This was supposed to be the post on my review of my new Toshiba HD-D3 player. Now I’m feeling so bummed I haven’t even turned it on all week.

After waiting for months and hoping the format wars would end, I decided to take the plunge and buy a Toshiba HD-D3 DVD player. I was taken in by the hype that the format wars would continue for a long time and that the stalemate would go on and on. I should have gone with the gut instincts that were telling me that the Toshiba price cuts were a last ditch attempt by them to lure customers. Eventually, content was going to rule the format wars. And in our world today, most DVD content is from the movie studios. Toshiba was always going to be outmaneuvered by Sony in that department. I can only say that I now have a decent “upconverting” DVD player, since the HD-DVD movies are going to dry up pretty soon. It looks like Universal and Paramount are still talking about “holding on”. Come on, for how long?  We know these movie companies are going to move on to Blu-ray.

Bottom line: Not every Sony format dies. So what if Beta, MD and UMD died? Blu-ray’s won. Time to buy some real cheap HD-DVD movies (if there are any halfway decent ones out) and enjoy them for a while. I’ll be looking for that Transformers disc to see all the great effects it supposedly has, thanks to the HTGuys podcast (scroll down the page to read the features list).

In the past I wrote about my Sony Walkman phone. During the last 3 months I have been using the Motorola Q at work. Incidentally, this is my first Windows Mobile cell phone experience. I have to say that while the comparison here is between an apple and an orange, I will focus on the usability features of both phones, rather than the fancier features like the camera or the music player.

Part of the problem with Microsoft is they seem to have taken the usual Windows route in their mobile OS as well – pack in lots of features with software of fairly average quality – and hope to improve the “user experience” as they get feedback and improve over releases. The Q, with service provided by Sprint, tends to fail me at the most inopportune moments. I have had issues of “phone freeze”, very slow response times, and the lack of features in the phone such as Copy and Paste. On the other hand, the voice recognition feature is quite good although the text-to-voice translation produces unintelligible sounds. Some program, like Google Maps, work very poorly. Now I realize the blame probably lies with Google for designing such a poor user interface, but somehow I also feel that they are constrained by the design of the hardware and the operating system.

All in all, I ‘m quite satisfied with the performance. I just wish the screen size were bigger and I had fewer menu options to choose from to accomplish things. And please, for heaven’s sake, give me a Copy and Paste feature. I so miss it!

Amongst all the PSP bashing I have read in recent months, I notice something missing. Every writer describes how bad the PSP is as a game playing console, particularly compared to Nintendo’s DS. No doubt, the DS is a better handheld gaming system. I feel Sony has not done a good job of setting the PSP in a unique niche. Let me count what I consider to be several winning features of the PSP:

1. At the time of its launch, it was one of the few that had built-in WiFi
2. It allows for browsing the web using it’s (rather clunky) web browser
3. The PSP lets you play Flash games and watch Flash videos
4. You can subscribe to podcasts through the RSS feature of the PSP
5. The display is gorgeous despite being a smudge magnet
6. The USB interface enables an industry-standard ready to be exploited

Now to some of the features that are not all that alluring:

1. That terrible UMD disk – DOA is the word (or is that a phrase??)
2. Poorly designed controls for gaming – leads to finger and hand fatigue within a matter of a few minutes
3. Sony’s constant “upgrades” to the operating system that prevents or hampers the creation of third-party applications
4. Lack of a podcatcher software – Sony’s basic assumption that everyone has an always-on, always-available WiFi connection is highly suspect at best, and ludicrous at worst
5. The “Sony crawl” with respect to add-ons to the PSP – where is the GPS, the camera (yes, yes, I know we’ve all heard that these are “available”; that’s Sony speak for we will get it to you when we desire)
6. The horribly difficult virtual keyboard that one uses with the browser, for instance

Ok, let me not get carried away. I think the PSP is a versatile device that needs a few things to make it a serious competitor in many ways to the iPod, the iPhone, and several other similar devices. Let’s hear what you have to say.

I came across this debate earlier today. First things first, I really thought the ad was a hilarious take on the PC and Mac ads. That said, Apple clearly intends to make this an all-in-one device for the consumer market, not for business users like me. If we can get to use it as part of our businesses, that would be terrific. Like I am doing with my Sony Ericsson 810i. Apple truly does know how to make things work in the consumer market. I agree with one of the comments about Apple following the 80-20 rule. But Apple also has very clever people developing very good user interfaces. Which is why when I get my paws on my daughter’s iPod I still have not come across a requirement that has not been met by its controls, buttons and menus. I bet Apple has several surprises up its sleeve when it comes to the iPhone too. I can’t wait to get my hands one and am hoping I still remain a Cingular customer.

Update on October 4, 2009

I finally got myself an iPhone 3GS a few months back. I do take back my comments about it not being “business user” friendly. I think Apple has done a great job with the Exchange integration and so many other features that make this device so great. I still miss multi-tasking and am hoping Apple does bring it out in the next release or two.

For those people who are not aware of this, beginning from 2007, the start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time (DST) has been changed. This change was was authorized by the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 and will be coming into effect this year. Most US users of Windows operating systems pick a time zone when they first install or start their factory installed systems. A wrong DST setting could potentially be a problem for many home and office users. Even more so, for Windows servers that are set to perform certain operations at a particular time of day or week, this change could cause significant problems if left unpatched or unattended. Microsoft has posted a patch which can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928388. For most Windows XP users an automatic patch was included in the latest updates from Microsoft. Users of Windows Vista need not worry as the operating system was shipped with updated software. However, those users who either don’t have the auto update feature set up or for other users who may be running other versions of Windows, this site provides useful information. Gartner has issued an advisory recommending that all companies set up enterprise-wide communications programs to let users know of potential problems. In addition, Gartner is also recommending that tech departments be staffed and be on alert on March 11 (Sunday) and March 12 (Monday) for possible problems. Of course, all these patches would only work for systems that are software upgradeable. Not for hardware with clocks and other times (remember old VCRs?). Those will not be patched and users would have to suffer during the extra weeks of DST.