Rihards Online

After breaking my Avixe i-Rock Cube (no idea how, or why, but it just stopped working) I was on the lookout for a new MP3 player. What I wanted was basically, a small player, with built in memory, and a built in rechargeable battery. Screen was really an optional thing.

My first thought of course was the Apple Shuffle, but just for the hell of it, I decided to have a look at Creative’s site if they had anything like the Shuffle. Surely enough they did, and not just something like the Shuffle, but something better than the Shuffle.

The biggest selling point of the Zen Stone is its price, I bought mine from Amazon for 33 EUR, which is about half the price of an Apple Shuffle. Other than that, the two players are pretty much identical. Both of them look really nice, though personally I really like the black (very shiny and sexy) Zen Stone more.

The player has just 1GB capacity, which is about enough to hold 12 to 14 albums. I find that more than enough if you have access to a PC/Mac on a regular basis, and can just swap out the music. Speaking of putting music on the player, it is really simple, just connect it to your PC/Mac with the USB cable and you can add/delete songs from it just like from a normal USB stick, no additional software needed.

The only thing where the Shuffle is nicer is the little clip that it has that lets you attach the Shuffle to your clothing. Sadly the Zen Stone doesn’t have that, but I haven’t had the need for it yet anyway, as it fits in perfectly in a beltloop.

For its price, the Zen Stone is really a brilliant piece of gadget, one couldn’t really want for more if one wants a small MP3 player which you can take with you wherever you go. Not to mention the fact that if something happens to it, you won’t be as sad as if it were a 300+ EUR MP3 player.

Got to love what scientists come up with these days. While some of it is quite cool and still pointless, I don’t really know what to say about a waterproof LCD, I don’t even know where you’d use one to begin with. Bathroom? Who goes to bathroom to watch TV?

The only comment that really comes to mind about this is, “Will it blend?”.

I love waffles, and so should everyone else as well, waffles are just that good. But now they got even better, at least for the ones of us who are geeks. I present you the Keyboard Waffle Iron, brought to you by Chris Domino.

I have to just wonder if that plastic from the old typewriter could actually withstand all the heat. But whatever the case might be, it’s still a great gadget in my opinion. Now if only these were mass produced, or easily available for buying, then I’d certainly get one.

So I finally got around into pulling in some new satellite cables into my room so that I could watch TV on my PC once more. After spending a few hours trying to set it all up, I finally got it working. Ended trying out several different players, including the official/supported from Pinnacle, but ended up using DVB Dream as you can see in the screenshot below.

And even so I’m still not quite happy with it, noticeable slowdowns when switching channels, silly favourites system where you have hard coded four categories, and can’t define your own, but still so far it seems to be one the better ones out there.

Now if only they could do something about the quality of shows that they show these days on the TV, then it would be really cool. But I suppose watching TV every now and then is a nice change from the usual.

Anyone else watch TV on their PC? If so, could you tell me what TV card you use, and what software?