Help me. I’m trapped in the Wintel world.

It seems like my week couldn’t get any worse when I got a phone call from my mother back home when I was out of town with my girlfriend for her birthday.

My MacBook Pro was stolen in a home robbery. PERFECT.

So what did I do when I get back? Sit around? Nope. I instead pulled out all my spare parts and set to work building another computer, of course.

So what did I manage to make? Here are the specs:

1.7GHz Celeron, Windows XP Pro, 40 GB Hard drive, 512MB PC133 memory, 32MB Graphics card, CD-Burner.

Unfortunately, it still runs XP like crap.

I really want my Macbook Pro back…

This amuses me.

I always appreciate the time to tear apart someone’s false comparison. In this case, it’s iPod vs. Zune again, and the comparison is courtesy of http://www.zunescene.com/comparison/.

So let’s get to it here. The first issue mentioned is price and storage, both equal across the board. The next two issues tackled are Wi-Fi and filesharing. First off, Wi-Fi isn’t needed on an MP3 player of any kind. Sure, it allows for some potentially cool features, but the Zune just puts it all to waste. Why have something there if it’s not going to be used? Oh, and it puts an ENORMOUS strain on the battery life. Why send out files that are DRMed? What if you made them yourself? And the RIAA must be having a fit over that. Until the Zune can utilize the WiFi with some meaningful features, the iPod takes the first two points in this battle, and on Battery life as well.

So far, iPod: 3, Zune: 0

The next issue is Landscape/Portrait mode. I’ll admit that the iPod needs a better screen in which to watch movies on. However, if you like spending to the tune of $500, the iPhone will cater to your needs just fine in this regard. Otherwise, Zune wins on this one.

iPod: 3, Zune: 1

Next is that of an FM tuner. The Zune has this one as well, since the good ol’ Zune includes one standard. The iPod does not, and instead you must pay $50 to get an FM tuner for an iPod. Chalk up another one to the Zune.

iPod: 3, Zune: 2

Preloaded Audio and Video: You know what? I’m not going to tackle this one, since if you bought a damned MP3 player, you probably already have music you want to throw on it.

Next, Zunescene mentions a “preloaded virus”. Jesus christ on a fourwheeler, this one’s in the past. IMO, I think this is just a cheap attempt to make the iPod look really bad in comparison to the Zune. But I won’t side with either on that dispute.

Now we have one so frivolous, and it amuses me that these people attempt to use this as something to poke at the iPod. Colors. Yesiree, colors. Zune has white, black, crap-err, brown, and baby pink. iPod has just black and white.  Who in their right mind wants pink? And who wants a zune that resembles a piece of crap? And we all know where MS got black and white.

And now, Scroll wheel/tactile control. This is sort of funny; ZS says that the iPod has a “scroll wheel” (Erm, click wheel), and no tactile control. The iPod does indeed have tactile control, in the menu, back, forward, and play/pause keys. Someone didn’t do their research.

Need I say more? The zune fails in comparison to the iPod. But if MS got their act together, they could potentially whip Apple. I doubt they will, but whatever.

The things I have learned from iPods (Work in progress)

One: Don’t believe the battery meter all the time.

This one sort of just happened to me. I decided, after a software restore, to toss a music video at my iPod at full brightness to check it’s battery life. I was quite astounded when I saw that the battery meter had dropped to nothing within TEN minutes of starting the video. Ten minutes!

But then something even more so astounding happened. I checked it again and the battery meter jumped back up to 7/8ths! Then dropped to nil, then came back up to 1/2, dropped again, came back up to 1/4, dropped again and died for good.

I then turn it back on, and look at this, it’s back up to half again!

Things I’ve learned from being through six iPods Part one

I think it’s time I took some time to reflect on some things I’ve learned while owning a crapload of iPods, and fixing a few more.This madness began when I went out and bought myself a 1 GB iPod Nano in May 2006. (1 GB? HA! But it was enough to contain my entire library back then.) Then I moved up to a fifth generation iPod (30 GB) in August 2006 (Acquired from my sister. Traded her my then-laptop, an old, beat up, overheating Toshiba Tecra M2). I passed off the nano to a friend, who then proceeded to lose it in a home robbery.

Then a deal popped up for a fourth-generation 20GB iPod. Scooped that up, but the battery was so shot I just shelved it, and soon passed it to my girlfriend. Then, as a christmas present, I acquired a 4 GB iPod nano (2nd generation. It died when the headphone jack went out due to debris getting caught in there, and a failed repair attempt by yours truly), Then in April 2007, someone stole my fifth-gen, so my girlfriend let me have the 4th-gen back. Popped a new battery into it and used it for a while, until I bought a 30GB iPod Photo just short of graduation. Then, lo and behold, my stepfather manages to get an iPod video for me for graduation.

My girlfriend got the 4th gen back. And the photo is reporting numerous disk errors. And now the iPod video is having battery issues. Yay.

So what have I learned? What have I found out from being through six of these? I’ll tell you in my next post.