Friday, September 09, 2005

Ain't Technology Grand?

Elie recently got me into podcasts, which are basically radio-show type programs that can be downloaded to an MP3 player (hence podcasts, though there is no special requirement for an iPod). My favorites are The Signal, Skepticality, NOVA Now, and SETI Radio. I have been listening to them on an old Rio 600 from the early days of MP3 files when 64 Mb was a lot of storage space on a player and shrinking it down to the just over the size of a deck of cards was quite an achievement. Menus were for weenies, though it did have a black and white (OK, grey and greenish) LCD display. The Rio holds about an hour and a half of podcasting--except for SETI Radio, which manages to compress an hour program into a file about half the size of the others. Also, it runs on a AA battery, so I've been constantly reloading my player and replacing the battery.

Not anymore. I just took delivery of a 1 gigabyte Mobiblu 1500i. In addition to being an MP3 player, it has a clock, can receive and record FM radio signals, takes voice memos, and even functions as a jump drive. It has a bright backlit OLED screen (take that, iPod Shuffle!) and a rechargable battery that, ideally, runs 10 hours on a 3-hour charge. It has a single cable that takes care of charging and data transfer, and a single portal that accommodates both the charging/data transfer cable and the headset.

All of that, and it's the size of a cheese cube. Really.

You can check it out or buy it over here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

She ain't kiddin' about it being the size of a cheese cube. I was quite impressed with its small size. Also, the fact that it has a built in microphone, FM receiver, and LED screen makes it superior to the iPod Shuffle for the same price. If I were to buy another one, I'd get that. Only problem is it is exclusive to Walmart.com Can't even find it in their stores. ---Emp. Peng.