The size is perfect for reading books and magazines look great on the color screen, but i personally think it’s a little small for viewing them. Article view helps out a lot though, which I will talk about more later.

On the initial startup you are greeted by a welcome video. The quality of the video is perfect. Seriously, I don’t really think it could look any better. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only video that I can get to even play on the device, but more about that later. It takes little time to setup. You just set up your WIFI, timezone and log into your account and that is about it.

The performance of the Nook Color is great. There is an occasional hiccup with an animation, but it is very minimal. Unless you are sitting there searching for a problem you will most likely not even notice.

The device itself only has 4 physical buttons: power, volume up, volume down, and the “n” home button. Pressing the power button locks the screen. If you hold it for 5 seconds it will pop up an option to turn of the device completely. I have been doing this at night because I don’t really have a reason to keep it on. I figured it would be a good addition to the review to time the fresh boot up. It takes 31 seconds to load up all the initial wording and animations. At that point you are on the home screen. So turning the device off completely isn’t really a big time killer.

The Nook Color really shines as an ebook reader. I have absolutely no eye strain while using it even though it has an LCD screen. My eyes are totally used to LCD screens though, as I have been using them for the last 10 years regularly. You have many options while reading books or newspapers on the device. You can change the colors, margins, font, line spacing and text size that it displays. It has enough options available that you should be able to find a combination that suits you perfectly.

The entire screen is touch enabled. But there are 3 key locations you want to touch while reading. About 1/2 inch on each side of the screen is for page turns. You can just tap on the left side to go back or tap on the right to go ahead. If you don’t like the single tap function, you can also swipe your finger to “move” to the next page. By tapping in the middle of the page, it will bring up an option menu where you can see the content of whatever you are reading along with your bookmarks, search through the text, share (recommend via email, Twitter or Facebook along with posting the % complete as a status update), change the text attributes, and adjust the screen brightness. There is also a slider to go to a specific page. I have tried all of these functions and haven’t come across any problems yet.

Where the device begins to have some problems is with media functions. Various sites including YouTube are bookmarked by default in the web browser. I tried a few videos via the home page of YouTube and none of them worked. Each popped up the same “unable to play media” message. To test this further I put a few videos on to my microSD card. I tried 3 videos, all encoded via mp4 as stated on the Nook specs as necessary and none of them worked. There seems to be a major issue with the video codecs on the device. But as I stated earlier, the demo video looks incredible. So I hope an update is released soon that adds more functionality to the video playback portion of the device because as of right now it serves little purpose. I put about 100 mp3 files onto my microSD card also. They played without any problem. I have seen other reviews where mp3 files did not play. But I had no issues, though I didn’t try to play any VBR mp3 files. If any could be a problem I would think those would have the greatest chance of failure.

Now back to Article view in magazines. This function makes magazines actually readable. Article view, which works in regular or landscape, pulls the text from within the articles and displays it in the center of the screen. It makes it much easier to scroll through and read the text this way. Magazines would not be very functional if this option was not available. You would be forced to zoom in and out on the magazine, moving it around the screen to view the different columns of text.

The web browser works well. It lacks Flash like most other mobile devices. One thing to point out though is the fact that the mobile versions of sites don’t load by default. Every site I visit treats the browser in the Nook as a “desktop” device rather than mobile. I don’t mind though because over WIFI pages load fairly quickly. I did notice that .gif animations don’t actually animate. But that is a very minor issue, and once again could be fixed in an update easily if the developers think it is necessary.

Overall the device is great as an ereader. As of right now it lacks in the tablet department. Once some issues are worked out with video playback, and the app store is available in January, I can see getting a lot more use from the device as a whole and not just as an ereader.

I left out some aspects of the device in the review because it is already fairly long. If you have any questions about anything not mentioned here feel free to ask below. I will respond as soon as I can.

Also, all photos in this post were taken with my phone so they are very low quality.

The new device is much different from the older models. It no longer has the e-ink screen but a full touch screen powered by Android. The new device is not just an ereader, it’s a tablet.

Listed below are the features of the new Nook Color.

The Ultimate Reading Experience:

• Stunning 7-inch color touchscreen
• Magazines & newspapers in rich color
• Kids’ books come alive
• Over 2 million titles at your fingertips
• Get social, surf the web, play games, even listen to music

They had various “hold music devices” that were fairly expensive. If I remember correctly, the cheapest one they sold was over $250. I thought about it for a few minutes and said, “can’t we just use an MP3 player?”

Obviously the man on the phone didn’t care for my idea very much because they didn’t sell MP3 players for this function. But surprisingly he said he didn’t see it being a problem. We all questioned the reliability of a relatively inexpensive MP3 playing device, but now I can say that reliability has not been an issue at all.

I went to Best Buy in February of 2009 and saw a Sandisk Sansa Clip on sale for $34. I figured even if it only lasted a few months we would get our money’s worth. We purchased legal MP3 files to serve the function of hold music, which also includes overlays of words such as “please stay on the line, your call is important to us” that fades in over the music on occasion.

It is now August 18, 2010 and the MP3 player has never stopped playing. It has been running continuously for nearly 600 days straight. Just in case something happens to the device, we have 3 extra ones purchased during a special on Woot.com for $20 a piece.

Here is a photo taken today of the MP3 player in action. The battery inside even acts as a backup if we have power issues. Which reminds me to point out that the battery still keeps a charge.

Needless to say, flash storage based MP3 players can apparently last a very long time. I would not hesitate to purchase a Sandisk MP3 player if my need for one ever arises.  They are built great and can’t be beat for the price.

For those interested, here is a link to the updated Sansa Clip+. It is less than $50 for 8gb of storage and is expandable with a microSD slot.

I should have checked online before installing the update, because soon after I started having problems I did a simple search and found that I was not the only one. Basically, there is something wrong with the 10.6.3 update that causes the computer to become completely unresponsive. The screen goes completely blank then fills with vertical lines. When this happens, the computer as I said before, is completely unresponsive to mouse and keyboard input. The only thing to do is turn off the computer with the power button.

I found this topic on the Apple Forum which shows that this is happening to many others also. As of writing this blog post, the forum topic has been open for 2 weeks with no response from Apple.

This is a MAJOR problem. The 10.6.3 update makes the iMac totally unusable. Like always, I didn’t want to sit around and wait for a solution. I was going to get my computer working again, hopefully in fairly quick way. That is when a day long fight with my computer started…

First off, I knew I couldn’t just roll back to 10.6.2. So I was trying to think of a simple way to “make” the computer let me. I thought to myself, what if I just change the version number in the .plist file? That seemed like a great idea…

I changed the OS X version back to 10.6.1 so then I could reinstall the 10.6.2 update and hope for the best. Well, hoping wasn’t good enough in this instance. I installed 10.6.2 with no problem, until my iMac had to restart. Upon restart it instantly got a kernel panic. A never ending reboot loop…

At this point, I sat for a few minutes and thought logically about what to do. Upon each restart, button commands on the keyboard weren’t even working to be able to boot from the Snow Leopard disk. I decided to turn it off for good and unplug the power, hoping to clear out the ram. Once I did that, the computer would then allow me to hold down the “option” key to bring up the boot menu. I was then able to boot from the Snow Leopard disk.

Once  the Snow Leopard installation began, I let it run through the whole install. It never gave any options as to what type of install I wanted. I just selected the drive that I already had Snow Leopard on and away it went. About 45 minutes later it was done. My iMac was back down to 10.6. All of my data was still there, and it seemed to be working alright.

At that point I realized my Bluetooth Apple Wireless Keyboard was being recognized as generic, so none of the special keys were working such as volume and screen brightness. I didn’t think that was a huge problem so I decided to install the 10.6.1 update.

Upon installing the 10.6.1 update, my iMac no longer recognized that it had bluetooth at all. Yes, bluetooth was completely gone from my system. At this point I thought I would install 10.6.2 and once again hope for the best, but I wasn’t able to type my password to start the install. So then I figured I would just restart the computer and hope that bluetooth decided to show up again. To my surprise, it was back.

I now installed the 10.6.2 update. On the initial restart, all functions seemed to be back to normal. Bluetooth was working, and my keyboard was now recognized as an Apple Wireless Keyboard. I did a Time Machine backup right away and ran no other updates. My computer surprisingly seems to be running faster after doing the reinstall and updates.

I will not be updating my version of OS X any time soon. I can’t believe Apple would put out an OS update that would make one of their own products completely unstable. With such limited hardware configurations, I can’t believe the update wasn’t tested enough before the release to ensure something like this wouldn’t happen.

Every day I am more and more disapointed with Apple products. They really are in it just for the money now. Gone are the days of better hardware and a nicer user experience. I really don’t know if I will purchase another Apple computer again, or even another iPhone. Especially after the latest 4.0 Firmware announcement, which states that the most requested feature of the update won’t even work on my 3g version of the phone. (Which I would like to point out is now jailbroken from the second they made the announcement.)

The iPad specs page states the ability to charge with USB, but Apple has also provided a support document disclosing that “some USB 2.0 ports and accessories do not provide enough power to charge iPad.”

With regards to coverage of AT&T at least in my area (Pittsburgh), I have had no issues what so ever in regards to making both telephone calls and using the data network.  In my personal opinion, I believe that the 3G coverage is about equally matched up to Verizon Wireless, however using the web and data applications run much smoother, in addition to the response time appears to be better.  This could be due to the nature of how the phone’s applications are written, or due to the OS that the device is running on.

Using two accounts on this phone both MobileMe and Microsoft Exchange works beautifully.  In my experience with BlackBerry, having more than one account tended to merge both email accounts, calendars, and contacts together.  The iPhone handles multiple accounts very well keeping everything separated.  I am absolutely in love with MobileMe, and how it integrates with my phone and MacBook (more on the MacBook in a future post).  The synchronization is by far faster than Exchange, and Apple I applaud you for getting email, contacts, and calendar synchronization nailed on the head.  I actually find myself more now using the calendar and iCal to keep my personal life organized, because I know the two will work together with no problems.

I think the battery on the phone is good, considering I have been playing with this phone every free moment I get.  I go about a full day on my battery when I am playing with this,  and on days like Saturdays when I’m at home the battery lasts until Monday morning. As of this post I charged my phone last night, and have had 3 hours and 40 minutes of use today, and my battery is still at 65%.

At the end of the day, everyone will have their own thoughts about this device. In my opinion  moving from a business standard platform (BlackBerry), to the iPhone was a great move.  I found no down sides to having a iPhone over a BlackBerry, and with the addition to the various applications that adds additional productivity to my personal life, I’d already be lost without this phone.

Below are unboxing photos along with one sample photo taken by the Playsport itself. I will write a review on the product in a few days, but here are my initial impressions for now…

At first touch, I noticed the build quality of the Playsport is great. It feels very sturdy and actually weighs more than I thought it would. The initial turn on time is much shorter than I anticipated also. I am currently charging it because the battery was almost completely empty when I turned it on, but the initial boot up of the device was less than 4 seconds.

The menus are very simple to navigate. I was able to set the date and time with no problems, and like most people I didn’t bother looking at the book. Changing the video quality, or to still camera is very simple. You just press the left or right arrow buttons and it brings up a menu to select the quality or function.

Here are the unboxing photos I took with my iPhone. They are fairly low quality, but I will take higher quality shots when I write the full review. Also below is a sample photo. It is very overcast today, so this is the best I can do for now. Click the 6th image in the gallery for full size. (2.2mb)

Originally, it was scheduled to be released in April but today I received an email stating that Amazon would have them in stock much earlier.

Not only does it record 1080p (and 720p at 60fps) video, but it takes 5mp 16:9 digital photos.

Here is the promotional paragraph regarding the Playsport…

Heads up, adrenaline junkies. The Kodak Playsport has as much appetite for adventure as you do. And it’s not afraid to get wet. This audacious little camera can plunge up to 10 feet under water and capture the entire experience in full 1080p HD. And you don’t need to worry about blurry footage when things get a little shaky. With built-in image stabilization, the Kodak Playsport will stay steady as a rock. From the waves, to the slopes, to the mud-soaked trails, this baby was made for the extremes.

Not only does this camera have a much better build quality, but it is actually cheaper than the very popular Zi8. Many places sell the Zi8 for between $179.99 and $200. The Playsport HD retails for only $149.

For $149 you get “Everything you need to shoot, watch, and share 1080p HD video” which includes:

• KODAK PLAYSPORT Video Camera
• KODAK Li-Ion Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery KLIC-7004
• HDMI and AV cables
• Wrist strap
• User Guide
• ARCSOFT MEDIA IMPRESSION Software for Kodak (PC only)

As you can see, this is an amazing price for this type of camera and it’s accessories. These compact HD cameras are great quality for general use, just remember that these are really only made to have fun. Don’t expect broadcast quality HD at this price range, though the video quality is rather impressive.

Once I receive the camera I will write a full review. I can’t wait to try it out.

I decided to re-rip all of my CDs and I was weighing out the differences between AAC and MP3.  When you rip songs from a CD in iTunes, you can choose what file format you would like the songs to be saved in, and different file formats do have different strengths and weaknesses.  Generally speaking trading off file size for sound quality.

The two (2) most common file types in iTunes are MP3 and AAC, although iTunes also offers Apple Lossless Encoding, AIFF, and WAV.  For the sake of this post I will be focusing on AAC and MP3. AAC was created as an improved performance codec over MP3, and the advanced audio coding (AAC) was promoted as successor to MP3.  These encoded files are higher in quality, but the same could also be said of Microsoft’s Windows Media format, and OGG files, but none are supported as well as good old MP3.  AAC is the native file format for iTunes, however one may not want to use due to this format now being as widely supported.  Just about every OS (including favors of Linux) will play an MP3 file out of the box, however playing AAC files generally requires the end user to download a 3rd party piece of software (Apple’s Mac OS X excluded).

AAC’s file format does have some improvements over MP3, and I have outlined a few of them.

* More frequencies (from 8 to 96 kHz) than MP3 (16 to 48 kHz)
* Up to 48 channels
(MP3 supports up to two channels in MPEG-1 mode and up to 5.1 channels in MPEG-2 mode)
* Higher efficiency and simpler filterbank
* Higher coding efficiency for stationary signals
(AAC uses a blocksize of 1024 or 960 samples, allowing more efficient coding than MP3’s 576 sample blocks)
* Higher coding accuracy for transient signals
(AAC uses a blocksize of 128 or 120 samples, allowing more accurate coding than MP3’s 192 sample blocks)

With all of this being said, why do many people still prefer to use MP3 file formats?  I would have to answer that mainly with the how easy it is create and also from the popularity it had gained from peer-2-peer applications.  The first large peer-2-peer application was Napster which came online in 1999 – 2000.  This gave thousands (if not  millions at the time)  of music fans access to download (illegally) all of their favorite songs and albums from just about every artist.

My Recommendation:

If you have a PC or a Mac, and also have a iPhone or iPod, I would recommend using the AAC file format.  As an end user you can convert the AAC file to a MP3 file if desired, or if you wish to play a particular track on a device that does not support AAC.  In the long run you will be able to store more music, while still obtaining a high quality sound.  Please take a moment to vote on which file type you prefer.