Technology Round Up - BUY HERE

[Dreadful Scathe]

Dreadful Scathes Technology Round Up


There’s been a lot of talk about gadgets, especially the iPod (which costs way to much if you ask me, nice though it is). So no more speculation ….here are a few gadgets with links to the shops themselves.

First off Simple storage. If you want the ability to carry a lot of data about with you – cheaply here’s the solution.

Hi Space 128MB USB Pen Drive (£9.99)

If you want to play music, and you want to hold a LOT of it you could get an iPod of course but…a 40gb ipod is around £250+. Alternatives ?

How about a Creative Jukebox Zen Xtra 40GB for ( £184.99) or if you want extra features (like the ability to use Ogg Vorbis to store many more music files than normal at the same quality) iRiver 40GB MP3 Player (£246.99) – its also got darker colours


Of course not everyone needs to carry a lifetimes worth of music about with them everywhere, nor does everyone want to spend £200 to do so. So if you require tunes on a daily basis try this, a
Sumvision 128mb USB G60 MP3 /Voice Rec FM Radio (£35.88)
. It has enough space for 32 songs, that’ll last you around an hour and a half. Plug it in and swap music before you go out....sorted.


Its also quite possible to play video on the move, but those devices are still pretty expensive so I’ll not mention any examples, but, I just have to mention the gp32 multimedia handheld (£100). I have the non-backlight one which is cheaper but the one with the light is simply brilliant. It takes 128mb SMC memory cards (£12 from ebuyer.co.uk) and can be used as an mp3 player, a divX video player, and a general games machine I have DOOM on mine as well as about 40 spectrum games and 50 SNES games (including a smurf game...sadly enough). It basically has emulators for everything going. You can also use it to read files from your PC.


If reading books on the move is your thing though, you can’t get better value for money than a Palm VIIx (£23.49) it has 8mb of memory – enough for plenty of books, you can download lots of free books pretty easily. ALSO - It links to your pc and keeps itself in sync with your daily notes and diary as well as email. There are lots of interesting games for it too, but with a black and white screen the main use is books, especially as the batteries last for more than a week with average use and you can swap them over without losing any data.

That’ll do for just now. Feel free to ask questions or request I source some cool item you thought was too expensive, as you’ve probably just been looking in the wrong places .

[Dreadful Scathe]

I should add that the best site overall for general computer hardware is www.ebuyer.co.uk - for software www.gameplay.co.uk or www.play.com- for camera related stuff www.7dayshop.co.uk .


Theres also decently priced PC and MAC systems at http://www.2ndchancepc.co.uk/

[Stuart M]

Franck, I think you should be looking for reciprocal links on these sites now...you know, stuff like "Wanna dance better than the people in the iPod ad?"

You on commission DS? Or are you looking ahead and expecting Computer training to branch along some seriously eclectic paths ?

[Franck]

Originally Posted by Stuart M

Franck, I think you should be looking for reciprocal links on these sites now...you know, stuff like "Wanna dance better than the people in the iPod ad?"

Excellent idea, I'll get onto it!

As for Gadgets, well, I have all my current needs fulfilled
The ipod might not be the cheapest, but in this particular occasion, it really is a case of 'You get what you pay for' and I'm not talking about the Gb capacity. I have looked at the 'bricks' they call MP3 players, for only £50 less...
For me, the ease of use, utter cool, and many custom designed accessories make the ipod the only music player worth considering (unless your music is all proprietory to Microsoft Media Player ).

Personally, I use the ipod as a backup at Ceroc nights, and it has more than paid for itself when a CD player failed, or a DJ turned up late...
I also use it in the car (great for listening to audiobooks for myself or the kids on long journeys) and of course, combined with the incredibly compact 'Altec Lansing' folding speakers for the 'after party' party in the hotel at all dance week-ends

[dannyboy]

having had both, the iPod is superior in every way.
slick, cool, reliable, top quality. and that's what you're paying for.

[Chicklet]

please advise colours available.

[Chicklet]

please be advised

chickieflashsamplesupplies.com may open for business shortly

[Dreadful Scathe]

Yes the iPod is beautifully designed but lets compare :

battery life 16 hours for iRiver, 14 for creative but only 8 for the iPod - can someone confirm real use as it seems like a big difference to me ?

Supported Formats IPod does mp3, wav and AAC (mac only). IRiver does Mp3, wav, ogg vorbis (the best around) and the horrible windows only asf, wma The Creative Jukebox does wma, wav and mp3.

extras The Ipod has some nice pda type features i.e. Notes, Games, Alarm, Sleep timer etc... The iRiver will accept audio in and rip music DIRECTLY. The creative is nothing special in the "extras" department.

So to sum up I'd say the Ipod looks the nicest but costs (not by much) the most amount of money. The iRiver is slightly bigger but has better formats a brilliant rip feature and is fully mac and pc compatible. The creative looks almost as good as the iPod but has nothing special about it particularly ...but at £70 cheaper maybe you dont want the extras (especially as you can get the Palm PDA* mentioned above for £24 and that would handle all your extra feature needs ).

So, Ill be nice and say I'd make it a draw between the iPod and iRiver

If you want a 40gb iPod you can get one here for £253.95


* a PDA is a "Personal Digital Assistant"

Its also worth noting that you can save more money if you look a bit more www.pricerunner.co.uk www.dealtime.co.uk and www.kelkoo.co.uk are not bad for comparing and shopping around.

[Franck]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

battery life 16 hours for iRiver, 14 for creative but only 8 for the iPod - can someone confirm real use as it seems like a big difference to me ?

The battery life is 12 hours in the latest model (and you can get the battery replaced). I would say that the battery issue is now resolved Still not as good as the iriver but good enough. In real life use, I have never run out of battery. I do carry a small dock and a car adaptor for charging with me, and the speaker set where the ipod docks is also used for charging. I have taken it to London several times for a long dance week and always had enough power.

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

So, Ill be nice and say I'd make it a draw between the iPod and iRiver

If you want a 40gb iPod you can get one here for £253.95

The link above refers to the (now) old model. The latest does not have the row of buttons at the top as the scroll wheel is clickable... Fab design.

What you didn't mention in your comparison is the ease of use and quality and attention to detail. I would recommend to anyone that they try uploading / finding music on their preferred option prior to buying it, as there is no point having 80Gb of music if you can't find the track you want!

Thanks to its integration with itunes, it is really easy to create smart playlists on your pc / mac and the ipod will be updated automatically. You can even create playlists on the go...
The ipod was designed to be used with one hand only, scrolling and selecting with your thumb. It's very fast (and intuitive, for example the faster you go round the scroll wheel, the faster the scrolling accelerates, not easy to explain, but crucial when you have loads of tracks).
Apple have always focused on ease of use and achieved miracles with the ipod... No wonder it has the market sewn up.
Not sure about the pc version, but on the mac the ipod also synchronises with my calendar (diary application) and with my address book so I always have my contacts with me too...

I'm on my second ipod, and would love to have an ipod mini as well... Fab colours
When I have run out of space on my 40gb ipod, I'll buy a larger one!

[Dreadful Scathe]

good points. The iRiver is viewable as an external drive, so you can create any directory structure you like and can use winamp or other programs to create your playlists (you just select some music and select "save playlist") not sure about "on the fly" playlist making, I could see that being useful and Id be surprised if it wasnt supported.

I think the ability to rip from any audio source just by plugging it in is a huge benefit of the iRiver so if you meet an iPod owner in the street you can copy the track theyve just been listening to .

[Franck]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

I think the ability to rip from any audio source just by plugging it in is a huge benefit of the iRiver so if you meet an iPod owner in the street you can copy the track theyve just been listening to .

Yeah, that could be a very useful feature

It won't be long before dancers turn up with an iriver and ask if they can plug it to the mixer at their favourite dance night and rip the full set

[SwingSwingSwing]

Another plus point for the iRiver (IMHO) is that I can control it all from the remote control which is very handy when I'm out and about. The iRiver is safely secured inside my jacket pocket but I can carry the tiny remote control in my hand or clip it onto my jacket zip.

Plus it's got an FM radio so I can listen to the scores on the way home from the footie.

SwingSwingSwing

[Dance Demon]

Originally Posted by Franck

Yeah, that could be a very useful feature

It won't be long before dancers turn up with an iriver and ask if they can plug it to the mixer at their favourite dance night and rip the full set

Don't some DJs do that already......without an iRiver.........

[Dreadful Scathe]

just spotted this fantastic mp3 player for £35 - it takes memory card upgrades (£10 each) dead handy

[spindr]

The Register has a new review Reg road tests the BioNav™ in-car nav wonder -- looks useful -- might get one myself, even if they are a bit temperamental and pricey

SpinDr.

[Gojive]

Originally Posted by spindr

The Register has a new review Reg road tests the BioNav™ in-car nav wonder -- looks useful -- might get one myself, even if they are a bit temperamental and pricey

SpinDr.

Isn't that the same as a wife?

I love this bit of the review...

"Our test vehicle eventually reached Ipswich after three hours. To be fair, the BioNav™ had not travelled the route for more than three weeks, and so could not be expected to recall every minor detail of the course, such as the general location of Ipswich or the major carriageway which goes there"

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by spindr

The Register has a new review Reg road tests the BioNav™ in-car nav wonder -- looks useful -- might get one myself, even if they are a bit temperamental and pricey

SpinDr.

very funny

[Dreadful Scathe]

A few people have mentioned recently about turning audio into mp3's and / or cd's.

If you have a PC and you want to rip a CD into MP3's thats easy. Use audiograbber the best free tool. However if its from an external audio source e.g. mini disc, record player, DJs laptop etc.. then you need to capture the sound into your PC via your sound card - heres a few links to get you started with that. Also the iRiver unit mentioned in this thread will capture direct from any source without the need of a PC at all, but at £240, its a bit expensive. An alternative is the mp3 music yoyo player/recorder from here. The cheaper 256mb version was advertised as a special offer £49 in Micro Mart but the web site is quoting £68 at the moment, but even at that its not to bad a price for a portable ripper. You will till need to involve a PC at some point as you would want the new mp3s to be stored somewhere a bit more permanent - but you can link this to any PC/Mac and transfer the mp3's over.

As for turning mp3s into proper playable audio CDs, any burner software - Nero, Easy CD etc.. should handle that automatically...give it the mp3s and select "audio cd"...easy

[Zebra Woman]

I have a Creative Jukebox Nomad, it's my third one. Each year it would breakdown and I would get a brand new replacement! On this last one the battery has stopped working after about 16 months so I'm outside the guarantee period. If I bought a lithium battery on ebay rather than the branded 'creative' battery, would it be as good?

Can the all of the i-pod accessories be used with my jukebox?

Last question! What is the best way of connecting my PC to my hi-fi? They are in different rooms so a wireless solution would be good. I've heard of an Apple Airport which uses your house's electrical circuit. Has anyone tried this?

ZW