disjoint thoughts

Want a CHEAP ipod touch case? Too lazy to order a real case online? Are you just plain crazy? Well follow these easy steps to create a great ghetto ipod touch case…

1. Buy a pack of Dentyne ice gum.
2. Chew the gum, all of it.

3. Remove plastic.
4. Slide ipod into your brand new Dentyne ice iPod Touch case.

5. (OPTIONAL) Cut hole into case so you can control music without removing touch from its case.

6. …
7. Profit?

Pretty sweet case, huh? Huh? I rate it a solid 2 out of 10.

The iPod Touch is a sexy piece of technology. Hell, it better be sexy after I sold my left nut to buy one. By far the best aspect of this iPod is the fact that it has an amazing screen.

From the moment I got my iTouch, I worried about scratching up that pretty little screen. I even rearranged the contents of my pockets so I wouldn’t have to worry about keys putting nasty little marks into the glass. The next logical step was getting some sort of case or screen protector. I choose to go with just the simple screen protector over the case. Full cases are too bulky for my taste, and take away from the form factor that the iPod offers.

After a little googling around, I picked up the “Apple Ipod Touch Premium Ultra- Clear Reusable LCD Screen & Body Protector with Lint Cleaning Cloth” off Amazon for a grand total of $8.97. The shipping was actually more than the protector itself, so I wasn’t expecting anything of great quality.

When I receiving the product, I wasn’t surprised or impressed. “100% Japan MATERIAL” was plastered across the front of the packaging. That’s… great… I’m sure this Japanese plastic is much better than regular plastic. Maybe I should make a shirt for myself that says “50% Japan MATERIAL”. Yeh… that’ll get me chicks like crazy.

Despite the funky packaging. I went ahead and applied the screen protector on my Touch. The installation was pretty much cake. Remove the plastic backing (like you would from a sticker) and plop the thing onto the screen. The fit was almost perfect. So perfect in fact that it was a little difficult to get it to sit directly on the screen without pushing up against the black molding. I ended up not being able to get the protector to sit completely flat at the bottom of the screen, which resulted in a little air bubble which wouldn’t go away.

So how well does it work? Surprisingly well. The protector itself is super thin, clear, hard plastic. It is actually hard to tell that it’s there. The screen looked no different before/after, no lost in color or brightness. The touch sensitivity didn’t even seem to degrade at all. The feel of the screen wasn’t quite as smooth. This is only really noticed while dragging your finger across the screen (such as unlocking).

This thin plastic shield does its advertised job. It does keep the Touch’s screen from being scratch directly. However, after six weeks of use the plastic itself has become way more scratched than the unprotected screen would have. This makes me question the purpose of such a product. If the result is I’m still starring at a screen that’s scratched, then is it really worth the trouble?

The only other issue I had, is the plastic seemed to slowly slide toward the bottom of the ipod. After a month, it had migrated maybe a millimeter. It might have something to do with the way I use the Touch or maybe the way I put it into my pocket head first, I’m not sure. But the result of this one millimeter of travel was the small bubble on the bottom edge of the screen growing much larger to the point where I decided to try to remove the plastic and reapply it. Not a good idea. The adhesive works so well that I had difficulties removing the protector. Once I did get it off and repositioned, it didn’t really sit right in a few places. I think I might have bent/creased the plastic on removal.

Overall I’m satisfied with what I got. For the cost, I was expecting much less. I would give this particular iPod Touch screen protector a 7 out of 10. The only places it loses points is in the ease of scratching the plastic, and the fact that the protector slowly moved off center over time.

I picked up a Wii yesterday and got in a few good hours of playing Wii Sports and Zelda. I have to say that I am very impressed. The controller works very well, although takes some getting used to. The graphics might not feel “next-gen”, but they get the job done.

Wii Sports is a great showcase of the controller’s abilities. As a single player game I think it’s a tad shallow and would get boring quickly. As a multiplayer game I think it would be worth hours and hours of fun. I was able to pick up a couple of extra controllers this morning, so I’ll be able to try some multi this evening.

My roommate who is neither a gamer nor a geek was able to pick up and play Wii Sports in moments. All the controls were so intuitive that the learning curve was practically non-existant. There is no explaining “hold the x button to increase the power and release it when you want to swing the bat”, it’s just “swing the controller like it’s a bat”. Everyone knows how to do that.

Prior to the Wii, game controls were the major limiting factor when trying to get the general public into games. Everyone can watch someone ELSE play a game and understand what going on, but when you place the controller in the hands of the non-gamer they have a hard time interacting with the game. The Wii solves half the problem by providing the controller that can be used in an “ohh, that makes sense” manner. The other half of the problem is left up to the game developers who need to program the games take full advantage of the controller. Wii Sports does this almost perfectly.

I haven’t played enough Zelda yet to form a solid opinion of the game.

So far, I give the Wii and 8.5/10.

A few weeks ago my trusty Nokia 6235i started acting up. The headphone and mic started being flakey forcing me to use the speaker-phone all the time. After a week of this, I got completely fed up and went to find a new phone.

Unfortunately Verizon has a completely crap lineup of phones in my opinion. They do have some decent phones, but nothing really sparks my interest or catches my eye. I don’t get excited about all the cool features that everyone is trying to cram into new phones these days. MP3 players, 3MP cameras, Internet access… none of it makes me want a phone. I feel that all these features are currently better left to their Ipod, Cannon, or laptop rivals.

So since all the new features don’t give me boners, I’m left looking for a phone that is just a phone. I just want a phone that works and looks good. So I ended up with the LG Chocolate. It’s a nice simple yet cool looking slider phone. While closed the face is almost completely black and smooth. Once it slides open (which it does in a very nice fashion) the face lights up with a nice large screen and touch sensitive buttons. It is a VERY nice looking and feeling phone.

Not only does it look nice, but it also functions well as a phone. Good reception, decent battery life, and comfortable to use.

It’s not all good though, there are several areas that make this phone far from perfect. The first problem lies in the touch sensitive buttons on the face of the phone. The fact that they are touch sensitive means there is no mechanical feedback while using them. There’s no *click* noise that you usually get from normal buttons. This doesn’t immediately present a problem, but when you combine it with a sometimes slow interface you end up wondering if you really hit a button or if the interface is just lagging.

The dark clean face of the phone looks great, and allows the screen and face buttons to disappear when you close the slider. But when you’re trying to use the phone in the direct sunlight, the dark tinted face makes the screen almost impossible to read.

The phone also lacks a speaker phone… WTF were they thinking?

The slow interface and lack of feedback on the touch button is what bothers me the most. I would completely love this phone if they had done something as simple as changing the color of the buttons as they are touched. For a Verizon phone, I’m happy with the Chocolate for now. Hopefully this is a sign that Verizon will start releasing more cool looking phones in the future.