fyi on the crunchpad buzz, photos were removed. apologies, they weren’t ready for publication yet. added to our posterous account in error

Bullshit. Can you say marketing scheme? That doesn’t mean that I don’t think that this is starting to look really freakin cool.

Remaster – Frequently advertised with regard to CD and DVD releases, remastering has become a powerful buzzword in multimedia industries, and it generally implies quality enhancement of sound and/or picture to a previously existing recording (frequently designed to encourage people to buy a new version of something they already own).

Now see the LA Times:

Nearly a quarter-century after the Beatles and digital technology came together at the dawn of the CD era, the Fab Four’s entire recorded legacy is getting a major sonic overhaul that is widely considered long overdue. All of the group’s studio recordings will be reissued Sept. 9 in remastered versions and are expected to generate renewed excitement about the Beatles’ blue-chip catalog and pump millions of dollars into a beleaguered music industry.

Sigh. McCartney’s divorce must have made his wallet a little thin and uncomfortable to sit on.

I ordered it late today so it probably won’t be here until Monday even with the free 2-day FedEx shipping. Crap. I really hate waiting on stuff like this when I order online. If I could just go to the local Cingular store I could have it today, but unfortunately to take advantage of my employee discount the purchase must be made online.

Oh, and a heads up for those that are able to take advantage of a Cingular discount through your employer or school. You will have to do so through the Cingular Business site. If you are on a family plan (as we are) you will have to make two separate purchases. There is no way to purchase both phones in one transaction. That is kind of ridiculous.

I hope I don’t have any problems with this but in order for me to get the Blackberry for $99.99 I had to order a new voice plan (450/5000), and a data plan that included text messages. I wasn’t able to just extend my current family plan (like I did when I purchased my wifes new phone) and add a non text message data plan. I spoke with customer service via online chat and they told me that I could just cancel the plan change a few days after I receive the phone and there would be no penalty. Hope he is right. Otherwise I copied the chat conversation just in case I need it.

• Sony Ericsson W810i
• Samsung Sync (SGH-a707)
• Blackberry Pearl (8100)

The W810i gets a 4.39/5 rating on PhoneScoop.com. Not too shabby. It has a very highly rated Walkman feature that is great for playing music, a 2.0 megapixel camera (fyi, my first digital camera was only a 1.0 and I used it up until about a year and a half ago), it can record video, and has a built in LED flashlight. Very cool feature set.

I was able to go to my local Cingular store and play around with all three phones as well. The W810i was a good size that fit nicely in my hand. On the negative side it made a creaky sound when you pushed the buttons. No, I wasn’t trying to hulk smash them either. That sound did give me a “cheap” feeling. I also wasn’t thrilled with the menu system and I kept accidentally connecting to the internet because of a dedicated menu button. I read in some forums and on Phone Scoop about a problem with low call volume. That’s a big negative right now for me. My current V551 has a slowly failing ear piece which makes hearing the other person talk difficult so I am especially worried about this. This phone is going for $69.99 with 2 year contract.

The Samsung Sync gets 4.04/5 on Phone Scoop. Unlike the other two phones this one is 3G capable. That doesn’t really matter because there is no 3G coverage in Lexington. The Sync is similar to a RAZR but it looks a little longer and possibly a tad bit wider, but not much. Call volume is reportedly excellent. Battery life, the camera, and signal strength also received high marks around the internet. This phone also plays music and has touch controls on the outside. Overall I really like this phone.

As for negatives on the Sync, there aren’t a lot of consistently mentioned problems so I would say that is a good thing. Some were annoyed because there wasn’t an easy way to disable the camera shutter sound when taking pictures. After further research there are solutions to this problem on the net. The Sync comes in at a very affordable $24.99.

Last but most definitely not least is the Blackberry Pearl. This is one really, really, cool looking phone. It’s very thin and stylish looking. Phone Scoop users give it a 4.19/5. Several of the reviews said the ear phone and built in speaker phone were quite loud which is a very good thing. This is one of the newer generation of Blackberry’s that has the trackball instead of the click wheel on the side. The new trackball works a lot like the Apple Mighty Mouse scroll ball. I liked this feature a lot. Some reviewers didn’t like it at all but most of these comments were from people who were used to the click wheel. I would be a first time Blackberry owner so this didn’t bother me.

As for the negatives, one huge barrier for me is that this phone almost requires you buy a data plan to accompany the voice plan. The Pearl can be used as a regular phone without the data service but you would be missing out on a lot of features of the phone without the accompanying data plan. The unlimited data plan is $34.99 a month or $29.99 per month if you also have a voice plan. This is without a doubt my favorite looking phone but I’m not sure I can justify an extra 30 bucks a month on my cell phone bill. The phone costs $99.99 with the discount through my employer.

I’m going to think about it for another day or so and place an order. Since I will be buying two phones, one for my wife and one for myself, I will probably buy either the Sony or the Samsung for her since she really just wants a phone that does what it’s supposed to, be a phone. Any extra features are just a bonus for her. Myself on the other hand, I need to decide if I would get enough usage out of the data plan to justify the extra cost. We’ll see.

Visitors. Looks like there was at least one visitor.

Please stop placing icons on my machine when I install the new version of iTunes. I used to wonder why you couldn’t come up with a sleek updater similar to the one that Firefox uses. Don’t misunderstand, I have broadband, so the speed isn’t a problem. It just seems like a lot of money spent on bandwidth on your part. Why are all of your updates 25+ MB even for a simple .1 update? Wait, you do have an updater now? Sweet, let me try that out. Ahh. You STILL download the entire package don’t you. Sigh.

That’s not why I’m writing you this time though. This letter is because of something else that you continue to do do. Override my preferences. Or not ask my preference would be a better way to put it. Every time I install the new update for iTunes or QuickTime you place a QuickTime icon on my desktop, in quick launch, and worst of all in the system tray. Unlike the other locations you can’t just right click and delete or drag to the system tray icon to the trash. You have to open up the preferences and tell it to remove the icon from the tray. Every time you reinstall. Please stop that. No one likes this. It’s actually a little Bonzi Buddyish.

Thanks.

First I’ll set this up with a little backstory. I drive a Nissan Xterra. That pretty much wraps up the backstory. Anyway, I take the car to the dealer to get the oil changed and it also happens to be time for the 30,000 mile maintenance. I know, I could take it somewhere else besides the Nissan dealer and get this done much cheaper. Actually the oil change price is relatively competetive with the other places that I would consider taking it if you don’t consider the 7 Minute E-Z-Quik Lube’s that charge 12.95. But I don’t always trust those places since I’ve had some bad experiences with them before (looks like yer’ oll pans got a dent in it).

So the Nissan service department quotes me a price of around $709 to do the whole 30,000 mile maintenance. I hurriedly tell them “thatsok, I think I’ll just have the oil changed this time around”. The service manager tells me that they will go ahead and inspect all the usual 30,000 mile stuff for free just to see if anything is in need of immediate repair. I begin hearkening back to experiences with the Jim Bob’s Auto Repair’s of the world that I used to deal with and expect them to try to screw me. Oddly enough, they do the inspection and it doesn’t happen. “We changed the oil and everything looked fine except (here we go) your In-Cabin Microfilter needs to be replaced,” he says.

I ask him how much it is and he tells me it will be $89. I tell him I think I’ll do that next time I’m in. I pay for the oil change and head home where I promptly start checking online for this filter. I check out the excellent Xterra Owner’s Club forums and bingo, the first search I do there brings up a link to XterraParts.com. I find the filter there for $27 plus shipping which will bring the total to about $37. No tax. Just like that I saved myself 50 bucks.

Not content to just take the first deal I see, I search around and find MyNissanParts.com and they have it for 21.99 plus shipping. No tax . I order this one for a grand total of $30.49. I got it via FedEx today and I’ll probably install it tomorrow. You can’t beat saving $60 with about 10 minutes of searching.