Author Archives: feeling entropy

You’re on speaker phone! Years ago I was one of those annoying Nextel ‘beep beep’ users. Nextel had a great idea, speaker phone use with mobile phones. The craze didn’t really catch on, and I have since left Nextel for the T-Mobile. The ‘Get More’ campaign with super-hot Catherine Zeta persuading me to use my mobile more, dragged me away from speakerphone friendly Nextel.

It looks as though lately, more phone makers are answering my call of desperation. Here’s a few phones that now come with speakerphone. The biggest issue with speakerphone able phones is people knowing when to turn speakerphone off!

In lieu of Apple’s highly anticipated operating system OS X 10.4 Tiger, which launches today at 6pm, I share a small gem of nostalgia for Apple fans everywhere. Different District hosts every Apple add or T.V. spot I’ve ever heard of and then some. Each clip has a counter on it, and after a quick glance over I noticed that Gwen Stefani’s Pepsi/iTunes add had the most hits… oh that Gwen *melt*

“Our conclusion has been that if you want people to understand the news better, then get that stuff off the screen” . –University of Kansas professor Tom Grimes.

A recent study proved that T.V. gives us too much information at once. We lose about 10% of the facts presented due to banners, scrolling stock tickers, and other distractions. This may be true, but there are many factors that I don’t see in the playing field on this one. I need things such as marquee headlines and cartoon ads to fuel my interest. Watching T.V. is not a means to gather important information, it is entertainment. Forgetting 10% of the facts from a T.V. show is a small price to pay for actually being entertained for the length of the show IMHO (in my humble opinion).

PC-TOO, an organization that must be completely out of their minds, is promoting a one-week halt on computer use. August 1st through August 7th is deemed PC-Turnoff Week. The motive for such a crazy idea is geared towards the kids. PC-TOO’s goal: “make parents aware of the risks associated with excessive computer use by their children “. –Ha, they don’t want their kids turning into geeks! It’s already too late.
Would I still be abiding by the PC-TOO insanity week if I only used my Mac and left my PC off?

The pen beat the sword in days of old, when pens were feathers and people talked like a Shakespeare play. This pen would kick those ancient artifacts in the tush, and be able to download it to your computer afterwards. Logitech’s io2 Digital Writing System pen remembers what you wrote, and even types out your written notes and diagrams. The pen is trainable, has 856kb of storage (40 pages), and a USB connection. Now there’s no excuse for me to lose all those phone numbers gorgeous women give me.

I recently wrote about how free WiFi is the best thing since sliced bread. Well toss your routers out the window, call your ISP can cancel that $40.00/month bill, and buy some bird seed. Pigeons have been used and, proven to be faster at transferring data via ADSL. The term, as the crow flies will soon be replaced with as the pigeon flies with 1.3GB of data. The experiment was to transfer 4GB over the ADSL line while simultaneously sending out a few carrier pigeons with the equivalent data. First one to transfer the full 4GB wins! Wouldn’t you know the pigeons won the 100km race. I’m guessing that some people have just a bit too much time on their hands. But then again, maybe they have so much time because they’re waiting for slow downloads?!

When I was 19 years old and in college, I procrastinated by watching TV, talking to dorm mates, playing sports, or just plain old napping. Our buddy Ben Horowitz is nothing like me. He breaks from research papers by creating a website. iProcrastinate is the name of his domain, and he’s assisted thousands of other college students in their quest to put off homework. MTV has taken note of the site and goes into depth about the features and functions of iProcrastinate. Ben had a different view of the phrase “procrastination is like masturbation, it feels good when you do it but in the end you’re just screwing yourself.”

That saying “the best thing since sliced bread” is out the door. I have personally given it the boot because something that much better has come along and now deserves the spot. Free WiFi. Don’t be taken by surprise when you hear something along the lines of “Wow Michael, this new gadget is the best thing since free WiFi!”

Many places offer WiFi access, but it’s hardly free. Café’s in San Francisco primarily use the ZRNet internet access for a fee of $14.95/month. As Unjustjust noted, broadband is becoming a need more than a luxury. Think about how things were when running water was first implemented, I wonder if it was also $14.95/month. Running water must have been the best thing before sliced bread.

Where else can one go to purchase a soccer ball, hammer, socks, pet fish, the newest Lego set, and get their eyes examined for a new prescription? Wal-Mart –they have everything.

Wal-Mart has a new system in place for music lovers on the net. It’s Wal-Mart’s version of the iTunes music store. I gave it a whirl and started adding songs to my personal compilation when I came across a Tim McGraw title marked ‘Wal-Mart Exclusive’. I wonder if he recorded it inside an actual Wal-Mart?

The selection is 500,000 songs strong. Out of pocket you pay 4.62 for a CD shipped to your house with three songs on it, $0.88 additional will turn your three song CD into a Four (limit 20 songs: $19.58). Wal-Mart does have everything.

The Sirius Sportster comes with a few customizable features. The illumination colors, Amber or green, are available for the screen and buttons independently. Presets can be set with the ease of holding down a button for 2-3 seconds while on the desired station. There’s also a Jump button feature that sends you to a geographically themed weather/traffic station for imperative driving information.

I enjoyed 6 Electronica/Dance (obviously my genre of choice) stations, 4 Hip-Hop selections, 8 different sports channels, and 5 R&B choices for the ladies lucky enough to cruise with me in the Honda.

The two different means of displaying song information tickled my fancy. One mode will display the artist and title of the current track in block letters large enough to read from outside my vehicle. The other mode will show artist and title on two different lines thus viewing both simultaneously

There were a few cons to this audio goodie delivered via satellite. I didn’t like 3 seconds of dead air when changing stations. I’m accustom to FM radio’s instantaneous audio transfer that leaves virtually no dead airtime in my car. Also, once in a while I’d get a 2-3 second pause due to loss of reception. I could live with these flaws, but I wasn’t impressed.

The hand piece itself is humongous. My first gen T-Mobile Sidekick is smaller than the device. At 4 ½” x 3 ¼” with a 1 ¼” thickness, the Sportster wasn’t allowing me to do any sports while holding on to it. I am usually agitated with pocket buldge ie. iPod in a front pocket. The Sidekick however exceeds the acceptable size for a front pocket. Since the Sirius Sportster is larger than the sidekick, it’s just too big to carry comfortably without a bag of some sort.

Along the same lines of mobility, the Sirius Sporster appears to be rather portable. The unit can fit in your car, and in a boombox for out of the car use. With these two great additions to the Sportster nobody ever has to miss any programming. Wrong. I was very disappointed with the lack of an internal battery and headphone jack for on-the-go satellite radio enjoyment. A unit of this size should contain a small battery and headphone line out for personal use. I have seen mobile phones integrated with this type of technology, so I don’t suspect that fitting the extra parts inside was an issue. My assumption is a problem with reception. The car kit required an external antenna to be mounted on the top of the car. A boombox addition comes with a telescopic antenna for receiving signals. The hand held unit must require a clunky antenna in order to receive the signal strong enough for a quality playback signal, thus axing the internal battery and headphone features. Or they left the headphone jack out of the design to keep a low price?

I visited Beverages and More while blasting a jazzy cut by Miles Davis when all of a sudden the music stopped. I then realized that I had driven into an underground parking lot, one floor below the surface, and my signal sunk like the Titanic. I don’t plan on extended listening while in underground areas, so I won’t strike the Sportster negative points on this flag.

Up to date summary:

Sound Quality: superb
Ease of navigation: child’s play
Colors: changeable =)
Display: Large and In Charge
Variety: do-able, wouldn’t mind a few more channels
Reception: good, above ground
Coolness factor: I haven’t gotten any digits yet, but I feel them coming oh so soon.