FLOPS

4. Amazon Kindle. I love books. I love ebooks. I hate the Amazon Kindle. Why? Because for $400 I can buy a whole lot of books. In good conscience I can’t recommend an e-reader for that high a price. Palm OS e-readers are around $100 (it lacks e-ink). Sony’s e-reader which also has e-ink (a display which makes the screen look like newspaper or textbook print with no backlight) is around $299. Given that the Kindle comes with free wireless called Whispernet that they build from Sprint’s EVDO broadband line, they are looking to recoup their hefty investment by their pricing. It’s a neat little gadget, especially it you’re a Mac user like me, since Sony’s Reader isn’t compatible with Mac OS. Amazon would be better off dropping the price, by at least $50. Or, Sony (are you listening), needs to make the e-reader compatible on Mac OS and create a wireless network for it to run on . Head to head. I like Sony’s design on the a similar wireless network. The Kindle is chunky and the buttons are not placed for easy reading. For example, when reading, it’s easy to accidently touch the scroll button and end up on the wrong page. Oddly, enough, the Kindle really is just a piece of wood.

3. Xbox 360 and PS3 (before the price drop). Die hard gamers have professed around the world that their main reasons for loving the Xbox was to play Halo. While PS3 players love the fact that their old games from PS1 and PS2 can play on the system, the price tag is higher than the Wii and Xbox. At $600 (mainly because of the blu-ray player), Sony committed suicide. They tried to win the HD vs Blu Ray war by integrating it into their consoles, but all they did was send gamers to XBox or Wii. But in overall sales who won? (See the tops list.)

2. iPhone. The hype that surrounded it, you can attribute it to the success of Apple’s iPod. While the iPhone is pretty much everything you need in a phone, portable browser, and mp3; that doesn’t leave Steve Jobs’ new golden child without flaws. Apple failed to offer more than one network to use the phone on, alienating most buyers from switching to At&t. Plus with the welded battery, you must ship your iPhone back to Apple to have it replaced. Also, Jobs and Co. wants to restrict what you can do once you buy the iPhone, which means, no cash payments, credit cards or checks only. Sounds like you’re renting the iPhone after paying around $599 for it. Are you kidding me?

1. Window’s Vista: Oh, Bill, what were you thinking? Window’s Vista’s release should have been rescheduled until the Window’s Team put ALOT more work into it. If this is what they spent an alleged five years working on, then I cringe. VIsta reminds me of a crappy book report: it’s Monday morning and you hand in a two pages of dribble instead of the five pages of masterpiece you knew you were capable of producing. Was the Microsoft Development Team on Spring Break? . (I honestly think they spend 6 months working on this version and 4 1/2 years playing Halo on their desktops.) For those XP users who simply wanted to upgrade, the nightmare did not end. From lacks in security patches to Internet Explorer which seems to be only good at crashing, to logging in as the Administrator to run Photoshop (it is a security risk when you do this, but this is the only way I’ve learned you can run Photoshop on Vista), Microsoft let the whole world down (it had to happen sometime, people). My guess, is Microsoft is working overtime on this one. The next version of this OS may not even be Vista to move away from the stigma (see 2008 Predictions). Bill Gates, does not like to be on the loosing end of the stick.

Tops

4. Wii and PS3 (after the price drop). No analyst could predict the Wii taking home gold. When Nintendo first reported they would be changing control pads to a single stick, I figured they were trying to re-invent the wheel, and not in a good way. But to my surprise, they made it a more interactive game. The control pad, of course, will not work with all game types, but for Nintendo’s line, it’s a winner.
The PS3, after the price drop made, me more of a believer. Plus a blu-ray player for around $400? If only I could find one to buy. Now, at least, you can compete with the Wii.

3. Ipod Touch: When the iPhone first came out, I was at the Apple store about a week later, just flirting with one. The main reasons I didn’t snatch one up? The $600 price tag and the fact that I was not transferring service to At&t (in Florida we have Metro PCS which gives you unlimited minutes for a flat fee of $50). I said to my friend Robert who was with me at the store, “I really just want the iPod features.” You can imagine my thrill when the Touch came out. The hard drive is small at 16KB a larger hard drive size and price decrease. Plus, you really never want anything generation one. As the iPod minis sell faster than the Grand Slam Special at Denny’s, I’ll wait for an iPod touch.

2. Elgato Eye Tv: When I pass on to the after life, there is one earthly possessions that I will definetly miss. Other from Duffy Dean (my baby persian kitty), my MacBook Pro will probably win this game. But paired with the Macbook Pro, an Eye Tv tuner makes me happier than certain men (to save myself from being sued for libel, I won’t name names). Recording tv on a laptop, not to mention watching tv as I type my many entertaining blog entries, makes me happier than a fat rat in a cheese factory. Set up itself was pretty seamless, I ran the install cd and slipped in the USB tuner, after connecting it to the cable jack.

The downside: These tuners are EXPENSIVE. They cost 10 times what a tuner for a PC would cost ( $20 for PC, $200 for Mac OS). They only reason I can see why the huge price difference is because Apple charges Eye Tv more for licenses for the tuner to run on Mac.

Drum roll please……….

1. Apple’s Macbook Pro. It’s like the Buggati of laptops (or think Fendi bags, girls). If you’re a writer, then this is no better application than Pages. Sorry, not even an open source format compares. With iLife, you can tweak blogs (or video blog!!!), create movies and photo project, record music from a keyboard, and edit videos. All of which can be done on a PC, but MAC OS does it better.

My only complaint to Steve Jobs and his androids over at Apple: you need to lower the price. Now, I’m not saying that the MBP will ever be an $500 Dell. Perish the thought! Or, if you wanna keep charging $2800, MBPs should be a gaming powerhouse! But at close to three grand, it is steep. But what can I say, I still love it. A Windows PC with comparable features will run you about $600-$1500 less depending on where you go. But remember, PCers you all have to deal with Vista and XP. Us Mac heads get Mac OS X and Leopard. At the end of the day with a Mac, you’re paying for the software. If the MBP is way out of your league, go for the 13 inch Macbooks which start around $1099. Plus, I can’t live without a back lit keyboard. I know, I’m such a girl.
Alternatives: If I had to go to the PC route, I’d get a Sony Vaio VGN-AR670 CTO or an HP Pavilion dv9700t. My PC OS of choice: Umbutu Linux or if that scares you, Windows XP with SP2 patch. Bill Gates has alot of work to finish on Vista.