Mini Review: the new iPods

I recently visited my local Apple store to check out the new iPods announced the beginning of the month. First what changed the iPod nano lost its video camera and ability to play video entirely and just about everything else it is now about the size of the iPod shuffle and has a 1.5” touchscreen. The iPod Touch got the A4 chipset a front and rear camera retina display. The iPod shuffle got it’s old shape and buttons back YAY!!!!

iPod Nano

like I said above changed the iPod nano lost its video camera and ability to play video entirely and just about everything else it is now about the size of the iPod shuffle and has a 1.5” touchscreen.

While it looks like an iOS device you cannot put apps on the device just the ones it comes with. The touchscreen is a nice touch but I have a problem with the implementation of it is just too small for me to use scrolling through music especially if you have a lot will take a while and you if it is not clipped to you it is a two handed affair whereas the old one with the click wheel was not.  If you are in a screen and want to go home you press and hold the screen in a blank space the only problem is and it could be me it would not do it consistently and while and owner of it would get better at it I find it quite annoying that it doesn’t work consistently. There is one cool thing you can do with it though with it being so small with the clock on it you can get a special watch band the nano clips on and becomes an expensive watch that plays music, neat (I guess).

iPod Touch

The iPod touch has always been the iPhone for the people who don’t want to commit to AT&T’s god awful cell service. (I don’t blame you) The iPod touch followed suit with the A4 chipset the retina display and the 2 camera which include the ability to Face Time with iPhone 4 owner s and other iPod touches and the new game center a way to play games with friends like on your console.  I have always liked the iPod touch and it just gets better over time

iPod Shuffle

the iPod shuffle (the cheap one)  got it’s buttons back  and no longer looks it a  stick of gum  not much more to say about it.



Apple iPad : Evolution not Revolution

Apple yesterday announced their latest device called the iPad and i am one of the few who felt disappointed …. ok  underwhelmed by the device itself. What the iPad is an iPod Touch blown up to about 4 times it size with a few apps modified specially for it.

So what is different from its little brother the iPod Touch. the 9.7″ screen the 1ghz processor, access to productivity tools like the iWork office suite, and access to the new iBook store that is about it.

What I think is severely limiting about the iPad is that with the 1ghz processor you STILL CANNOT MULTITASK  ON IT which in the case of composing an Pages document or Keynote presentation is key. Because if i need to copy and paste something from the browser i CANNOT  because i have to close the application to open the browser to find what i need then reopen the document and paste it in. That is 20 steps TOO MANY to do a simple task that takes about 10 seconds on any other conventional Mac or PC.

one thing that you have never been able to do on an iPhone or iPod Touch is view a website using flash and enjoying the full experience from the site, which you STILL CANNOT DO on the iPad even with the 1ghz processor most netbooks allow you to run flash and  don’t cost $500. Flash is now a critical part of most websites today and not being able to see  flash content is severely limiting and could potentially hinder the iPad experience.

the other thing is that Apple is still in bed with AT&T and this might go into an AT&T sucks rant,( you are so warned) AT&T BLOWS i really don’t care what the guy on the commercials says Verizon is 1000000 times better their 3g might be slower but it ACTUALLY WORKS 99.9% of the time. Sure i can’t talk and browse at the same time but im not going to if the phone is TO MY EAR and half the time if you do both your call will most likely drop out  anyway. Apple gave the iPhone to AT&T and they are completely botching it because expanding the network is such a hard task to do.  (END OF RANT) and most likely when they say unlimited data for $30 / month it will most likely mean that is capped at 5gb which most carriers do anyone not just AT&T. the only good thing about this is that you are not locked into a contract you can bail at any time which you will most likely do because you will eventually realize how much AT&T SUCKS.

There is one thing that cannot be argued and that is the generally excellent build quality of  all Apple products (they better at that price) in both hardware and software. But no matter what product you do buy  if is an iPod to the high end Mac Pro you know that it will last a long long time. With prices starting at $499 for the 16gb non 3g model that to me is a bit high to most to bridge the gap between a smartphone and a laptop now if it was say $299 apple would give the consumer a really difficult choice  Amazon Kindle or Apple iPad. Oh and by the way Amazon is rumored to be working on the Kindle 3, and depending on the level of innovation and the time of announcement the iPad could be an also ran.

When the iPhone was unveiled in 2007 Apple revolutionized the mobile phone industry and the platform Apple developed around the iPhone which evolved into the iPod Touch and now the iPad not much has changed since version 3.0 of the iPhone OS which allowed users to install third party apps from the App Store. So until Apple decides to allow the user to multitask and allow me to browse the web in all its glory (INCLUDING FLASH) the ipad to me at least is another Newton.

Review: panasonic RP-HTX7 headphones

i recently upgraded my every day headphones and demoted my sony street style headphones to the travel kit and purchased these panasonics.  It was  these or a grados i chose these because theses seemed more comfortable for long term wearing and not sacrificing sound quality.  in my month or so test of these i’ve listened to my entire itunes library internet video and audio steams  and found that they work very well accross the acustic range of my music of multiple genres the only issue is that the mids are not a crisp as the highs and lows but for only between $30 – 60 ( depending on where you look) they are not bad headphones. in my opinion they are very comprable to the bose headphone at about half the cost.