An update:

Was checking out Microsoft.com/potential, since I was intrigued by their much publicised ad.

There, they have this amazing flash demo that imagines some scenarios in the future where their products would be used. (The tablet PC looks really cool…)

I was surprised to see the Creative’s Portable Media Player that I mentioned in my prev. post in one of those videos. In fact, I even found a video (good one, this too) that features this player quite extensively.

I guess MS guys have some kind of a tie up with the Creative folks.

That also might explain how Gates happens to use their portable music player. (Source: Article on Brij’s link blog).

 

It certainly is a small world.

Privacy advocates rejoice!
Here's a new way to stop scanners from reading your tags. Jamming tags from RSA Security!

You’ve heard of iPod. You’ve also heard about iPod Shuffle.

How about iRadio? Motorola’s soon to be launched service seems to be the next step towards listening to music. Apple’s iPod Shuffle seems to be a good stopgap. I surely would want one to bridge the time between now and till I get an iPod Photo. (I am desperately missing a player to listen to songs while I commute anywhere. I am hoping that either I get sent somewhere or that the device gets sent to me …somehow.)

Though, if you want to buy the iPod Shuffle, you’ll have to wait for quite some time…it’s out of stock almost everywhere.

Meanwhile, in the audiovisuals market, we are seeing a lot of activity happening. Television sets were predicted to be doomed. Not in the near future. With Mediabolic’s new Net Media Player, you can bring anything digital to your TV set (source: Wired).

Combine that with these really cool portable video players, and you have an experience of a lifetime…at least for the first few days. I really liked the design of the Creative’s Portable Media Center and I guess devices like that will start to proliferate as time passes. Already, competing products like RCA’s Lyra Jukebox and iRiver’s PMP-120 are available with some differences like file formats and displays etc.

Add TiVo’s to the mix (Haven’t heard of it? See the demo…it’s too good), and you’re off… It has upcoming competitors, but it will only make it better.

 

Exciting times ahead, won’t you say? How much exciting, only time will tell…no, wait. Brendan Walker will do it for you!

You must have heard of Google Maps, if not actually seen it. (Well, if you haven’t, you definitely should….how about NOW?)

These guys are surely something! They have taken Mies van der Rohe’s “God is in the details” rather seriously.

(I would be careful if I were them… anti trust cases are too much to handle these days, you know!)

After you have viewed the source, and agreed that it’s much simpler than that of GMail (which no one can make a head or tail out of – save, the guys who made it, and that too after unobfuscating!) you might be still wondering how could something be as fundamentally simple yet so complicated at the same time.

I did too… but not for long. I found that Joel Webber was already waaaaay ahead.

He explains in intricate details how the system works on his blog. It also has a link to explaining bookmarklets to another page which in turn is a treasure trove of links to Google resources. So does zmarties, who incidentally has a lot of other info on Google.

 

And finally, if you want to be up to date on what Google guys are up to, bookmark their common blog.

Let’s talk about the iPod….rather, let me put in some of the views on the iPod.

(courtesy: wired).

There have always been incidences of preferential treatment doled out to the “who’s who”, and not all have been something to write home about. Apple stores in LA have their unique stories. An interesting read.

 

Microsoft and Apple were always at war… or so it seemed. Until the iPod hit the stores! Now, everyone supposedly has been warned … Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill

If you’re interested in everything apple, they have a section iDolatry dedicated to it. It’s called the Cult of Mac

.

That apart, buying an iPod is a tough decision.

You either have features, or you have style. A friend of mine already gave in…for the time being…and has got Creative’s MuVo (no, not the pink one as they have shown there, even tho’ he got it for his valentine).

Another one is keen to acquire one of Creative’s Zen Micro that he’s asked from a friend coming from abroad.

 

IPod lacks on features big time, no doubt about it. Even though it’s the 4^th Generation now, iPod photo coming in after the 4G models, much needed features like the FM radio are still awaited. Speculations are rife on what might be offered in the 5G version….both for iPod as well as the Powerbooks.

 

BTW, did you know that the iPod photo comes with “an AV cable that plugs into the iPod photo's headphone jack (!) and outputs both audio and RCA composite video to any television”? ipodLounge has all the relevant links and the reviews… especially for power users.

 

I definitely think that it’s worth waiting until they allow easy customizations on the menus etc. for the colour screen on the iPod before I buy one….i would not like to use it ‘stock’. After a long and tedious search, I found the tech specs for the iPod Photo. You can find specs for almost every apple on everymac.

 

Finally, celebrities and buying decisions for the iPod can be best summarised by this verbatim quote from Jack Trout. "The dedicated machine that does one thing brilliantly tends to work out much better than the land of multifaceted machines," Mr Trout says. "That's why people tend to buy a Palm Pilot and an iPod."

 

Couldn’t have put it better myself!