John Hodgman, everyone's favorite minor television personality and purveyor of totally ture made up facts is back with a new book More Information Than You Require.
To promote his new book he's been making the rounds of some of my favorite internet shows.
You know when you hold off on making a tech purchase because you're worried that if you jump too quickly you'll regret it? Then after years of waiting you make that purchase only to hear of something better, faster, cheaper imediately afterwards but you happily discover it's not quite what you where looking for in the first place? Happens to me all the time. Here's the latest example.
After years of wanting a media extender for the living room (and wanting to remove the sneaknet of DVDs) I sprang for a XBOX 360 (at an amazing price I might add) for just this task. Unfortunately being back ordered it has not arrived yet.
A couple of days later I'm listening to Window's Weekly # 84. Host Paul Thurrott mentions his pick for a cheap media device to watch video in the living room. Of course I say the XBOX 360… nope it's the WD TV HD Media Player!?!
I was a little bumbed until I discovered that the WD TV HD Media Player doesn't steam and you still have to sneakernet stuff on USB harddrives or keys. Still it's a cool product just not what I'm looking for.
So I got iTunes 7.7 to get into the App Store and as you can see I've already downloaded some apps. Unfortunately they still haven't pushed the 2.0 firmware so hopefully it will be out when I wake up in a few hours.
Of course I still got the following error message from Twitter. If might have been due to everyone trying to get in one last tweet before WWDC takes twitter down.
I'll be following engadet's live coverage and maybe swing by Twit Liv
Have you ever thought that your life could use some more excitement? Sure, we all do once in a while and that's a natural. But most of us don't go to the extremes of Roz Savage.
In her mid 30's she quite her job and gave up the quite suburban life to solo row the Atlantic in 2006.
After an aborted attempt last year Roz is currently off the west of coast of the United States rowing to Australia. If this attempt is successful she'll be the first woman to row the Pacific ocean.
Roz has daily updates on her blog and you can follow her on twitter (unfortunately they are having some difficulties right now with her twittering from the satellite phone). You can even follow Roz's progress from her GPS. There will even be a podcast (in the near future) from the TWIT network. Chief Twit Leo Laporte said on a recent show that the podcast hasn't launched yet due to the last minute departure of Roz to take advantage of favorable weather conditions. Also check out Roz's Smug Mug photos.
It just blows my mind. Alone for months in the middle of the ocean. Wow!
It's been a little over a month now since I've had my iPod Touch and I'm still loving it.
Not only does it get me into the exclusive and usually cost prohibitive (MacBook Air cough cough) Mac fan boy club but now I have a reason to listen to MacBreak Weekly without looking like a poser.
Here's a run down on my favorite things for the Touch.
Mobile Internet. Sure I can only use it on wi-fi but I'm usually home anyway and it keeps me from disappearing in to the computer dungeon.
Web Apps. Again internet connectivity is a must for this one. Some of my favorites are the Thincloud Twitter app that does a better job at the mobile interface than Twitter's own in my opinion. The Facebook web app which looks so much better on my home screen now with it's own icon. TV Forcast not only tells me when the next new episode is airing but also offers a short synopsis and links to Tv.com for full show information. And a new one I started using called Flytunes. It lets you listen music on your Touch (I know sounds redundant but it's pretty nice). There's doznes of themed music channels to listen to and it works pretty good on my old B Wi-Fi router.
iTunes. The only music I've even bought off iTunes has been with the Touch. The interface is of course perfectly thought out and it's so simple I have to be careful or I'll max out my credit card (not no really but it easy to buy music).
Twins video to iPod-Zune-PSP-3GP. This program convert your other miscellaneous video for the iPod. Its great software, simple to use and most importantly free. The video I've converted looks great on the Touch.
But with any relationship there are always a few things that drive you crazy.
Saving trips in Maps. If you foolishly leave the trip map it's gone and out on the road there's no way to get the turn by turn directions back. Also can I just download all the street level maps for my province also? Please?
Podcasts in iTunes. Downloading podcasts when you are out and about would complete iTunes on the Touch for me.
Mail using my gmail address book. It's really annoying to have IMAP email on your Touch and it only grabs the contact list that is stored locally on the Touch.
Organizing Videos. Dividing videos into Videos, Music and Podcast (on the same screen) just doesn't cut it for me. Having dozens of videos without even a basic search feature let alone a folder structure can be maddening.
Flash in Safari. Even the Wii can play embedded flash videos and it costs less than my iPod did. Oh and it also has games Steve.
But even these few reasons can't stop me from loving my iPod Touch.
Really interesting stuff. I've discovered that I really need to sleep more, consistently go to bed at the same time, and that you can never make up sleep.
Future Shop is lowering prices to reflect the strong Canadian loonie. I guess I should have waited before complaining about the difference in prices. Oh well. It's nice not having to do price conversions in my head on the fly when I'm listing to Twit talk about a new tech product.
Listing to the TWIT network recently I've heard Leo asking the question, who would want an iPod Classic when they could get the iPod Touch (releases October 1st here in Canada). Looks like Best Buy doesn't know either and isn't advertising it on there main page. Though it's still $20 off.
Are they alredy starting to down play the classic form factor? Maybe they are just gearing up for the HHD based iTouch that will eventually come out. Oh you know it's coming.
