[Update!]
Zune 2 is official and details released
Hands on at Wired is here

summary:
"Say what you will about Microsoft, but its shown with things like the Xbox 360 that it can enter a market, and then learn a lot from customer feedback to improve its products, and I think they've done the same with Zune. They're aware that they have to play catch up, but they seem confident that they can get there."
--Mark McClusky @ Wired

One apple fanboy retorted that while "...Apple has finally found something it can dominate microsoft at. MS will always sell more computers and software than apple simply because they were the first to make it really simple to use and apple did the same with iPod. Microsoft may get close, but will never surpass the grandiose and pure boner laden goodness that apple has created with the ipod."

This is true but I'm very hopeful. Watching this launch is akin to watching a child take it's first steps. Microsoft, you're so close! Keep going---competition with the iPod monopoly is a good thing! I believe in your mountains of money that you have to throw at this!
[/Update]

I'm thinking about buying a Zune.
No, not one of their bloated and unattractive anti-social(see what we did there?) behemoths that are currently on shelves everywhere pining for an owner.
I'm talking about the rumored Flash-based Zune that has been kicked around for the past several months. The first and most obvious question from Apple fanboys is "Why, for the love of Jobs, why?!".
Well let's break it down:
They will be competing with the iPod monopoly before they even release leaked specs\pics. Just the name is synonymous with mobile music hilarity not just for the brick-like design, but for the obscure and often-times out-and-out strange \ disturbingly phallic ads that were released in a 'viral' fashion online. At best inexplicable and at worst drug-fueled, they did not so much encourage one to buy so much as to avoid. But, like the first gen Zune itself, setting that aside is on the highest level of priority when considering this purchase. But I digress.
The question of why:
Because as the owner of a 3G iPod, a current iPod Shuffle, I'm tired of iPods. To be honest I'm feeling a little over-saturated with their product and wanting something fresh and NEW that is actually worth the cost of investment. The Sansa e270 was an almost buy with its flash memory and -almost- enough size, but in the end storage capacity decided it. My sweet spot for music is anywhere between 8-10Gb, a void filled neatly by the iPod touch, taking me back to the over-saturation dilemma. The problem with all this is that the Flash Zune is, judging from MS's history, likely to be largely overlooked unless they address the problems with their finicky software,proprietary DRM and shockingly limited Wi-Fi.
Microsoft must deliver a polished UI not only of the device itself, but also a polished end-user environment on their PC's. As of yet the Zune has not done that, and unlike the Xbox, they have not found their equivalent Halo\Bungie combination to dent the iPod's halo effect and be one of the much vaunted 'killer apps' that this era of web logging has spawned.
Granted, this is a dim prognosis for the Zune (one might say terminal...) but let's not give up on Ballmer & Co. quite yet.
Look at the first generation iPod.
It was an ugly brick compared to the beautiful, glossy models of today and even the second generation. First generations are like that. I'm willing to give the Zune a try even if only for novelty's sake, but Redmond is going to have to meet me more than half-way, and unless a major shakeup has occurred in their Zune division.....well there's always hope.

Microsoft paid $50 MILLION for GTA IV Downloadable Content

From a conference call held with Take 2's CFO last week: "The first 25 million is for the first episodic content package that’s supposed to go out and that is in March of ’08. That’s why it moved into current because it’s in the next 12 months. The second 25 will be for the second episodic, the episode, and that will be later in fiscal ’08."



read more | digg story

No point in running from the inevitable:
Apple released the eagerly anticipated iPhone, as well as the Apple TV. There is a lot that could be said here, and that is currently being hurled about the blogospheres with near lethal velocities. Suffice to say that the iPhone is cool. VERY cool. In the words of Steve Jobs:
"It is awesome, isn't it?"

It's alot to absorb, but nobody can deny that Apple has truly delivered, once again. Yet another product that goes far and above the current products within an established genre.
There is an excellent interview with Steve about the iPhone on Youtube, but to truly appreciate the iPhone, one needs to travel to either apple.com or download\stream the Keynote that Mr. Jobs delivered in trademark style earlier today.

Not much else to say---the videos speak for themselves:
Hands down this looks like the smartest smartphone to ever hit the market.
Discussing the new iPhone there were joking references made within the ShAT (Shouting About Technology) camp that Apple could change it's slogan to:
"Apple. We put the O-M-G in OrGasMic!"

Huge coolpoints for the 'multi-touch' technology. Layman's that means there is only ONE button on the whole thing, and the rest is a glossy-SWEET touchpad. For those technically inclined, i'll give the features rundown as found on apple.com:

• Screen size	3.5 inches
  Screen resolution	320 by 480 at 160 ppi
  Input method	Multi-touch
  Operating system	OS X
  Storage	4 GB or 8GB
  GSM	Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
  Wireless data	Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
  Camera	2.0 megapixels
  Battery	Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing Up to 16 hours Audio playback
  Dimensions	4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
  Weight	4.8 ounces / 135 grams

In other news, Nokia is being a poor sport and a tad peevish (lol)

More as things develop---


[edit] - 15 minute iPhone hands-on w\ Gizmodo (details scanty)

Second entry and already a variation from the stated intent:
Simple and straight forward plug for a band that's been in circulation for a while.
Shiny Toy Guns.
Excellent techno\buzzword\etc. band that definitely warrants a listen.

Moving on to the tech news:
Macworld Expo is coming up and no chance of anyone just shutting up and letting it happen. It would be silly of me to try and mention every blog that has gone rabid in the last 2 weeks leading up to the holy days that comprise the MacWorld Exposition. Planned coverage ranges from live blogging and streaming video from a legion of mac die-hards and journalists. There is nothing wrong with a little fervor, but please! You would have to have died to have managed to somehow avoid the feeding frenzy that has been the iPhone speculation over the last 2 years, not to mention the last two weeks! Yes, I'm sure it will be fabulous IF it is unveiled! Or Steve retires! zOMgoneone111twothree!!
Get a hold boys and at least act like you have a pair and keep your iBalls in from exploding spontaneously from the pressure being exerted by the sheer amount of HYPE that is being generated.
Everyone always talks about how Apple is frightfully effective at stirring up hype for products that haven't even been hinted at, much less formerly declared to exist. With the iPhone alone, there is enough agonized anticipation to out-angst 10 high school proms, not to mention the fabled Mac-tablet.
A perfect example of this is the recent article titled:
"Apple iPhone: 10 People whose reputations rest on the release of an Apple cell phone"
The problem, as is pointed out in the beginning of the article is this

"They all claim to have inside information on the 'iPhone' but their reports conflict.
We'll soon know who's credible and who's full of it. Or if Apple doesn't release a phone they're all wrong."

To reiterate, my request is simple: get a hold of yourselves.
I'm pretty sure that Steve isn't going to come down off the podium and say "and one more thing....-THIS- guy totally guessed what I was going to unveil! Everybody give Tom MacLad of SecretAppleDoubleSecret.secretapple.com a big round of applause! He's really something, isn't he folks?" (though if this did occur, odds are very high the fanboy in question would either die of a stroke, wet himself, or start humping Steve's leg [or any combination of the three].)
What will be, will be, and while terribly exciting, is (and as an acknowledged tech fanboy, this pains me) not of the importance that would warrant all this hubbub.
Whether or not the "iPhone" shows, or a new "true" video iPod appears as has been rumored since the 5G's came out, the world will keep turning.
This is the way I see it: even if they introduce their phone, i'm of the opinion that it is likely as not, NOT going to be what everyone wants it to be, simply because of the sheer amount of hype that has preceded it's rumored release, as well as it being a first effort. This is not to say that it will be bad; in all probability it will rock--Apple's track record as everyone knows, is very strong. But at best, I only see this as becoming the Razr of a couple years ago. I don't know about you all, but I don't like having my music interrupted for a phone call. I like my phone to be OFF sometimes, not to mention the sheer amount of power that will be drawn by a device with as many functions as this one is rumored to posess.

That said, let's move on to something not Apple-related.
Engadget recently released this story about Asus' new dual-screened laptop. An Ultra-portable 12", Asus chose to forgo the slimline of traditional notebooks and pack in an extra display on the exterior (pics here).
Looks interesting, but so far no hard numbers on specs and capabilities. I'm expecting a Core Duo with 1Gb of RAM as that is pretty standard nowadays, 12" not withstanding.

Lastly, it looks like there's another xBox 360 coming down the pipe!

"...codenamed Zephyr. (The original Xbox 360, if you recall, was codenamed Xenon.) The long rumored about and awaited update to the console won't just feature a new, cooler 65nm processor, it's also finally added an HDMI port for full digital 1080p pleasure, as well as a 120GB drive..."

Welcome one and all to Shouting about Technology. The purpose of this blog is to address and offer commentary on current events in Tech news and various and sundry related topics running from game reviews to why George Lucas feels he needs to hurt me.
George, you know what I'm talking about.
Why are you doing this, George? A TV show? Were the first 3 or 4 re-imaginings of your original masterpiece too few? Were Episodes 1-3 not bad enough? It seems that at this juncture, all you are doing is adding insult to unseemly injury. Admittedly, you have said that it will take place between Episodes 3 and 4, but how far can we trust the man to not just take, instead of being influenced by, Firefly and Battlestar? Remember, people, this is the very same man who gave us "medichloreans". (or however you spell that)
well, now that's done;
i haven't updated in quite a while. I generally try to keep my blog up to date, even if i let my other blogs go to seed, but it has proved a task that leaves me cold, and as such, I haven't done it. Moving away from the subject of Lucas and his insatiable desire to hurts the ones that love and on to the lighter side I just remembered my self-assigned date to pick up a macbook or macbook pro! I'm waiting till after OS X's latest revamp is released so that I don't have to buy it immediately after purchasing my lappy. It will be sweet.

In other news, I love my iMac, and have finally moved beyond the initial "everything glows white" stage and can tell you the following:

1. Macs and OS X are not going to make your various bits any bigger, so just because you own one does not make you any better\cooler than your friends and acquaintance

2. That said, OS X is a delightful operating system (OS) and while not the "final solution" it is definitely a viable and positive choice when choosing your platform. To quote a stat at you all, 1.8 million macs were sold in the last financial quarter, among those, 1.1 million of them being macbooks. Why are people buying them? Outside of the regular mac factors (sexy design, os x standard) the main reasons are being able to dual-boot Windows (whether at start-up or using Windows and OS X simultaneously via Parallels Software's excellent $80 program.) This is a huge selling point, and it has encouraged a massive shift in the computer (and most visibly) and laptop demographics.

3. Caution: burning CD's in OS X is a pain in the NECK---a quick way to relieve this pain is to download Liquid CD. I spent a couple hours trying to find a good burning program and this came out on top by far. It's free and it's excellently integrated with iTunes.
1. another thing on that subject: make sure you have your music files in .mp3 format or you will have to wade through a long and arduous process of converting your wma's to mp3 or aac. it's a big pain and easily avoided by ripping CD's to .mp3
[the music wants to be free! ;-) ]

4. iMacs are beautiful to move from place to place in the house, because of their "all-in-one" build. I get angel choirs every time i move it, b\c of the simple fact that i don't have to hump a big CRT as well as a tower and their are only TWO cords. So great.
1. downside to iMac design: only 3 USB ports ;-(


that's all for my mac round up tonight, i have a lunch date followed by a court date tomorrow, so i'm hitting the hay (to read Stephen King before bed.)



PS -Japan continues to fill American and European fanboys green with envy as their regions Virtual Console has perhaps not twice as many titles but certainly which are "older school" and desirable to many consumers in non-Japanese markets. My only thoughts are that should one want to play these games badly enough, there are emulators enough, as well as ROM's online by the dozen. NESticle is certainly onesuch and not a bad place to start.

More tomorrow---

Evan