Yep, you read that right. Verizon is damn good in Rochester, MN.
I think I have finally come to see that it really matters where you live, not your carrier. Some services are better in certain areas. When I lived in Salt Lake, Sprint seemed the best for me. Moving back to Rochester, I really was unhappy with Sprint.
After a really bad experience (don't get me started) I finally had enough of Sprint. I actually paid one of the deadly "early termination fees" (aka $300) and got out of my contract.
I spent the next week talking with people about their cell service. I think this is the best resource that you can think of. Ask the person that always seems to be on the phone or habitually texting. 9 times out of 10, their provided will be the best choice.
Verizon was the vendor that was recommended. I walked right into the Verizon store and walked out about an hour later with a shiny new Blackberry and a flip phone for my wife.
I think the thing that impressed me the most was that the sales rep actually gave a damn. This wasn't a 16 year old kid just doing it for the free service, this was a guy that let me know all about the Verizon including some of the billing problems that I would experience (like my bill would be full price for two months until Verizon could process my corporate discount). I think I actually bought MORE than I needed just because I really appreciated his quality service.
Verizon just works (to quote Steve Jobs). I haven't had a dropped call yet. The data plan is excellent and without the EVDO service (it isn't here in Rochester yet) it is FASTER than Sprint's EVDO that is in town already. The Blackberry's push email keeps me informed of everything that is going on with my various web projects instantly.
It's taken me some time to really put my thoughts together on this.
The iPhone is very cool and very next generation. The buzz from this is going to last for five months, the anticipation is going to be huge.
As usual, Apple has thought this out really well. If you really want one, consider the following....
Apple is going to milk the publicity on this one as long as they can. This is going to see the newly christened Apple Inc. through $100 a share and a stock split. Meanwhile OS X and some new Macs will be announced. All thorough those innovations people will be waiting for the glorious day that the phone is released.
You will get your early adopters. Digg and other sites will be full of complaints about scratches, finger "smearing" (dude take a shower) and cracked screens. Most of all, I think that they will complain about the Cingular/ATT service (or lack of it in my case).
The summer will float by as the "year of the genius phone". People will see them everywhere because the early adopters aren't going to be shy while using them. Heading into the '07 Christmas shopping season, people are going to get frustrated. All summer that have seen these TWITS (pun INTENDED) with these phones and they can't have one (because of price or cell provider contract). In desperation (by that time every major film company will have content on iTunes) they will by an iPod so they at least have something similar.
That is the time that I think Apple has planned to strike. The early adopters money and bug fixes will allow Apple to roll out a new high capacity iPod that uses the same technology as the iPhone. The stores will be flooded with people that have a pent up lust for this device.
Think of it as a pyramid. The iPhone will the be ultimate device at the top. The new touch screen iPod will be the middle, and the flash nanos and shuffles will make the base.
This is the direction that I think Apple is pushing us. The iPhone is revolutionary, but the need for a similar, lower cost device, will be the ultimate killer device for 2007. We know that the tech will trickle down through the various products that Apple puts out for at least a few years.
Unless the FCC doesn't approve the iPhone. That would kill the company.
iPhone There is nothing that I can say to describe exactly what this product is or how it's about to change the face of consumer electronics. All I can really say is that it's a video ipod, mp3 player, phone, pda, and wireless internet device. Let's just let Steve talk about it.
The transcript of my chat notes follows.
1142AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: OH CRAP 1142AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Here comes something big 1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Whenever there is a "change the world" phrase 1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: That's bigger than BOOM 1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: CRAP CRAP CRAP 1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Widescreen baby 1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: My bank account is going to be drained dry 1144AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: ONE DEVICE 1144AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I KNEW IT MOFO 1144AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: (we will forget all those statements saying I was backing off the product releases) 1145AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Now I'm confused 1145AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Must be the video 1146AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Get on with it STEVE 1147AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: the software updates alone are going to kill my bandwidth 1147AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ohhh feel the touchscreen love 1148AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: NO STYLUS 1148AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Apple's stock is going to the moon 1148AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I hate myself that I bought a blackberry 1150AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: they are calling it the iPhone? Was the other thing a smoke screen? 1150AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: iPhone? 1150AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Cingular... watch 1150AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Hey there you are 1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Core animation 1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Mini OSX 1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: The touchscreen looks hot 1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: This is THE device 1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: The one that Jamie has been waiting for for two eyars 1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: years 1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: It's here, and it's what will drain your bank account. 1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: That's what I said 100 lines of chat ago 1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I want to see this bastard 1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Rather than a widescreen (which, is... y'know... what I thought you were talking about) 1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ohhh it's hot 1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I see it 1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I just peed. 1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Everything syncs 1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 160 pixes per inch 1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Is that good? 1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Hopefully just a little bit. 1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Depends... how many inches? 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 3.5 inch touchscreen 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Speaker, mic, 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Then that's very good! 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Sim card 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: SIM CARD 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Price 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: $800 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Give the master time 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: He's talking 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: I could get a treo and pay for the cell service for a year 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: camera 1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 2mp 1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Proximity sensor 1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: This is a geeks wet dream 1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: 2mp is nice... most aren't even there yet. 1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: ambient light sensor 1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: This thing has to be spendy 1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: But they want to keep it low I would think 1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: "You can touch your music" via coverflow 1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Tilt in portrait vs. landscape 1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: What did John Mayer do this time? 1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: He just played a video 1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: With the Apple TV 1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: What is hell is the "one more thing" going to be 1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: How can you top this 1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: iPhone Pro 1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Or a 20% price drop across their entire line of products? 1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I want to see this in action 1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: That would excite me! 1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: BOING 1158AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Sending you a pic 1158AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Sorry, Adium 1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Me too brother 1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Singular 1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Cingular 1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: You were right 1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: PLAYING BEETLES 1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: That dude's blog was right 1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Partially 1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: wasn't me that made the predictions 1200PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: It's going to kill them if they doing go universal 1200PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Sim card should help in the rest of the world 1200PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: SIM card is good 1201PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Gotta leave soon...me no want to 1201PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Screw work 1201PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: No word on price yet, 'eh? 1201PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Still going on about features 1202PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I think the crowd is about ready to storm the stage 1202PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: GET IT OUT STEVE I HAVE TO LEAVE 1202PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I think they are just calling it the iPOD 1202PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Makes sense 1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 11.6 mm 1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Two more updates then I have to run 1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: CRAP 1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: CRAP 1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Me no want to 1204PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: The phone interface is revolutionary 1204PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: I can't seem to find a good feed to the events. Looking at MacUser right now. Their site's so full of ads it shold be called MacLuser 1204PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: http://www.macrumorslive.com/ 1204PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Not pretty, but funtional 1205PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: WIFI and bluetooth 1205PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: K, I have to run
Yesterday marked the birth of one of the biggest media companies in the world. That's right, Apple dropped the "Computers" from it's name and renamed itself "Apple Inc." just to show that it's the new big fish in the pond.
Oh and for all you Beetles fans, I'm guessing that enough hints were dropped that the Beetles are going to be on the iTunes music store very soon.
Overall, Steve was at the hight of his game. It was nice to see after about two years of lackluster keynotes. Now we can understand why. Great job Apple team. It's just a shame that we have to wait until June. I'm guessing that a stripped down version of the plain old iPod will follow in the fall.
Fear not, we have a new OS update and I'm sure several exciting more products are on their way as well.
...when last we left our hero, he had braved Starbucks Grandmas and bad wifi to get a glimpse of the keynote live blog from Macrumors.
KEYNOTE Apple TV
I have been waiting for the iTV (its code name). This is the one device that I know I can't live without. I watch more video podcasts than I actually watch regular TV. I am so tired to sitting here holding my roasting MacBook Pro on my lap watching podcasts. It's so much nicer to see them on my TV. I want the TV experience and that's what I think Apple TV will do. Let's see the text of my chat when the TV was announced.
1117AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Freekin' wifi networks are down 1117AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Took me this long to get in 1122AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Nothing much 1122AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: So far 1123AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Paramont rumor confirmed 1123AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: (doing this to keep notes for my blog) 1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: blah blah blah 1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: iTunes up 1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Blah blah bha 1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: bha 1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: hbla 1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: ? 1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Can't type still! 1127AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Apple TV? 1128AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Looks the same 1128AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: You think someone out there would of thought of that name 1128AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: (myself included) 1129AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: ALL WIFI 1129AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Rulz 1129AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 40 Gig drive 1129AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: HOT 1130AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Syncing is the right way to go 1130AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: True ipod video 1131AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Pretty much standard otherwise 1131AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: People are going to nipick that 40 Gig drive 1131AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: People will have old 60 gig ipods slaved into it in a second. 1133AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: or external drives? hmmm 1133AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: NO STEVE showed ZOOLANDER 1133AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ahhhh 1133AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I bet he doesn't even know who Ben Stiller is 1134AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ahhh Heros...much better 1134AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Great, now my two apple remotes are going to duel each other 1135AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: These "near" realtime pictures are a little slow 1136AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Episode summary is a good thing. 1136AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Bet it would be cheaper than cable if I did the math 1137AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: What the "F" is up with John Mayer.....everyone take a drink 1138AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I bet the streaming was too slow....had to get the hard drive in there 1138AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Only thing that would make sense. 1139AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Why couldn't they make it round like microsoft....? 1139AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I want round. 1139AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Hope Phill doesn't have porn on the Mac 1141AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: $299 1141AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I'm up for one. 1141AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: That was fast....more coming. 1142AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ship FEb
And that's pretty much it.
For those that are "unenlightened" the Apple TV is an iPod for your TV. You can use it to stream content from the computers in your house directly onto your big screen high def TV. It also includes a 40 gigabyte drive to store movies on as well. This is a good thing for people that use the iTunes store to purchase their music/videos or watch podcasts. Now you can watch them at home as they were meant to be. You can also use several third party resources to download your movies so it will work with iTV. In my case, I will (through the help of yet more third party software) be able to pull content off my TIVO and watch it on my Apple TV.
I know there are probably a zillion "experts" out there that are already discounting it. This might not be the solution for everyone, but it's a product that I feel is just going to get more and more innovative. Heck, you paid $12.99 for a movie. You should be able to watch it whereever you want.
We need to break down the walls to our devices. They need to work together. Through the master controller (iTunes) the Apple TV does just that. I links the iPod (portable), the Mac/PC (the productive), and the TV(the time waster).
The Apple TV will ship in Feb. I'll be on the list to pick one up. I'll make sure and grab one hopefully immediately after release. At that time I will do a proper video podcast. Meanwhile, back at Caribou....
I think I had one sip of my coffee the whole time.
...get ready for the exciting conclusion....the iPhone.
The story of my MacWorld keynote experience starts off not with a trip to San Fransisco, but a trip to Starbucks to snag some wifi.
First Maybe I should review Starbucks in Rochester, MN.
I had planed all week to take a two hour lunch (I'm that much of a Mac fanatic). I thought it would be a good idea to walk to my local Starbucks and grab some coffee while I was waiting. I had planned to pull up the live blog from Macrumors.com and follow along (seriously Apple, why not just do it streaming live on the web again?).
I got to Starbucks about 15 minutes before the keynote was scheduled to start. The line was extra large. I waited for about 10 minutes when I finally progressed far enough to see that their credit card machine was refusing to work, probably because it just learned that Starbucks does not give benefits to machines. I looked at my cell phone (B.I. - Before iPhone) and bolted from the line.
I ran to the nearest table, full of bubbling excitement and whipped open my MacBook Pro. Ahh, the sweet Apple boot up tone, the lovely OSX desktop...and no wifi? I looked up to see a sign staring at me saying that they had pulled the wifi from Starbucks. CRAP!
I packed up and dashed out determined to find a place with some decent wifi and a decent credit card machine.
Seriously Starbucks...what's going on? In Utah you were a fun place full of life and people with interesting tattoos and piercings. In Rochester you see your grandma working at Starbucks. Very disturbing indeed. (Even more disturbing if you visualize your grandma with a lip ring and spiked hair).
Caribou Coffee to the Rescue
Finally I found a Caribou Coffee. Caribou is a great coffee house here in the Midwest. The people are friendly and really understand what they are doing. It's like Starbucks used to be before Midwestern grandmas started working in them.
I was able to obtain a vanilla late and a seat in record time.
Finally I could get to the keynote.
*Jamie's saga continues as soon as he stops staring at the apple website......
Hey Everyone, just wanted to dash off a quick post about what happened at MacWorld yesterday.
I just wanted to let you know what will be coming today in the way of analysis.
1. Review of Steve Jobs Keynote. 2. My take on the iPhone. 3. My take on the iTV. 4. Predictions from last week? How well did I do.
So you can see I'm going to be a bit busy posting today. I was planning to do a lot of this in audio form, but time is just not on my side. I might push out a summary podcast later this week.
For now...let's just stare at the iPhone, shall we?
BTW, if you were playing the mac drinking game....I hope you don't have a hangover today.
Give some people some blogging time and they just ham it up...well for good or bad here are the official Mac Fanboy predictions.
snkmchnb says.....
Apple is going to try to DIVE INTO a new market by putting Apple's amazing innovation into the (drum roll please)... iPleasure
ok, that was bad.. now onto the serious stuff.
* i'm really hoping for an iTV which will enable all iTunes content to be streamed to or stored onto the device and be sent to your tv. * iTunes 8 (cough)--not sure what new features if any, just a thought. Ohhh... just thought of this actually, maybe support for multiple libraries (do they have this already) and iTV support.
EDITOR'S NOTE: if you are interested in the iPleasure snkmchnb please check out out the ohmibod. We will not be reviewing this product, unless someone wants to do the ULTIMATE random review
mrbiotech says.....
Steve Jobs will do a 2-hour keynote where he introduces Bill Gates as the new head of Apple so the Jobs-ster hisself can retire. To commemorate the occasion, he will don a grey turtle-neck instead of his typical black garb signifying the transition from Jobdalf the Black into Jobdalf the Grey. Before he can do this, however, he must battle for three days straight with a Dell XPC, defeat it triumphantly but die shortly thereafter, his strength expended in frustration from the incessant blue screen of death.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Hey, it's at least as plausible as some of the rumors I've heard around the net.
A lot of things have been said about the upcoming MacWorld in a week. Most of it is sheer speculation. I think that there would be good money in an Apple rumors site that just let people vote on possible products and features. The winner could get an iPod or something.
For now, all we have is about a zillion blog postings filled with mounds of speculation. I thought I could add the zillion + 1 post.
So here are my MacWorld predictions. 1. The iPhone is not talked about (at first). Apple's stock immediately drops $10 a share.
2. The iTV will be called something strange like "iView" and there will be a iTunes 8.0 for compatibility reasons. The resolution of movies and shows will be upped and a whole new generation of iTunes program purchasers will be pissed off.
3. Front Row 2.0 will be available to all Macs as part of a software update.
4. A new 8 core MacPro will be released for the same price as the 4 core...again pissing off people who just bought the tech 2 months ago.
5. Leopard will be previewed for release in March. Some new features will come to light that will fuel a whole new round of speculation (I'm telling you, someone has to get that Apple rumor voting site made).
6. .Mac will get a refresh to 500Gigs for $200 a year. It will automatically back up iTunes purchases and make them available on to any computer you are currently logged on to (provided that it runs iTunes). Stupid people like me that have .Mac will be grandfathered in (yeah right).
7. iWork and iLife will be released with more sucky feature that I really don't need, but will buy anyway.
8. At the very end, we will get an infamous "one more thing". I'm guessing this will be the major announcement. I think that they key here is the new wide screen ipod. The kicker will be that the iPod will turn into the "swiss army knife" of the mac world. You will be able to BUY a phone attachment, make it your media center remote, play music, play video, wifi to other iPods/computers in the area, use it as a PDA etc. Apple stock will immediately go up $10 and will close the day even.
That's my predictions.
Other facts that will be released. 1. iTunes sales were so phenomenal last month that they beat out the last quarter of the year.
2. Mac sales are growing at iPod like numbers.
3. Steve Jobs will reveal himself to be Jesus Christ 2.0 and usher us into a new age of peace and prosperity because everyone will be tied to an iPod or watching their iView.
I kid because I care. I'll post a review of how accurate I am next week as well as a review of the keynote.
I invited some of my other fellow Mac fanatics to send me some of their predictions. I'll post those on the site as soon as they come in.
"Dr. Sue, you just have to get the new Gameboy DS", mrbiotech said to me about 2 years ago, when the original DS came out. I didn't believe him. Why would I need a new gameboy? I bought my cute blue Gameboy SP with backlight and rechargable battery in 2003, and didn't see the need for a new unit, especially since I didn't play it that often, usually limiting myself to the the various Mario games on the market, or some classic arcade games from my youth. Last year, Rich let me borrow Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga for the GBA, and I had a blast with that. See? I didn't need the DS. 2 screens? A touch screen that requires a stylus? 2 MORE buttons? Waaaay too much work for me, thank you very much. I am too old to try and figure something like that out. Besides, I didn't really like the look of the original DS, it looked bulky and uninspiring, and I didn't like the location of the start and select buttons (above the ABXY buttons).
Then, I found out out that there was going to be a sequel to Superstar Saga, Mario and Luigi, Partners in Time. I was excited, I loved SS and was sure that PiT would be as good a time as the earlier game. To my dismay, PiT was to be released as a DS game only.
Then, this year, Nintendo updated the DS unit to make the DS Lite, which improved upon the original DS, it is smaller, lighter, has brighter screens, new locations for the start and select buttons and a bunch of other things I didn't even think about.
Here is a picture comparing the two.
I decided it was time for me to cast aside my old SP and move up to the DS, although I was still nervous about the dual screen, multiple buttons, and touch screen/stylus additions. I had my husband buy me the DS lite in the Costco combo pack that came with the New Super Mario Brothers, game cartridge case, extra stylus, and a bunch of other doodads for Christmas. I had my sister buy me Partners in Time, so I would be ready to play once Christmas day arrived. (I gave my old gameboy SP to my niece, who asks me if she can have it every time she comes over to my house, she was working on an old GBA, with no backlight or recharging capability, so we both have moved up.)
Christmas morning arrived, and along with the other stuff I received (some of which I will be reviewing in future posts), I opened my DS lite. First of all, I like how electronic units come with at least some charge in them when you open the package, so you can fire it up right away, without having to charge it for several hours prior to playing with your new toy. I got the polar white unit, and it is slick. I popped in the New Super Mario Brothers cartridge (tiny!) and WOW! Totally awesome. The dual screen is not hard to handle at all, it is actually quite natural. Most of the action takes place on the top screen, but when you send Mario down a pipe, the action moves to the bottom screen, a nice touch. The graphics are amazing, the 3D rendering is really cool (so says Rich), and the extra buttons are not too hard to deal with (in Partners in Time you need all 4 ABXY buttons).
The downsides. 1) It is biased, as are most things in this world, for the right handed. The stylus is stored on the right hand side of the unit, and I am a lefty, so if I want to use it mid game (as in the New Super Mario Brothers to retrieve a stored powerup), or if I are getting directions in its use (as in March of the Minis), I either need to already have it out near my left hand (which is what I do for March of the Minis), or I need to pause the game get it out with my right hand and try to use it awkwardly with my non-dominant hand, or transfer it to my left hand. I could hold it in my left hand, but it makes maneuvering with the directional pad difficult. The unit comes with 2 styluses (stylii?), so I don't see why they couldn't put 2 storage ports in it, 1 for leftys and 1 for rightys (yes, I know the battery is currently located on the left hand side, but there COULD have been a way. Us leftys are growing in number every year, now that children aren't forced to not be left handed anymore. Jamie, aren't you a lefty too?). 2) The battery life isn't nearly as long as the SPs was. I could get a good 12-14 hours out of the SP, especially if I turned off the backlight during the day, when it wasn't needed, but the DS does not seem to have that option, although I have yet to read the manual to find out for sure. I realize that the dual screen will suck down a lot more power, but I am barely getting 5-6 hours of charge before the light goes red. 3) The sound is good, but the volume control slider is not as sensitive as I would like, especially in the quieter range.
All in all, I love my new gameboy DS Lite, and am eager to finish this review so that I can get back to my Partners in Time game! (PS, Partners in Time is a very worthy Sequel to Superstar saga, even if the storyline is a little weak, the activities are a lot of fun and I love baby Mario and Luigi!)
I have been waiting a while to chat with all of you about the TiVo.
This device has single-handedly been responsible for giving me my life back. Don't get me wrong, I'm still as addicted as the next person, but at least now I can watch all my shows whenever and wherever I want.
For those not "in the know", the TiVo is a DVR (a digital video recorder). Forget about all those video tapes that are slowly degrading on your shelf. This puppy contains a hard drive which means no more tapes to insert.
Once your purchase a Tivo (Series 2 TiVo's are currently FREE), you pay a monthly fee starting at $20/month for the service. This may seem like a steep price, but the convenience is a big help.
The season pass is one of the greatest inventions since the wheel. It allows you to record a favorite series with one click...no further setup is needed. Every day/week your show will be recorded and stored in the "Now Playing" section of your Tivo menu.
The basic Series 2 model contains an 80 hour hard drive and allows you to record up to two shows at once. This is nice because networks seem to be lumping their popular programs all on the same two or three nights now.
TiVo has a lot of interesting features as well. You can download "TiVo Casts" which are video podcasts that are beamed to your TiVo via a broadband connection (USB wifi antena is sold seperately, but soooooo worth it). You can also check your local weather, listen to audio podcasts and sync to your computer's wifi connection to view pictures and listen to music.
The remote is one of the best remotes I have ever used. I got used to the remote/screen interface with only about 3 attempts to use it. I think (arguably) that the TiVo menu system is one of the most intuitive menu systems out there. When coupled with the remote, I can safely say that it's pretty much idiot proof.
If you really want to pamper yourself, and you have HiDef, try the new Series 3 Tivo that records in HiDef with THX certified sound. This is a must have for the serious video guru. Just be ready to shell out some cash for it.
If you have a PC and an iPod, you are able to purchase TiVo's $25 software package that allows you to download content recorded on your TiVo to your PC and iPOD. Those of us with Macs can use "alternate methods" until TiVo releases a solution (hopefully in the near future).
For parents, business people on the go, and TV fanatics...you have to get this. If you buy one present for yourself this Holiday season, this is the one that I recommend.
TiVo's website can be found at www.tivo.com (sorry Google is updating Blogger from the Beta version and the link button is not working).
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