.
Check back soon to find out about the Top Downloaded Movies of the Week!

Hardware: 5/5 stars
Blue Microphones includes all the essentials to get started with podcasting or recording audio. The box includes the baseball-shaped microphone, a tripod stand, and a USB cable. The tripod extends upwards, rotates a complete 360 degrees, and even allows tilting the head back and fort. Rubber tips on the legs of the tripod are a neat addition as they offer a strong grip and reduce vibrations. The unit also has a standard threaded connector, so it can attached onto any standard microphone stand. There’s a red LED indicator on the front and the USB port resides right below the mode setting switch on the back. The unit stands sturdy and has a unique retro look that catches glances.

Compatibility: 5/5 stars
Starting with Windows 7, the Snowball was detected and automatically configured in seconds. Windows Vista was also able to recognize and setup the device instantly. Windows XP with Service Pack 3 took a bit longer, it required contact Windows Update before it worked. Mac OS X Snow Leopard also detected the device right out of the box. To use the external microphone, I had to either set it as the default device in the control panel or manually choose the device from within an application such as Audacity.

Sound Quality: 3/5 stars
There’s no question that the Snowball is a huge jump up from just about any integrated laptop microphone or cheap auxiliary jack one. It will definitely make podcast recordings, audio chat, and voice overs sound a lot better. In fact a co-worker and I used Snowball microphone to create a screen cast to show off Six Apart’s Movable Type last year. The microphone works great, but it’s still not on par with decent condenser microphones. There are three modes on the Snowball: Cardioid, Cardioid with -10dB to filter loud sounds, and Omni Capsule. There’s a switch on the back to choose between the three modes. If you aren’t too tech-savvy, the manual even has suggestions for which mode to use in which environment. The device does a great job of filtering out unwanted static, wind, and background sounds. Regrettably during the process, I also noticed that vocal sound also seems to be a bit lower. I found myself having to speak close up to the unit and even adjusting levels afterward in my audio recording program. But despite that, for the price it goes for, it’s satisfying.

Conclusion:
The Snowball is a great semi-professional microphone for anyone interested in podcasting or producing better quality audio. It’s also a great tool for video and audio conferencing in for casual and business users. As demonstrated in our video and emphasized by Blue Microphones, it has also been designed to record instruments such as Drums, Guitars, Saxophones, or the Piano in our case. Plus, one of these is available for as low as $70 if you shop around. And it’s an all-in-one solution as well, no other components other than a computer’s required. A decent condenser microphone and mixer will easily cost at least 2-3 times as much. If you are interested in doing any of the mentioned audio related activities, the Snowball USB microphone is a great place to start.

Buy: Blue Snowball for $70
Links: BlueMic.com Snowball

I’ll be switching off each week between the Top MP3s Post and this one, so check back next week!

Since launch, Sony has advertised the PlayStation 3 as a household center for entertainment. In addition to Blu-Ray playback, Sony soon took it a step further with a few software updates giving it access to tons of Movies and TV Shows through the PlayStation Network Store. It even supports DLNA streaming to share music, photos, and videos between computers on your home network. Despite those features, it lacked something that Microsoft was able to put into the Xbox: Netflix Streaming.

Fortunately Sony has caught up with the times and has partnered with Netflix. They plan to offer PS3 owners and Netflix subscribers streaming access to their library as early as next month at no additional cost. This will be a great complement to their snail mail Blu-Ray rental service.  To enable your PS3 for the service, you’ll need to get a special free disc from Netflix that will enable the service. Let’s hope there will be more features such as this one coming down the line. Hulu please?

Links: Netflix.com/PS3

Stay tuned for more updates including the top digital movie downloads of the week!

Tablet
The tablet itself is incredibly thin – about the size of a number two pencil at its thickest, with beveled edges for a more comfortable wrist-rest. The four side-buttons are large, accessible, and as I later found after installing drivers, configurable to a certain extent. An LED indicator located between the buttons lights up white when the device is on and changes to a warm orange color when the stylus is within range. I found the small red tag on the side of the device to be a little obnoxious, but it’s supposed to store your pen after use. It can easily tucked away under the device if it’s too annoying.

The drawing area is very generous with an area about 3.5 times that of my Macbook’s touchpad. The Bamboo’s matte texture that feels paper and though I was nervous to test the amount of pen pressure it could handle, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it could handle quite a bit.

In terms of portability, the tablet itself couldn’t be any more perfect to stick in a bag with your laptop. It would have been even more convenient if USB cord was detachable from the device and Wacom threw in a carrying case for protection.

• Size – 5/5
• Design – 4/5
• Portability – 4/5

Software and Drivers
A CD with drivers for both Mac and PC are included in the packaging. I however opted to download the latest driver from Wacom’s website. The setup is quick, straightforward, and didn’t even require a reboot. Although pre-configured, it’s quite easy to customize the tablet. The section in the control panel has tabs for the pen, the tablet, touch speed, touch functions, and a customizable pop-up menu. The customization is however limited; you can’t make new gestures or customize buttons to launch programs or be actions in programs. Despite that, the software seems to run well under the radar, at least on both Snow Leopard and Windows 7. There are no extra icons, shortcuts, junk applications, or bloated process running. My computer runs just as fast as it did without the tablet.

• Installation – 5/5
• Customization – 4/5
• Speed – 5/5

Pen Functionality
My initial impression of the pen was that it runs on the border of feeling cheap.  It is made of plastic and is truly light weight. Plus when I shook it for the first time, the buttons and eraser jiggle. But it works well; the size is appropriate and I have yet to run into a problem with functionality. Although I’m not sure whether it’s the magic behind the pen or the tablet, the pressure sensitivity is fantastic. Even if the pen is barely set on the tablet, the LED indicator lights up with a response. Unlike the Intuos model, the Bamboo Pen and Touch doesn’t have a “pen tilt” sensor. Despite that lacking, I doubt the average consumer, who is the target audience, will need that feature anyway. The pen has two configurable buttons and an eraser on top. I have yet to find a way to configure the eraser to perform an alternative task. The programs I use don’t always have nor need an eraser. It should also be noted that the pen has been intelligently designed to be entirely battery free.

• Quality – 3/5
• Customization – 4/5
• Battery Free – 5/5

Touch Functionality
There are a couple sides to this model: it’s a drawing pad and a multi-touch pad. So, in addition to the pen, you can use your fingers to manipulate objects on the screen. With a single finger, it can be used like a normal touch pad to control the cursor and even select with tap. With two fingers, it can be used to perform a variety of gestures. Dragging two fingers to up and down or left and right scroll a page. Pinching or spreading two fingers zoom out and in, respectively. It even rotates content by holding one finger still and moving the other one around it. These gestures work well in most programs. The rotation feature didn’t work at all in Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Illustrator CS3, and Mac Office 2008. However later tests with the tablet using Adobe Photoshop CS4 on different machine running Windows 7 worked just fine. With some practice, using the pen and multi-touch features together will truly make for an efficient and intuitive work-flow.

• Touch Sensitivity – 4/5
• Gestures – 4/5
• Efficiency – 5/5

Conclusion
I’m also sure that when I use the Bamboo Pen and Touch that I look like a hunt-and-peck typist that I would make the creators at Wacom cringe. To my credit, I was able to come up with a great configuration for drawing in Photoshop within an hour of experimenting with the tablet. I set the four buttons to the key-combinations for “Undo”, “Brushes”, “New Layer”, and “Free Transform”, and I was flying through my work. Not only that, but since I was spending less time fidgeting with the keyboard and mouse, I had fun doing tasks I would normally consider arduous and repetitive. I am not experienced with a pen tablet, but as a web and graphic designer, the Bamboo Pen and Touch made my work flow feel proficient. If you are looking to get started with a tablet, this Wacom product is a great place to start. Plus it has a lot to offer at a reasonable price of $99 MSRP; if you shop around it’s available for even less.

Buy: Bamboo Pen and Touch for $85 [via Amazon]
Links: Wacom.com Bamboo Pen + Touch

The download contains official album artwork for the original 12 studio albums by The Beatles. (Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, and Let It Be) The image above is a preview of what will be included. There’s a link to download a ZIP file below. All the files are JPG images in an amazing 1636×1482 resolution. Grab them and enjoy!

Download:
the-beatles-remastered-album-art.zip (~4.6 MB)
Note: Download only contains JPG images, we never distribute spyware/malware/adware.

Buy: The Beatles on Amazon.com

Update: As requested, the ZIP above has been updated to include two more Beatles Album Art: Magical Mystery Tour and Past Masters. And it’s been updated again, now to also include The Beatles in Mono. (15 Album Covers Total)

2009 is the year for the launch of two new next generation operating systems: Apple’s OS X Snow Leopard and Microsoft’s Windows 7. Just as with every prior version of both those operating systems, they come with a set new stunning backgrounds. If you aren’t willing to spend the cash to upgrade or can’t afford to do so in these difficult times, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to enjoy these new wallpapers. So as a treat, our readers can download the entire set of backdrops included with both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard in full high resolution glory!

The download includes 31 Windows 7 Backgrounds plus two bonus ones we’ve thrown in all at a 1920×1200 resolution. And it also includes 35 Snow Leopard Backgrounds, all at a whopping 2560×1600 resolution. So what are you waiting for? Download a copy and let us know which set you like best!

Download:
next-gen-wallpapers.zip (~79.8 MB)
Note: Download only contains JPG images, we never distribute spyware/malware/adware.

Pre-Order: Snow Leopard | Windows 7

I personally wasn’t a fan of the idea of having content that would normally be on a TV brought over to my laptop’s display. I’m also sure that this isn’t exactly an idea too many others either. But there are many scenarios that the Pinnacle PCTV HD is an excellent solution. For example take a college student who may not have enough space in their dorm for a TV unit or the cash to afford one. For a minimal price a student can turn a laptop which they most likely already have purchased into a multifunctional device that doubles as their TV. As a bonus, most computers running Windows Vista are bundled with Media Center which can instantly turn their machine into a DVR that can automatically schedule and record shows.

When I opened the packaging the PCTV HD Mini came in, I was astounded by the size of the device. The USB device which is about the size of an average flash drive was supposedly capable of receiving Full HD content and playing it back on my laptop. The last generation of tuners were much larger and would even hog up any extra room around USB ports, Pinnacle thoughtfully also threw in a USB extension cable to prevent the tuner from rendering any other ports useless in case it were to be obtruding. The largest component of the package was the antenna and its base. Putting everything together was quite a cinch, with some intuition, you’ll have all the hardware setup in a few minutes even if you don’t have much familiarity with technology. A CD is included which is fairly straightforward, just pop it in and follow the onscreen instructions. The software will automatically scan for digital channels in the area. Positioning the antenna is quite important; placing it a location with minimal obstructions will result in better reception, more channels, and image clarity.

Once it’s all set up, one would assume that you could pickup that tiny fun-sized remote and enjoy your TV, however that wasn’t the case. The TV Center Pro software provided by Pinnacle was more troublesome than not. The interface was poorly organized, the was a bit too messy, and was quite difficult to navigate. Although advertised to have numerous features, I gave up after spending about 30 minutes trying to get it to work. After speaking to a colleague regarding the nuisance they call software, he suggested using Windows Vista’s Media Center. Giving Windows Media Center a shot was the best decision I made. The interface was fancy, simple to configure, and easy to navigate. Within a few minutes I had finished scanning for TV channels, had unselected weak signals from my lineup, had downloaded the latest TV Guide for the next week, and best of all, I was able to watch TV!

The quality of the content was choppy on certain channels, but channels with a strong signal broadcasting in HD were beyond amazing. I was truly impressed that my computer paired along with such a tiny device was able to playback High Definition content so well. Recording shows is literally a one-click solution with Media Center. I was able to schedule my favorite shows to record automatically when they air during their prime-time slot each week. I found that even if my computer was in Sleep Mode, it would automatically wake up and use the Pinnacle PCTV Mini Tuner to record my show. One slight downside I encountered were the massive file sizes for the recorded HD content. A 30 minute program would often take 5-10 GB of space on my hard drive. Some TV Tuners decode the HD content into different file formats that consume less space. Despite that small quirk, most people have fairly large hard drives these days so I doubt that will be an issue.

Overall the Pinnacle PCTV HD Mini is an excellent tuner that works wonders. The quality is superb and is available for a decent price. It’s also incomparable to the price you would be paying for a HDTV if you already have a decently sized monitor and computer. The only fault in regards to the whole product would be the included software. I would suggest just installing the drivers and begin using Windows Media Center immediately. You’ll have a much more pleasurable experience and avoid any annoyances that way. Another suggestion would be to purchase a more powerful Digital HDTV capable antenna. Even a cheap one that will run you under $25 will provide a much better experience by letting your receive more channels with stronger signal strengths. Pinnacle also bundles a remote control, a pigtail converter for coaxial cables, an antenna, and a pouch for keeping it all together. If you are in the market for a USB TV Tuner the Pinnacle PCTV HD Mini is definitely the way to go.

Pinnacle has had a long history of producing brand name hardware and software products for multimedia production, editing, and playback. On a side note, Pinnacle sold its TV Tuner segment to Hauppauge towards the end of last year, a company well known for producing quality TV Tuners for consumers.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars
Links: Hauppauge | Pinnacle

The Zune desktop software will also be getting some improvements with Mixview and a new Now Playing page which both offer new graphical and interactive ways to browse and view your library. And the new firmware will also bring support for a couple of games, audiobooks (supports Audible), and real ebooks through OverDrive. Most of those are great, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to read a whole book on a Zune. Anyways if you are interested in getting a new Zune, starting on September 16th, pricing will be set at $250 for a 120GB HDD model, $229 for a 80GB HDD model, $199 for a 16GB SSD model, and $149 for a 8GB SSD model. Apple is also rolling out new iPods today, so I might suggest holding off until the end of the day if you happen to be deciding between the two.

Links: Zune.net

“Sony was the first to introduce a travel-sized camcorder with 8 mm technology in the 1980’s, and it revolutionized the travel and electronics industries,” said Kelly Davis, director of camcorder marketing at Sony Electronics. “This new model is a great example of our expertise in miniaturization, as well as advanced imaging technologies with features like face detection.”

The compact HDR-TG1 HD camcorder will become available next month (May 2008). The current manufacturer’s suggested retail price is set at $900. When it becomes available it can be purchased on SonyStyle.com. in Sony Retail Stores, or through authorized dealers. Pre-orders begin on April 4th.

Links: SonyStyle.com

“The new design will deliver a hugely improved navigation system, much greater scope for categorization and a dynamic new user interface.”

According to PlayStation, the update will be released by mid-April, which is just two weeks away. A software update to the console will also accompany the new PSN Store. The bad news in all of this might be the fact that no new content will be available until this upgrade is pushed out. Fortunately this shouldn’t affect PlayStation Network game play, accounts, or virtual wallets.

Update: According to the PlayStation Blog, no new content will be added to the PlayStation Store for the next two weeks. (North America) However with the re-launch, plenty of new content will become available including a demo of the highly regarded Gran Turismo 5 Prologue!

Links: us.PlayStation.com

Ever wanted to watch any episode of South Park? Well now you can, thanks to South Park Digital Studios, a joint venture between South Park and Comedy Central. SouthParkStudios.com features every full-length episodes from all twelve seasons which can be legally streamed to your computer for free. This seems to be a new trend which many studios are following. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, also a part of Comedy Central, made a similar move last year making every clip ever filmed available online at no cost to the viewer. Hulu, a News Corp and NBC Universal project, went public earlier this month offering hundreds of high quality full length episodes of TV shows.

“We got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time so we gave ourselves a legal alternative.” said Stone and Parker, when asked about the launch of the new site.

This move is beneficial to viewers since they won’t have to deal with downloading content illegally and to studios since they can rake in extra profits through ad revenue. At this time the content will unfortunately not be available for viewers in other countries rather than the United States due to contract issues, however they are working to change that. New episodes of South Park will appear on the site as soon as it is aired on TV, however will be removed after 7 days. The episode will become permanently available 30-days after the original air date. Lets hope more studios follow what Comedy Central has done with South Park and the Daily Show and NBC has done by launching Hulu.

Links: South Park Studios
Related: Hulu Goes Public

Kensington recently released new Bluetooth Stereo Headphones and as promised here’s our review. The headphones, also entitled the BT3071, sports the Bluetooth 2.0 protocol and uses the A2DP profile to wirelessly steam audio from any compatible device. These stereo headphones are fairly affordable and function a whole lot better compared to the previous generation of Bluetooth headphones.

Device Compatibility – 5/5 stars
From some tests, I found the Bluetooth Headphones to work seamlessly with the array of devices I paired it with. It was compatible with the Bluetooth built into a Sony VAIO running Windows XP, a Dell XPS M1530 running Windows Vista, and a Apple iMac running OS X Leopard. In addition it played nicely with the LG enV and LG Muziq mobile phones. And to top that, it also worked with the Sony PlayStation 3! If you’ve got a fairly modern Bluetooth-enabled gadget, chances are that you won’t have any problems.

Headset Functions – 3/5 stars
The Stereo Headphones also feature a built-in microphone allowing it to double as a wireless headset.. This means you’ll be able to answer calls when paired with a mobile phone and can be used for VOIP when paired with a computer. The downside might be that the audio to contained a bit too much static, which I didn’t experience with other Bluetooth headsets. It shouldn’t be much of an issue for taking calls occasionally, however you probably would want to get a different headset unless you wish to irritating the person on the other end of the phone.

Physical Controls - 4.5/5 stars
The headphones sport a few neat little controls right on the headset including a pause/play button and a track back/forward toggle on the left side and volume controls on the right side. The controls worked without any issues with Vista’s Media Center, Windows Media Player, and Apple iTunes. They worked with cell phones as well. The only issue was the lag in responsiveness of the controls. Most people will often end up clicking again causing something unwanted to occur. From my experience, be patient and wait a second or two after clicking on a key.

Wireless Range – 5/5 stars
The Kensington Bluetooth Stereo Headphones are officially benchmarked to offer a 66-foot (20 meter) range. From my experience going any further than 30 feet from the paired device would result in cracking sounds. Any obstructions such as walls severely crippled the range. I found there were no issues as long as I was contained within the four-walls of an average-sized room. Overall the range is more then enough to have freedom to move around without being tied to your device.

Battery Life – 5/5 stars
The battery life was quite impressive since it lasted about a week even with a couple hours of use each day. It is officially advertised at 23-hours of stereo music playback and 19-hours of talk time. These Kensington Headphones probably had the best battery life I have seen on any of the bluetooth headsets. The BT3071 has a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery which can be re-charged using a standard USB to mini-USB cable. An AC Adapter was not included, but fortunately just about everything we own these days has a USB port which should do the job.

Audio Quality – 3/5 stars
Any audiophile will surely laugh at the sound quality of these headphones, however the majority of consumers probably won’t notice anything unless its mentioned to them. Setting aside frequency range which lacks on most levels, the quality is plentiful for most people. One thing that everyone will notice for sure is the occasional chops and breaks due to the wireless component. I personally found these great for listening to podcasts or watching TV shows on my laptop without disturbing others and having the freedom to move around and do other things without being tied up.

Overall I feel the Bluetooth technology still has some quirks to workout, but despite that, these headphones make the best of it. I originally felt the headphones were uncomfortable, however it wasn’t an issue after a few days of use. The majority of those who purchase this will probably be satisfied with these. The Kensington Bluetooth Stereo Headphones are available for purchase now and are much cheaper than Bluetooth Headphones were last year. These headphones have a MSRP of $79, however if you shop around you’ll be able to find them for as low as $65!

Buy: Kensington Bluetooth Stereo Headphones – $65 (via Amazon with NO TAX + SHIPS FREE)
Links: Kensington.com BT3071 Product Page

After about a week of unofficial hints and rumors, early this morning Hulu opened themselves up to the public. Anyone located within the United States can visit Hulu.com and watch high-quality TV shows, nightly highlights, full length movies, full games, and short clips. Hulu limited to a audience of private beta users since October 2007. In addition to previous studios partnerships, Hulu now features content from Warner Bros. Lionsgate, NBA, HHL, and 20 other new providers. All content is viewable right through your browser without any additional plugins or software other than Adobe Flash. And to clarify the content isn’t user uploaded content, but rather high quality shows such as Family Guy, The Office, 30 Rock, House, Heroes, 24, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

“Today, Hulu is crossing a milestone in its mission to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium content, when where and how they want it,” said Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu. “With full-length episodes of current and archived television shows, feature films, sports and news, we believe the Hulu service is a step forward in giving consumers entertainment on their terms.

In return for access to the premium content which is freely available on Hulu, viewers will be required to watch short 15 and 30 second ads a few times throughout each show. From most of the content I’ve viewed, there were only around two to three ads for a half-hour show which is a whole lot better than TV commercials. Hulu seems to be a big winner at the moment. With services such as these, the amount of illegally distributed copies of these shows should drop drastically. Due to the fact that Hulu was a joint venture between News Corp and NBC Universal, they were able to gain support from a lot of production studios which other competitors such as Joost failed to do. Plus with the freedom to embed full episodes onto any web page or social networking sites, I expect Hulu to spread faster than ever!

Links: Hulu.com
Download: Hulu Programming Guide

Last week Kensington announced a slew of new accessories, one these being a new wireless bluetooth stereo headphones. The headset can be used to listen to music and with built in microphone, it can also answer phone calls. The Kensington Bluetooth Stereo Headphones (K33436US) has built in “easy access buttons” to play/pause or skip tracks as well as to answer/end phone calls. In addition the headset can be paired with a Windows or Macintosh machine for use with applications such as Skype. The device will pair with any Bluetooth 2.0 device that supports the A2DP protocol. According to Kensington, the Bluetooth Stereo Headset will work up to 66 feet away from your wireless device and will offer an impressive 23 hours of music playback and 19 hours of talk time. The headphones have a MSRP of $79.99 and are available for pre-order, however it wont hit retail stores until March.

Pre-Order: Kensington Bluetooth Stereo Headphones – $79 (no tax + ships free)
Links: Kensington.com – (Product Page)

I had been an avid Facebook user for over an year, but I’ve been reconsidering after the launch of Facebook Apps. The days when all Facebook offered was Photos, Groups, Events, Notes, and Posted Items were simple times. Today we’ve got over 450+ photo, 400+ music , 450+ video, 1000+ gaming, and 1000+ sports applications. And that’s nothing, as of now, Facebook is less than 200 short of reaching 10,000 pointless applications! Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of useful apps, but for the most part the majority of these tools are useless. Having to deal with hundreds of application invitations every time I login has become quite painful. For example, why on earth would anyone need a Top Friends list or a Super Wall when Facebook already has a fully functioning friends list and wall? Facebook seriously needs to implement an option to allow users to opt-out or block some of these applications.

The next most horrendous part is how long it’s starting to take to load some people’s profiles and how lengthy they have become. Just to give everyone an glimpse of how bad Facebook can get, take a look at four images provided above. I created temporary Facebook Profile and added the first 20 pages of the most popular Apps. The page was in fact so long that I couldn’t even generate a single screen shot. Fortunately I haven’t run into anyone’s profile that was this bad, but it is definitely going in that direction. Facebook should maybe consider placing a limit on the amount of applications a user can have active at a time. Hopefully the folks over at Facebook will spend time fixing up the mess they made by launching Facebook Applications instead of wasting resources on other projects like Facebook Ads.

Links: Facebook.com | Skatter Tech Fan Page

It has been over a month since Apple launched the third generation iPod and it’s probably a bit late for a review, but we’re publishing ours anyways. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, first unveiled the original iPod Nano about two years ago by sliding it out of his famous pair of blue jeans. A year later (2006) Jobs announced the 2nd generation aluminum-encased iPod Mini looking version. And last month Apple announced the 3rd generation Nano which has an entire newly designed body and for the first time, can play videos. At first I wondered why anyone would want to bother watching videos on such a small screen. After a few weeks with the iPod Nano, the reason became clear. I actually found myself watching some video podcasts and unwatched TV shows when I was on the go. It was pretty nice to be able to carry around video content in such a small device. Also if you were like me and felt the device look pretty fat and ugly, that all changes once you actually hold a 3rd generation iPod Nano. It is thinner and smaller than you would have imagined. I would have to say this iPod was a very needed and an impressive upgrade, it can not be considered Apple’s best work. (They’ve done better before.)

Apple iPod Nano (3G) Specs:

• Type: Portable Flash-Based Video Player
• Capacities: 4GB and 8GB
• Screen: 2-inches 320×240 pixel LCD
• Music Formats: AAC, MP3, & WAV
• Video Formats: H.264 and MP4
• Special Functions: Video Output
• Colors: Silver, Blue, Red, Green & Black
• Connection: USB to Dock Connector
• Price Range: $149 to $199

The Body: – 4/5
To describe the iPod Nano right off the bat, it’s pretty much a tiny version of a iPod Classic. The unit looks elegant and impressive because of its size. The Nano stands just 2.75-inches tall, 2.06-inches wide, and only .26-inches thick. It is the same thickness as the 2nd generation Nano. The front is made of a anodized aluminum and the back, unlike its predecessor, has the classic shinny steel material, which is easy to scratch. Because of the dimensions and the material, the 3G Nano unfortunately seems to be a whole lot more delicate than the 2nd generation. The standard touch sensitive click wheel can be found right below the screen, but it is abnormally skinnier and smaller. The wheel was a bit more difficult to use compared to the older Nano, however wasn’t really a problem after a few minutes of use. Apple has managed to move the hold button, the headphone jack, and the dock connector to the bottom, leaving nothing behind at the top. The rest of the controls such as volume and brightness are all managed through the interface using the click-wheel.

The Screen: – 5/5
The 2-inch (diagonal) LED backlit LCD was bright, clear, and sharp enough to watch videos on. It once again is the brightest iPod Nano screen yet. The resolution is a standard 320×240 which plays at a max of 30 frames per second. One thing that makes the screen look different is the gap found between the body and display which creates a different effect. The Nano can playback both 4:3 and 16:9 clips by formating and resizing the video to best fit the display.

Battery Life: – 4/5
As always, Apple has managed to vastly improve the iPod’s playback time. According to Apple, the battery can offer 24 hours of audio playback or 5 hours of video playback. From our test, with the brightness slightly lowered and at a normal listening volume, we surprisingly found it to last much longer than advertised. Although this is better than any previous iPod, it still remains on below what’s offered by other flash-based portable multimedia players from Creative, Sony, and Microsoft.

Media Formats: – 5/5
In general, just about any major format of audio will work with the iPod Nano. The iPod can playback AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, WAV, and music purchased from iTunes. The Nano also supports playback of DRM-Free files from Amazon’s new MP3 Store and obviously iTunes Plus. For video the 3rd generation Nano supports MOV, MP4, or M4V files encoded in MPEG-4 or H.264. Apple iTunes does a fairly good job of converting most content into a compatible format. And for photos, the feature I personally rarely use, it can read and display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG images.

Interface: – 3/5
The new interface is one of those things you love, but hate. The Nano now has a new default split screen view which displays the standard menus on the left, while displaying moving album artwork thumbnails on the right. Although this looks beautiful, we felt is slowed down browsing through the library by a lot. The Nano now can do neat things such as displaying Artwork next to each album or adding an extra line of information below each song, which saves having to return to the previous menu to find out what it was a part of. Although I’m not a big fan of Cover Flow, Apple was impressively able to get it to run on the Nano fairly well. It remains a bit sluggish, but it’s pretty good for such a small device. (Even my laptop struggles to run it on iTunes) The reason we took away two points was because the interface was horribly buggy. We often found that the menu would display the wrong number of songs or albums. We also entered menu’s that didn’t or shouldn’t exist. For example we entered a weird menu by clicking on the play button over a podcast folder instead of hitting the center button. Overall it’s a major UI overhaul, which is great, but honestly such a major mainstream product shouldn’t have any problems. Hopefully Apple will roll out a firmware upgrade fixing these issues. Another which annoyed me was that all the settings were no longer in the same place. For example some settings for Video could only be modified from the Video menu, not form the Settings Menu. Hopefully they’ll keep everything in one place, it will be a headache to have to visit a different menus to each type of setting.

Syncing Media: 4.5/5
Our experience with syncing media was just as we expected it to be, excellent. The only thing I wish the iPod Nano could do is to allow dropping files right onto the device without the need of iTunes. If you were to do so with a current iPod, the file would just be stored on the device and would never appear anywhere in the interface. But if you are using the latest version iTunes, everything works great. Managing songs, videos, and photos is a cinch. You can manually manage content or ask iTunes to take care of it for you. The iPod Nano even doubles as a flash drive unlike the iPod Touch.

In The Box: – 4/5
When you open your neatly and fancily packaged box from Apple you’ll find a set of standard iPod earphones, a USB 2.0 cable, a Dock adapter, and a quick start guide. As always, we recommend upgrading your generic headphones to something along the lines of Shure’s SE110 which will offer a very different experience. Finally no software is included, therefore an internet connection is required to acquire the latest version if Apple iTunes.

So in conclusion, we weren’t too impressed with the iPod Nano, but it is a great upgrade on some levels compared to its predecessor. We would recommend upgrading if you want the ability to playback video, which worked very well. If you plan just to listen to music, there’s not too much else this device can offer. We in fact on some levels would recommend this over the iPod Touch for those on a strict budget. The 8GB Nano costs half that of the 8GB iPod Touch. As for the software bugs, it is only expected and natural for Apple to roll out some patches soon. The only other major problem we found was that it seems to be way more delicate than the 2G Nano. (Buy a case!) Anyways if you wish to purchase this, it’s now available in retail stores and online for $150 and $200 for 4GB and 8GB models, respectively. You should be able to find it for a bit cheaper from other retailers. We recommend this because it is one of the most affordable iPods yet and retains just about all the features that the iPod Classic has.

Buy Now: iPod Nano 4GB – $149 | iPod Nano 8GB – $199
Links: Apple iPod Nano | Apple Store

Last week Comedy Central announced the launch of a new website for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” which features clips from every episode which has aired since 1999. (Is also when Jon Stewart signed on as host) Comedy Central also claims that they will soon add full high quality episodes of every show ever filmed. Viacom, the parent company, made a pretty intelligent move by pulling all their clips off YouTube then launching this site. With this launch, viewers will no longer have to visit YouTube for this content and Viacom will make some big bucks through advertising revenue from their new site. This is also a big win for viewers since the content remains free, is now available in high quality, and is fully organized.

“There continues to be a rabid appetite for Comedy Central programming online,” Erik Flannigan VP Digital Media, Comedy Central. “With thedailyshow.com, we have created an online destination that raises the bar by providing an exhaustive video library for everything ‘Daily Show’.”

In addition to allow users to watching videos, The Daily Show’s website offers sharing the clips on a variety of popular social networking and link-sharing sites such as facebook, digg, and del.icio.us. Bloggers and website owners will also have the ability to easily add the clips to their own page. The content has only been made available due to advertisements and sponsors as expected. As a result users will be required to view an advertisement before they can actually begin watching the requested clip. Despite this, Comedy Central has taken a huge step by launching this site. Although NBC, ABC, and FOX now offer the ability to watch new prime-time shows online, no one (to my knowledge) has made their entire history available for free online. Hopefully larger networks will follow Comedy Central’s lead.

Links: The Daily Show | Comedy Central

I recently received an email from a reader asking whether to use Amazon’s new MP3 store or Apple iTunes for purchasing DRM-Free songs. We have used both services and we’ve got to say that they both have some up and downsides. Both Amazon and iTunes offer downloads of individual songs and albums in a DRM-Free 265kbps file format. Amazon uses the widely popular MP3 format, while iTunes Plus uses AAC. Excluding the iPod which uses AAC, the majority of Digital Audio Players (DAP) on the market have primarily been MP3 decoders. Despite this, just about all the new DAPs hitting the market today including the Microsoft Zune, Creative Zen, SanDisk Sanza, and Sony Walkman now support (DRM-Free) AAC. Finally, both stores also have a selection of over two million un-protected songs!

As for prices, iTunes charged $1.29 per song until two days ago, when they dropped the price to the standard $.99. Amazon’s rate is $.99 per song, however over half the songs in their collection are available for 10-cents less. If you are one of those people who constantly purchases popular songs, items in Amazon’s Top 100 list will always cost just $.89! Also if you are an iPod owner and find a song for cheaper on Amazon than iTunes, go ahead and purchase it. Amazon’s MP3 files are 100% compatible on your iPod and can even be added into your iTunes Library.

At the moment one thing that Amazon’s store does lack is a desktop client to organize and purchase music. Despite this, we found Amazon’s online store to be just as easy to browse as iTunes. Also as Web 2.0 apps are beginning to become desktop replacements, there’s no true need for a desktop browser. In addition, once songs are downloaded to your computer using Amazon’s download tool, the files can be automatically added to either Windows Media Player or Apple iTunes. Apple does have the upper edge on this topic since browsing, purchasing, managing, and syncing songs with iPods can all be done in one place. Both Windows and Macintosh users should have the same experience using either of the two services on their computer.

So our conclusion? We would recommend giving Amazon MP3 a shot since they offer plenty of albums at the same quality for a bit cheaper. At this point, only a few weeks after launch, there’s no chance that Amazon’s store will grab a piece of Apple’s market share. However if enough people start to switch over soon, competitive prices may even drive Apple to lower prices on iTunes in the future. From our tests, we didn’t seem to find any problems with Amazon just yet, however if any of you have found a bug or ran into problems let everyone know!

Links: Apple iTunes | Amazon MP3