Sunday, September 28, 2008

MS Ads


So I finally saw one of the new Microsoft vs Apple commercials Sunday night. I wasn't too crazy about the Seinfeld/Bill Gates commercials, but these new ones are exactly what MS needs to shake off the "PC stereotype." For the longest time, MS let Apple rip them apart in Apple's ad campaign, but then in June MS ditched their old agency and gave their $300 million ad campaign to Crispin Porter + Bogusky (the same guys who make the ads for Volkswagen and Burger King). A part of me had always been interested in the creative aspect of advertising, so it's cool to see what they were able to come up with.

Simplifi

I've always been a Logitech fan (and I still am), but lately I've been starting to become somewhat of a Griffin fanboy as well. This little gadget here (Simplifi, $70) hooks up to your Mac and gives it 2 powered USB ports, two memory card slots, and a dock for your iPod/iPhone. Awesome! It's so simple, yet it's something every Mac out there needs. The only bad thing — it's a little on the pricey side. $70 feels like a lot to pay this little contraption. But it's a nice little add-on if you can spare the cash.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Italian Class

I've always wanted to learn a third language and starting today, it looks like I might. At least that's what I hope. Jeff C., Jeff S., and I are each gonna learn Italian using three different language programs. The details are all here. I'll be using Pimsleur Italian Basic, which requires 30 minutes of practice a day. This should be interesting 'cause technically I've never taken a language course.

You see, I grew up speaking English and Spanish at home so by the time I got to high school, I was able to take AP Spanish literature and grammar (yes, I was a geek). I was such a geek that my language requirement in college got waived. So I don't know how hard or easy it is to learn a new language.

Spanish and Italian are very similar, so my personal goal for next month is to be able to watch the Italian news channel and fully understand what they're saying. Or at the very least, be able to read an Italian newspaper. Considering neither of us speaks Italian, it'll be interesting to see which program is the friendliest to use and which one teaches the most.

(image via Flickr)

Friday, September 12, 2008

iTunes 8 = On the Verge of Bloatware

So I've spent the past 2 or so days playing around with iTunes 8 and the new Genius Sidebar. Apple describes the Genius sidebar as a sidebar that "appears right in iTunes and recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have, based on the songs you select." Sounds harmless and simple, right. Wrong! After just 48 hours with it I have to say, I'm not a fan of it.

To enable this new feature you have to log into your iTunes account and give it permission to anonymously send Apple information about your music library. That way the Genius sidebar can pick songs that you don't already have in your library. Ok, that makes sense. But in order for the Genius sidebar to work, you must remain logged into your account. Here is where I really start hating the Genius Sidebar. See, if your account is set to 1-click shopping, the Genius Sidebar makes it dangerously easy to accidentally buy a song you don't want from the iTunes store. The sidebar itself isn't that big, but on average it gives you 20 or so "matches." That means you'll see 20 "Add" buttons. And it not only recommends 99-cent songs, it also recommends full CDs, compilations, you name it.

Another thing I hate — once you turn the GS on, you can't resize it. It's default size is its permanent size (which is odd considering you can resize any other column in iTunes). Personally, the Genius Sidebar feels and looks like a giant banner ad within iTunes subconsciously encouraging you to buy more music from the iTunes Store.

Sure, you can turn this feature off (which I did), but I'm gonna guess a lot of people are gonna try it and not know how to turn it off and like blind sheep, buy more and more music from the iTunes Store. That's awesome for Apple. Kudos to them for their slick/aggressive marketing techniques, but that screws up my personal opinion of iTunes.

I used to love iTunes 'cause it kept all my music, made it easy to import other CDs/music, and 'cause it was lightning fast on my Intel iMac. But now, I'm not a fan of it anymore. I need it 'cause I (like most people) own an iPod, but it's starting to feel bloated. If Apple continues making these kinds of "features" it's gonna turn iTunes into a fancy banner ad.

Oh, and that whole thing about the Genius Sidebar not recommending songs you already have. There's a loophole in there (as I quickly found out). For the most part, it doesn't recommend songs you already have. But if there's a song that can be found on more than one CD — it'll recommend it, even if you already have that song. Example: Feist's song "I Feel it All" is on both her CD titled "The Reminder" and on the Music Soundtrack to "The Women." I have "The Reminder." The Genius Sidebar recommended I buy "The Women" soundtrack so I could have the same song twice. Sneaky.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Dell Hybrid: First Thoughts

So we got a Dell Hybrid in the dealnews office the other day and I got to test drive it while reviewing Google's Chrome browser. Before I say anything about the Hybrid, I have to admit I'm a bit of an Apple fanboy. Sorta. I use a MacBook Pro at the office and I have an iMac at home (although I also have a tiny Asus ultraportable at home that to this date is one of my favorite all-time computers). So in other words what I'm saying is — I've pretty much written Windows machines off. Until now. I like the Hybrid. I like it a lot. It actually made me want to use a PC again.

Form factor-wise, it's very tiny. It's a little chunkier than the Mac Mini, but it's still small enough to tuck away on your desk. It's also very nicely designed. We have the red one in the office and the minute you turn it on, the Dell logo lights up on both sides. Not in a tawdry way, but in a "nice touch" kinda way.

The system is based on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and hums along very rapidly. Up front it's got a media card reader, 2 USB ports, a slot-loading optical drive, and a headphone jack. Rounding off the rear you'll find an HDMI port, 3 more USB ports, DVI, 10/100 Fast Ethernet, a FireWire port, and both digital and analog sound outputs. Above all the ports is the system's vent. Granted, I didn't really push the system's processor, but the entire time it was whisper quiet. Load this up with Windows Media Center, give it a dedicated graphics card, and I'm sold.

Which brings me to one of the things I don't like about the Hyrbid. You're kinda bogged down by its lack of upgrade options. Integrated video is the best you'll get. I also think it's too expensive. Sure, you get a keyboard and mouse and it's packing a C2D, but for the price (starts at $499) you could get yourself a decent, budget laptop.

Oh, I also hate that it's running Windows Vista, although I like that's it's not loaded with bloatware. About the only bloatware I found (aside from IE Explorer) were a few Google Gadgets. Another thing, the Hybrid's desktop is kinda "Macified" in the sense that it's very clean and rather than have a column of icons along the left, it has a dock that sits on top of the screen. Nice touch, Dell.

My quick impression, the Hyrbid is very cool if you're into design and aesthetics. It's powerful, quiet, and comes with ports a plenty, but don't expect to conquer the world with it.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Battle of the App Stores

So it's been a little over a month since Apple launched their App Store and I'm still not that big a fan of it. My biggest gripe is that a lot of the apps are still overpriced and they're really not all that innovative (altho there are a few that are). So I find it kinda interesting that both Microsoft and Google have announced app stores of their own for their respective phones.

Microsoft will call theirs Skymarket (not to be confused with SkyMall) and it'll be a part of Windows Mobile 7 when that comes out in 2009.

Google on the other hand will launch the Android Market later this year when their Android phones come out. It'll be interesting to compare the three when they're all out, tho I admit that I'm personally looking forward to Google's store.