buying a new mp3 player

i'm buying a new mp3 player prior to the coming summer break; i'm planning to travel a lot and my 2 years old creative zen v plus looks extremely outdated now. so i'm going to buy a brand new mp3 player and give the old one to my little sister.

after spending some time researching about the current mp3 players out there, i have finally shrank my options of choice to 2: the apple 8gb ipod touch or the new 16gb creative zen.

although the 16gb creative zen does not have the cool new touch screen interface and the wifi capabilities of the ipod touch, it is still a very solid mp3 player and a more-than-capable portable video player with support of countless audio and video format. it is cheaper and the media storage is significantly bigger (16gb against the ipod touch's 8gb). the creative zen also support sync with windows media player (my main media player on my computer), and divx videos could be moved to the player and be played instantly without the use of additional codec converter; a very HUGE plus!

so what about the 8gb ipod touch? it's a lot pricier (34960yen compared to the zen's cheap price tag of 18663yen) but it definitely has the most features with support for additional widgets (if you use hacking software to install 3rd party utilities), the cool touch screen user interface, wifi capabilities, internet surfing etc.

without a doubt, the apple ipod touch is the COOLEST portable audio player out there, but like all other apple products, it suffers from freedom of compatibility and flexibility in moving media files from the computer into the player. it has limited format support, and everything must go through the clunky apple itunes software. the touch screen is a cool feature, but i predict its coolness wears thin quicker than expected.

although at this point, i prefer the more practical creative zen, the coolness of the ipod touch cannot be forgotten. so i'm in a dilemma; should i get the cool and trendy ipod touch, or the more practical and highly cost-effective creative zen?Apple ipod touch

Positive points:
* the touch screen user interface is extremely cool
*the design is more slick
*its an apple product, a branding power that you could use to brag to your friends
* support of additional widget through hacking that could further increase its functions

Negative Points:
*a lot more pricier
* limited support of audio and video format
* strictly dictatorship-style of apple bonding the player with the clunky itunes
* lower storage capacityCreative Zen

Positive points
* a lot more cheaper
* great compatibility with various audio/video format + ease of use in synching
* greater storage capacity
* expandable media storage with the sd card slot
* highly cost effective

Negative points
* not as cool as the ipod touch
* no wifi support
* no widget support
* you cannot brag as much as you could with the ipod touch

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

after setting my priorities straight, i have finally decided to go with the creative zen. i'm also getting the sony headphone with noise canceling technology; and the price of both plus the skin pack is still cheaper than buying a 8gb ipod touch alone. practicality, ease of use and cost-effectiveness wins against trendy coolness.

alpine HDMI earthquake vanilla curry weekend

- It’s Friday 13th .

- The 環境科学 class ended quickly so I went back home to take a shit.

- Checked the mail box: a mail from alpine!

- Damn it, I didn’t get the job! I knew it! The interview had a weird vibe. Who am I kidding? Navigational System Engineers need programmers, not mechanical kids!

- Skip a couple of minutes forward.

- Went to the cafeteria to give the Mongolian girl the longest chocolate bar in Japan.

- Then went to see K. Sensei to inform him about alpine. He was surprised. Then he told me to check out isuzu and tmc.

- Later that day, I did the experiment that I flunked last year. I’ll make sure I did it right this time around; I don’t have another chance.

- Went home, and the MGS4 Hagane PS3 arrived! Woot! I’m so fucking excited!

- Set the sexy thing up, then realized that it didn’t come with a HDMI cable! So I quickly put an urgent order for a 3m HDMI cable from amazon.co.jp.

- While settling with a 480p output, connected to the internet to download some demos. Argh, I hate 480p, it’s ugly. So I turned on my Xbox360 and play Ninja Gaiden 2 instead.

- The next day, I woke up during a HUGE earthquake. Everything in my room was shaking. I had to hold my book cabinet to prevent it from falling.

- It lasted a good 30 seconds. In my mind, I was worrying: Please don’t let my HDTV fall on the brand new PS3!

- Then it went peaceful again.

- Switched on the tv. Every channel is focusing on the earthquake. Where I’m living (Akita), we had a M6+ worth of earthquake, and the neighboring prefecture Iwate got like 7.

- This is pretty heavy stuff. The most that I’ve experienced before is M5 in Nagano. When you thought about the earthquake in china, and what it could do, it get pretty fucking scary; I’m not kidding.

- The next day, the full destruction of the earthquake is unveiled. 250 people got hurt and 9 people died. May their souls rest in peace.

- I also found out that Leah Dizon got a new single. The music video is cute, and if you turn off the sound while watching, it’s better. Leah Dizon never fail to impress me.

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Online Videos by Veoh.com.

- I also made some hot fiery red curry and bought a new 3-level low shelf to put my PS3 and Xbox 360 in a more tidier fashion next to the HDTV.

- I tried to figure out how to share my media from my computer, to the router and to my PS3, but in vain. It would be very nice to be able to play the Ghost in The Shell: Innocence blu-ray rip movie using the PS3 on my HDTV.

- I'm still waiting for my English version of MGS4 from play-asia.com. Although I have the japanese version of the premium package; I need the English version too because I like David Hayter's voice-over more!

new TV !!!

at last, i got a new hi-def tv! at 70000 yen, this sharp aquos 32inch LCD TV is the best-valued LCD TV out there; well at least in japan. i bought this bigger, better tv because i was simply bored with my 4-years-old 14inch CRT TV (image above). it was time to upgrade into something that's future proof; into the high definition broadcasting era! although i'm quite late, i'm glad i made it.

with the small space in my current room, the tv looks huge and watching it for the first time is quite overwhelming. maybe for the size of my current room, a 26inch tv would be enough; but i'm moving to a new, bigger apartment this april so i just have to be patient and be 'overwhelmed' for another month.

so like every new electronics that i have spent my (read: malaysian tax payer's) money on, i did some testing to see whether it was a good deal or not . first, watching Digital TV Broadcasting of course! the factory setting for the tv is too bright for my taste so after fine-tuning and playing around with the software settings, i was more than satisfied with the superb picture quality. comparing a normal analog broadcasting with a digital one is like comparing the ps1 to the ps3: the bump in quality is HUGE! you can even see pores and lots of other visual imperfections of tv personalities that you can't see before with a CRT (analog) TV. i think malaysian tv stations should start broadcasting HD content as soon as possible; it's amazing!

this TV produces one of the best black colour on a HD TV ever! black is very deep and ghosting is very minimal although still noticeable if you look hard enough. the factory settings tend to make the skin tones a bit reddish too, but that can be easily fixed with software settings. to make it short, the picture quality from digital broadcasting is superb and i really can't ask for more at this cheap price range. the colour is very vibrant and vivd although i think the speaker lacks the 'umph' when compared to my computer's 5.1 speakers. actually, the worst thing about this tv is the speakers, it's quite 'murky'.

next, connection to the xbox 360. although this aquos does not support 1080p, it still look brilliant and sharp at 720p. well, a human eye can't really tell the difference between 720p and 1080i when comparing between two 32 inch HDTV at those respective resolutions anyways, so it's not really a big deal. you are only going to see a significant difference when the size of the tv is 40 inch and up.

when playing video games, the most concerning aspects of a HDTV is the response time; and this TV performed quite well. of course today's HDTV still can't beat the speed of a traditional CRT TV, but it's getting better and better and this aquos has proven to be a firm proof of that progress. i tried this with the new devil may cry 4; a very fast game that rely on fast button response and i have to say, i have not noticed any lag or what so ever. brilliant! but still, it's not even close to a CRT TV response time but i'll get used to it. so for the hardcore gamers, this tv is probably not the best tv for you. try the new samsung gaming tv instead, IF you have the extra dough.

lastly, i tested the TV as a second monitor for my computer. out of the three connections, this one looks the murkier and NOT as awesome; but of course it depends on the video source itself. you won't get crystal clear video when it's a 800x600 video! HD content still looks awesome though, but not the best that i've ever seen.

at first i got a bit confused with the automotive image stretching functions the tv used to handle videos with unconventional resolutions and size ratios; but using the media player classic has proven to solve many of the head scratching problems. now i can watch lost episode 4 with a bigger picture! then i tried watching 300 (hd-dvd version) and spiderman 3 (blu-ray version) and the picture quality is just amazing. holy shit. now i want all of my movies to be in native blu-ray quality! i almost got a video orgasm.

then i tried playing computer games with the tv, but i still couldn't figure out how to bump up the resolution to 1280p. both my graphic card and the TV support resolution higher than that, but i just can't make it work. so more research to do!

all in all, this is not the best LCD HDTV out there, but it sure has the best bang for the buck. or yen. at this price range, this is the best high definiton-capable LCD HDTV anyone could get. the picture quality is superb (digital tv broadcasting being the best, computer monitor being the last of the 3) although the audio is lacking. a very good product (considering the cheap price tag) from sharp and in the end, i have become another satisfied customer.

george lucas! give us star wars in blu-ray !!!