Robert's Blog

June 18, 2009 7:21 PM

I have a bunch of new gadgets to talk about! So I finally got my Archos 5
!!! But, it took me washing my iPod Nano in my pants… My wife says I did it subconsciously, but I really didn’t. So, my first impression is that it is a great device, but not as convenient as my iPod was. I got the 160GByte version. The great thing is that I fit all my music, videos, movies, pictures, and podcasts (including HD versions) onto it with plenty of space to spare. This makes the Archos another backup of my precious memories and digital media. The downside is that it isn’t as intuitive as an iPod. For me, that’s not a big deal, but for casual non-techie, it takes a lot of effort to sync it up, as it really doesn’t sync… It acts as an external hard drive where you need to drop your files into the right folder (such as Video or Music) so that the apps will use them. The other downside is that not all the codecs come with it. You need to buy plug-ins to watch H.264 and HD video. Compared to an iPod Touch, you get 130GBytes more space for the same price. I’ve only had it for the day and took it into the city. I was able to watch my podcasts during the train ride. It also has wifi and a built in Opera browser. The last thing is that it can be a DVR with an optional accessory, which I don’t have yet. Overall, I’m pleased with the product, but not completely satisfied.

I upgraded Annie’s iPhone to 3.0 last night. It went without a hitch, as I started it at midnight. So far, it works well, but Annie has a 1st gen iPhone, so the only real features she can use are cut/copy/paste, voice memo, and spotlight. We may spring for an iPhone 3G S for her this weekend if the lines aren’t crazy.

I installed Mac OS X on my Dell Mini 9 a few days ago. The thing runs awesome. It is super quick and I think just as good as my 2007 Macbook. The mouse is oversensitive, even at the lowest sensitivity, but you get used to that as well as the small keyboard. I have Openoffice on it (since I don’t want to buy an Office 2008 license) and it is a great backup to my Macbook. I’ve tested Skype with the webcam and it works perfectly.

I attended the BOL 1000th episode today. It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet the hosts of many of the podcasts I listen to. I almost missed the event, as Chloe and Sebastian were on the verge of not going to daycare, but in the end, it worked out for me to go in the morning. It was great to meet fellow people as interested in gadgets as me.

Finally, I got my Palm Pre!!!! BUT, it won’t be activated until Monday ☹. I’ll be sure to post my thoughts sometime next week once I get a few days use out of it. I already have my Touchstone charger, which is great. The thing sticks to my nightstand and feels like someone nailed it down.

Until next time!!

~rb