Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

Nope, I don't have one (yet).

I try to make it a policy not to buy 1st Gen gear (or kit as the brits say).

Generally, I make it my policy for a two main reasons.

1. There almost always are bugs of some form or another. Hopefully, it can be patched with some firmware/software updates vs a recall.

2. Cost. First generation gear is almost always more expensive. Now, this doesn't necessarily translate well for the iPhone as it is a piece of consumer electronics and unlikely to have competition, say like DVD makers or video card makers. I mean when DVD players first came out they were quite expensive, as competition ensued they got cheaper. And for years now you can buy a DVD player at HEB for about $50 (give or take $10). Video cards are the same way, when a new technology (chipset) is released the price of the card will be upwards of $300. A generation or two later (likely say 6-12 months), video cards based on that same chipset are likely to cost in the $80-$125 range. They may not offer the exact same memory specs and what not of the $300 card, but it will be close enough that you won't care.

In regards to the iPhone, I mean when the iPod was first released they were quite expensive. Then they offered out the shuffle (or did the Nano come first?) and that allowed you to get an 'iPod' for a lower cost of entry.

Who knows, maybe they will offer out a bigger and better iPhone in a year or so and thus force a drop of the price of the current model by a $100 or so? You never know.

I definitely would like to own one. But I most definitely want 3G data networking vs the EDGE bullshit. I am sure the EDGE network is faster than the GPRS network that I utilized with my PC-Phone that I used for about 6-8 months on T-Mobile's network. The data transfer rate on that sucked! (And without the option for WiFi mind you.)

Anyway, there are folks here in the office that stood in line. And Eric over @ UnWiredBuyer has sent me a few emails from his iPhone, he setup his signature to say 'Sent from my iPhone.'

The coverage of the iPhone launch will continue on for a few weeks, but I am guessing by the end of the month it won't be the hot topic, but just like the original iPod it will continue to be a status symbol for a while.

Anyway, I better start saving my pennies now.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

Now you are probably asking yourself one of two things.

1. What is against your technical religion?

2. What is a technical religion?

Let me answer these in that order.

Regular iPods are against my technical religion. I shouldn't just limit it to iPods though. I should broaden the scope to be MP3 players that use micro hard-drives. This is because of the moving parts. MP3 players are for PORTABLE music. The key word being PORTABLE. Portability and moving parts typically don't work well with one another.

The old portable cd players skip, right? Well the hard-drives have the ability to skip too.

Therefore I believe in MP3 players that utilize flash memory.

I bought Gina an early x-mas gift. She had been asking for an iPod. Regular iPods have the micro hard-drives and thus are against my technical religion. I couldn't bring myself to buy her one. However, the iPod nano is flash memory based. Oh yeah, did I mention that they make it in pink.

That of course leaves the question, "What is a technical religion?". It is a term I made up while talking with Gina about the iPod.

I am not trying to discount religious faith. But it seemed to fit the talk at the time. I mean there was a brief discussion at work about flash memory vs moving parts in MP3 players. It was something that was a pretty powerful discussion.

The PC vs Mac discussion tends to be pretty powerful too. And in the more programming arena the Microsoft vs Linux for server OS. Then when you travel further down the path you get into the Object Oriented (OO) vs non-OO programming languages. And one of my personal favorites, Scripting languages vs Compiled languages.

All of these topics lead usually have die-hard supporters.

I will keep my Rio for quite a while to come, it is working out well for me. In a few years who knows, maybe I will get an iPod or if they work the kinks out a Zune (that I am sure someone will get Linux to compile on).

Oh yeah, one of the reasons Gina wanted the iPod, other than it being cute and hip, is that like 99% of the music she buys come from iTunes. This leads to a bit of a not-fun music transfer process to get it onto her Rio. The ability for her to easily transfer her music to her MP3 and enjoy the music is important, thus why I gave into buying something from a company that I normal talk bad about.

The reason I talk bad about Apple? Mostly because of the hype factor. I have to say that they have done well for themselves in the last few years, stock wise and product wise. However, you pay extra $$ for the hype. This bugs me.

I mean I find it interesting that companies like Rio and Creative Labs had MP3 players on the market for a couple of years before the iPod shows up on the street. Yet Apple is often touted as being the creators. I will give Apple this, they made MP3 players cool. Previously, MP3 players were for geeks and nerds, they weren't hip yet.

Now, they are everywhere.

Ok, I have to go turn the meat on the grill.

Laterz