Taking a quick stroll through the electronics section of a major retail store the other day, looking at all of the things I didn’t need or couldn’t afford, I spotted an 8 GB SanDisk brand microSD (HC) card.  It wasn’t a shock, as I new the store carried them, but then I noticed the price!  A whole, whopping $31.88.  Yep, that’s it.  Now before you think how crazy I am, this isn’t to tell you that this is a fantastic deal; a person is likely to find a better offer at other stores and definitely when shopping online.

What stood out about the price to me is how it compared to my first purchase of an external card.  It is a rather fond memory: my first external card of any type was a 32 MB SanDisk brand CompactFlash card.  It was to expand the 8 MB internal memory of my Oregon Scientific Osaris.  I was so happy on the day it became mine, even though the price was a hefty $125.00 (it was 1999 when it was purchased).

Back from memory lane, later in present day afternoon, I started thinking about cost per megabyte.  It turns out I paid approximately $3.91 / MB for my 32 MB CompactFlash (bought in 1999) .  For the SD card, on the other hand, a person would pay approximately $.0038916/MB.

PS:  Don’t tell my wife you read this, or before she’ll let me purchase my next memory card, she’ll encourage me to wait for another 10 years, throwing around cost per MB breakdown and how much more I’ll get for my money!

Tech MSNhas done a very quick, selective comparison of four of the newest smartphones to hit the market:  the Apple iPhone 3GS, Nokie N97, Palm Pre, and the T-Mobile myTouch 3G.  You have the Apple OS, Symbian, WebOS, and Android.  Anybody see anything wrong here; no Windows Mobile. 

I really question whether this article should be listed as the hottest smartphones or the newest smartphones.  Anyway, I have always believed that if something was classified as the hottest, it should be something that is selling like hotcakes fresh off the griddle.  Also, that the hottest should be something that can do more than the rest as well (you know, the new and improved idea).  This is not the case here.  Windows Mobile is just simply being ignored because, in this writer’s opinion, people just see it as old-hat.  This is so sad.  Windows Mobile may not be the fastest; and it is certainly not going to fit everyone.  However, Windows Mobile will and can do more than all of these put together.  There are more applications and customization for Windows Mobile than any other operating system.  This alone should be enough; but no, we have to go and get the latest thing to be “up with Jones’” or to be better.  The problem is that the latest and greatest are not all they are chalked up to be.  Read up a little bit and you will find that each operating system has its strengths and weaknesses.  Why are we doing this?  It seems to me that image means more than functionality.  I own a Fuze because of what it can do; not what it looks like.  The whole purpose of the smartphone is to be able to do things on the go.  Here lately there are more people buying smartphones.  Is it because they need to get things done on the go or is it just to look smart?  Alright, I am off the soapbox now.  Check out the article for yourself, and see what you think.

Just Had To…

It was with those fateful words, on June 25, 2006,that a small website called Just Another Mobile Monday went from being a kinda cool idea to one of the premiere mobile technology websites on the Interwebs.   Well…OK, maybe there were a few steps in between, and a heck of a lot of hard work.  But here we are, three years later, with one of the finest writing teams around, an innovative design, and one of the best reader communities money can buy.

So, how does a premiere website like JAMM celebrate a birthday?  GIVEAWAYS, of course.   We already gave away some fantastic cases, courtesy of Otterbox.  But how do you all feel about Bluetooth headsets?  And not just any headset, we are giving away the brand spanking new SoundID 200 & 300 Bluetooth headsets.  We’ll let three winners take their pick between those models.

So, what do you have to do to win?  Easy.  Just leave a comment on this post and tell us, if you could call any one person, living or dead, fictional or real, whom would you call and why.  The more creative the better.  We’ll pick three winners at random on Monday, June 29. All entries much be posted by 9:00 that night.

Even if you don’t win a free headset, though, SoundID still has something exciting for you.  They are looking for a few good men (and women) to help them test out some ideas.  If you are interested in getting some fantastic deals on SoundID products, just send an email to marketing [at] soundid.com (remember to replace the [at] with a “@”.

Oh yeah…and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUST ANOTHER MOBILE MONDAY!!!

By entering this contest, you authorize Just Another Mobile Monday, and its representatives, to provide your personal information (such as, but not limited to your name and email address) to the sponsors of this contest should you be selected as a winner. Your personal information will not be sold by Just Another Mobile Monday, or otherwise retained for any purpose except that described herein.

…and rightly so! There’s a lot of pretty strange stuff that goes on when developers (like WebIS’ Alex Kac)  submit an app or an app update for approval. One of the major problems is the inability for developers to pump out a bug fix to apps like Pocket Informant without losing their place in line. So if version 1.1.1 has already been sent to Apple for approval, but Apple gets back to Alex about a new bug, they’ll end up rejecting the app and force him to line up all over again. This is just bad news bears for the developers and the users eagerly awaiting a quick fix, as all the power lies with Apple and they can really take their sweet time in approving even a simple bug fix update. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, so I do hope that more developers speak openly about the process so that things can change up sooner rather than later.

Here’s the full forum post — and it’s worth a look because it’s more than just a rant. There are some good ideas in there about how to improve the whole approval process.

More exciting Zune HD news is out and about.  It has been confirmed that the Zune HD will contain NVIDIA’s new Tegra chip set.  What exactly does this mean?  Well, the Tegra is basically a complete computer system on a chip.

Diagram of the breakdown of the NVIDIA Tegra Chip

This is a a powerful processor for the Zune HD, and will give the device the ability to do more than just the basics.  As a comparison, NVIDIA was originally targeting this chip towards netbooks and MIDs.  Zune HD needed a powerful graphics processor to support the HD 720P video out.  Plus the Tegra is the first chip to support Adobe’s Flash acceleration, which would make the Zune HD the first player with an integrated flash player.  I am just completely excited with this news.  This really gives the HD the ability to be a portable computer.  To me, that means there will be apps on the way.  I think MS has to have all kinds of apps for the Zune HD if they want to compete with Apple.

Via PC Perspective