I was rummaging through my basement over the weekend, looking for some plugs or cables or something, when I came upon a great box of old electronics and gadgets.  I never did find the cable I was looking for, but I did find my first digital music player: The Rio 800 digital audio player.  Back in its day, before Apple captured the field with the iPod, the Rio was pretty much the gold standard for music players. 

Read More …

You know, I really hope the mock-ups I’ve been seeing around the web are NOT indicative of what the new iPod Nano “Fatty” is going to look like. I’ve just recently picked up a 3rd Generation model and I love it. The form factor is excellent, screen is actually very good for viewing movies (despite how incredibly small it is) and there’s nothing better for tossing into a pocket and hitting the road. Originally when I got it I thought there was no way I would be watching video on this thing, but I’ll tell you after a couple weeks of taking it to work with me and a camping trip that I made with it – I’ve gone through 5 or 6 movies and not once have I thought about the screen size being too small.

The ONLY gripe I have with the device is that they put the headphone jack on the bottom … which is a dumb move considering you have to have the thing on the bottom edge to watch movies (screen doesn’t rotate). But other than that, as I mentioned its so easy to pocket the “fatty” and forget about it being there until you want it. I can’t think that making the Nano taller just so you can gain a few millimeters of screen size is going to be of any real benefit. But what do I know … it’s not like I’ve been sitting around the office winning design awards lately…

(Via iLounge)