Until last fall, I had a pretty much uninterrupted streak of liking Apple's iPod line of music players. But the iPod Photo turned me off. In my review last November, I said it cost too much extra and offered too little in the way of added features.
For yesterday's column, I took another look at the newly updated iPod Photo. I found that I liked it a good deal better now that it's $150 cheaper (albeit minus a couple of useful accessories) and, with the help of a $29 adapter, can double as a backup hard drive for your digital camera. Have a look at my column to find out more.
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Leslie Walker's Web Watch this week tried out Google's latest addition to its incredibly slick maps site (maps.google.com) -- satellite photography.
We also featured a look at three ways to record FM and AM broadcasts as MP3 files, while this week's game reviews covered a Matrix tie-in game that doesn't stink, a satire-ific TimeSplitters sequel and an off-road-racing title. And in Help File, I outlined a way in which two firewalls are better than one (so long as they're not on the same computer) and explain how to force a color HP printer to print in gray.
I'll be online at 2 p.m. ET today for my usual tech discussion. The topic: Why can't you use the wireless phone of your own choice, instead of what your carrier thinks you want? It should be a busy discussion, to judge by all the responses I've seen in my inbox (see the next section for examples). If you can't be online at 2, submit a question or comment early.
Venting About Verizon (and other wireless carriers)
My column two weeks ago about limits on customer choice in cell phones struck some kind of nerve with readers. Here's a sampling from my inbox:
* "I have been with Verizon for about 8 years and like the service but the lack of phones is so frustrating. Even talking to some of the sales reps have expressed the same frustration on the lack of new phones."
* "Not all cell phone buyers are insecure teenagers in search of group approval, heavily subsidized by their parents, and looking for new 'smart features' that are more odd than smart in order to impress each other."
* "I will be leaving Verizon at the end of my contact (that is why I always pay their penalty of higher prices for the shorter contract), or even possibly earlier, by paying the early termination fee. I wanted a Motorola flip phone with no camera. I had a list of phone models that would work for me. They had no options that matched and they were very smug and sure that I would return and accept a different brand phone, or decide on a camera phone. 'You'll be back,' said the sales person surely."
* "I've lived overseas for the majority of the last 15 years and had gotten used to the SIM chips of the mobile phones overseas. As an office manager, it made it easy to upgrade phones and give personnel some choice about the phone that best fit their needs. It also made it easy to manage the lines as people came and went. I could even keep extra SIMs handy and activate them at will for out of town visitors. The flexibility made me a loyal customer."
