+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Next gadget!
I found the next gadget I'm going to (want to) buy. Its the Sandisk Sansa Connect, which is a Wifi-enabled media player that apparently runs linux. Gotta love having your favorite OS in your pocket. I'm all excited about setting up a personal music streaming server to be able to access my music from anywhere that has an open hotpot. Eat that iPhone lovers!+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Initial iPhone thoughts
Here are my thoughts on the newly annoucned iPhone...Benefits
- Nice industrial design
- iTunes integration
- IMAP/POP email with yahoo partnership
- Google Maps integrated
- Orientation and Proximity sensors
- Nice partnership with Cingular
- 4/8 GB integrated flash memory
Drawbacks
- Touch screen input only
- Battery life is probably horrible
- No 3G/CDMA
- Extremely high price point (even after carrier subsidy)
- OS X is not a mature mobile platform
- Other carriers are locked out
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Rhythmboxing
I got an urge to try something new with my music on my Linux desktop today, so I went into my applications menu and selected to run rhythmbox. RB is a music management application for the GNOME desktop environment, it's sort of equivalent to iTunes - but without all that nasty Fairplay DRM. I had tried the program in the past and found it to be lacking a few features and generally bloated and slow. This time, I actually was pleased with it. One of the great benefits of running the Debian distribution of Linux is that everything can be upgraded at once during a software upgrade. I had done several upgrades since the last time I ran RB, so this time I was trying a brand new version (0.9.6).The new feature I liked the most was the ability of the application to keep an "eye" on your music directory and automatically update it's index when it is first loaded. This sounds simple, but if its not there, the index gets out of date really quickly as you add new music to your collection. Another feature that I liked was automatic album art download while playing a song. Again, a small feature, but something that makes the experience alot more enjoyable. Other features I liked was the plugin system (last.fm being the one I noticed first) and the ability to run the app in a reduced size mode. There are a few other things I haven't fully explored yet such as iPod syncing, podcast downloading and web radio, so i have plenty to keep me interested as I continue using this great app. Thanks GNOME developers!
