Old school...

It's been a while since my last post, as I've given the "Device dilemma" topic some serious thougt. What I've realized is that I don't believe in the MP3 phenomenon. Sure it's great to have your music on your harddisk or on your iPod, but I am of the Old School people that want a CD in my hand when I buy music. If I then afterwards decide to listen to my audio from my CD or from digital audio files stored on my computer, that is altogether irrelevant. Buying digital music from online stores such as iTunes or any other does not appeal to me. I want my music on a retail CD. Buying digital encoded media files, just feels like buying a bottle with plain breathable air.

Over then to the issue of lost media. What happens if my stored music I've bought is destroyed if my HD crashes or an MP3 player goes haywire? It is lost. What to do if I want it again? Yes you guessed it, fork out some more Euros to download the music again. Well, if I bought the CD, and my media files on my HD or MP3 player is destroyed, what can I do? Yes, just copy it from the CD to my HD or MP3 player again.

So which device will I buy? None. I don't need any of them.

Device dilemma...

I'm in a device dilemma... Now what on earth is a "device dilemma" you may be thinking. Well, my device dilemma is caused between either getting an Ipod or a Sony PSP.

Both can play Mp3, but the PSP has less memory and is more bulkier. Nevertheless, I think that if a new portable media format emerges, the PSP may be able to play these files with a firmware update, but I am not so sure about the Ipod. But the PSP is bulkier and not so cool looking as the Ipod is. So which one to get? In the end it may well be that I get none of the two, simply because of the fact that what to do with it when some new format emerges, or there is a hardware failure after the warranty period is over. Then you sit there with some 300Euro's worth of junk. Repairing it would perhaps cost an arm and a leg. This is why I still prefer buying audio CDs. A portable CD player is cheap, and media is plentiful. And from what I've come to understand, converting from MP3 to a lossless format such as FLAC is really no point in doing, because the conversion from a inferior format to a superior. Oh how this digital portable media age will have researchers in the future thinking "what the heck where they thinking".

Prediction #1

As Apple will become a home entertainment hub electronics manufacturer, I predict that we will see Apple computers (media hubs?) with an Instant-On feature. And what is this Instant-On feature, you ask? Well, from my point of view it is an evolved Frontrow embedded into flash ram. By simply pressing a button on the remote, Frontrow will launch a function selection screen on your TV or monitor. Why boot up the computer, when you want to watch a DVD, listen to music through Itunes or listen to your CDs and portable media files? If you do wish to do more extensive computing, such as writing, encoding media files and so on, you will choose a startup computer module. It will perhaps be so that the MacOS itself will load in the background when you use the Instant-On feature of Frontrow. Anyway, the Instant-On feature is something that I predict we will see in future Apple products. In essence we have these features in other products already, look at consoles, the Ipod, mobile phones and others. Press a button, and it is on. This is something I hope Apple will do for their products.

How time flies...

How time flies on by... I've had my Mini now for about two months now, and boy do I like it. I am ofcourse a bit disappointed that the new Mini came out so soon afterwards, but that is water under the bridge. Still, from what I've read I've come to the conclusion that the G4 Mini was a more priceworthy product than the Intel based. Sure, the new one offers two DDR2/667 DIMM places and dual core. However, the step away from a onboard graphics controller with it's own memory was a step in the wrong direction. I mean, ship a product with only 512 mb of ram, and have an integrated gpu which uses internal memory is just wrong.

Anyway, the new Mini has something I'd really like to have though. The remote and frontdesk. It is a step towards the media centre of my choice. No knobs, no volume buttons, just a screen, a Mac mini and a remote to control it's functions is what I'd like to have. One thing missing though is the part where I can connect my current speakers to the Mini addon, insert my digital-tv reciever access keycard so that I may watch channels that are fee-bases too. Maybe 1:st of April will have something good and cool from Apple?

If you are considering to purchase a Mini, don't hesitate. I've been and still is very pleased with my Mini. It takes up just about no deskspace, is quiet, looks stylish and will offer you plenty of computing happiness over any Windows-based PC out there.

Today I use the net mostly for email, online-shopping, web-browsing, Skype, chatting and information hunting. And let's face it, there is absolutely no need for a deskspace eathing 3GHz+ PC with loads of memory to do that task (yes yes, I do have an AMD64 3000+). Besides, PC's are ugly ;) and if you would like to use the new Microsoft operating system Vista on it when that is launched, it may not work as the hardware haven't perhaps been "validated" with Microsoft. Oh, and Vista will need a real powerhorse of a computer to run smoothly.

If you are thinking about gaming, then I suggest you look at a console, I own a PS2, and gaming on a console is much more fun than on a PC. Why? Because you don't have to upgrade the console as frequent as a PC if you want to be able to play a recently released new game. I tried the Battle for Middle-earth 2 demo the other day, and boy does it ever zap resources on my PC, even though it is an AMD64 3000+, 1GB ram, SATA and Xforce Nvidia6600GT 128MB. While the (dare I say modest) PS2 have exquisit titles like God of War (recently released as Platinum), the Ratchet and Clank series of games (though the latest Gladiator was a bit of a disapointment). Best of all with a console, you just start it up, insert the disc, wait while for the game to load, and hey presto you're up and gaming :)

There is of course games for the Mac as well, if you buy a more powerful Mac, then there is World of Warcraft and others. I myself play Starcraft on my Mini without any problems whatsoever, and Starcraft is the ultimate resource RTS out there anyhow :)

Enough of games, all in all, I really like my Mini, and start to get more and more annoyed with PC's, just because they are ugly, noisy and eat up a lot of deskspace.

The new Mini...

Yes, the new Mini is out, and it is exactly what I wanted in the first place when I ordered the G4 model. I wonder if Apple will do tradeins? Anyway, the Core Duo model is the one I'd go for without thinking about it. With the G4 there were three models, and the 2nd one (the one I bought then) was really more priceworthy. And speaking about prices...

Why is it that Europe has a higher price for the same product than what the potential buyers in the US has? Is it because Apple is milking Europeans? I say yes. Apple, c'mon, let's have the same price here in Europe. We the Europeans, have more right to lower or equal prices as the US buyers, because I have yet to recieve service in my own language when dealing with your firm. When you offer lower quality service, you should compensate us European buyers with the same price for the same product in both the US and Europe.