Cowon iAudio X5L 30Gb Review w/Pics

My iRiver iHP-120’s (now known as H120) power/play button finally gave out the other day, so I’m no longer able to easily turn it on. (I actually since noticed that hitting the reset button also causes it to power on; so it’s still somewhat workable although I have no idea what I’m going to do with it.) With iRiver unwilling to repair it for me, I had to pick up a replacement.

I originally bought the iRiver primarily because of the Ogg Vorbis support that I am so keen on. Since then, though, iRiver seems to have sold out to the almighty Microsoft because their product pages have the M$ “Plays for Sure” badge image and no longer support any open formats. (Add that to the list of reasons I hate Microsoft pls.)

I’ve been using the Cowon iAudio X5L 30Gb for a few days now and I must say, I am quite pleased with it overall. Although it comes from an iAudio fan site, iAudiophile has an excellent review on the X5 that I highly recommend if you want even more detail than I provide. (The X5L differs only in that it is 1) a bit larger, 2) a bit heavier, 3) costs a bit more, and 4) lasts for 35 hrs instead of the X5’s 14.)

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Here’s How to do Podcasts

I like to listen to some podcasts… but I find myself getting behind simply because I have to constantly revisit the separate websites, click around, find the torrent link… No it’s not that hard, but it certainly could be a lot easier.

Somewhere in my digg reading today, I read that Azureus supports RSS feeds. “Wow,” I thought, “That would really be the easiest way to get my podcasts!” I consulted google, and found that this functionality is offered via an extension. I gave it the rss feeds for thisweekintech and a couple other podcasts I like to listen to, and it lists the episodes and lets me download them with the click of a button. It will also poll the feeds on an interval and download them automatically.

This is perfect. I just had to share it.

Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW, Good House Party Tonight

It’s Friday the 13^th and two good things are happening today. First, My new LCD has arrived. I’d been thinking of getting a new lcd for a while, and when I saw deal like this one, I had to splurge. It’s a combo Dimension system & LCD deal, but the price is killer. The bad news is that I’ll have to find a buyer for the tower that comes with it and my old LCD, but after all is said and done, I’ll have saved several hundred bucks on this screen (hopefully).

I’ve got the thing set up at the kitchen table right now… so that’s what’s in the picture. I was nothing but wow’d when I opened the thing up. I’m really not used to seeing screens larger than 19 or 20 inches. The design is really nice; the black & grey scheme matches the rest of my system. The base allows the screen to swivel with ease in all conceivable directions—including raising the entire screen up and down. You’ll need to raise it up in order to make enough room underneith to rotate the entire screen 90” clockwise and go into portrait mode. I haven’t looked into making this feature work in linux yet. Oh, and it has a multi media card reader in the left side of the screen which saved me just now when I couldn’t find the usb cord for my camera. I have no frickin clue where that thing is…

And I found it interesting that this product made #5 on PCWorld.com’s 100 Best Products of 2005.

The second good thing happening today is that I’m going to go DJ at a house party on Durand street (like a block over from me). I’ll be working in some other styles besides dnb to appease the peoples tonight. I may end up posting at least part of it for those of you who couldn’t make it. ;)

The Laserpod

So I got the Laserpod from Thinkgeek the other day, and it seems to be a real hit. The housemates love it, the guests are all interested in it, and it generally looks cool. I’m too lazy to post pictures, but the I4U News site does a good job of explaining what this thing is.

Chronicles of Narnia

So I was convinced by my housemates that it would be a great idea to go see the Chronicles of Narnia on opening night. I had a feeling it would be packed, and boy was I right. The show sold out, and we had to say goodbye to a couple friends who couldn’t get tickets. (We reserved ours online.)

Even though I had to look upward at the gigantic, overstimulating screen while sitting in the front row’s center area, I thought it was a pretty enjoyable movie. It certainly scores high in the eye candy category. In fact, I decided that that was half of the movie’s formula. The other half was MAGIC. There was very little about this movie (or story) that wasn’t MAGICAL. From the land of Narnia existing behind the wardrobe in the first place, to pretty much everything that happens inside Narnia—it’s all both beautiful and magical. The CG characters looked very nice.

So, Eye Candy + Magic = Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Firefox 1.5 is the New Standard

Firefox 1.5 came out yesterday, and although I tried a beta some time ago and was impressed with the speed increase, I’ve held out upgrading for day-to-day use until the final release. This isn’t even so much because for the sake of a final release but also so the extensions I want would become available.

So, since I hear it might be some time before we see Firefox 1.5 backported to Ubuntu Breezy (let alone 64-bit packages!), I decided to just build it myself from source. Well, I had a tiny gotcha that I was able to solve, but now I’m lovin’ the Firefox!

It’s really cool:

1. It’s 20-30% faster than the old 1.0.x versions in most cases making it rival even Opera’s speed.
2. It caches pages so that when you go back/forward, the new page loads instantaneously. This is especially pleasing when I can use my mouse’s side thumby buttons to zip around in my history!
3. You can drag/drop tabs around to reorder them—even between windows!
4. It has lots of really nice extensions
5. There are friendlier error messages.
6. UI enhancements, particularly in the preferences.
7. Loads of other stuff.

Firefox has been a really great browser for quite some time now. Version 1.5 seems to be very well refined product that is fast, easy to use, and very flexible.

Breezy the Impressive

I’m not crazy about their names or color schemes, but Ubuntu linux seriously has the whole linux usability thing figured out. I upgraded my Hoary laptop to Breezy last Wednesday, and just yesterday switched my desktop that has been running Gentoo for 5-6 years now over to Breezy. Why did I do that, you ask? Well even if you didn’t, it’s because qt failed to compile, and rather than figure it out like I always have to, I said to hell with it. Gentoo is awesome, but things often take more time and research than they should.

The new Gnome 2.12 is so frickin smooth. Nautilus doesn’t crash like it did in 2.10, and there are new usability features that really make it a comfy environment. Hooray for linux on the desktop! \o/

I’ve ordered a pile of Breezy discs from shipit.ubuntu.com. So I’ll be passing those out to anyone who’s interested.

This Week in Tech

Podcasts have recently become more popular. Now that iTunes supports podcast downloading (basic usage—no torrents) podcasts have come to the masses. TWiT is apparently #2 on the iTunes podcast roster! If you don’t know, it’s Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, and many others from the TechTV crew. It’s quite a nice show if you’re one who enjoyed their appearances on TechTV’s The Screen Savers and Call for Help.

I like listening to these shows with dnb in the background. Shit, I’ll listen to dnb whenver possible! Anyway, as I was playing some tunes alongside the podcast, I decided to fire up Audacity and add my last released set at lower volume to the podcast. I’m not going to post it, but if for some reason you’re actually interested, msg me on aim.

Oh, and my other favorite podcast is LugRadio.

Logitech v500 Mouse & UltraX Keyboard

First of all, happy July 4^th, everybody! (even non-Americans have a 4^th of July.) I hope everyone is enjoying good time spent with family and friends.

I just got a couple interesting input devices from Logitech, and I wanted to take a moment to tell you all how cool they are.

First is the relatively new Logitech v500 wireless optical mouse intended for use with a notebook. This thing is quite small, but still manages to feel nice in my hand thanks to some quite impressive engineering. An easy-to-release latch on the bottom of the mouse releases the chassis. The bottom side of the mouse comes up to fit better into the palm of your hand. This also exposes the slot hidden in the now-exposed surface to store the micro receiver. It also has a 4-way scroll pad (not a wheel!) making this one badass little mouse.

The other big selling point for me is the new technology. This is one of the first mice to incorporate a scroll pad like this one. It’s also at least one of the first to use 2.4 GHz wireless technology to provide super-low latency transmissions and a completely reworked all-terrain optical engine. The two of these things together mean that this mouse will be very quick and error free on about any surface you can think of for up to 30 meters!

Now for the bad news. I didn’t even realize this until I got the mouse, but it doesn’t have the ability to send a signal for a middle click. I guess the pad is designed only to allow the swiping motions to signify scrolling, and can’t distinguish a simple tap. This is annoying, but using xorg’s emulate3buttons (both buttons at the same time for 3rd mouse click) isn’t as annoying as I thought it would be. I thought it was odd, though, that I read a couple reviews and nothing I read hinted the fact that this mouse is missing a third button as though it wasn’t even a consideration.

Anyway, this mouse is otherwise perfect. I’d recommend it to anyone who is looking for a sleek and tiny mouse to use with their laptop, doesn’t mind the lack of middle mouse button, and has the moolah. The SRP is about $70, but I found mine on Newegg for $53.

The keyboard I just picked up is a IBM-Compatible keyboards. I actually stole this keyboard idea from my friend Dan who picked it up a few months ago. Having proper, full-sized keys along with the familiar layout make it very comfortable to type on. The media keys up top are few, but few is more than enough for me. Also, with this wrist rest I use, the keyboard ends up being a bit too low when my hands come over the rest because this keyboard is so thin. So, I’ve put a couple jewel cases under it to elevate it a bit. This is an okay temporary solution, though the keyboard does tend to drift around a bit.

My New TV

So I just got my new Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 yesterday, and after a few hours of tinkering with the complicated, but ever-so-cool MythTV, I manged to get it running. Now, I can use one of my two screens to not just watch TV, but have all the Tivo-like PVR functionality. That means I can pause, rewind, record, get an on-screen TV guide, and more. Since I already had two screens for my computer, instead of buying a TV, this was my solution. It was cheaper than a whole TV (just over $100) and also offers extra functionality. I don’t usually watch too much TV, but maybe that will change now that I have one.

Oh, I’m still working on those pictures. Maybe in the next few days I’ll put something online.