Thursday, July 22, 2004

Blue Devil!?!

So it seems that Duke Univeristy has decided that for $40K in tuition, each incoming freshman should at least get a new iPod. According to Duke's press release (http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/news/ipods_0704.html), the students will also be able to download audio course materials that professors provide.

What ever happened to good ol' tape recorders?

This is so reminscent of that montage in 'Real Genius' where the guy keeps walking into the classroom and every day more and more students are replaced with tape recorders, until one day, the professor himself puts a tape recorder on his desk.

Video still may have not killed the radio start, but will the iPod kill both the lecture and the tape recorder?

Friday, July 09, 2004

iPod Nation

It seems that wherever I go in New York City, about one in every 4-5 people is wearing an ipod. Yes I ocassionally see people carrying Rio Karmas and iRiver Flash MP3 players, etc. But the iPod and its little brother, the iPod Mini, are beocming ubiquitous.

To me this signifies several things:
- Apple has reinvented itself, and is much-better poised to control the post-pc era of computerized consumer electronics
- The pure cachet and snob appeal of the iPod mini far outweighs the fact that it is a 'bad value'
- New Yorkers really like a) Their music b) to drown out street and subway noise and c) to be fashionable.

I am curious how the Airport Express will sell? I think I need to go warwalking around town again :)

Of course, I don't have the $300 to spend on an iPod, (nor the $250 on the mini) but I did buy two albums through theiTunes Music Store so that I might have a slim chance of winning an iPod.


Wednesday, July 07, 2004

GMail!!!!

Thanks to a hookup from a friend, I have been invited to beta test Google's new e-mail service - Gmail mail service. So far it kicks ass. You have three basic folders - Inbox, All mail, and trash. You can use google to search your e-mail, and you can create virtual folders for your service, called labels. You can even have rules and filters and it has a SPAM folder where suspected SPAM goes.

It even has a cool 'conversation' feature that tracks threaded e-mails so that you can view a message and all its corresponding replies in one view.

I have already started forwarding a couple of accounts to it to use it as a client.