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Well it’s friday and this week is over! The new ipod shuffle came out last week and my friend Chris and his wife Danettte got me one as a college graduation gift. Which is really nice, seeing as the people I work for didn’t even acknowledge it. But enough bitching already. What I wanted to talk about is how cool this little thing is. I bought the first generation ipod and was very happy with it, so happy that it took a long time before I bought another. The only downside to the 1st gen was that it wouldn’t save your spot mid-song (but more importantly mid-podcast).

I’ve been using the new shuffle for a couple days and this one is even better than the first. The saving problem seems to be fixed, god was that annoying.  The size is amazing, it’s smaller than a usb flash drive. But it doesn’t feel light, it feels like you’re holding something in your hand. There’s a clip on the back that seems very strong (Apple has made this very well). The new shuffle uses a short (about 3 inches or so) USB cord that plugs into the headphone jack. No dock is needed, like the 2nd gen shuffle. The shuffle has the standard – off, playlist and shuffle- settings on the top. Whats new is the Voice Over feature, “with the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you what song and artist your listening to—without interrupting your music” and it really works! “Also new to the ipod shuffle, you can have multiple playlists and because VoiceOver announces the play list names,  you can easily find one without taking your eyes off your whatever you may be doing”. All of this is done on the new headphones, via the toggle on the right earbuds cord. The toggle also allows you to control the play/pause, next track and the volume. As an added bonus, you can use the headphones with the iphone and the ipod touch. Altough the VoiceOver does not work, maybe this will be added in the 3.0 update thats coming?

I really think this product is a steal. A 4gb mp3 player for $79. Now maybe I’ll exercise with it or more likely just sit on my duff and listen.

Chris and Danette are really good friends and photographers. Their website is http://www.roguephotoohio.com

Thank you some much for the wonderful gift!

I’ve been talking about the Touch w/ Mark (a co-worker and friend) for about as long as they’ve been out. Mainly because I’m too cheap to pay “AT&T/the mafia” for the overpriced iphone plan. Besides I love my Nokia (the camera, battery life and reception are the best around). Plus it’s great with mp3’s and video. The only downside is the browser, it’s small and hard to navigate.

So, I broke down and upgraded my 3 year old ipod. Which, price wise, wasn’t that bad. However, the hidden costs are killing me. But, I do love this damn thing.

First a 32gb ipod touch $400.

Second, you need a case for it. So there goes $25

Third, I didn’t have a wireless router at home, that was $60 (Because you need to surf with this time gobbling machine)

Now were close to $500 with tax.

If we could stop there everything would be OK. This is where the App store comes in to play. First let me say that I’m not a video gamer. I don’t have a system of any kind. The store has a lot of FREE apps that are really pretty cool. One being EasyWriter, this one makes it easy to write emails using a bigger keyboard in landscape mode. This really is a big help. However I seem to be drawn to all the not so free apps. Guitar Rock Tour ($8) is loads of fun. Star Wars “The force unleashed” ($6), but very cool. Checkers and Pac-Man.

Unfortunately, the main time waster is a little 99 cent app by the name of Touch Physics. http://www.gamez4touch.com/ I’ve wasted way too much time on this game already. We’re talking HOURS! Which should have been expected, seeing as the site had this to say “Addictive, fun and fury all in one package.”

So I’m up to about $20-25 in apps so far. It’s only been 3 days! Not to mention all the stuff that I should have had done by now, ahh grading. I’ll just blame it on Mark. But seriously, this thing is pretty sweet and I’m sure it would make just about anyone happy.