Scott's Case Files

iPhone: The Ultimate In Convergence

For Christmas I decided to take the plunge and get myself an iPhone 3G and I'm glad that I did.  For years, I've been looking for that one convergent device.  I wanted an MP3 player, phone, GPS, web-browser, photo storage, Email, and a choice of applications (ala a Palm) all in one device.  Well, the iPhone is it.

The convergence even takes a step further when you delve into the iTunes store.  Again, all that I want to buy is in one place: music, audio books, applications, podcasts, E-books.  So go to one place, get what you want, synch up, and there you go.  Nice and neat and when you're billed for your purchases it's nicely laid out and from a solitary source.

The device itself is fun to play with.  The touch screen and the way it reacts to your touch is pretty cool.  It makes navigating from one thing to another a breeze.

The only complaint that I have about it so far is that you really can't manage content from the iPhone itself - you have to synch it with iTunes and let iTunes do it for you.  Specifically, I can't delete anything from my iPhone.  It's really not a big deal - I have alot of the 16Gb space left - but it's the idea that on every other gadget I've ever owned I had complete and direct control over its storage.

For anyone looking for their own convergent device, there are several out there vying for the iPhone-esque market.  Give them a looksie and they may even be more to your liking.  I'm quite content with my iPhone and I look forward to the generations of the device to come!

Brain-To-Computer Control

From an OC3D article:

"Codenamed the Neural Impulse Actuator (or nia for short), OCZ captivated audiences by seemingly being able to use brain power to control the motion of a character in the the popular FPS Unreal Tournament."

Stop.  You had me at Codenamed the Neural Impulse Actuator.

So if you have about US$300 (Ed: It actually may be as low as US$150) you too can own a mind-operated computer control device possibly as early as next month from OCZ Technology!  It's a headband with three sensors on the front which connects to a box which in turn connects via USB to your PC.  I'm going to have to wait for some reviews on this one, but it looks like a complete geek-fu product.

Guild Hunting

It can be said that I've been around the block a time or two when it comes to playing MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games).  I've played a literal crap-load of them.  Let's see: Everquest I & II, The Matrix Online, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes/Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, D&D Online, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and Vanguard.

In each of these games that I played for any decent period of time (which is not all of them, mind you) I've joined a guild.  A guild, for those that don't play, is a kind of players club - a group that, in theory, helps each other out and provide extra camaraderie in the game.  In most games it's difficult to advance by yourself (and some would even say doing so defeats the purpose of playing an MMO in the first place).  So a guild is almost required to get by.  And, of course, building these virtual relationships helps to keep you online which in turn puts money in the pockets of the game companies...which then allows them to turn out more games which then sucks in other players who need to build relationships to play...  Kinda circle of life there.  Deep.

So in the spirit of my buddy Just Plain Jim's DUMP guides, I figured that I'd create The Scott Guide To Finding The Guild That's Right For You...

The Scott-9000

It was time to upgrade my PC and upgrade I did.  I generally try to get what will keep me in business for several years before technology necessitates me investing yet again.

I'm very happy with what I got this time around.  The down and dirty, main stats are:

• Intel Quad Core 2.4Ghz CPU
• 2Gb Corsair RAM
• nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768Mb PCIe video card
• 750Gb SATA hard-drive
• Acer 22" widescreen LCD monitor
• Windows Vista Home Premium

So far I don't see what all the hub-bub is about Vista - I like it and the new things that it brings to the table.  I know there are some more monitoring aspects, but I can live with that since anyone can find information about anybody if they're willing to try hard enough.

Now that everything's fine, I'm happy.  I was a little worried in the beginning, though...(yes, that's a hint to check the continuation)

Kindle Is A No-Go

If you've ever been an Amazon.com customer and they have your Email address, likely you've gotten a little advertisement for their newest product - the Kindle.

It's billed as the perfect carry-it-with-you-and-use-it-anywhere reading device.  You can download E-books to it, get magazine and newspaper subscriptions to it, check out some choice blogs and sites, and it uses cellular technology so you can download things to it pretty much anywhere.  On top of that, it's smaller and lighter than a standard paperback and its screen uses a new technology that makes it as crisp as reading ink from the printed page.  Sounds pretty good, but it took me all of five minutes of reading through its service description to see why I won't be buying this device in its present incarnation.

What the Kindle amounts to is a way for Amazon to keep a steady income coming out of your pocket.  Nothing is free with this device, except for the wireless service.  The initial investment is $399.  You want an E-book?  That's 9.99 for the newer ones.  You want to read a magazine, pay its monthly subscription of around two bucks.  Want to read a document on the device?  Emailing it directly to the device costs ten cents.  Blogs look free, but for all I know there's an associated RSS fee for that.  So, basically, you will never stop pouring your money into this device.  Never.  Ever.  It's worse than the Zune.

Got A New Digital Camera

My last camera destroyed itself shortly after my Vegas trip last year, so it was time to get a new one.  There have just been too many things that I've wanted to get pictures of lately that I've been missing.  The nephews, the ferrets, the bike...the list goes on.

So I took the plunge and got a Cannon PowerShot S3 IS.  It's definitely more camera than I need, but it's something that I could grow into.  I think that it'll do the trick.

So expect more actual pictures in my blog in the near future!

Yahoo Pissing Me Off

So as of yesterday, I opened my Yahoo mail and was barraged with...ADVERTISEMENTS!  One huge one along the right side of my screen and a bunch of smaller ones along the left through my Email control panel.

I'm a paying customer, so it's my expectation to not have to deal with that crap, yet here I am.  And it wouldn't be so bad, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that the one along the right side is huge.  We're talking about a third of my screen real estate here.  Not cool.

Not liking it a bit.  May have to temporarily have everything forwarded to Gmail or something.  But with Gmail I think their interface sucks and their organization system is pretty useless.

So...what's the less of two evils here?

Your Own Little World

I was watching the new Spider-Man movie (review still coming) the other day when a strange thought occurred to me.  With the way that technology is moving, in the next 50 or 100 years is it beyond the realm of possibility for virtual reality to develop to the point where you can "jack in" or what have you and live regularly in your own custom world?

That is an intriguing idea with more than a few interesting and potentially dangerous implications...

Gadget Geekery

I just found by accident the Creative Zen Vision W.  It's basically a hand-held, portable MP3 and video viewer.  If it only had cell-capability and could run a version of Windows it would be my perfect device.  If you just read the description I've given without checking the link, you're thinking "Helloooo!  iPod!"  Well, that would be true, save for the size of the screen, which is larger than any present-day iPod offers.

Now, in MP3 players I've been a staunch supporter of the various Creative models that I've had and tried out.  Why over iPod?  I suppose because I could find nothing that I use that an iPod has that the Creative line did not.

What else is cool about the Vision W that other devices lack?  It looks like they're trying to be as convergent-minded as possible.  You can listen to music, watch movies, listen to FM radio (built-in), record your voice, use its personal organizer, connect relatively easily to both video-cam and television, and even take pics directly from your digital camera with its flash memory slot.  It looks cool without the crappy drawbacks of Microsoft's Zune, for example.  The little things like a removable battery are big for me for when the battery starts losing its ability to keep a charge.  You know you hate that!

I'll have to do a little more research, but this may very well be my next gadget purchase...whenever that turns out to be.

Snap!

If you've moused over any of my hyperlinks lately, you may have noticed a pop-up that shows you a preview of the website to which it's linked.  That's a new feature brought to my blog by snap.com.  I like that it's smart, in that if you mouse over one of my blog's internal hyperlinks it knows not to show a pop-up. 

I think it's pretty cool and I'm testing it out, so let me know what you think of it - cool or annoying.