• 20Oct 09

  Convergence and giving in to the lack of a touch screen

  After four years of service, my beloved 40 gigabyte Zen Touch portable music player is not giving me anything close to the 26 hours of battery life per charge that it used to.

  When you are used to going three weeks or so between charges, it is irritating to suddenly have to re-charge every day or three. Especially when you are someone who obsesses over battery life.

  In 2005, the Zen Touch offered, by far, the longest battery life for a high capacity portable music player. It was my only option. Today, multiple portable media players last 30 hours or longer (for music) before needing to be re-charged. The battery life-obsessed can now look at features besides battery life when choosing a portable media player.

  So what do I replace my Zen Touch with.

  A PSP go, the new, download-only version of the PlayStation Portable, which lasts about 10 hours per charge for playing music. With the screen off.

  (I chose the black model.)

  This was an impulse buy. For some time I was considering replacing my Zen Touch with a Zune HD (which Microsoft claims lasts 33 hours per battery charge) when a 64 gigabyte version of the Zune HD was released or my Zen's battery died completely, whichever came first.

  But when I learned that I could buy a PSP go at a discount, that was more temptation than I could handle.

  The concept of having all my portable games and all my music available to me at all times in a device that easily fits in a pants pocket is one that greatly appeals to me. I can live with changing discs or cartridges or cards or whatever on a device that stays in one place because the system and its media tend to be near one another. If I want that kind of choice with a portable device, I need to carry everything with me, and I can only hold so much in my pockets at one time.

  Say I'm on a bus playing Burnout Legends. Say I'm getting bored of Burnout Legends but I still want to play a game. A few button presses and I'm playing LocoRoco 2. When I'm finished with LocoRoco 2, I can press a few buttons and play Tetris. And when I tire of playing games, I can press a few buttons to listen to The Chair in the Doorway album by Living Colour and then place my PSP go in my pants pocket. All without changing physical media; it's all in the PSP go's internal storage.

  This sort of scenario is what makes the PSP go an amazing device, and it is not currently possible with any other hardware.

  Not legally or with good games anyway.

  Still, it would have been nice if the PSP go had a touchscreen. A few months ago, I went as far as saying that I would not buy a PSP go because it had no touchscreen. A touchscreen and stylus are what make the Nintendo DS versatile, allowing it to run games and non-games that do all sorts of things that are impossible or difficult by pressing buttons. (Ever try playing Meteos by pressing buttons? Don't.) But even without a touchscreen, there are plenty excellent games to be played on a PSP go, and they are all available at all times.

  Not that there is no buyer's remorse with my PSP go impulse buy. The PSP go is weak as a music player. It can play music well, but it is missing basic features that devices that are primarily music players have. There is no play queue, so unless you want to listen in artist/album/track order (or by mood with the optional, free SenseMe channels software), you must first create a playlist on a computer and then transfer it to your PSP go or select a new track as soon as the track that was playing ends. Windows Media Audio files cannot be played until after WMA playback is enabled, which requires an Internet connection. Copy-protected audio files will not play. And as already mentioned, battery life is weak compared to devices designed primarily for music.

  So if anyone wants to buy me a Walkman X, please do.

  • Posted Oct 20, 2009 2:59 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 16Jul 09

  Life lessons

  There is an unwritten law that says that all blogs must have an entry about life lessons and/or life advice. Here's this blog's entry on the subject.

  • A classy, expensive watch is the best way to get others to take you seriously. It works better than a suit.
  • A unique pair of eyeglasses is the best way to make others aware that you will not accept what everyone else is willing to accept.
  • Web browsing on a phone is no fun, even with a "good" mobile Web browser.

  It's been a while, I know. I'll post a real blog entry sooner or later.

  • Posted Jul 16, 2009 1:12 pm PT
  • Category: General
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• 11Mar 09

  "Son, I met your mother on PlayStation Home"

  "I didn't know what she looked like, had no idea of her age range or even know if she was a woman, but she had a female avatar, so I asked her to send me topless pictures of herself, to which she immediately agreed. I liked what I saw, so I asked her to meet me in person so that we could have sex."

  "As we were snuggling, I discovered that she had not only a great body, but also a charming personality. One thing led to another, and here we are: married with kids."

  I witness this on PlayStation Home all the time. (Except for the part about getting married and having children.)

  Maybe I am getting too old for this, or perhaps it is my lack of experience with Internet social networking, but it surprises and shocks me that there are so many sleazy, tactless men out there who have no issue with going up to female avatars (that may or may not be controlled by women) and asking for revealing photographs, or more.

  And it surprises and shocks me more that so many women are apparently willing to comply with such requests from men with whom they know nothing about.

  But then, I am inexperienced with social networking over the Internet. I don't use MySpace. I don't have a Facebook account. And I don't "get" Second Life, much less why Reuters had a bureau on it.

  I thought, at best, that these services and their competitors were for socializing without socializing, and, at worst, that they could be excuses for employers to fire you because of damaging personal information made public on them.

  I had no idea that this seedy element existed.

  Naive, I know. Anything on the Internet that can be used for sex is used for sex.

  I started using PlayStation Home because it's free, was already there and required no setup on my part. I assumed that I would use it once and never touch it again. Socializing without socializing is of no interest to me.

  But morbid amusement is.

  Men trying to pick up women who may or may not really be women is the most common and the most amusing, but it is not the only thing that makes PlayStation Home amusing. That alone could get dull after a while. There is also racism, sexism, sexual harasment, homophobia, xenophobia and all sorts of other forms of stupidity.

  I don't know where it's all coming from. I thought that most people had evolved beyond such bigotry decades ago, or at least knew to keep their prejudices to themselves. I certainly don't see anywhere as much of it in the real world as I see on PlayStation Home.

  In the real world, these things are disturbing, but on PlayStation Home, they're harmless and therefore amusing. No one can truly do anything to you unless you give out your personal information.

  Seeing this stupidity is what makes PlayStation Home fun, and why I keep on coming back.

  • Posted Mar 11, 2009 2:35 pm PT
  • Category: Relationships
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