, adjustable text size, no eye strain). This part of the device works well in a simple way. Combined with built in EVDO service (probably the best or at least most intriguing feature of the device) and the ability to use the Kindle without ever connecting it to a computer, it seems like a really good electronic companion to your laptop.

This brings me to what I think is the Kindle's problem. It really tries to be a laptop (and a few other things).

The newspaper interface (from what I have seen and read about) is clunky as it should be. Try to read a newspaper folded up into a small square and navigate through it without ever opening it up to see all the different material in all the different sections and pages - newspapers are made from large, very thin sheets of paper for a reason.
The browser on the device is slow and clunky. Most people that buy a Kindle probably have a laptop and would prefer to use it to browse the web.
Pay to read blogs? I understand that the EVDO can deliver instant content, but again, the interface is not optimal and I have to pay to read free content?

I guess it's nice that these things are included in the device....but this is why most computers sold today are laptops, right? They do all of these things (plus a lot of others) much better already. My laptop cannot be a book however, and this is where the Kindle has its place in the market(for a lower price of course). Simplify the Kindle, take out features, make it JUST an ebook, and maybe the price could be lower ($200 maybe). Then possibly, it can start appealing to its main market: book lovers (read: NOT JUST technology geeks).

Outside In

2007-12-24T00:45:00.000-06:00

Warning: Do not start watching this if you do not have time to finish it.

Can you turn a sphere inside out? The rules of the game are as follows:

This sphere is made of an abstract elastic material.
The material can stretch, bend, and pass through itself.
You cannot rip or puncture the material without destroying it.
You cannot crease the material or bend it sharply.

I took me a minute or two to figure this out before I watched the video....nah, just kidding.

iShuffle

2007-12-17T02:37:00.000-06:00

iShuffle is a neat little program that lets you manage your iPod Shuffle without iTunes. It's great for quickly managing the device like a USB thumb drive - just drag and drop your audio files into the Shuffle, run iShuffle and you're done. iShuffle takes about a second or two to run. Managing an iPod Shuffle with iTunes can be pretty unnecessary, especially if you have a small music collection. The main use of the program is being able to manage your iPod on multiple computers (iTunes deletes the contents of the iPod if you try to do this). iShuffle is perfect if you listen to a lot of podcasts as you can quickly add new files that are published through the day. Thanks, Packard.

Microsoft's Identity Crisis

2007-12-17T02:15:00.000-06:00

Windows Live ID (originally named .NET Passport; briefly Microsoft Passport Network) Confused?

Why can't Microsoft get things straight? The design of most of their services/products usually contain a glaring flaw - You can tell there was a room full of designers fighting for features and rather than narrowing the design down to the best features and making the design efficient, they opted to keep every feature in the final design. The end results are usually messy, confusing and frustrating, which brings me to Microsoft's approach to their unified login or attempt at one. First off, three things:

It has to be incredibly difficult for Microsoft to design products and services because they have to design for such a big audience. They can't leave a billion machines out of their plans going forward on anything.
When is Microsoft going to stop trying to make themselves the de facto standard for everything web rela.....no, just everything?
I'm considering most of this for the average user who buys a computer and is presented with the most obvious choices of services/applications that come loaded as the default on a Windows machine.

Ready for confusion? OK, follow me. Hotmail was created by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith in 1996. Microsoft buys the service in 1998 and integrates it into its line of MSN services - We have MSN Hotmail with @MSN.com and @hotmail suffixes. With either suffix, you can log in to Hotmail and MSN services and use the webmail service in addition to manage your accounts in Outlook Express and Outlook.

Jump forward - Microsoft decides that they need to make a unified login service for all of their services and this is where it gets really messy. They create the .NET Passport, which allows a user to log in to all of Microsoft's services as well as a host of other services that support .NET Passport. To get a .NET Passport, Microsoft requires a user to have one of the following logins:

An email address with a @MSN.com suffix, which also provides email
An email address with a @hotmail.com suffix, which also provides email
A login with a @passport.com suffix, which does not provide email
A login with an existing email address with any @blank.com suffix

Microsoft renames the service the Microsoft Passport Network for some reason.

Jump forward again - Windows Vista is out. Microsoft decides to rename two more things:

Outlook Express, the previous default Windows email application, becomes Windows Mail (Outlook in Microsoft Office is still called Outlook however).
The Microsoft Passport Network becomes Windows Live ID.

Microsoft opens Windows Live and Office Live officially. The suite of applications require a Windows Live ID, which adds the new default Windows Live ID login of @live.com email suffixes. Login is still available through @MSN.com, @hotmail.com, @passport.com, and @blank.com. With the launch comes a new webmail service. One would guess that the new name would be Windows Live Mail or just Windows Mail. It's named Windows Live Hotmail, which can now be checked through its own webmail service (available in new and old formats), Outlook Express on XP machines, Outlook and Windows Mail on Vista machines, and a new application available for both XP and Vista that is part of the Windows Live suite called Windows Live Mail. It does not replace or upgrade existing applications - Windows Live Mail is one of four default Microsoft email services that allow users to check one of three default Microsoft email accounts.

I really wish there was an easy way for Microsoft to clean this mess up and phase out their older services. Why do I even care - I use the Google suite of services that have one simple login. I think the Windows Live thing could be really cool if it functioned as a really clean web extension of your Windows computer. One login, one desktop mail client, one webmail service, which can easily replace a desktop client if it's robust enough (Gmail). Tie it in with a free Live Office service. This problem is widespread in all of Microsoft's designs and it will probably never be cleaned up until they decide to completely explode their current set of services/applications.