New blog: Davao in the last 7 days

I created a new blog for my friends overseas.

It's a blog that chronicles the week that was in Davao City. I call it Davao: The Week In Review. I get my news from Sun.star.com Davao. Mind you I am not a professional writer or reporter. I just do this in my spare time.

I hope you guys will drop by.

The iPod Family

iPodlounge publishes the article Understanding the iPod family: new iPod minis and photos by Jeremy Horwitz. It talks about the changes in the second generation iPod mini and iPod photo.

iPodounge also releases their review of the second generation iPod mini.

I will post my reaction and comments the next time. I've been typing and editing for 2 hours now.

FireWire backfire

I mentioned in my previous blog (New iPod photos and iPod minis) about the new iPod photos and iPod minis and they don't include a FireWire cable in the package.

This exclusion didn't go down so well with Mac users. They feel that Apple sold out.

Daring Fireball talks about the reaction of some in the Mac community and why they reacted so.

From "FireWire hysteria":

The big hubbub over yesterday’s revamped iPod line-up is that FireWire cables are no longer included as a standard part of the kit; only the USB cable is included by default. That’s not to say the new iPods don’t support FireWire, however — they do, just like always — it’s just that the FireWire cable is now a $19 accessory.

This has raised the hackles of some Mac users, for several reasons. Mostly, however, it is a symbolic slight, in that it indicates that Apple is no longer interested — or at the very least, not as interested — in making the Mac iPod experience better than the Windows iPod experience.

Though the mini is cheaper, Mac fans reasoned out it wouldn't have made much difference to Apple if they included the FireWire cable. Doesn't it?

The original 4 GB iPod Mini cost $249 and included a FireWire cable and AC adapter; you can now get a new second generation 4 GB iPod Mini for $199, a FireWire cable for $19, and an AC adapter for $29, for a grand total of $247. (Or if you just want the standalone AC adapter, you can get the USB power adapter and forego the FireWire cable, saving $19.)

So, DF shows that the price cut can be attributed to the FireWire cable and the adapter being sold as a la carte, as DF puts it.

Daring Fireball's last comment goes:

Symbolism aside, this FireWire cable issue is not a big deal. It’s not a technical change, it’s a marketing/packaging change. Ina Fried’s report on the issue for CNet News is getting lots of play, largely due to its sensational headline: “Apple Takes a Step Away From FireWire”. A more accurate headline would have read, “Apple No Longer Includes FireWire Cable in iPod Box”.

Mac fans feels that Apple bent over to accomodate the millions of Windows users. But from Apple's perpective, they are just doing what any company would do when it wants to dominate an industry.

Samsung, Creative and the rest of the digital music players better watch out: Apple's ready to take a huge bite at them that'll leave them bleeding.

Dressing up and dissecting your shuffle

This is from CNet News.com:

Shuffle's on to dress up baby iPod

Add-on maker XtremeMac on Friday debuted more than a dozen accessories for the iPod Shuffle, ranging from auto accessories like a car charger and an FM transmitter to aesthetic enhancements such as Bumperz--colored silicon bands that go around the flash music player.

After seeing Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduce the iPod Shuffle at Macworld in January, XtremeMac CEO Gary Bart saw a hit in the making and quickly headed off to China to ready a slew of add-ons.

"The development of such an extensive line of new iPod Shuffle accessories just six weeks after its launch at Macworld shows our determination and commitment to being the iPod accessory leader," Bart said in a statement.

After playing dress up with your shuffle it's time to take it apart. Still from CNet News.com:

A voyage inside the iPod Shuffle

IDC analyst IdaRose Sylvester recently dissected a 512MB iPod Shuffle, purchased at retail, to determine what the tiny music player is made of. Her report, published earlier this month, reveals that Apple used two main chips spread over two separate circuit boards to foster the compact design of the music player, which was introduced in January.

The article continues to say:

The Shuffle's Samsung flash memory chip is mated to a separate circuit board. The two boards are sandwiched together at the top of the Shuffle, leaving room for its battery below.

The Shuffle's lithium-ion battery takes up the bottom half of the device; it sits between the boards and the player's USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector. Sylvester surmises that because of the Shuffle's design, it may not be possible for the battery to be replaced by a consumer, if at all.

On a side note, CNet News.com also mentions that there has been a boom in iPod add-ons:

Less than three weeks ago, XtremeMac President Gary Bart was in San Francisco, sitting in the VIP section as Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPod Shuffle.

Days later, Bart packed his bags and jetted to China, where he has been working feverishly to produce 14 new accessories for the music player. Such is the life in the lucrative but highly competitive market for iPod add-ons.

Stratospheric iPod sales have created a vast opportunity for other companies to sell companion gear, but the spoils have gone to those able to keep pace with Apple, which has introduced at least a half dozen kinds of iPods since the first model arrived in late 2001.

Putting a dollar figure on the "iPod economy" isn't simple, but it easily stretches into the hundreds of millions. Bart said the rule of thumb in the electronics industry is that with items like cameras or cell phones, people probably spend, on average, about 10 percent of the cost of a device on accessories. Apple has sold more than 10 million iPods, probably at an average price above $300, so the 10 percent rule would easily put the iPod add-on market in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Among the best-known companies offering iPod accessories are speaker makers such as Bose, JBL and Monster Cable, a company known for its stereo wiring. The rest of the accessory market is spread out among an array of companies, nearly all privately held and most quite small--companies such as Griffin Technologies and XtremeMac, which has 14 full-time staffers and maybe a dozen part-timers.

An entire site, iPod Hacks, is devoted to customizing the iPod in unsanctioned ways. A popular recent posting outlines a tactic for changing the graphics that the iPod displays at startup and when synching to a computer.

Quicklinks:
Bose
Griffin Technologies
iPod Hacks
JBL
Monster Cable
XtremeMac

New iPod photos and iPod minis released!

It would seem that Apple is really serious in taking on the likes of Samsung and Creative in the race for domination in the MP3 player arena.

Just after about six weeks from releasing the iPod shuffle, Apple revamps the iPod photo and iPod mini line. The new iPod photo comes in 30GB and 60GB priced at $349 (less $150 than the 40GB model) and $449 (less $150) respectively. The 40GB model seems to have been discontinued. The price drop, however, comes at a price: they removed from the package the AV cable, the Photo dock with S-Video out ($39) and the Firewire Cable ($19). The new included items are the usual earbud headphones, a USB 2.0 cable and a power adapter.

A new accessory called the iPod Camera Connector ($29) can be used to connect the iPod photo to a digital camera so you can transfer pictures from the camera to the iPod.

The 30GB iPod photo is thinner than the 40GB model while the 60GB still has the same thickness.

News articles from Playlist, MacCentral, MacNN and MacMinute.

Upgrade and price drop: two things that describes the second generation iPod mini (though it's still not officially called as "second generation". I'm just getting ahead of the pack.)

The iPod mini now comes into two varieties: the original 4GB and a larger 6GB version. When the iPod mini was first released it was priced at $249. Now, it's priced at $199. The 6GB is priced at $249. The iPod mini still looks the same except for the color coordinated click wheel icons.

Like the iPod photo, the cheaper price comes at a cost: the charger is now sold separately, as well as the Firewire cable.

One good news is that the battery life is now advertised to last for 18 hours. This we have to wait and see.

As before, Apple offers different colors for the iPod mini but this time they removed the gold colored mini. Sales of the gold colored mini must have been really poor as to make Apple decide to pull it out as a choice.

As with the new iPod photo line, they chose to package the mini with a USB 2.0 syns and charging cable instead of the Firewire cable ($19). Other items that are included in the package are: earbud headphones, a belt clip case and the iTunes 4.7.1 CD.

Articles on the iPod mini from Playlist, MacCentral, MacNN and MacMinute.

I will watch out for reactions on the web from both Apple fans and Apple haters.

iPod in USA Today

In iPod America, legions in tune
By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — With its high-tech decor and clubby feel, Apple's flagship store here doesn't look like a creepy cult headquarters. But there's some kind of mind-noodling going on: Everyone exiting its glass doors is ready to spout the gospel of iPod.

"With the iPod, the Buddha is in the details. The finish and feel are such that you want to caress it. And when you do, wonderful things happen," says one user.
By John Zich, USA TODAY

"I love the sound quality and how many songs I can carry around," says real estate agent Paige Baron, 25, running her fingers over a pink iPod Mini. "My friends all have one, and I just felt it was time to catch up."

She has just joined the iPod nation. Apple may have introduced its innovative digital music player in 2001, but of the 10 million iPods sold to date, 8.2 million of the $249 to $399 gadgets were purchased in 2004. Nearly 5 million were bought over the holiday season alone. With its new $99 Shuffle, Apple expects the streets to soon sprout even more iPod people.

More at USA Today.

The iPod People

Here is an artice from the Des Moines Register website that talks about the iPod popping up in unexpected places.

Iowa's iPod people
The popular digital players are popping up in unexpected corners of everyday life, from the pub to the classroom

By KYLE MUNSON
REGISTER MUSIC CRITIC
February 21, 2005

It was Monday night at the Lift, the bar at 222 Fourth St. in downtown Des Moines, perhaps the first in Iowa to devote a weekly night to owners of iPods and other portable digital music players.

" PodJay Mondays" debuted on Valentine's Day, and it is one of many signs that the coveted gadgets are becoming much more than mere entertainment.

PodJay Mondays essentially set up digital players as the new icebreaker. People program a playlist with 15 minutes or so of songs from their music catalog, then hand their players over to bartender Clint Curtis who treats the entire room to their musical tastes.

From DJs to lawyers:

"I'm not much of a tech guy," said Dave Tank, a 45-year-old attorney in Des Moines who didn't try an iPod until an old law school buddy finally showed him the ropes. "It's one of those products you don't really understand or appreciate until you have one in your hand."

And there are more: from a teacher to a podcaster, from a blogger to a restaurateur. More here

I mentioned podcaster. What is a podcaster? Well, someone who podcasts.

So, what is a podcast?

I'll tell you about it the next time.

This is it for today!

iPod shuffle... yet again.

Here I go again. I know that I have been blabbering about the shuffle for more than a month now. I said I was going to me one of these things but unfortunately my source said the shuffle didn't make it to Davao. I had to wait another 3 weeks to find out that some big shot store got all of the stocks allocated for Davao.

Damn!

I have to wait til March. And it's still a very very very long time from now.

Anyway, the raves (and the boos) for the shuffle has not died down a bit. Here, I present to you the latest shuffle rave that I found. This is written by Scott Goldman of Indystar.

Apple's Shuffle ripe for picking

Scott Goldman

Super-portable iPod, good even for athletic use, winning raves for its AutoFill function.

What you should know about Apple's Shuffle

Scott Goldman

• How much music can it hold?

Apple has two versions -- the 512 MB holds up to 120 songs and sells for $99 at the Apple Store; the 1 GB version holds up to 240 songs for $149.

• How much will it REALLY cost me?

There are a couple of recommended extras, like a battery pack, sport case and arm band, but you can seriously walk out of the store with just the Shuffle and you'll be very happy. The earpods have even gotten better, so you don't need to upgrade those.

No comment on how much you'll spend downloading music from the iTunes music store.

• What's the coolest part of the Shuffle?

Amazingly, it's the plug. The bottom of the unit is a tiny white cap that covers the USB 2.0 plug that you use to load songs from your laptop. And while the unit is plugged into your laptop, it recharges the internal battery. The included lanyard snaps into the plug as well.

• How long does the battery last?

Up to 12 hours. Mine still was going after 12 straight hours of use. The optional battery pack adds 20 more hours of playback.

• Does this only work on a Mac?

Nope. Mac or PC. You just need a USB port, and the software for the latest version of iTunes comes in the box.

I got mine!!!

My Powerbook, that is.

Got my PB this morning and it burned a rather large hole in my pocket.

So far, it surpasses my expectations. It did very well in doing the 3D images in OsiriX. It didn't break a single sweat.

There are some minor defects since this is a second hand Powerbook. There are dents. The left front corner is not plush with the rest of the portable. There are scratches.

But so far, I am happy. I think I'm sticking with this for quite some time.

On another note, this article asks whether Microsoft has gotten it? The article stems from another article talking about another in Wired.com, Hide your iPod. Here comes Bill. The Wired article says that even Microsoft employees are buying the iPod because:

"The industrial design on the iPod is absolutely amazing. The usability of the device is light-years beyond anything else I've seen."

I'll post more as soon as I gather my wits.

Shuffle away!!! Whoops! Not yet.

I've been rambling and ranting about the iPod shuffle for weeks now. I've been posting commments and giving links to various reviews found on the net. I promised that I would get my hands on a shuffle by the end of January.

Well, guess what. I don't have it yet.

My last hope was that I'll have one by the first week of February.

Yup. You guessed it. Not yet.

It would seem that the local distributor here doesn't have much clout and Davao City once again has been pushed aside for the more important cities like Manila and Cebu. We are still left behind and last on the list of priority. Ah, well... I was told that the shuffle will be here on the first week of March. I think by then I would have lost interest in the shuffle. We'll just see won't we?

But who am I to complain? There's actually a worldwide shortage on the shuffle. There's no flash based MP3 player that has this much demand. Up yours, MuVo!

For now, my heighten anticiption has dropped down to idle curiousity as many more people now own the shuffle here in the Philippines and are releasing their own mini-reviews. The euphoria is gone. The drool factor has waned. I'm just in it for the functionality and not for the wow-factor anymore.

Update:
I wonder is my cuz, Aivory, managed to get her hands on one.

Davao weekly updates

I'm supposed to have a weekend weekly update for my friend over at New Jersey. I really didn't think he'd be reading my blog.

I have to postpone the updates til next week, Vans. I'll do them on my Powerbook. I'm not comfortable using my brother's notebook for doing some stuff. Windows is such a drag.

Either I'll put the updates on this blog or make another blog so that you won't get to see all the other clutter.

Stay tuned.

I'll publish my weekend weekly updates by Saturday evening or Sunday morning Davao time.

In the meantime, you can visit Sunstar Davao for the latest news in Davao. I'll be getting my source from there anyway.

Mac-less in Davao

I found an article that will interest Mac and Windows users alike. This is one of the reason why I decided to stick to a Mac and get rid of anything Windows in my room.

The article is entitled: Why Does Windows Still Suck?
Why do PC users put up with so many viruses and worms? Why isn't everyone on a Mac?

Here's tidbit:

Then, something happened. Something attacked. Something swarmed her computer the instant she tried to move around online and the computer slowed and bogged and cluttered and crashed, and multiple restarts and debuggings and what-the-hells only brought up only a flood of nightmarish pop-up windows and terrifying error messages and massive system slowdowns and all manner of inexplicable claims of infestation of this worm and that Trojan horse and did we want to buy McAfee AntiVirus protection for $39.95?

And another:

The McAfee site claims a whopping 91 percent of PCs are infected. As every Windows user knows, PCs are ever waging a losing battle with a stunningly vicious array of malware and worms and viruses, all aimed at exploiting one of about ten thousand security flaws and holes in Microsoft Windows.

And lastly:

Here, then, is my big obvious question: Why the hell do people put up with this? Why is there not some massive revolt, some huge insurrection against Microsoft?

Why indeed?

To tell you the truth, I really don't miss viruses, trojans and spyware at all. I honestly don't know how Windows users can put up with it. They would always say that it's no problem since there are free anti-virus, free anti-spyware and other free things online that will temporarily cure their PCs.

My point would be the amount of time you waste in getting, downloading and updating all the things that you need so that your computer will be safe.

Granted some will have DSL or braodband connections that downloading all the updates will seem to be no chore at all. But what happens if a new virus or trojan appear and there are no viral updates yet? You PC goes nuts at the very least. The worse case scenario is that everything crashes. Your documents, spreadsheets, MP3, pictures, gone. Pfffft... Just like that.

What do you do?

You go to the shop where you bought your computer of course and have them try to fix it. You have to pay for it, of course.

Or you can find some tech savvy friend or relative to help you fix your PC.

To put things in perspective, I would like to ask Windows users out there who are connected to the net on how many hours do they spend a month in downloading and updating their various anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Three to four hours? And how many hours a month do you spend in scanning your PC looking for that unwanted virus, trojan or spyware? Six to eight hours? Guess how many hours I did the above things with my Mac?

Zero.

If you add those number of hours downloading and scanning then tally them up for a year, that would be about 5 days, I think. What about on a Mac? How many hours are wasted on these tiresome but nearly futile activities?

Zero.

After all, zero times any number is zero.

I must really sound like a Mac fanatic to whoever's reading this. I'm not really. Not yet.

For me, for those people who uses a PC for surfing, word processing, spreadsheet and an occasional multimedia application, I really would suggest switching to a Mac computer. For those in the Philippines the cheapest Mac would be the Mini at about 38,000 pesos with 3 year warranty. For those in the US or other countries, heck, with the money that you're making over there you can easily afford an iBook or a Powerbook. Or if really tightfisted, you can opt for a used Mac computer. Either way you still win.

And if you do decide to switch, be ready to say bye-bye to viruses, trojans, spyware and other headaches that go along with a Windows PC.

My Mac Thoughts: things I'm doing to forget that I'm Mac-less (it's not working, though)

I forget really on how many days it has been since I last had my hands on an Apple portable. A month? Not really. It just seems like it.

I'm getting another portable soon. Four days from now, to be more exact. Not exactly brand like my previous iBook but the owner says it still works. I"m a bit apprehensive about getting a second hand portable since the original owner did say the things crashed when he put in an old RAM. It caused his hard drive to crash and burn. It had to be replaced. But he said things we're going fine since Apple repaired it. I hope so.

Lately, I'm using my brother's notebook which he got from China and is branded as Hasee. From China? Must be junk. No, not really... for a Windows PC. It has impressive specs that cost around seventy-five thousand pesos. If this were a branded or well-known brand, the cost would have been somewhere near ninety-five or a hundred thousand.

All the time I was using Windows, I sometimes felt annoyed and frustrated. I miss having Expose. I miss having just to put to sleep my iBook instead of having to turn it off. I miss Mac OS X and the ease of doing things.

I sold my iBook and my desktop PC; I really didn't do anything in my desktop PC except play Need for Speed Underground 2 and back up files. Felt like an expensive game console and big hard disk drive. My discomfort for the past few days might not be due to the fact that I don't have a computer. I think it's more of the fact that I am not online most of the time.

I admit: I am an internet addict.

I am an internet junkie.

I spend hours on end everyday checking forums and reading articles that aren't that interesting really. I go to websites like Fark.com and various Mac websites. The first was for entertainment and the rest was to stay "informed". Yeah, right. Poor excuse to just stay online. What do you expect from a jobless bum like me?

However, since being computer-less for a week or more I realized that there's nothing much on the internet that provides me with entertainment or information. Websites like Sunstar Davao and Philippine Daily Inquirer provide me with daily news but there's nothing new. It's the same boring city and country.

I guess there's nothing much to be gained from this net addiction of mine (as is the case for most addictions). I'll see what will happen when I get my "new" powerbook on February 10, 2005.

I rambled. I'll just post another blog.