I visited CNET News.com today, and I read over their list of “Hot Holiday Tech Gifts”. Topping the list is the iPod which is poised to continue its popularity over the Christmas shopping season. I realized, yet again, that I’m an anomaly when it comes to the iPod. It’s such a trendy thing to have these days, but I honestly have no desire to get one whatsoever. It simply does not have the feature set I’m looking for, and other than looking cool, it’s not really all that amazing in my opinion. Now that I’ve officially scoffed at an Apple product, it’s time to sit and wait for the hate mail to stream in. Apple fanatics are rather adament about the superiority of Apple products, afterall, and anything to the contrary should certainly be considered heresey. I currently own a 20GB iRiver iHP-120 which I’ve outgrown and have my eyes set on a super cool Cowon iAudio X5. I think it’s a rather attractive device with an awesome feature set (most notably it’ll play all my Vorbis encoded music as well as FLAC)!
The next item on the list was the Xbox 360. I wouldn’t mind getting one of these, but it’s just not cheap. I certainly can’t justify spending all the money on the device seeing as I just don’t have enough time to use it frequently. Not only that, I’d have to buy an HDTV to take full advantage of the Xbox 360 which can’t truly shine on a convential, analog TV. Oh well, I’ve already got an Xbox and that should keep me more than busy for a while. Besides, the only title I’d really need the Xbox 360 for is Halo 3, and it’s not even out yet. So for now, my Xbox and desktop computer will suffice. (NOTE: If any readers would like to fund an Xbox 360 for me, just let me know. ;-))
Other top items on the list included digital cameras, HDTVs, and Media Center PCs. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they got this gift list from me (other than the iPod). Of course, for me it’s more of a “wish list” than a “gift list” since I don’t really expect to get most, if any, of these items. I’d definitely consider this stuff techie porn, and I just can’t get enough of it. I guess it’s just a matter of time before I’m attending rehab for my “techie porn” addiction.
Doh! I want that 360 so bad, but you’re right when you talk about Halo 3. Right now, there’s not much that’s on the 360 that’s THAT amazing. Small upgrades, sure — but nothing that matches the 80 times more powerful claim.
I have an iPod and love it. Now understand that if I had a chance… I’d have something that played video, mp3s, and took pictures… I’d take that over the iPod any day! (of course I got the iPod free when I went to a global knowledge class)
My “tech porn” would be :
http://atomchip.com/_wsn/page3.html
of course if it REALLY existed, it would be…
2TB hard drive, 6.8 Ghz Processor, 1 TB RAM
that’d be SWEET!
Pauly D: Yeah, and it seems that the Xbox 360 is having techniculty difficulties right now, too. I don’t know how many Xbox 360s are actually affected, but recent reports indicate a fair number of people experiencing lock-ups and crashes with their Xbox 360. That would suck.
Michael: I’d agree with those specs. Of course, I’d be happy with a quadruple core processor running at current clock speeds so I could do pretty much anything I wanted on my little hand held device. I’d also consider myself a storage and memory whore. The more I can get… the better.