I finally gave in and bought an iPod, kind of as a belated birthday present to myself… Most of my colleagues have one, and I guess I was feeling left out. :) I think my timing was pretty good, as Apple just restructured the pricing for their numerous iPod models. In particular, the regular 40GB model that I probably would have bought if I had bought my iPod a few weeks ago, has been phased out and replaced with the 30GB and 60GB iPod Photo models....
I saw VNV Nation in San Francisco yesterday, and I have to say that it was a great show - especially considering that apart from the live vocals and a little bit of live drumming, which was more for show than for actual percussion, there was no live music to speak of. Still, the two band members vere very charismatic, and particularly the singer put on a great show and really managed to engage the crowd....
The first teaser for the upcoming “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” movie has been released. Frankly, there’s not much to see, as it does not contain any actual footage from the movie. Regardless, at least it is another sign that the work is proceeding. There is also a nice history of the movie. I still find it hard to believe that it is actually happening…
iRiver recently announced the impressive PMP-120 audio / video player, which looks very exciting and has a long list of features. It plays all the relevant audio formats (including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and WMA), as well as video formats (including Mpeg, DivX, and XviD). It has a built-in speaker as well as a 3.5" TFT screen, but you can hook it up to a TV as well. Apparently it will initially ship with a 20GB hard drive, but a 40GB version is planned as well....
Cudos to TiVo Inc., who decided to get rid of the premium Home Media Option and instead made these additional services (online scheduling, digital music, digital photos and multi-room viewing) freely available as part of the standard subscription. For an additional monthly fee, I would not have considered subscribing to these features, but for free I think they represent an awesome enhancement of the already great TiVo service. They have also introduced a significant discount for additional TiVo subscriptions, which now go for $6....