The Savvy Boomer

Canadian courts deny iPod levy

Cooler heads have prevailed and this idiotic idea of taxing MP3 players up to $75 has been turned down. The copyright legislation is expected to be tabled in late January.  Let's hope the powers that be think this one through as well.

You can follow all the latest movements on Michael Geists' blog.

Archos has an iPod killer, but.............

unless they come up with a marketing and distribution strategy strategy to take on Apple, this French company will do little more than just be another one of the few speed bumps on the iPod road to world domination of the portable entertainment industry.  Their 605 is a video player, Mp3 player, WiFi web browser, PDF book or document reader, photo album and for the same price as the 16GB iPod Touch, you get 160GB.  What's the catch?

A review of the new Zune

Screamer-the Internet Radio Streamer

There are thousands of radio stations that stream their content on the internet and probably close to 100 players that you can use to stream them.  I have been using a player called Screamer Radio for awhile and what I like most about it is that it's easy to use and has a small footprint.  The download takes less than a minute and the interface allows you to choose from various music genres, countries and languages.

iPod alternatives for boomers

When I am out walking, biking, or at the gym, I see more and more boomers and seniors with MP3 players.  A lot of them have iPods but there are many other players available but what should you look for?

There is an MP3 player review site where you can go to read about anything but iPods.  This is taken from the "About" page.

"Apple makes a half decent MP3 player. I own or have owned several different Apple MP3 players. However, I feel that there are better choices available. There are other MP3 players out there that are easier to use, that give you more for your money, and that still have style and class. The problem is many people do not know what else is available. I talk to many people who think an iPod is their only choice. This is why this website was started, to show people their alternatives and to educate them so they are able to make their own informed decisions."

Personally, I doubt I'll ever buy an iPod because I don't much care for iTunes software and care even less for the fact that Apple forces iTunes on its customers.  I've been using a Dell PDA with Windows Player on it since 2002 to listen to music. It's a little bigger than most MP3 players but it works well so until I see something that is a lot smaller, I'll probably stick with it.

The dark side of owning an iPod

iPods are everywhere and so are thieves.  In Vancouver, like the rest of North America, iPod owners have become their targets lately.  The problem is that if you are listening to an iPod, you are probably not paying much attention to your surrounding environment and when your guard is down, you make an easy target.  The white headphone straps have become synonymous with iPods and that is what thieves look for.

 

In every case in Vancouver, the owner was listening to the iPod, attacked from behind and received various injuries.  Apparently the going street rate is $20-$40 for a stolen iPod and even more if it has an extensive mp3 library on it.  In New York, an iPod theft victim was killed.  The theft of iPods is so extensive that Dateline ran a sting operation and watched 20 iPods left in various locations disappear immediately.

Apple is wrestling with the problem of how to help people recover stolen iPods but they say the volumes are so huge that they don't know how to deal with them.  There are some services such as Stuffbak  that sell you tags to put on electronic gadgets.  If you lose it, the finder can call an 800 number but that isn't going to do anything to help the theft problem.

I don't have an iPod, but I do have an MP3 player.  My earphones are not white and they way I set it up, they aren't very noticeable.  But I still keep an eye out for would be thieves.   Be careful out there.

Sell your old gadgets.

If you're like me, when you buy a new digital camera, cell phone etc., you usually put the old one in the drawer because it's too much hassle to try and sell it and besides who knows what its' worth?

Now there is a service that will buy it from you.  It's called Second Rotation and it seems to be a fairly easy service to use, both on the website and getting your gadget shipped to them.

Thanks to Webware.

MP3 player from Sandisk follows Gillette marketing model of razors?

Interesting post about how Sandisk is selling their MP3 player on the cheap, hoping that you will buy SD cards to keep your mp3 collection on.  Geez, at $29.95, this Mp3 player can almost be classed as a disposable.