the construct :: weblog

Man oh Man I want everything here. I already have the Rotolog Leather and am extremely happy with it. I wanted the Rotolog first, but at the time I was looking they were all sold out. Soon, very soon I will create my nixon empire.

Nixon Wood Collection

There is now new iPods out. Some good points..it also comes in black!

It has a 320 x 240 pixel, 2.5-inch, 260,000 color display, 20 hours of battery life, and supports playback of H.264 and MPEG4 at 30 fps. Has TV out and will come in both 30GB and 60GB versions, with the 30GB version being 31% thinner than the current 20GB iPod and the 60GB version being 12% thinner than the current 20GB iPod. The 30GB will hold up to 75 hours of video and retail for $299. The 60GB version will hold 150 hours of video and sell for $399. Both will ship in one week. from: engadget

Take a look at list of features
I’m quite glad that I bought the Nano when I did, even though I knew I wanted a 60gb iPod. I told myself I would wait until Christmas, so that turned out for the best. The whole “video iPod” thing has been circling around for a couple months. Including hidden features withing iTunes 5 for video. [side note: iTunes 6 is out]

Related releases: the new iMac G5 with the Apple Remote and FrontRow which is a new way to manage your media . Looks pretty cool, I would like to see it in action.

Overall a good week for Apple releases…
For more, visit these sites:
Gizmodo
Engadget
of course Apple.com

If you didn’t notice already, all new iPods have color screens for not too bad of prices.

The simplified lineup features a new 20GB color screen model for $299 (the same price as the older monochrome version), a 60GB model for $399 ($50 cheaper), and an updated iPod U2 Special Edition with a color screen for $329 ($20 cheaper). The company has apparently dropped the 30GB iPod photo model, which sold for $349. (From iPod Lounge)

This makes me want to get one pretty soon. Yes I have an iRiver with a beautiful color screen and lots of other features that the iPod doesn’t have. Yet I still want an iPod. Why? The user interface. The UI that has won the hearts and minds of millions of people everywhere. It’s easy to use, yet very fuctional. So if you are in the market for a new iPod, the color ones are at a decent price, and if you don’t want a color iPod, the old ones are getting cheaper by the second. Then there is always eBay.

Also, one other thing to note, iTunes 4.9 is out not with the new podcast feature. You can subscribe and download and listen to all your favorite podcasts. I wonder how this will affect ODEO(which is an awesome service by the way) If you think back a little ways, I was talking about podcasting as it was really starting to gain attention. Now it will be getting alot of attention, especially since Apple is. Wired has done many articles on the topic. Now is the time of podcasting… I’ll probably write another post on podcasting soon.

2005 has been a year of many things so far. Mac OSX Tiger, the High Def Revolution, and now onto console gaming. It seems like 2005 was the year for new things as technology gets better and better. For example, the three latest consoles announced all have wireless controllers. Bluetooth seems to be the technology of choice. Systems now have more than just “gaming” features. DVD players come integrated, aswell as CD players/recorders. The gaming system has now really turned into “entertainment systems.” Here is a brief writeup of what is happening in console gaming right now.

The XBOX 360 was announced last week. Wireless controllers, backwards compatibility with “certain” xbox titles.

The PS3 was announced this week. Up to 7 wireless controllers, Two HDTV outputs, an extremely complex graphics system, and backwards compatibility with all ps2 and ps1 titles.

The Nintendo Revolution was also announced this week. Also comes with wireless controllers, and plays full sized cds/dvds as well as backwards compatibility with gamecube titles. I havn’t come across much information on the Revolution, yet I’m sure there is lots out there.

Personally, I’m really excited about the PS3. Ideally in a world where I had lots of money, I would buy a nice huge HD Plasma TV, PS3, and hook up some kind of surround sound and my entertainment center would be complete. The only thing I don’t like too much about the PS3 is it’s shape. The silver is cool, yet I design wise the PS2 was more functional. At any rate, it’s an awesome looking system. I’ll be following it to some degree and be posting here.
(note: These systems may not actually be coming out to stores this year, yet they were announced this year.)

Remember when I was talking about Palm one talking about a “life drive” a while back? Well now it has officially been released and it looks awesome.

With a pretty high price tag of $499.00 you get a few cool things. For one a 4gb storage capacity along with a fast processor (Intel® 416MHz XScaleâ„¢ processor) and 16MB of memory. This looks like quite the fast little machine. One of the notable features is the built in WiFi and Bluetooth so you can always be connected. Of course it plays MP3’s and stores pretty much anything you would need on the go like docs and photos etc.

Overall it looks like a great PDA, yet I don’t think it’s anything really special. Basically you are paying for the 4gb hard drive. You can get all the same features in other PalmOne PDA’s for alot cheaper than $500.00 Well check it out for yourself…

PalmOne LifeDrive Product Page

In this cnet blog post there is talk about Palm One confirming that they are going to be using a 4gb micro hard drive in one of their new handhelds. This is a freaking novel idea. I say “freaking” because I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. I always wanted a PDA with a mini hard drive in it. Yes there is some handhelds that have a gigabyte of space, yet that is still not a mini hard drive, yet just a large flash memory module. (Correct me if I’m missing something)

Now that hard drives are getting smaller and cheaper, they are going to put into everything. Hence there being so many portable music players out there with a large amount of space in a small package. Players such as the iPod, iRiver Creative players, Virgin players, and like a whole lot more. Now you can get a hybrid PDA that is your camera, life manager, music player, and telephone all in one. (my palm zire does all that except it is not a phone)

I can’t wait to see how these work out.