In some alternate universe, I would write these sweet columns that do not come off sounding whiny or cracked out. People would actually read what I write, and my words would have a profound effect on their lives.
Last week, I got a little taste of what that universe would be like. A few weeks after I called out Apple on how lame the iPod shuffle was, they did something about it. They dropped the price of the 1GB shuffle to $49. At the same time, they announced a 2GB version would be available later this month for $69. That is still $10 less than the old 1GB price. Nicely done, Apple. I am glad you decided to listen to me. No need to thank me -- a free 32GB iPod touch will suffice.
In other news, there is finally a winner in the multi-million dollar, high-definition disc format war that most consumers either did not know was going on or did not care about. The HD DVD camp has thrown in the towel, and Blu-ray has won. It is now safe to invest in HD movies without the fear that they will become obsolete and unsupported.
I am going to take the nonconformist route and say that the next few months are going to be a great time to buy an HD DVD player. Given what I just told you, that probably sounds like the exact opposite of what you would want to do, but there is a method to my madness. HD DVD players are plummeting in price; finding one for much less than $100 is not too difficult. Retailers have taken to rebranding HD DVD players as "HD upconverting DVD players with HD DVD support." When you think about it that way, it is not a bad idea to get one. For $20-$30 more than a regular upconverting DVD player, you can have the tech cachet of owning a future dinosaur. Also keep in mind that most HD DVD players come bundled with a few HD movies. The ability to repeatedly watch "300" in HD alone is worth the extra cost.
In a couple of decades, when movies just get streamed straight to our living room media servers, you can show off your HD DVD player and pontificate proudly as people give you weird looks, kind of like what happens now if you try to talk about Betamax or LaserDisc. Or maybe that only happens to me.
Digression: If you are ever with a bunch of nerdy people and get onto the topic of obsolete disk formats, make sure to bring up DataPlay. It will blow their ramblings about floppy disks and Zip drives out of the water. They will give you quizzical looks as you show off your deep knowledge of a completely forgotten format. When you are done, they will be so impressed that you will probably receive a pat on the back and the permanent label of uber-geek [ed: Thanks Luofei, we'll all keep that in mind].
For those interested, DataPlay was this optical disc format that showed up around 2002. The discs were about the size of a quarter and encased in a plastic caddy. They could hold up to 500MB. Unlike CDs, DataPlay discs had copyright protection, so there was a lot of corporate support for the new format, especially from record labels. Britney Spears even released "In the Zone" in the DataPlay format. By the time DataPlay came out though, the iPod was already turning people into white earbud-wearing, unresponsive zombies, so the format quickly crashed and burned.
So if anyone wants to get together to talk about old, forgotten obsolete technology, send me a Blitz. It might take me awhile to get back to you though, because I am trying to resurrect an IBM WorkPad z50 and get Linux and BlitzMail on it (not to mention wireless and Dartmouth Secure).
Luofei is a staff writer for The Mirror. And an uber-geek.
