New iPod

Unless you've been living under a rock today, you'll know that the latest iPod was just announced, along with a new iTunes and iMac. I'll spare the details. And yes, I want and will get one of those iPods. I didn't spend the entire day refreshing websites every 30 seconds to get the latest info for nothing.

Reason I"m here is to get something off my chest. All day, i've been reading in forums and comments pages under articles how disappointed they were, how Apple didn't add what THEY wanted, which was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How they just bought a Nano and what would it do to the sales of the Nano once this is out blah blah blah blah blah. How video is nice but the screen is too small, battery life not enough, blah blah blah blah blah blah.

You get the point.

Irritated all day, I wanted to chime in with my thoughts but I saw this and I just bit my tongue. Coz, you know, that is just dead on the money. But still, binge eating on chips, even gourmet chips with no preservatives, isn't enough. So here I am and you know whats coming next.

I'll tackle just the iPod. I will not make any judgements about the appearance until I have one in my hands but from the initial pictures, it is a lovely piece of work. Not WOW like the Nano but close. The bigger screen is nice. Thinner is always better, especially when it can store 30 or 60 G of data. That was the only reason I got the 30G photo instead of the 60G. Too bulky.

New features include video playback, stopwatch, lock code and world clock. The sound output is said to be the best (Steve Jobs words, not mine). And more thumbnail preview pictures onscreen. Obviously, video is the hot topic among these. Let me just say to everyone who says that the screen is too small to play videos. None of us have actually seen or experienced watching video on it, so please stop pretending like your all high and mighty and such know it alls. Just stop. the PSP may have a bigger screen, but until they make at least a 10G memory card, there's zero point to it. I have one and it is amazing for playing video games. Movie files? Sure but I don't like the hassle of converting to Sony format or constantly overwriting files on the memory card. The thing that bothers me most, was the suggestion that video playback should be watched in the iPod sideways for a wider screen. Uhm, what? uhm, whaaat??! uhm, no.

My only gripe (yes I do have one) with the new iPod is no increase in storage capacity. If what the specs say is true, then a music video will typically take up 6 songs worth of storage space. If it takes up that much then an increase in storage space would have been nice. At the rate that I am personally going, I'd run out of space to put new content in by November. Look, I'd rather not have to pick from 30G worth of music, 10G music videos, 5G photos and all the episodes of Lost which to bring with me. Part of the allure of the iPod is holding in your hands your entire record collection. I'd like to think, even with the introduction of new content, that that is still the case, minus the word "record" of course.

One last typical complaint. What about the Nano? Well what about it? Nano's sales would be affected, you say? I say, the Mini didn't do too bad, did it? No of course not because it satisfies a different MARKET.

Whew... I'm done ranting. On a first impression scale, it's an 8 out of 10. More on the topoic when I can try one out personally.

Niner Notes #2 (Alex Smith Era Has Begun)

Sunday was another great day to be a sports fan. You had the 18 inning epic Divisional Series game between the Astros’ and Braves, The AMEX Championship happening right here in San Francisco going down to a playoff, and of course football. And that was just during the day. At night, we had another playoff Baseball game happening at the same time as Sunday Night Football. I was flipping through channels so much my thumb lost all feeling by 5 PM. That day must have been like a buffet line for lawyers. They had their pick on which divorce case to take.

That day was also special in it’s own Bay Area way, as we celebrated the debut of the latest 49er QB savior. Rookie QB Alex Smith, taken with the first pick in the NFL draft, given 50 odd million over 6 years with a 24 million dollar signing bonus, named the starter before any games were played, benched after 2 pre season games and named the starter again for this game against arguably the best team in football. He, the latest celebrated rookie QB, was about to officially start his NFL career as the savior of an anemic Niner team that lost 3 straight after the opening day win. Was today the start of a long, illustrious career wearing the gold and red? Was I watching the birth of a champion? Time will tell. Right now, he’s off to a bad start.

The final line doesn’t lie; 9-23 74 yards no touchdowns 4 interceptions one run back for a touchdown, 2 fumbles one lost 8.5 passer rating. Hey that might look bad, but at least he has a higher rating than George W. Bush. I think.

Apart from the run game, which finally found out that they have to play on Sundays, the offense was wildly inconsistent. Plenty of blame to go around for another pitiful passing attack, from the line not giving Smith enough time to throw, to the receivers for not presenting themselves as targets, to Smith himself. Most of the time though, he just looked uncomfortable in the pocket. I would too if Dwight Freeney was inches away from me and only a tackle taken from the street to block him. Of those 9 completed passes, only one went to a wide receiver. ONE! Of the 4 passes that were intercepted, only one wasn’t his fault. The rest he forced into tight coverage, either because he had no time and just threw it up, or he couldn’t figure out in time what the defense was doing in coverage. All that, I could have told you earlier was going to happen. There is a bunch of reason the Colts have allowed only touchdown in four games; the lone TD coming in garbage time. Those reasons are a ferocious pass rush from their four down linemen to fast linebackers and hard-hitting defensive backs. During the telecast, they showed a close-up of Freeney and you could tell he was just salivating at the rookie QB under center, like a lion stalking its prey.

What I wanted to see from this game from him was spunk and he had lots in my opinion. He only tried to run away a handful of times. The rest he stood tall in the pocket buying time for his receivers to get open. He took his licks when he got hit and got up right away. You gotta love that. The thing that I hated the most was how easy it was for the DB’s to read him. At the snap, he was looking at his primary receiver the whole way. You do that in Madden and you will be 9 of 23. What more in the real deal? He needs to learn to get those safeties guessing, or he will keep throwing it incomplete or worse. Other than all that, he was just as expected.

A new era has begun for the Niners. He has a long way to go from being a premiere passer in the league. This game wasn’t how you want to welcome yourself to the NFL. But hey, we all have to start somewhere. I’m sure this will not be the last time we write about him. Here’s to hoping it goes uphill from here.

Niner Notes 2005

The season is already 4 weeks old and here I am writing my first Niner Note for the 2005 season. A little late, I know, but I’ve been a little pre-occupied what with all the losing they are doing, plus the stinker I’ve been registering on my bets every week PLUS the golf game PLUS the stuff in this blog. About the only thing all those have in common is how much they stink.

Speaking of stinkers, how about those Niners, huh? New coach, number one pick, new season, same results. If the rival St. Louis Rams weren’t coached by Mike Martz, they’d be 0-4 right now. As it stands, the Niners got the win on the first game of the season. Naturally, everyone here thought that things were looking up. After four weeks, turns out that was just a fluke game. They proceeded to get whipped in the ass by the Eagles 400 something to 10. Then coughed up the third game to Dallas because someone forgot to tell the team that they play 4 quarters, not two. Then on Sunday, in front of a record crowd of 103,000 fans in Mexico, not to mention a national prime time audience, they put up a pitiful performance, especially on offense. At one point, they were leading 14-0 yet had 3 yards total on offense. Those 14 points happened because there opponent, the Cardinals, suck almost as bad as them. This is the same team that lost to us twice last year, the only wins they could muster all year. Now they are 1-3 with the chic Super Bowl pick, the Colts, coming to town.

There now we’re caught up.

Right now the team is losing not of desire but just an overall lack of talent. The new coach, Mike Nolan, is competent enough and I’ve got a good feeling about him. Although he got a whole lot of flack around these parts after last weeks rant after the loss to the Cowboys. It’s just that the talent in this team is not up to snuff to compete. The whole offensive line is good enough if they could somehow stay in one piece. The running backs are indecisive when they hit the whole. The wide receiver crew reads like the starting line up of an Arena League team. The front seven of the defense actually makes plays but they are out on the field for too long. The secondary is by far the worse collection of talent in any roster. They make the current group in Saturday Night Live funny by comparison. Since this season is pretty much lost, the number one pick in the draft, Alex Smith, has just been promoted as starter. Thrown to the wolves, if you will. Hey, this is his team now and in the future. Might as well put him in and see what he can do. I just hope he’s done a lot of cardio, coz he’s gonna be doing a lot of running away from linemen trying to get a piece of the rookie. I’m actually all for this. I’m tired of seeing Rattay throwing bouncing balls in front of receivers on hitches. Put a hand in this guys face and it’s like he says “Screw it! Here you go! Please don’t hit me!” I’ll be watching Smith closely this week and report back next week.