Geek and a Half

October 23rd, 2007 by Jake

I’ve dealt with a lot of video converters over the years, a lot of which were utter crap. But recently I stumbled upon a converter that did it all, for free. I’m actually impressed that other converters aren’t as simple as this one.

It’s called Any Video Converter. No, I’m not getting paid to write this, I just wanted to tell the world that I think this is a great program.

It’ll convert to/from MPEG, AVI, FLV, or MP4. There are even advanced options for customizing size, aspect ratio, bitrate, and start/endpoints. It even works with the custom codec and unusually high bitrate used by Fraps, so I can take a 1GB game video and compress it into a 15MB MPEG-2 video for YouTube with a few clicks. And while there’s a “nag screen” after converting is complete to buy the Pro Edition (the standard version is freeware), it’s a small price to pay for a solid, working video converter.

To all the other video converters out there: Take a page out of this program’s book.

October 9th, 2007 by Jake

I’m happy to report that I’ve jumped on the bandwagon and made my site iPhone/iPod Touch accessible (It was only a matter of time, right?). Hey, if there are going to be ten million of these things by 2008, I might as well start now, right?

To view the site in iMode, just visit us on an iPod Touch or iPhone (or tell your browser to pretend to be an iPhone). Enjoy.

(I promise, the next article will not be about anything related to Apple.)

October 7th, 2007 by Jake

I usually don’t like to relay Digg stories here, but I thought this one was important. This is a step in the right direction for the iPod touch, and if this email is really from Steve himself… well, let’s just say my hopes are a little bit higher.

Article Source (MacWorld Forums) | digg story

October 1st, 2007 by Jake

I just posted some pictures I took of my new iPod in a Flickr Photo Set. The iPod came on Friday, Sept. 28, the day that it was supposedly officially released by Apple nationwide. Good timing Apple.

I really like it a lot. It’s exactly the way I envisioned it, too. Of course… some of the gripes that you’ve seen circulating the Internet still hold true (crippled Calendar app, anyone?), but most of them are fixable. And my iPod is thankfully a Week 38 iPod, so I can confirm it does not have the infamous screen defect. And, despite what people are saying, I didn’t ever expect this device to be or act like an iPhone (however similar it is), so I’m quite happy with it.

September 14th, 2007 by Jake

At least that’s what I’ve been calling Apple’s latest media device. Because that’s what it is. An iPhone minus the phone part. Hence, iPhod.

Regardless, I’ve preordered one. This will be my very first iPod. Ever. And I’m excited. I’ve used iPhones before, and they’re really amazing pieces of technology. They live up to all the hype that they’ve been given, and I think the new iPod touch will, too. Now, I’m not saying this because I’m an Apple fanboy or anything (in fact, I sold my Mac Mini to pay for the new iPod, hardly a replacement, but we’ll see), but they really are neat. I think one of the big selling points for me was that it combined a lot of PDA elements into it, besides being a music player. It’s got a calendar (supposedly, you can’t add events on the fly anymore, though), clock, address book, alarms, calculator… all the little things that come in handy when you least expect them to. And it’s not to say that the old iPods didn’t have these features, either, they’re just presented a whole lot better on the touch.

Oh, and we can’t forget about the revolutionary web browser that’s in it too (yeah, the device has built-in WiFi, in case you haven’t guessed). Full-sized webpages, just like on your computer, but on that neat little screen with all the pinch and tap functionality. Like I said before… It’s an iPhone without the phone. Perfect for me, someone who’s stuck with Verizon Wireless on a family plan.

One more point of interest, as well… “supposedly” these things are fully hackable, just like the iPhone is (and Apple doesn’t even care that you’re hacking their stuff!), or at least, that’s what I’m hoping when I get it. From what I hear from friends who have iPhones, the hack process really isn’t a hack at all. It’s pretty much download, run, and it’s hacked. Feel free to install whatever apps you want on it at that point. I can only hope the touch is as hackable as the iPhone is, but I have a pretty good feeling it is.

I’ve just now preordered the 16GB model, and with shipping the price tag comes out to be roughly $430. You can also get the 8GB model for $300. They ship Sept 28 and arrive in homes starting Oct 2. Personally, I can’t wait.