What I desire in a portable media player [PMP]

As you can see in my blog posts, I have a pretty decent number of gripes about media players like the iPod touch, SanDisk Sansa, and Creative ZEN. They all have their strengths, but the weaknesses are massive to me. So in case there’s a product researcher, Zune designer, or just a curious mind out there looking for what a computer hacking graphic designer sees to be the perfect PMP, I’m making this blog post just for you.

Let’s start with the ideal size. Some are as small as Hillary’s chances of getting elected [@] while others are as big as the wallpapers I make [@]. I think the perfect PMP should be in the cutting edge of mediocrity [for the record, I got that phrase from The King of Queens]. My recomended size would be somewhere in between this sizeasy comparison. But keeping in mind that compact PMPs are also a necessity to human survival, here’s my idea of what a small PMP should look like: [@]

Everybody loves having lots of space on their media player! Personally, I don’t settle for a capacity that I can get with a $25 USB drive, such as my 4GB flash drive. And as of late, I’ve been seeing 8GBs going for $30, so I’ve been raising standards. I’d go for something around 16GB if it’s going to be on the smaller, more portable size, and at least 30-40GB if it’s going to be a full-sized PMP such as the iPod touch and Zune 30. To clarify, large/full-sized PMPs should use hard disk storage instead of flash. Hard disk is faster with a higher capacity, as well as being very cost effective. Sure, flash memory is much safer and more durrable, but I’m not going to be dropping my PMP from a 2 story building. Hey, even if I do, chances are that the screen is going to break over the drive being ruined (and supposing that the drive does die, I still make monthly backups of my portable sorage devices).

Moving on, let’s talk about the screen. To me, the screen’s size doesn’t matter nearly as much as the resolution. The higher the pixel density, the better. So without stating any screen size, I’ll go on and state that a small media player should have a QVGA screen (240×320 pixels). For large PMPs, QVGA also works fine, though I’ll much prefer an WVGA-loaded (600×420) PMP if available.

As for other “bonus” features, I guess I wouldn’t mind a touch screen (still not a big fan of them, though). Radio would be nice if I can’t find anything good in my playlist. Mass storage would be awesome. WiFi would be equally awesome. Having an SD or CF slot would be one of the most important features in any media player to me. I hate being limmited to manufacturers specs (which is the root of my hate for Apple), which also brings me to the desire for a skinnable interface, or at least a customizable background image.

Supposing that someone actually made a full-sized media player to the specs I want, it would cost about $300-350, though I find the ideal price for a large PMP is from $100-300. As for small PMPs, I’ll go wtih $75-150; anything more is outrageous.

The closest thing to the ideal large PMP to me would be the Zune 80. The size is decent, it has 80GB space, a QVGA screen (though it should be WVGA for the screen dimensions), radio, WiFi, decent UI, among other features like free etching, all for $250 direct from manufacturer [$240 at Newegg; $200 at craigslist], . Unfortunately, the Zune 80 lacks the expansion slot (among a few minor features) to be perfect. The iPod touch has most of this, though only holds a max 32GB for $430 [the lowest price I found on the Interwebs] and is just as closed up as the Zune.

As for small PMPs, I can’t bring you a verdict. I’m yet to see a defiatively great one, though I wouldn’t mind if Apple took a gander at this iPod mini concept ;D

Curse you, Apple! The iPhone will soon be worth buying…

Yeah, you heard me– Apple’s prized possesion, actually getting a compliment from me? I’m just as amazed as you.

It takes a lot for a company in my “I want to stab you to death” list to get me to change my mind about them, but Apple’s iPhone is quickly becoming so good that I can’t resist but appreciate it!

I’ve always had the nicest things to say about Nokia’s N800. For God’s sake, man! It’s got WiFi, a Linux-based OS, Firefox-based web browser, touch screen, stereo speakers, two SD slots, a webcam, a special edition of Skype, and tons of apps to chose from. Oh, and did I mention you can get one of these babies for only about $230?

With all these great features, why am I complimenting the iPhone, that glossy, welded-shut brick? Well I got a list for you:

• The iPhone is now available with 16GB of flash memory

• Apple released the SDK for the iPhone, allowing the common geek to hack away (though the experience is limited unless you give Apple some moola…)

• AT&T and Apple are now selling refurbished iPhones at a tremendous discount– $200 friggin’ dollars off!

• One of the newest Apps for the iPhone include an IM/VoIP client. Yeah, Skype calls can now me made from the iPhone.

• And here’s the big one: Apple intends on releasing a new version of the iPhone that will load GPS and 3G

And expect more price cuts as the release of the iPhone2 approaches.

But not to fear! There’s still one thing Nokia will have that the iPhone2 won’t: A WiMAX chip! Yeah, Nokia made it official that the N810 will soon come loaded with WiMAX [essentially "4G", will have a 30 mile radius hotspot and a download speed of 5mbps].

So alas, the competition for cell phone domination continues, and I don’t intend on turning my back on it.

Ciao!

~uH

Blog milestone! I just hit the big one-oh-oh-oh!

That’s right, this blog has just turned 1,000! Erm, not in years old, but in hits. Unless you can hack your way into people’s webcams, you probably can’t tell that I’m dancing while typing this…..! [just did a back-flip]

Anyway, now that I hit the 1K, I’m thinking about renaming the blog from the obvious “uH’s Blog” to something more creative. Who knows? Chances are, by the time you read this, I’ve already changed the name.

So with that said,

Ciao!

And here’s to another 1,000 hits!

End of the mp3 player age

Where should I begin? What I think an mp3 player should have? Problems I’ve had with music players in the past? What I think get’s the best BPB [Bang Per Buck] rating? Eh, I don’t know, so I’ll just start typing whatever comes to mind.

Over the last few months, I’ve been researching music players quite a bit. My main conclusion is this: The mp3 player age is nearly over! Terminated! Discontinued! Ceased! No more! Finito!

“But… mp3 players are bigger than ever,”you say. Frankly, I don’t see much truth in that. Not because music is going to loose popularity [it's growing faster than ever], but because what we know as mp3 players don’t just play music anymore. They hold pictures, video, games, internet, and, you guessed it, personal style. Think about it. The most commonly heard mp3 player, the iPod, has gone far past music. At this point, the only version that doesn’t play video is the shuffle! The Creative Zen plays videos. The SanDisk Sansa is rarely seen without a 16-bit video/picture displaying LCD. The Zune is made for visual delight. Cell phones are becoming portable media players that become phones. With that said, I shall restate my early-stated conclusion: the mp3 player age is almost over!

From this point on, you shan’t hear me use the term mp3 player, but I’ll be referring to them as “media players”.

Let’s start with the brand I like to rant about the most- Apple. I dislike the way their media player became so popular that iPod became a regular word. I’ve seen people actually witnessed people call a SanDisk a “black iPod”. Foey! Electronic devices shouldn’t be improper nouns! It’s blasphemy, I tell ya’!
Let’s talk about the actual media player, shall we? To begin, I’d like to say that the iPod is way overrated, and just like most of the things Apple makes, overpriced. I’m not paying $150+ for a 4GB media player no matter how small! As long as it fits in my jeans’ pockets (which is most media players), I’m good. Now there is one reasonably priced iPod that I wouldn’t mind buying, however. The 160GB iPod Classic, $300 if you search in the right place. Holds more junk than you’ll ever need (unless you put all your HD movies in there). Other than that, overpriced and overrated. The iPod touch is way too small space-wise. That would be alright with me if it had an SD expansion slot, but no such luck. 30GB is my usual standard for space, and 16GB for $350 just doesn’t cut it for me, though [as painful as it is for me to say,] it is undeniable that the iPod touch’s UI is pretty well thought-out. Maybe I’ll get a touch when the new 32GB gets down to $300 and there are at least 30 decent widgets [with the help of the iPhone/touch SDK]. Maybe.

So what do I like? The Zune. The Zune 30GB to be specific. How would you like a media player that stores 30GB for under $200? Microsoft has that. Wanna know who else does that? Nobody. Yeah, the company that often gets blamed for overpriced electronics fires back! As for the Zune 4GB and 8GB, I’m not too excited. I know it’s small, has the same screen resolution, and costs a tad less, but still, you can get much more BPB with a little searching. And as for the 80GB Zune: heh, neat. I like the touch interface (the 4/8GB has the same, BTW) and the fact that it packs 80 gigs into a small, sexy package, but for $250 [and no SD slot], I’m not buying just yet. I think it’ll be down to $200 by the holidays.

I’d like to make a final “notable mensions” paragraph, but unfortunately, I can’t find more than two worth mensioning. There’s the $130 SanDisk Sansa 8GB that has an SD slot, and the all holy (but non-relevant to the subject) Nokia N800 with a touch screen, stereo speakers, handwriting recognition, wifi, SD, Skype, Mozilla, Widgets, remote computing to a PC, a very nice interface, and a Linux-Based OS, but it’s made to be a cell phone, and deserves to be in a blog post by itself. Yes, that was a run-on sentence, but it’s hard to refrain from doing so when trying to describe the N800

So for all of you screaming “I know better media players than that!,” then let me know in the comments box. I’ll read it, don’t worry. I read all my comments for the most part.

[BTW, a blog post side-image is comming up soon!]

The war is over! Blu-Ray triumphs

That’s right, folks, Blu-Ray won the format battle with HD-DVD! It was inevitable, but doesn’t it feel good to know that you won’t have to deal with seeing HD-DVDs in the store anymore? For once, I’m happy for Sony’s victory.

That’s right, I’m happy for Sony! Seriously, BRD is the best thing they’ve made in a while! It definitely goes right next to the walkman and CD on my list.

Getting back on track, there’s also news that a few certain companies are still being loayal to HD-DVD, despite the fact that it already lost. Sore loosers. But Toshiba is being smart [somewhat] by not calling their HD-DVD players “HD-DVD Player”s, but calling them an “Upscaling DVD Player with HD-DVD playback”. Nice strategy, definitely something I’d do if I had tens of thousands of useless/obsolete pieces of hardware that I wanted to sell. But I still don’t see any reason to keep manufacturing them, especially when almost all other tech giants have moved upward and onward to BRD.

Heh, after typing and researching this, I feel like getting a BRD drive. Besides, 2 Blu-Ray disks can back up my entire system, uncompressed.

A short collection of good songs

So many good songs, so little time. Here’s a summary of my Songbird playlist entitled “good stuff” in no particular order:

Afterlife ~Avenged Sevenfold [self-titled]

Dare ~Gorillaz [D-Sides]

Faint ~Linkin Park [Minutes To Midnight]

Paralyzer ~Finger Eleven [Them vs. You vs. Me]

The Pretender ~Foo Fighters [Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace]

Two Sisters ~Fictionplane [Two Sisters; single]

Empty Walls ~Serj Tankian [Elect the Dead]

Ten Thousand Fists ~Disturbed [Ten Thousand Fists; single]

Fake It ~Seether [Fake It; single]