iPod Touch vs Kindle Touch

So I’ve had my Kindle Touch for more than two weeks now and I must say I’m enjoying it so far.

But the screen refresh is still an issue for me. I might return it. Or not. It depends.

Anyway, I decided to write a short blog entry comparing my reading experience on the iPod Touch and my Kindle Touch.

Truth be told, what got me into the whole e-book reading experience was my iPod Touch. The iBooks app was pretty cool for me and I got to read maybe 4 or 5 books on my iPod Touch. I enjoyed it for a while. But it did give me eye strain. I experienced head ache some of the time so I would stop reading for an hour or two and then resume reading.

With the Kindle Touch, since it does read like paper, I don’t get the headaches as much. Not when the turning of the page works properly. When there’s a glitch and the Kindle refreshes the page every time, that’s when I get the headache. Probably because I find it annoying. Otherwise, I’m fine.

By the way, the Kindle Touch is only supposed to refresh the screen every 5 or 6 pages.

This is it for now. I’ll be going back to reading The Great Gatsby.

An Open Letter to Apple Philippines

Dear Apple Philippines,

I’ve been using iTunes and an iPod since the iPod Nano first came out. I must admit that given the memory capacity of the earlier iPod nano model and the humble beginnings of iTunes, I really didn’t care much for it.

But since then, you and I have gone a long way. I’ve upgraded my iPod Nano twice (to the cute Pink 2nd generation iPod Nano that I’ve stuck for so long while waiting for a worthy upgrade) and now have a 32 GB 4th Generation iPod Touch while you have a handful of iPod generations, iTunes 10 and now available in more places outside the USA.

So, I was thinking, how about an upgrade for your customers in the Philippines? How about offering music, TV and movie downloads to us as well? Most of us have credit cards too, you know, and are very much willing to spend on good music, TV and/or movie downloads, Filipino or otherwise. Heck, we spend on apps now. I think we’d spend on music and movies too.

This will be a win-win situation for everyone: Filipino music artists get to promote their music on iTunes, people like me get to complete an album (hopefully) with album art (without leaving our home to buy the CDs—because honestly, I don’t know what to do with the CD after I’ve copied the songs onto iTunes), and you get to serve your customers AND earn.

And with a little more luck, you might let us download or rent Filipino TV and movies.

Come on, why don’t you try us out for a year or two? If it proves to be not good business, then continue providing just apps to us. But if it’s proven to be profitable, even for just a little, please continue to provide us the service.

Hopefully, I’ll get to see a resolution soon.

Thanks for reading.

Much Respect,

Noisy Me

Vacation Leave!

I am so happy to be blogging again. I’m on first mandatory leave since I started working for my new company. I get another one and a half days off after the Christmas. After that, I’ll have to work really hard because the team and I will be doing the year-end reports. That’ll probably take up the whole night.

Hmm…what else has been going on with me? Nothing much. I’ve still been watching my favorite shows. So let’s have a little run-down:

Gossip Girl – Hmm.. Yes, Juliet Sharp was really annoying but she did have a reason. But I’m not saying that it’s a good enough reason to try and destroy Serena. Oh, and who didn’t love the little twist about Lily van der Woodsen? Turns out she was the reason why Ben Sharp (now we find out that he’s Serena’s teacher at the boarding school) is in prison. Sneaky bitch. Plus the fact that she’s trying to sell Bass Industries as quietly as possible. She deserves whatever’s coming to her. By the way, I’m still not loving the Dan and Serena pair. I’d prefer that Serena be with Nate. Oh wait, maybe we’ll see Nate mature a little. Then we can see that pairing happen.

The Vampire Diaries – Very nice cliffhanger. We won’t see a new episode until January. I just have to say Michael Trevino’s acting here was very much on target. I could see the pain he was undergoing. The pain in the transformation scenes weren’t forced. Caroline and Tyler…there may be something there worth exploring. Let’s see who she chooses.. Matt or Tyler. Elena and Stefan together again…Yes! Damon and Rose are not good together. I think Damon needs someone as badass as he is.

Glee – I hope Charice shows up soon. I hope Kurt moves back to New Directions with Darren Criss’ character. I hope Rachel and Finn work out their issues soon and get back together. And wasn’t that a tear-jerking scene near the end of their Christmas episode? Artie walking! Yay!

Burn Notice – I’ve finally finished Season 3. Onward to Season 4.

Family Guy – I’m hoping to watch the latest episode tonight, if not tomorrow.

White Collar – almost done! I’m about to watch the second to the last episode of Season 2. Can’t wait for Season 3 to start.

Spartacus – I’ve just started to watch this. There might be some potential here. I’ve noticed that it’s like “300” on TV. I wish great health towards the actor who plays Spartacus and hope that he overcomes his cancer.

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Okay, for non-TV related events:

I got myself the latest iPod touch after months of indecision between the iPod touch and the Blackberry Bold 9700. I had the iPhone 4 in mind but figured that since it’s a 2-in-1 gadget and should I lose it, I’ll be losing not one, but two things: my phone and my music player.

My next goal is the Blackberry Bold 9700. I’m saving that for my birthday.

Yes, I know I posted earlier that I’ll be getting the BB 9700 but because of Globe Telecom’s LOUSY CUSTOMER SERVICE, I’ve decided to wait. More on Globe’s bad customer service as soon as they get my issue resolved.

Right now, what I’m doing is blogging while I get my iPod software updated to 4.2. And based on my internet speed, the counter says that I still have 3 hours to go. So what I’ll probably do is be busy with downloading the album covers and filling in the missing data from my iTunes music.

Anyone can recommend a better ISP?

What else? I’m enjoying my work so far. My new team mates have been great so far. Charls will be joining us next year and I’m looking forward to it.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get my parents a great Christmas gift soon. I’ll probably do some Christmas shopping tomorrow after work. I really don’t want to do some shopping after the 15th, the day being a payday for most people. It’ll be traffic hell, for sure.

That’s it!

 

 

Apple’s Big Announcement Revealed

Ok. So it turns out my prediction was way off. There are more updates with software and hardware than I thought there would be.

Here are the following changes that we’ll be seeing from Apple:

Update on the iOS4, the operating system that’s currently running on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. This will be released next week. Apparently, the update will fix the bugs that’s currently plaguing the iPhone 3G. There will be two updates, 4.1 and 4.2. The 4.1 update includes the update stated above plus an introduction to the HDR (high dynamic range) camera. It’s pretty cool since what an HDR camera does is when you take a picture, it’ll capture three versions of the picture. “Three? Why three?”, you ask. One’s in normal exposure, the other is over-exposed while the third one will be under-exposed. The software combines all three into one photo but it’ll still keep the three pictures so you can compare. This will be useful too for the artsy people out there who like to experiment. Users will be also be able to upload their photos over the wi-fi network. Gamers rejoice since the new software allows you to play with other friends on the multi-player games.

iOS 4.2 – This software will be released and ready for download by November 2010. The updates here, Steve Jobs said, will be mostly for iPad users but iPhone and iPod Touch users can download it as well. A pretty good update, I think is that wireless printing is coming. Apparently, Steve Jobs didn’t go into details as to how your printer and your wireless device will be communicating. Other bloggers are speculating that there might be a software that you’ll have to install on either one or both of the devices that you have to enable wireless printing.

iPods – They redesigned all three – the iPod Shuffle, the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch. The iPod Shuffle didn’t have much of a change, except that it’ll be a little smaller than it’s predecessor. The iPod Nano now looks like the iPod Shuffle, except that it doesn’t have the click-wheel and it looks so much better than the Shuffle. Check it out here (if you click on the pictures, it will take you to the Apple website:

 

The Nano is now so small that it’s impossible to watch videos on it. It’s simply a music player with the following dimensions:

Height: 1.48 inches

Width: 1.61 inches

Depth: 0.35 inches (including the clip)

I’m on the bench on this one. I don’t know if I like it or if I don’t like it. Granted that it’s touch screen but…I’m not sure yet.

The iPod Touch brings on major, major updates. The new features include

• Two cameras, one in front and the other at the back
• Retina display, similar to that of the iPhone 4
• HD Video Recording and Editing
• An updated gaming center

The new iPod Touch is the iPhone 4, without the calling capabilities. But it still does not include the FM Radio!! That’s a major downer for me. I was saving up for the iPod Touch and was really looking forward to them putting on an FM Radio feature.

iTunes 10

Nothing new here except for Ping, a social network for music lovers and according to Steve Jobs, it’s Twitter meets iTunes. This will be available for iPhone and iPod Touch users

I think I covered all the updates…

Let me know if I missed anything.