This will be another new reoccurring type of post for the relaunch of the website. What Tech NOT to Get is a warning of sorts. Sometimes, companies attempt to dump their crap technology on you. I don't want to see you get saddled with bad, outdated, or otherwise poor tech. If it saves just one person, I did my job.
Smart Phones
This post is inspired by today's announcement of the release of the Dell Aero for AT&T, which is generating a lot of news, but not the type Dell should ever have hoped for. PC World called it an "embarrassment", while The Washington Post called it "Dell's Death Wish". It struck me; I read all these geeky tech news stories, but what about people who don't? If they're in the store, might they look at the Aero, and it's low price, and actually buy one? Here, with one for each of the major carriers, are the four currently available (and some downright new) smart phones NOT to get.
AT&T - Dell Aero:
It made me write this article. Dell makes (mostly) quality computers, and is trying to spread into other consumer technology. So what makes the Aero so bad, when made by a good manufacturer? It's all in the software. Dell is releasing the Aero running Android verison 1.5. Android itself is not the problem. Google's OS has become a consumer hit. But version 1.5 was released in early 2009. Since then, Android 1.6, 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 have all been released, and added features that you will want. You wouldn't buy a brand new computer with Windows 2000 on it, so do not get this phone. Alternative: Seriously, just get an iPhone 4. If you have to have Android on AT&T, get the Samsung Captivate (which runs 2.1 and will be upgraded to 2.2 very soon after)
Verizon - Motorola Devour:
This one has a very similar problem to the Aero. It looks like the Droid & Droid 2, and runs Android. However, because Motorola put their awful "MotoBlur" software on it, it's stuck running version 1.6. Motorola just announced that this phone will never be getting an upgrade. Alternative: The Droid, which came out 4 months before the Devour, just got upgraded to the latest version 2.2. If you can find that guy in a Verizon affiliated store (it's out of stock in the official stores, replaced by the Droid2), snap it up for cheap. If not, grab the cheaper still LG Ally, running version 2.1, and getting great reviews.
T-Mobile - HTC HD2
I'm sensing a theme to this post. Great hardware maker? Check. Outdated software? Check. The HTC HD2 runs Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5, which Microsoft is essentially leaving behind, with no upgrade plan, when they launch Windows Phone 7 this fall. In three months, this phone OS will be basically obsolete, on brand new hardware you just spent $150 on. Unless you plan to format it, load Android onto it (yes, nerds are doing this) your money is better spent elsewhere. Consider saving $50 and buying the Blackberry Bold 9700. It's sleek, popular, and Blackberry has announced it is upgrading it to the latest Blackberry OS 6.0, which looks like a big step forward.
Sprint - Palm Pixi (plus)
Palm has been purchased by HP, which has announced tons of plans for the Palm OS, including tablets and printers. None of these plans, so far, have included upgrading or advancing the current Palm phones. HP is quietly hoping people will buy up the remaining Palm devices. They're quality, with a good OS, but they're orphaned devices. People who have them love them, but they most likely bought them last year, when Palm was independent, and moving forward. I can't in good conscience recommend it now. Alternative: The same price will get you the Blackberry 8530, but never mind that. If you live in a Sprint 4G city, spend the extra money and buy the new Samsung Epic 4G when it comes out, or the slick Evo4G. You'll thank me later.
Till next time....
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
In Search of: mp3 players
Here is another of the new types of posts I plan on using for the site. In Search of: will cover some of the background research process, and thinking, that goes into my prep for the bigger articles that take much more time to write. This will give some insight into my thoughts on a particular tech arena, and could help you get an idea of what direction to go if you decide to go in search of your own tech.
MP3 players
There are a few forks in the road you need to pass before you can really make a decision on mp3 players. I’m going to cross one of those forks before I even start this, since I made this decision right away, and it means everything right now. In today’s market, almost anything can play mp3s. In a moment, I think of dedicated mp3 players, Portable Media Players, handheld computers, smart phones, cell phones, car stereos, DVD players, eBook readers, photo frames, home stereos, alarm clocks, and the whole host of computers can play mp3s to a variety of quality and convenience level. There are many who say that a dedicated mp3 player is a thing of the past, and only want multipurpose devices. I just wonder how those people feel when they drop their high end smart phone onto a treadmill going 7.2 mph.
So, are you shopping for something that plays mp3, or are you shopping for an mp3 player? I find listening to mp3s on my laptop to be a fabulous, full and rich experience, but that’s not what I’m shopping for. So everything other than dedicated mp3 players can get out of the pool. Ok, I allow for displaying pictures & small videos since finding one without that ability is almost impossible. However, iPod Touch, Zune HD, & Archos min-tablets are out.
The next big choice is hard drive vs flash storage. Hard drives have larger storage, and a lower cost per GB. However, hard drives have moving parts that can break, are slightly larger and heavier, and have lower battery life. Flash players are light, small, typically have better battery life, and you can shake em like a Polaroid picture (at the gym or otherwise). However, they are usually slightly less feature rich, and may force you to pick and choose what to have on the player, and what to leave off. The big questions here are: How do I plan on using this (in the car / on commute primarily, or in the gym / all around the office, home, or neighborhood)? How much am I willing to spend? How big is my music collection? Feel free to take a gander at mine.
The last big choice is called ecosystem. To engender brand loyalty, most popular mp3 players try to build up an ecosystem around them, so that once you step in, it’s harder to justify changing brands. Do you have every bit of your music already in iTunes? Have you been buying from the iTunes store for years? If you don’t buy another iPod, you may lose some things you don’t want to sacrifice in any change. Are you a Zune Pass subscriber, using every ounce of all-you-can-eat music to sample new artists? Just know, obviously, that Zune Pass doesn’t work with Creative players. However, if the great majority of your collection is a standard format (mp3, wma, etc) and doesn’t use DRM, most likely you can make a change to whatever brand you want.
The biggest ecosystem choice is often presented as Apple vs non-Apple. iTunes is simply put the best music management software, and it’s associated store has the widest selection of pay-per-track or album music anywhere. The iPod mp3 players are well designed, easy to use, and have an “it-factor” that dominates the market. The latest numbers I can find have Apple with 71% of the mp3 player market. If any negatives are cited, the main one is usually price. A 16GB flash memory iPod Nano is $161 on Amazon, while and 16 GB flash memory Zen Mozaic is $69 on Amazon. The only other complaint I’ve heard from friends who are iPod owners is about durability. They say they’re quite reliable for a while, but then after heavy use, can break down pretty quickly. Still, you don’t get the reputation Apple has in this market by having dissatisfied customers. Apple’s iPods are high quality, and a factor in almost any mp3 player consideration.
For heavier reading, if you choose, I enjoy both the Consumer Reports mp3 player buying guide, and the one by CNet.
So what direction will I go in? Stay tuned, as I break down my options, and make my decision. Till next time.
MP3 players
There are a few forks in the road you need to pass before you can really make a decision on mp3 players. I’m going to cross one of those forks before I even start this, since I made this decision right away, and it means everything right now. In today’s market, almost anything can play mp3s. In a moment, I think of dedicated mp3 players, Portable Media Players, handheld computers, smart phones, cell phones, car stereos, DVD players, eBook readers, photo frames, home stereos, alarm clocks, and the whole host of computers can play mp3s to a variety of quality and convenience level. There are many who say that a dedicated mp3 player is a thing of the past, and only want multipurpose devices. I just wonder how those people feel when they drop their high end smart phone onto a treadmill going 7.2 mph.
So, are you shopping for something that plays mp3, or are you shopping for an mp3 player? I find listening to mp3s on my laptop to be a fabulous, full and rich experience, but that’s not what I’m shopping for. So everything other than dedicated mp3 players can get out of the pool. Ok, I allow for displaying pictures & small videos since finding one without that ability is almost impossible. However, iPod Touch, Zune HD, & Archos min-tablets are out.
The next big choice is hard drive vs flash storage. Hard drives have larger storage, and a lower cost per GB. However, hard drives have moving parts that can break, are slightly larger and heavier, and have lower battery life. Flash players are light, small, typically have better battery life, and you can shake em like a Polaroid picture (at the gym or otherwise). However, they are usually slightly less feature rich, and may force you to pick and choose what to have on the player, and what to leave off. The big questions here are: How do I plan on using this (in the car / on commute primarily, or in the gym / all around the office, home, or neighborhood)? How much am I willing to spend? How big is my music collection? Feel free to take a gander at mine.
The last big choice is called ecosystem. To engender brand loyalty, most popular mp3 players try to build up an ecosystem around them, so that once you step in, it’s harder to justify changing brands. Do you have every bit of your music already in iTunes? Have you been buying from the iTunes store for years? If you don’t buy another iPod, you may lose some things you don’t want to sacrifice in any change. Are you a Zune Pass subscriber, using every ounce of all-you-can-eat music to sample new artists? Just know, obviously, that Zune Pass doesn’t work with Creative players. However, if the great majority of your collection is a standard format (mp3, wma, etc) and doesn’t use DRM, most likely you can make a change to whatever brand you want.
The biggest ecosystem choice is often presented as Apple vs non-Apple. iTunes is simply put the best music management software, and it’s associated store has the widest selection of pay-per-track or album music anywhere. The iPod mp3 players are well designed, easy to use, and have an “it-factor” that dominates the market. The latest numbers I can find have Apple with 71% of the mp3 player market. If any negatives are cited, the main one is usually price. A 16GB flash memory iPod Nano is $161 on Amazon, while and 16 GB flash memory Zen Mozaic is $69 on Amazon. The only other complaint I’ve heard from friends who are iPod owners is about durability. They say they’re quite reliable for a while, but then after heavy use, can break down pretty quickly. Still, you don’t get the reputation Apple has in this market by having dissatisfied customers. Apple’s iPods are high quality, and a factor in almost any mp3 player consideration.
For heavier reading, if you choose, I enjoy both the Consumer Reports mp3 player buying guide, and the one by CNet.
So what direction will I go in? Stay tuned, as I break down my options, and make my decision. Till next time.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Tech R.I.P. - My mp3 player
It’s been a long time. Thank you for coming; or coming back. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you hadn’t. In order to keep this going, and a little regular, I plan on started a host of new types of post for WTTG. “Tech R.I.P.” is one of them. In it, I’ll talk about technology that has died, or that needs to. It will be both about actually products that I use, and product lines or technologies I think need to go. I will introduce the other new post types as I go along.
It seems fitting for the rebirth of my tech blog to be about the death of one of my favorite, and most loyal, pieces of technology. I come here to praise my flash based mp3 player, not to bury it.
In fact, I just can’t bring myself to throw it away. I’ve had my trusty SanDisk Sansa m260 4 GB mp3 player since May of 2006. I had a larger mp3 player with almost all of my music on it, but it was tough to use in the gym. My girlfriend at the time (now "Mrs. WTTG") didn’t own an mp3 player at all, and her birthday was coming up. I saw my chance, and brought a matching pair of Sansa mp3 players. My wife got a grey 2GB model, and I got the blue 4GB model.
There were a lot of things that made the Sansa m260 great. It was a small but sturdy player, and at the time 4 GB seemed like a lot of space for a flash player. Instead of a rechargeable, it ran off of a regular AAA battery, which meant no waiting to recharge, and lasted a good long while off of one alkaline. It was simple to put music and podcasts onto it, especially for a computer control freak like myself. It had a super easy-to-use menu system. Almost daily I would load up the latest Mike O’Meara Show or Tony Kornheiser show podcasts. The little guy put out great sound, even when used through the AUX jack in my car stereo. Plus it was small and light enough to spend all day in my pocket, even on the treadmill. Best of all, it’d take a licking and keep on ticking.
At least, it did keep on ticking for a long while. I’d occasionally drop it out of my pocket, but it never seemed any worse for the wear, other than some of the blue rubbing off to the white plastic. It came with a plastic wrapper, but it eventually discolored and tore. This spring, I started to notice some strange behavior. The player would reboot unexpected. It would freeze after I put new music on it. I knew it didn’t have long to live. When I was in line at Subway and it paused in the middle of re-listening to “Raw”, it was over.
I went through the typical stages of the grief cycle, and of a music addict. I was mad I had to listen to the radio. Good God, no wonder I loved mp3s. I was sad that my buddy wasn’t putting out music. I even tore it apart and attempted to fix it. I even got it to turn on again, and listened for a solid hour before it froze for the final time. I even, out of desperation, used the TERRIBLE mp3 player built into my cell phone. It's given me my 'fix' but isn't adequate as a replacement.
So now, it’s one of my most bittersweet times; sorry to say goodbye to my old technology, but excited, cause I’m getting something shiny and new. Till next time.
It seems fitting for the rebirth of my tech blog to be about the death of one of my favorite, and most loyal, pieces of technology. I come here to praise my flash based mp3 player, not to bury it.
In fact, I just can’t bring myself to throw it away. I’ve had my trusty SanDisk Sansa m260 4 GB mp3 player since May of 2006. I had a larger mp3 player with almost all of my music on it, but it was tough to use in the gym. My girlfriend at the time (now "Mrs. WTTG") didn’t own an mp3 player at all, and her birthday was coming up. I saw my chance, and brought a matching pair of Sansa mp3 players. My wife got a grey 2GB model, and I got the blue 4GB model.There were a lot of things that made the Sansa m260 great. It was a small but sturdy player, and at the time 4 GB seemed like a lot of space for a flash player. Instead of a rechargeable, it ran off of a regular AAA battery, which meant no waiting to recharge, and lasted a good long while off of one alkaline. It was simple to put music and podcasts onto it, especially for a computer control freak like myself. It had a super easy-to-use menu system. Almost daily I would load up the latest Mike O’Meara Show or Tony Kornheiser show podcasts. The little guy put out great sound, even when used through the AUX jack in my car stereo. Plus it was small and light enough to spend all day in my pocket, even on the treadmill. Best of all, it’d take a licking and keep on ticking.
At least, it did keep on ticking for a long while. I’d occasionally drop it out of my pocket, but it never seemed any worse for the wear, other than some of the blue rubbing off to the white plastic. It came with a plastic wrapper, but it eventually discolored and tore. This spring, I started to notice some strange behavior. The player would reboot unexpected. It would freeze after I put new music on it. I knew it didn’t have long to live. When I was in line at Subway and it paused in the middle of re-listening to “Raw”, it was over.
I went through the typical stages of the grief cycle, and of a music addict. I was mad I had to listen to the radio. Good God, no wonder I loved mp3s. I was sad that my buddy wasn’t putting out music. I even tore it apart and attempted to fix it. I even got it to turn on again, and listened for a solid hour before it froze for the final time. I even, out of desperation, used the TERRIBLE mp3 player built into my cell phone. It's given me my 'fix' but isn't adequate as a replacement.
So now, it’s one of my most bittersweet times; sorry to say goodbye to my old technology, but excited, cause I’m getting something shiny and new. Till next time.
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