Friday, January 16, 2004

Bluetooth Annoyances

I have a Nokia 3650 phone, which I use with two different computers at work via Bluetooth. My main desktop system, an Apple G5, keeps my address book and calendar. My Dell PC is used for Bluetooth Serial Port access, so I can sync AvantGo without having to pay 2 cents/KB to do so.

Every time I move from the Mac to the PC or from the PC to the Mac, I have to re-pair the phone with the computer, or nothing works.

Now I just need to wait for Apple to add Bluetooth Serial Port support to OS X. Doh.

Activision Anthology for Game Boy Advance

I just bought Activision Anthology for the GameBoy Advance. It include 55 Atari 2600 games including selections published by Activision plus some demo titles and games written long after the 2600 had left the scene.

It is especially nice that the Activision titles are the focus here. Activision was one of the most innovative 2600 developers. They made the 2600 hardware do things that is was not supposed to be able to do. The games are in general, a notch above the others.

The cart runs the well known Stella 2600 emulator. I know this because Bradford Mott is the lead emulator developer for the cart and he wrote Stella.

It completely rocks. Enduro, Spider Fighter, Megamania, Chopper Command, Air Raid, Pitfall...all the great ones are there.

It saves best scores, and rewards you with cheats that change the games. Scans of the cart label, box art and instructions are included in the game. A steal for $29.

The iPod mini

All the latest kvetching is about how the iPod Mini was a complete screw up by Apple. I don't agree. The main argument is that for $50 more, one could buy a 15 gig iPod.

This assumes that everyone bases their decision only on price. If this was the case, we would all be driving Yugos because they are so cheap.

If someone is in the market for a small MP3 player, there are a number of flash-based players for around $200. Most of these have a max capacity of about 256 megs. If I am a buyer who is considering these, now I have a choice where I can spend $50 more and get 4 gigs of storage.

If I am willing to carry around a bigger MP3 player, the regular iPod is the obvious choice.

Just over one year later, I find it amusing that Apple can barely keep the mini in stock, it is so popular.