Holiday Tech gifts

[ElTaco]

All right everyone, what did you score for Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrated recently?

I got the IPod Touch - 16gb version which is sweet. I am very amazed by apple's user interface design. Just annoys the crap out of me that no one else is willing to think of such an easy interface that works so well. Of course the ipod touch only really works as anything but a music player (and games and such) when it is connected to the net via Wifi, which makes me wish Verizon had the iPhone. Some people think it may be coming this year but after looking at the rumor sites, I don't really think so.

Some of the not so geeky electronic toys that still rock are a heating shaving cream dispensers and a towel heater! Lots of other nifty stuff but those were the electronic ones!

Anyone else?

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Intel E7300 currently clocking in at 3.34Ghz. De-lidded the integrated heat spreader and slapped on a Ninja-2 heatpipe cooler.

Some assorted flash memory which is fuckin' dirt cheap right now.

[jiminphilly]

All right everyone, what did you score for Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrated recently?

I got the IPod Touch - 16gb version which is sweet. I am very amazed by apple's user interface design. Just annoys the crap out of me that no one else is willing to think of such an easy interface that works so well. Of course the ipod touch only really works as anything but a music player (and games and such) when it is connected to the net via Wifi, which makes me wish Verizon had the iPhone. Some people think it may be coming this year but after looking at the rumor sites, I don't really think so.

Some of the not so geeky electronic toys that still rock are a heating shaving cream dispensers and a towel heater! Lots of other nifty stuff but those were the electronic ones!

Anyone else?

Bought a Wii for the family. Can't find Mario Kart anywhere so I'm left with Wii sports (200 avg on bowling) and I play the Star Wars Legos game with my son. That game is a lot of fun and I hear the Batman version is even better. I'm also playing COD- World at War but I don't have the proper gun yet so I die a lot. I have a buddy who has the game too and so eventually I'll be playing online too.

Also got a car tuner for my Zune - which is back working now, thanks Microshit- and that's about it.

[Screw_Michigan]

I got a 250 GB external HD, which is great because the laptop I'm running on has a 20 GB HD, so I can put all my music on my external. Bad news is that, I think, there are power issues because sometimes the laptop doesn't recognize the drive and it gives me the "this would run faster on a high-speed usb port" message.

ET, wouldn't you rather have one of the 40 or 60 GB ipods instead of a touch? Yeah, the touches are cool, but to me, it's more important to have ALL of my shit on one Ipod.

[Mister Bushice]

You are just plugging the ext HD into a lower speed USB port on your 'puter. If you plug it into a high speed port you will get better access speeds to the Ext drive.

If you have an older computer, it might not have a high speed port.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

I got a 250 GB external HD, which is great because the laptop I'm running on has a 20 GB HD, so I can put all my music on my external. Bad news is that, I think, there are power issues because sometimes the laptop doesn't recognize the drive and it gives me the "this would run faster on a high-speed usb port" message.

If the external enclosure came with a power adapter, use that.
If it came with a two USB plug adapter, use that. The one USB plug is for data and power and the other USB plug is strictly for more power. Assuming you have a 2.5" external drive, most drives won't spin up at the measly 5V-500mA that a USB port will put out.

[Screw_Michigan]

Nope, just one plug from the HD into the computer via USB. No power supply or dual cord. Works more than fine on my computer at work, then again, that's some high powered modern-aged shit. My laptop at home is eight years old. Just about worthless, like PISC.

[Screw_Michigan]

YIf you have an older computer, it might not have a high speed port.

That's probably the right answer. God damn it, that's why my MGMT live video boots come in so choppy! FUCK!

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

My laptop at home is eight years old. Just about worthless, like PISC.

You could always get a USB 2 PCMCIA card for your laptop.

I have an older Sony Vaio laptop that didn't have high speed USB, so I bought a PCMCIA card on Ebay. I think it was $15 shipped.

[Mister Bushice]

I got a 250 GB external HD, which is great because the laptop I'm running on has a 20 GB HD, so I can put all my music on my external. Bad news is that, I think, there are power issues because sometimes the laptop doesn't recognize the drive and it gives me the "this would run faster on a high-speed usb port" message.

If the external enclosure came with a power adapter, use that.
If it came with a two USB plug adapter, use that. The one USB plug is for data and power and the other USB plug is strictly for more power. Assuming you have a 2.5" external drive, most drives won't spin up at the measly 5V-500mA that a USB port will put out.

I get this same message sometimes, as my two front USB drives are not high speed ports, and I'm too lazy to connect high speed stuff to the back of my puter where that port is located.

Doesn't affect me much. I don't care if my back ups are slower. I don't use it as my primary.

[ElTaco]

ET, wouldn't you rather have one of the 40 or 60 GB ipods instead of a touch? Yeah, the touches are cool, but to me, it's more important to have ALL of my shit on one Ipod.

Yes and No. First of all, I do love the touch and it has a lot of tools on it that are nifty tools, including some I can use for work. Instead of carying around my phone I can carry it around the office with WIFI and receive work and personal email on it, weather, and even use it for IT work with network tools and RDP.

It holds 16gb of video, music, etc..

I did have a 60gb ipod video (3rd gen) that was fairly awesome, except that really it was only great for music. I could hold all my music plus some of my favorite shows on it, but of course the drive ended up failing, which really sucked. I like the ipod touch in this respect because it doesn't use a drive, but a flash drive, which is more useful so I can use it for workouts, running, entertainment and work. The only thing missing is the phone aspect and then trully it would do everything.

As far as having more space, they did just come out with a 32GB Ipod Touch, which is starting to get into the space territory where a lot of people could carry most of their music on it. Also, as with CDs, there is a lot of music that you own that you may not constantly want to listen to. As a result, I think having 16GB, while not as good as 32 or (or 64 that is bound to come out in a year or so) is enough to store a good chunk of music on there that should satisfy you for a few weeks.

Also, with radio, cds, xm, computer, Satellite TV (w/XM), etc...I just don't use my ipod for music as much as I used to back in the day. On the other hand, my old Ipod video is still within my possession, although the drive did die. I could easily get a kit and replace the drive and than I guess I would have the best of both worlds.