My Black Friday Special: Sandisk Sansa e250R MP3 Player

Among those hapless souls waiting in line at one of many department stores nationwide on the eve of Black Friday, I found myself camping out alongside my cousin and uncle in front of a Fry's Electronics store in Houston, TX. This story I shall tell in a later blog post. For now however, I will fast forward to Best Buy ten hours later among the hourdes of senseless shoppers. While my uncle was scoring the latest deal on an HD Toshiba projector I found myself in the mp3 section checking out the latest sales. In the end, I came out on top with a Sandisk Sansa e250R 2GB mp3 player for only $99 bucks!

I will be featuring a review over this mp3 player in the coming days right here on Convergence Daily, but for now here is a tidbit covering this lovely device. This mp3 player also happens to play movies, FM radio, display photos, and do voice recording. This particular model is branded with Best Buy's Rhapsody player software which is comparable to Apple's iTunes and includes a microSD slot for extra storage (among several "one-ups" on Apple's iPod). So far this product is exceeding my expectations and I have yet to tap into its full potential after just a week's worth of use. Be on the lookout for the write-up over the Sansa e250R in the coming days!

IE7: The Journey Back to the Original

I've been using Internet Explorer 7 at work consistently now for about a month and have grown accustomed to it. Some of the features I enjoy are the easy tab generation, the ease of adding favorites (showing the whole tree-view of your favorites), the somewhat streamlined interface, and the ability to view all of your tabbed windows in one single window. The obvious benefit to using IE over Firefox as a whole is that a high percentage of webmasters program their websites to be IE-compatible so the likelyhood of you coming across a page that doesn't format correctly is very slim.

My only major complaint with IE7 as it was with earlier versions is the speed. After you open a few windows (or in IE7's case, tabs) and keep your browser open for awhile you'll notice the performance decrease (I did, but then again I have multiple programs open: topographic mapping software, Outlook 2003, an RDP session, Trillian, Google Desktop / Google Talk, and FeedReader if not more). Firefox was a welcome change with tabbed browsing and a faster startup and operating speed, something I adored since I typically don't have time to waste sitting in front of a monitor waiting for pages to load.

The downside is that because a higher percentage of people still use IE today, most of your virus and malware-writers program malicious code especially for the IE browser. Personally, I've always been able to stay clean as long as I steer clear of objectionable sites and other sources of censurable content and keep my antispyware and antivirus programs up to date.

Unfortunately, the novelty of Firefox being virus free in the early days provided a false sense of security that has now worn off. Virus-writers are taking obvious notice at the growing market share that Firefox is attaining (soon will be approaching 15%) and are shifting gears to develop malware and search for vulnerabilities to exploit. Some of us expected this as a result of the exponential growth due to the grassroots campaign across the web for users to jump the IE bandwagon and come aboard the Firefox one. I was one such user and still basically am, using the Firefox browser mostly at home (even as I type this article), but as the title of this article illustrates I have dipped my toes once again in Microsoft's pool for lack of a better reason: work.

Media Center Machines Abound!

I was reading an article about a Linux-based operating system coded for the upcoming Playstation 3 game console (already?!) and found mentioned in the comments of the article a PVR/Media Center package called MythTV. At version 0.20 they've come a long way at developing a wonderful mix of form and functionality in this grassroots project. This is not meant for your typical novice Windows Media Center newbie but rather for those who seek to take more control over what digital convergence has to offer in the realm of entertainment and function.



Yellow Dog Linux for the PS3, mentioned above, will prove to be a power house taking advantage of the core components of the PS3 architecture and blending them with the functionality and customization of the Linux OS. Looking at the these two solutions I'm starting to see the lines blur among game systems, media center machines, and the typical personal computer. It won't be long 'till we rely on just one machine to centralize all of our tasks and leisures at home.

IE7: Internet Explorer's Latest Edition

I have been using the beta for quite some time now, but have primarily used Firefox due to faster loading times on the browser itself and webpages. I work for a local WISP in an environment that's fast paced. I get a hundred or more calls on my cell every day from contractors to CEO's asking for information but not willing to wait a long time for it. That means I have to pull up numerous web pages containing a variety of information about our network and the company behind it w/in milliseconds.

I've always enjoyed using Firefox since it's inception, but let's face it there's still a number of websites out there (including many of Microsoft's own) that aren't formatted correctly for Firefox and don't display or work correctly with it. A lot of our company's own development projects and systems base their compatibility on Internet Explorer not Firefox (unless I make a fuss about it).

So, now that IE has made it's debut into Final Release I will attempt again to go "all-IE". In the coming days or weeks I'll report on how successful (or unsuccessful) I am at leaving the Firefox bandwagon. Please feel free to share your comments on IE7, good or bad, all are welcome.

Gaming and the Mobile Lifestyle

Gaming and the Mobile Lifestyle

Date: 05/13/2004
In today’s society more and more of us rely heavily on devices to get us through each waking moment; from alarm clocks that wake us up to PDA’s reminding us of those important daily tasks. The ‘double mocha in the veins’ segment of the population generally want these devices to keep their lives in sync. That’s where the glut of gadgets comes in, but there’s always that need to wind down and relax. And nothing helps to relax those nerves more than to blast a few nasties with a rocket launcher in Doom II for the PalmOS.

This is where the convergence of gaming and the mobile lifestyle meet. For many years, handhelds have had a prominent place in gamer’s hearts. From the Game Boy and other’s before its time to today with Sony and more recently VIA making a presence in the handheld gaming arena, each are hoping to play a part in the lifestyle of mobile gamers worldwide. Gaming is being incorporated into more and more of the daily lives of many.

So, it behooves these developers to devise games which capture their audience’s attention. No longer will they remain content with Snake II on their cell phone or Space Trader on their PDA. They demand more. Portable game consoles such as the “new” Game Boy Advance SP offer a diverse selection of games, most of which are in-depth and offer great graphics and decent sound. This is plainly because they are dedicated gaming machines.

Now enter the world of PDA and cell phone gamers.

In this market we have a group of people who manage their daily lives and game all on the same device. Naturally, game developers are trying to take advantage of the cell phone segment because the cell phone is the one device man won’t leave home without. For some, the cell phone is surgically attached to their ear and it’s become their fifth appendage.

With the advent of ‘bigger better faster’ technologies cell phones are finally cranking out some decent gaming potential. You pair that with the fact most PDA capabilities are now being incorporated into cell phones, and now you’ve got a killer device. The Nokia N-Gage is just such a device that manages to incorporate most of these features, unfortunately it didn’t live up to all the hype. Hopefully its successor, the N-Gage QD, will fare better in today’s gaming market and offer a better gaming library. Nevertheless, we have a plethora of other cell phone manufacturers that are gearing their new releases more towards gamers.

For those of us still using PDAs and are remaining loyal in doing so, we have a new entry named Tapwave Zodiac. In my opinion, the Zodiac has potential to lead in the PDA gaming market. They use the proven PIM (personal information management) capabilities of PalmOS 5 software and pair that with the dedicated graphics capabilities of ATi hardware and this results in a strong offering. With an already expansive library of software titles supported under PalmOS 5 and titles optimized for the Zodiac I can imagine myself spending countless hours on the machine whilst traveling to and from work and elsewhere.

In today’s world we each live life on the go. Information is a commodity and gaming is a necessity. Our lives are a culmination of attempts at balancing the two to manage productivity and protect our own sanity at the same time. What will gaming and the mobile lifestyle be like in 5 years? 10? It all depends on how far digital convergence takes us.

(Reprinted: 1/31/06)

Microsoft & Palm Marry; Firstborn is the Palm Treo 700w

Widespread reviews of the new Palm Treo 700w are coming in mixed flavors, however the brunt of the reviews are positive. Treobits has put together a comprehensive list in their forums for you to go through. I'll also update this post with other reviews across the web. Feel free to let me know of reviews currently not on this list!

I'll update this post with my own personal views on the Treo 700w shortly, for now enjoy!

Verizon Wireless Takes Music On the Go

Next month Verizon Wireless plans to compete with the rest of the mobile music foray by delivering their own helping of over-the-air music downloading on select phones. Here's a clip from C|Net News.com:

The new service, called V Cast Music, is scheduled to become available on Jan. 16 at Circuit City, Verizon Wireless stores and Verizon's Web site, according to documents seen by CNET News.com. It would allow customers to browse, preview, download and play music from a mobile handset and a computer.

I haven't seen Motorola's ROKR phone make any big statements in my sleepy town of San Antonio, but that's not to say there's definitely a market for this type of technology. You just have to know how to deliver it. I think Verizon Wireless has got the methodology right but what's going to be crucial is the pricing and the online library available to consumers. The form-factor and UI of the phones offering the V Cast Music service will also be key to widespread consumer adoption. Personally though, I'm quite content transferring my own favorite music to my phone's MMC card via bluetooth and have no problem waiting until I'm in front of a PC (at work or home)!

Motorola RAZR V3c Review @ MOBILEDIA

What has become quickly ubiquitous in the mobile phone market in just a year is now receiving an upgrade. No, not in some pretty color or diamond studded montage but in actual features and technology. The new RAZR V3c is improving on what is already a statement in cell phone fashion adding a better camera, more multimedia features, a faster connection via EVDO, and of course a sexy new design. MOBILEDIA has served up a thorough review of this new phone from Motorola, go check it out! As for me, I'll just stick with my Nokia 6230 for now.

DARPA Grand Challenge Winner, Best Robot of All Time

My dad, a Lt. Col. in the Marine Corps and also a DARPA employee, was priviledged enough to attend this year's DARPA Grand Challenge (and actually got to tailgate one of the challenger's throughout the 150-mile long course). One of the contestants in this year's grueling race, a test of true AI brawn and brainpower, was Volkswagen's own Touareg named Stanley (it's namesake belonging to its owner Stanford University). Fortunately for Stanley, he won WIRED Magazine's Best Robot Ever award. Way to go Stanley!

Upcoming Nokia 6233: An Upgrade on Design and Features

Here's the press release:

"New York, NY, US - During its annual Capital Market Days event for investors and financial analysts, Nokia today unveiled the Nokia 6233, a classically designed model tailored for business and entertainment. The sleek 110-gram, 81-cc model offers a 2 megapixel camera, a 320 x 240 QVGA color screen, digital music player, stereo speakers and a wide array of features and applications which take advantage of WCDMA services. Featuring a stainless steel frame and an improved, intuitive menu structure, the Nokia 6233 (WCDMA 2100 / GSM 900/1800/1900) is expected to begin shipping in the 2nd quarter of 2006, and is expected to retail for approximately ?325, before applicable taxes or subsidies."

I have the 6230 and I absolutely love it. I'll find myself starting to gaze at other cell phones whenever I go to the mall or a mobile phone retailer, but I find myself coming back to my trusty 6230. It has to be one of the most feature-laden cell phones of its time, and it's survived many a fall to the ground. Now, with the upcoming release of the 6233 Nokia seems to have another winner on their hands.

First Nokia Retail Store Opens Doors in Moscow

It appears that Nokia is hot on the tails of Apple Computer, Inc. and other technology conglomerates such as DELL in opening their own retail store, their first in Moscow, Russia. Other retail locations will be opening up worldwide in the next couple of years. The purpose of Nokia providing a brick-and-mortar version of their online marketplace is of course to allow consumers to get the full monty of their mobile offerings all in one place. Their latest products will be debuted here in a "cutting-edge environment" giving consumers a chance to try them out before they decide to buy them. (see Nokia Press Release)

I, unfortunately will probably have to wait a long time before I see one in my neck of the woods (here in South Texas). For now though, I shall make a trip to the darkside...I mean, the new Apple retail store located at the Shops at La Cantera here in San Antonio and poke around a bit.

Article Numero Uno

Welcome to Convergence Daily where my job will be to supply you, the reader, with juicy articles showcasing the latest in digital convergence technology. I hope you enjoy this humble publication and if you have any comments or suggestions or wish to offer your services, please contact me:

Ben Tovar
Editor-in-Chief
ben.tovar at gmail dot com