FiiO X3 Review – Comments & Link

I had actually planned on doing a review of my recently acquired FiiO X3 DAP but have found a rather excellent review on Head-Fi that I think does a better job than I would. The link follows, but here are a few comments on what the reviewer says and my own observations.

1. Build quality. I don’t think it’s as bad as he says (understanding that he’s not actually saying it’s bad). I have heard no creaking at all and as I don’t make a habit of squeezing my devices, I don’t expect to hear any! To me it seems like a solidly built piece of equipment that should hold up for a long time. But it’s important to note that I don’t carry the X3 with me anywhere either. It’s used exclusively at home.

2. Sound quality. I don’t find the low end to be inflated at all and I’m not sure why the review’s author thinks it is. I also find the mids and highs to be smooth and even. Let’s just chalk it up to different ears and different cans. It’s good that the X3 does have bass and treble controls but I don’t use them. I always listen to music without equalization especially since the vast majority of music I listen to on the X3 is classical.

3. Cans I use (not a comment on the review itself). I use Grado SR60s, Sennheiser HD 598s and M-Audio IE-40 IEMs (these are the exact same as the UE Triple-Fi Pros. Just marketed and sold by M-Audio with a different name). Of these 3 sets of cans, it’s actually the Grados that I find most enjoyable to use with this DAP followed closely by the Senns. Odd, I know, but with the music I mainly listen to I find the openness and “airiness” of the Grados slightly more pleasant than the Senns even though they are also open cans. The Grados are just a bit more open and I like that. As for the IE-40s, I’ve never particularly liked them for classical music and find I use them for stuff like Rock, Pop, etc. where more “punch” is desirable. That said, I listen to very little of these genres so the IE-40s don’t get used much.

4. Software. The review is spot on. FiiO is still refining and updating their firmware and will be releasing another firmware update sometime this month. I tend to use the browse function for listening because it’s just easiest to do it that way, but unfortunately gapless playback doesn’t work in that mode. For ease of use, this thing ain’t gonna beat an iPod Classic or an iPod Touch but for sound quality, it beats the pants off both.

5. File types (again, not a response to anything in the review). The X3 will play just about any file format you can throw at it, including Apple Lossless (ALAC), MP3, FLAC, OGG, AAC, WMA (all flavors), AIFF, WAV, etc. I literally re-ripped all my classical music CDs to 16-bit FLAC to use with the X3 and it was well worth the time invested in doing so. For stuff I’ve purchased in digital only format, they’re mainly 320 kBit MP3 or 256 kB AAC and I have loaded some of those onto the X3 as well. Finally, I’ve started purchasing classical music from eClassical.com at 24-Bit FLAC and it’s heavenly!

Overall, for a measly $200, this is a heck of a value and it certainly sounds better than any PMP or DAP I’ve used up until now. This is the 1st DAP I’ve owned that enables me to really enjoy my cans and high quality music. FiiO is known for high-quality equipment at low prices and my E06 was a godsend when I purchased it to use with my iPod Touch. The X3 is even better in my view and well worth the relatively low price for the high value and sound quality. I have no regrets with it at all. Yes, the firmware isn’t the best but FiiO is committed to improving it and have already updated it 3 times since the device was released in July or thereabouts. It short, it’s a marvelous piece of kit!

Here’s the link to the review on Head-Fi:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/671656/fiio-x3-review

Elop Won’t Be Running Microsoft for Long

Elop Won’t Be Running Microsoft for Long

Okay, leave it up to Jeff to come up with a perspective that no one else has considered. Check out his take on the Microsoft/Nokia deal. Interesting to say the least.

My, How Things Have Changed Around Here

I have been reflecting on the fact that in the space of a couple of months, I’ve gone from having 3 iOS devices and no Android devices to my current 2 Android devices and one iOS device. How’d that happen?

It’s no secret that I’ve always considered myself to be essentially an Apple guy which means I only owned Apple computers and iOS devices. Yet recently I find that I’ve really strayed from this norm and now am more diversified in my mobile and desktop OSes. In addition to the changes in mobile OS devices listed in the first paragraph I now find that I have only one desktop device (my Mac Mini) and no Mac laptops. Indeed I have two Windows 8 laptops – one for my wife and one for me. In the case of the laptops, the reason for purchase was simply money. As much as I love Macs, I just can’t afford Apple’s laptops right now. Plain and simple. And as much as I rag on Windows 8, over the past few months I’ve adapted to it (mainly because I NEVER use the Metro/Modern interface and use the desktop exclusively) and find that it gets the job done and the laptops are “good enough” for what I need them for.

But on the mobile side, I’m actually kind of surprised at finding myself where I am until I realized WHY I made the moves that I did. I originally bought the HTC One (after trading in my iPhone 5) because of the stunning hardware and 4.7″ screen. I’ve sung the praises of the One enough but it really is probably the best phone I’ve ever used. It’s fast, it’s good looking, BoomSound is to die for, the screen is just the right size (for me) and Sense 5.0 is actually quite good coupled with Android 4.2.2. The iPhone just wasn’t quite large enough and the sound, while okay, has absolutely nothing on HTC’s BoomSound with the speakers. And while storage isn’t that big a deal for me on mobile devices, having 32GB of storage on the phone was a nice plus. I can definitely say unequivocally that I have no regrets with buying the One and the more I use it, the more I appreciate it and like it.

On the tablet side, I was quite happy with my iPad Mini and in fact it was easily the most used of my mobile devices. Yeah, the lack of Retina Display was a bit of a let down, but honestly everything else about the device is top-notch and the lack of RD didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the device. I had actually planned on keeping the iPad Mini until the retina version came out. So what happened? In two words: Nexus 7.

Google hit it WAY out the part with the 2013 iteration of the Nexus 7. I had had the 2012 version, but wound up giving it to my grandsons and buying the iPad Mini because I was convinced that iOS on an 8″ device was more important to me than holding on to the 2012 Nexus 7. But when the 2013 version was announced, I KNEW my iPad Mini was history and it came down to the simple virtue of value. For $229 the Nexus 7 was an immensely more sensible and economical device than the iPad Mini in every way that matters (except OS).

The screen on the Nexus 7 puts the VGA resolution of 1024×768 on the iPad Mini to shame. It’s not even in the same league. That alone may not have been enough to tip me over towards the N7, but that combined with the price made me feel actually silly for owning a device that was $100 more expensive with a quarter of the screen resolution. That bothered me – a lot. And it really did come down to this: screen and price. I wanted that super hi-res display on the Nexus 7. So I sold my iPad Mini and bought the Nexus 7 and even had a few bucks left over after the purchase. And so far, I have no regrets at all.

Now, I do still marginally prefer iOS to Android and I do still have an iOS device (my 5th generation iPod Touch). But I’ve discovered that the gap between iOS and Android has narrowed considerably. Yes, there are still apps on iOS that I can’t get on Android, but for the handful that bothered me I’ve found suitable substitutes for all but one (OmniOutliner). And while I’ve found that I don’t really care that much about widgets or even notifications anymore, I do find that Android’s sharing intents are superb (as they’ve always been) and extremely useful. And being able to set default apps – priceless.

And there are a few other hiccups in the Android app system. Some apps don’t work with the Nexus 7 at all (looking at you, HBO Go) or act strangely (looking at you, Zite). The best Spanish/English dictionary I’ve found doesn’t hold a candle to UltraLingua, which company to date has stubbornly refused to come out with an Android version of their superb app. And yes, finding tablet-optimized apps is still a bit of a challenge, although not as much as last year with the original Nexus 7.

But those things aside, I am finding that I can live quite comfortably in the Android/Google ecosystem – at least for now. And let’s face it – when it comes to the Cloud, Google beats the pants off of Apple. Of course it has come at the cost of really buying more into the Google ecosystem than I had previously, but I’m okay with that especially given that Google’s Cloud services work just fine on iOS as well.

In a perfect world, my HTC One would be running iOS as would my Nexus 7 (with the same price and not the iPad price). But in the real world, it just ain’t so! And honestly, the more I use Android, the less I find myself missing iOS on all my devices. My most used mobile device now is my Nexus 7 – duh!

Now, me being me, there’s no telling how long this state of affairs will last and I rather suspect that by this time next year I’ll probably be solidly back in the iOS camp again – because that’s what always seems to happen. Or maybe not – we’ll just have to wait and see.

On a slightly different note, I’m watching what happens to Windows 8 RT very closely. I tend to believe that Microsoft really only needs to do two things to make RT right. The first is DUMP THE DESKTOP. That confuses the heck out of people and serves no real purpose other than running Office. Get up off your butts and get a killer Metro/Modern UI version of Office out there for the RT. The second thing is really not so much Microsoft’s responsibility per se, but there have to be more and better apps for Metro/Modern UI. Windows 8 RT is NEVER going to get mass market traction until the issue is vastly improved. In my gut, I don’t think RT has to be a failure. I think it has real unrealized potential and I wish MS would just get on it and make it right.

First Impressions of Google Nexus 7 (2013)

So the geek in me couldn’t resist buying the new Google Nexus 7 for 2013. I probably put this thing in my shopping cart at Amazon and removed a couple dozen times before I finally caved in and pressed the buy button.

There are a couple of reasons why I hesitated in buying this device. First of all, I’m still not at all convinced that a tablet has any real use for me. I’ve owned an iPad 2, original Nexus 7 and iPad Mini and haven’t kept any of them. This isn’t like my phone obsession where I keep changing phones few months. No matter how many times I change phones I do always have one (duh!) since a phone is necessary. However, given that I work from home and spend the vast majority of my time in front of an actual computer, the value of a tablet just doesn’t seem as great.

The second problem I had with buying the new Nexus 7 is price. No, not that it is expensive or that it cost $29 more than the old model. The extra $29 is certainly worth it given what the improvements to the device are over the previous model. No, my problem is that it seems too cheap! How could Google and Asus provide a tablet with those specs for such a low price? [For what it’s worth, I felt exactly the same way about last year’s Nexus 7]. And although I never had a problem with my old Nexus 7 (which is currently providing hours of entertainment to my grandsons) there were many reports of quality control issues at least early on. More recently the stories of how the original Nexus 7 has slowed down over time have been legion – an issue only recently corrected with Android 4.3. I did not have my original long enough to experience the slowdown and it also seems to be related to low storage when people got down to 3 Gigs or so. Again, not a problem I ever had since I keep everything on my NAS and in the cloud so I always had at least 8-10 gigs free on my 16 GB device.

[By the way, people, stop referring to storage as RAM!!! That drives me nuts].

Anyway, I finally pulled the trigger in spite of my misgivings because I figured for $230 there really wasn’t much to lose. The device arrived yesterday afternoon (Friday, 02 August 2013) and I’ve pretty much been using it non-stop since I got it to put it through its paces. And let’s be clear – what I’m writing is not a review – that’s not even possible given the short time I’ve had the device. And I don’t write reviews of my gear – I write first impressions. And typically by the time I buy a device, there are already many reviews floating around on the usual sites that give all the techie information you could want and there is nothing I could add to what they’ve already written in a “review”. All I want to do is just give my impression of a device a day or so after getting it. And it turns out that my first impressions are the ones that stay with me the entire (normally short) time that I own the device. So with all that out of the way, here we go.

The size and weight is best described as small. The device is slightly narrower and taller than the original but as other reviews have pointed out, it really does make the device easier to hold one handed. It is undoubted lighter than the original and possibly as light as the iPad Mini. Your hand is definitely not going to get fatigued holding this device. The build seems more or less equal to the first generation – solid, but not outstanding. It’s no iPad Mini in build, but it’s far better than a device this cheap has any business being. I find no evidence of flex or creaking or groaning on it now matter how I hold it or how hard I squeeze it. Overall, it’s definitely more comfortable to hold than either the first generation device or the iPad Mini. The back material is made of some kind of grippy plasticky material very similar to, if not identical to, the first generation device minus the stipples It’s okay. Honestly, I really like the faux leather, stipply look of the first generation more. But no biggie. I can live with the current material. And fortunately it’s NOT a fingerprint magnet! 🙂

The glass on the front is shiny and bright. Like you can shave yourself or put on your makeup using it as a mirror bright. It’s like the shiny screens of the shiniest laptop screen. Reflections abound and although I haven’t used it outside yet, I’m willing to bet that its outside usability probably isn’t that good due to the reflective nature of the screen. What do tablet makers have against matte screens anyway? Other than the bright reflective screen, the only thing you see on the front is the front camera. There is an LED notification light on the bottom of the device, but it’s not at all visible unless it’s flashing. By the way, this is the first device I’ve ever had with the notification screen on the bottom and I gotta tell you, that seems downright weird. But it’s only because I’m so used to it being somewhere at the top on every other device I’ve ever used. Hey, at least it does have a blinky light – the first generation had nothing.

The side bezels are much narrower than the first generation. I’d guess they’re as narrow as the ones on the iPad Mini, but with one very important distinction – without the finger rejection of the iPad Mini. Apple was smart enough to include some kind of software algorithm that detects when a finger is laying in that area and not respond and it is great. Since the Nexus lacks that technology you really have to be more careful how you hold it in portrait mode to avoid unintentionally launching something or provoking a response of some kind. Most reviewers seem to think that Google really intended this device to be run primarily in landscape mode and that does seem to make sense given the, shall we say generosity, of the top and bottom bezels which are quite large. Turns out those large bezels are perfect for use in landscape mode so I tend to agree with the reviewers. Also it has been noted that the Nexus logo on the back is printed in landscape rather than portrait like on last year’s version and this seems in their opinion to lend credence to the idea that Google & Asus regard this primarily as a device to be used in landscape mode. Okay, sure – whatever.

Turning the device on the clarity of the screen is nothing short of stunning when compared to last year’s model. Apparently it’s the highest resolution tablet out there, surpassing even Apple’s Retina Display in DPI and PPI. But here’s the rub – once you reach a certain level of resolution, increasing the pixels is pointless. I look at my Retina Display iPod Touch 5th Generation, my 1080P HD HTC One and the whatever resolution new Nexus 7 and they all are equally sharp and clear. So yes, the screen on the Nexus 7 is a joy to behold and clear as can possibly be, but no more so than the two other high-resolution devices I have. But when we take it in context of every other tablet out there, including the older version and the Retina Displays of Apple devices, well one is absolutely astounded that a screen like this exists on a device this cheap. And THAT is what makes this display special – that it’s on an inexpensive device and this is what Google and Asus deserve kudos for. Every single device out there with a display this good costs hundreds of dollars more. (Well, the iPod Touch 5th generation only costs $70 more but the screen is much smaller. You get the point though).

In terms of speed, I have no complaints. And let’s not forget this device has two gigabytes of RAM – something else that only much more expensive devices have had until now. In every day use, this puppy just flies from one task to another and I’ve had up to 12 tasks open with no slowdown at all. And yes, it does still stutter slightly from time to time – I don’t know why Google can’t fix this but every Android device I’ve ever owned has this problem regardless of how powerful the processor and graphics chip and amount of RAM. But to be honest, you really won’t notice it unless you’re really looking for it and it’s not something that really affects the user experience. In fact, if you’ve never owned an iOS device or Windows Phone device, you probably won’t even notice it. So in spite of the tech sites wanting to make a big deal over this, IT ISN’T A BIG DEAL AT ALL to the average user or to me.

Screen brightness is just fine and I am running at about 70% brightness which is about the same as I use on all my gadgets. I don’t bother with auto-brightness so can’t comment on how well it works or doesn’t except to say that I always find it annoying which is why I always turn it off on all devices.

The speakers are loud but otherwise nothing to write home about. The HTC BoomSound on my HTC One blows the Nexus speakers out of the water in terms of loudness and quality of sound. And I have noticed that they do crackle especially when turned up loud. Not constantly, but it is noticeable. Also, there is something that has been noted in the reviews that I have also experienced that can be rather disconcerting. Often after quitting a video midway the sound keeps on playing even though you’ve quit the video. You either have to reboot the device or go into the task manager and quit the offending process to make it stop. It doesn’t happen all the time and I honestly can’t say how often it will happen. I’ve played about a dozen videos and it’s happened once. How prevalent the issue is I have no idea at this point. But it is something that Google/Asus need to address as I’m sure it’s a thing that can be fixed in software.

Another annoyance is that some apps that don’t recognize the Nexus 7 as a tablet and won’t install the tablet versions. The only program I’ve actually run into that does this is the tablet version of Amazon Mobile which tells me it’s incompatible with my device. The phone version runs fine and actually looks fine and I don’t know what the differences are since I can’t run the tablet version! Also HBO Go won’t install on the Nexus 7 claiming it’s not compatible although Netflix does install just fine. (I haven’t actually used Netflix on the device yet so I can’t say how well it works on it). Google/Android still haven’t gotten this whole tablet thing worked out in regards to apps and it’s annoying when one considers how totally a non-issue this is on the iPad.

Supposedly Android 4.3 has brought problems of its own regarding use of Bluetooth keyboards. I do in fact have the BT keyboard that I bought for my original Nexus 7, but I’ve not bothered to pair it with the new one and probably won’t. It’s a cheapie and wasn’t all that great with the original N7 so I’ll just wait for Google to sort out the BT keyboard issue and then I’ll eventually buy a new portfolio keyboard case (assuming I actually keep this device that long).

So overall, my first impression is that the Google Nexus 7 (2013) is the absolute best 7 inch tablet you can buy especially if you’re an Android fan. The software issues I am sure will get sorted out in a future upgrade and honestly don’t seem to impact daily use of the device a lot. The screen resolution alone makes this device worthy of purchase especially at the 7 inch size and for the impossibly low price. For comparison – I did own a Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 for a week (I returned it) and it has NOTHING over the Nexus 7 and costs $70 more. In fact, I’d go so far as to say you’d be a fool to buy any of the Galaxy Tab 3 tablets over this one. Comparing to the iPad Mini is a totally different call. If you prefer iOS and Apple’s ecosystem and outstanding build quality of their devices, it’s hard to say the new Nexus 7 is better because we’re no longer comparing apples to apples. Yes, the Nexus 7 is cheaper and has a better display. But if you are married to iOS or not a big Android fan it’d be hard to recommend this over the iPad Mini in spite of what the specs say. iOS users tend to be fiercely loyal (and with good reason) and probably won’t find the Nexus 7 at all compelling. But for everyone else, I’d have to say there’s absolutely no reason not to buy the Nexus 7 over just about any other Android tablet of any size. It’s that good.

Finally, it will be very interesting to see how this tablet holds up over time and whether we’ll see issues with it as with the original Nexus 7 that weren’t obvious at time of purchase. The fact that it’s a Nexus device means you’ll not have to worry about timely updates. The question is will updates be needed to correct inherent flaws (like the video issue and crackling mentioned above). Okay, for about $200 it’s not going to kill you to buy a new one yearly. The big question is will you have to because of device degradation? I guess we’ll find out in time!

I JUST SURPRISED MYSELF

Remember the entry I wrote on why I may not need a smartphone? Well, something strange has happened that actually surprised me. It may not be that I don’t need a smartphone. It may be that I don’t need a tablet!

Here’s what brought me to this rather surprising place. I saw the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 in Best Buy a couple of days ago and fell completely in love. The screen, the size, even the feel of the Samsung plastic just resonated with me. I spent almost an hour in Best Buy playing with the thing which is highly unusual for me. I then determined that I just have to have that tablet. Now, me being me, I hate duplication of devices and find the idea of owning two of the same type of device ridiculous. So if I were to buy the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, the iPad Mini would have to go. Ugh. I’m speaking of selling the device that I use by far more than any other. Selling a device running my favored OS – iOS and losing those things which make iOS so special to me. I’m talking about finding myself running Android on two devices again. Do I really want to do this?

Last Sunday night, on a whim, I put my iPad Mini and Logitech Ultrathin keyboard on Craigslist for a VERY reasonable price. But Craigslist being Craigslist NO ONE wants to pay what you ask regardless of what you ask. Typically when selling on Craigslist I inflate my asking price by 20% just because I know folks will insist on trying to bargain me down. I guess everyone thinks they’re in the bazaar in Istanbul or something. Anyway, after a ton of stupid offers, someone actually was willing to pay what I wanted and the deal was done. And I haven’t bought the Galaxy Tab to replace it yet.

Why? Well, I wiped my iPad last week and have been using just my HTC One all day and discovered that the One may be all the mobile device I need. With it’s super sharp display and 4.7″ size, BoomSound speakers and magnificent construction I do believe I could just use it alone. It’s perfect for watching video and listening to music, and doing all the other activities I do including Twitter, ADN, Flipboard, etc. And I’ve grown quite fond of BlinkFeed and use it a lot.

Honestly, I didn’t expect that I’d feel this way and I certainly didn’t start this endeavor with this intent. But now I’m seriously wondering why I should bother buying another tablet at all given the sufficiency of the HTC One.

I suspect that in the end, the geek in me will win out and I’ll wind up getting that Galaxy Tab after all. Or maybe a 10″ iPad w Retina Display. We’ll see.

UPDATE: I actually did buy the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 and returned it. There was nothing either inherently wrong or inherently great about the device. It’s just that as detailed above, I realised that I have absolutely no need for it with the HTC One. So now, I am down to one iOS device (my iPod Touch 5th generation) and one Android device (the HTC One) and for now I’m perfectly content. It really seems more and more to me that given the excellence of today’s smartphones, a tablet is just an extravagance that I don’t really need. I’m not going to claim I’ll never buy another tablet – I may fall for the Retina Display version of an iPad Mini when it finally comes out. With me, you never know! 🙂

The Broken Power of Sin

No comment today. Just these verses from Romans 6:

[Ro 6:11] Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. [12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. [13] Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. [14] For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (KJV)

“Así también vosotros consideraos muertos al pecado, pero vivos para Dios en Cristo Jesús, Señor nuestro. No reine, pues, el pecado en vuestro cuerpo mortal, de modo que lo obedezcáis en sus concupiscencias; ni tampoco presentéis vuestros miembros al pecado como instrumentos de iniquidad, sino presentaos vosotros mismos a Dios como vivos de entre los muertos, y vuestros miembros a Dios como instrumentos de justicia. Porque el pecado no se enseñoreará de vosotros; pues no estáis bajo la ley, sino bajo la gracia.”

(Romanos 6:11–14 RVR60)

A New Blog You Should Check Out

This short entry is way out of the norm for me, but I do feel somewhat compelled to share this.

One of my Twitter mates, Trevor Caswell, has just started a new blog named “Investment Zen”. Honestly, up until now, whenever I heard the words “investments” and “stocks” it was an immediate snooze fest for me. I could not imagine anything more boring and headache inducing than anything have to do with these topics.

Trevor has managed to take those words and actually make them interesting, if not exciting, to me. Yeah, go figure, right? But truly, I am not kidding – I look forward to his entries and everything I’ve read so far has totally captivated my attention.

It’s early days yet and there’s not much there. But the fact that he’s captivated me with a mere four entries (so far) says a lot about the quality of his writing, the clarity of his thinking and his ability to take a complex subject and make it both interesting and fascinating.

Do yourself a favor and head over to Investment Zen and take a look-see. Subscribe to his mailing list. Take a small risk and read what he has to say. I think in the long run, we’re all going to be happy with what we see.

The site is: http://www.investmentzen.net

THE HTC ONE AIN’T NO IPHONE

Bad grammar in the title aside, I figured I’d just get this out there.

I posted an entry here on why I wasn’t buying an HTC One. But the geek in me overwhelmed me and I wound up buying one anyway. Turns out that in spite of my rant in my “Now What” entry (due entirely to the fact that I misread the date – thanks, Gavin, for setting me straight on that!) a perfect storm of circumstances came together to enable me to buy the phone anyway. First, it turned out that I did in fact still have an upgrade available on my line. Second was the fact that AT&T would buy my iPhone back for $280 which means I’d still be $80 to the good after purchasing the One for $200 on contract. And third was the fact that I’m too much of a cheapskate (like most Americans) to stomach paying full retail price for a phone (even though I have on a couple of occasions out of necessity).

So AT&T made good on their end – they gave me a $280 allowance for trade in. And it just so happened that the special the week I went in was that you’d get a free Beats Pill speaker set with your phone. (Technically, you’re buying the Pill at full $200 retail and getting the phone for free. Whatever). (BTW if you’re in the window for a new phone from AT&T hie thee to a store or their website ASAP. ALL of their phones are on half-price special until the end of June). So after taxes, I still had enough left over to get an Otterbox Defender case and even still have a couple bucks left on the gift card.

Go back and read my “Why I’m Not Buying the HTC One” post. The One has turned out to be every bit as lustworthy hardware-wise as I expected. It’s gorgeous. A work of art even. Cupertino would have been proud to have put out a device like this. And BoomSound is a pure blessing when watching video clips or even listening to music. It’s one of those things that make you say “how come no one has ever done this before?” The screen is stunning (although honestly, no more so than the iPhone – it’s just larger). From my perspective, if you’re an Android lover, THIS is the phone to get. Forget Samsung and their cheap plastic and gimmicky software. The One is not only lovely to behold but a pleasure to use. My only real complaint about it is that the battery doesn’t last as long as I’d like. But given how little I actually use a phone, that’s not really a biggie.

But the points I raised in my Not Buying post remain valid. No matter how I try, I can’t feel passionate about Android. It gets the job done, but there’s absolutely no emotional commitment to it at all. It’s like a Chevy. It gets you from point A to point B and can even be decent looking, but in the end, it’s just a car. That’s kind of how I feel about Android – just “meh”. And to put things in perspective, I’m not an Android newbie. I’ve been using Android since Froyo and have used every version of Android except ICS, up to and including the latest iteration of Jelly Bean. So I am not speaking as a one time Android user.

If I didn’t have an iPad Mini (which is far and away my most used portable device) and an iPod Touch 5th Generation, I’d have never bought the One. Period. Currently I will not under ANY circumstances use Android as my exclusive OS. Not happening. At least not now nor in the foreseeable future. I’m an Apple guy through and through. I’ve owned a steady stream of Mac Minis, MacBooks and MacBook Airs for the past 7 years. I’ve owned every iPhone since the 3G up to and including the iPhone 5. And without dissembling in any way, I totally am in love with OS X and iOS. That’s just the reality and I’ve given up on questioning it.

I bought the One because it would be the “toy” with which I’d keep one foot in the Android camp and play. And I bought it because it’s beautiful and lustworthy. But because it doesn’t run iOS it will never, ever be my primary device. My iPad Mini and iPod Touch will continue to be the devices I use primarily for mobile interaction. And by the time the iPhone 6 comes out next year, I’ll most likely have another upgrade available and I’ll jump right on it. Unless Apple somehow flubs it – and I totally don’t expect that to happen.

If you follow me on Twitter or have seen my comments at Lost In Mobile, this is nothing you’ve not heard before. This is for everyone else! 🙂

WHY RSS?

I’ve been running this question around in my mind ever since I found out that Google was killing Google Reader and its associated sync service. Two months or so ago, without much thought, I decided to just pull the plug on RSS period and do without.

I used to be an RSS lover. At one point in time, I had well over 300 feeds in my stream. It didn’t take long for me to realise that there was no way I could read and absorb the thousands of articles that appeared in my stream daily. Add to that the fact that so many sources report on the same stories and the mess of duplication of “news” this created and it didn’t take me long to realise I had to do something about the mess that RSS had become for me. So I began the process of slowly cutting back on the number of feeds I was subscribed to until in the end I only had 12 feeds. Yep – 12 feeds gave me all the information I needed and wanted and even within those there was still quite a bit of duplication of stories. But it was manageable and I didn’t fuss over it too much. I just marked a lot of news as read without even looking at anything other than the headline.

But I also noticed a trend. Every single RSS feed I was reading was available in another format. It started with Flipboard where I noticed that almost everything I was reading was available there. And Flipboard also offers the ability to read RSS feeds, so I started pulling most of my feeds into there. Then I discovered Zite. While Zite, as far as I’ve discovered, doesn’t pull RSS feeds, it offers in it’s various channels everything I was reading in RSS. Between Zite and Flipboard, I realised that using a separate RSS reader was just plain redundant and totally unnecessary. So when the news of Google Reader’s demise came, I just shrugged and didn’t worry about it. Eventually I just removed all dozen of my feeds from GR and stopped using it. And I haven’t missed it even one little bit.

With the acquisition of my HTC One, I’ve discovered that BlinkFeed is another excellent choice for getting the information that interests me. The biggest issue with BlinkFeed is that you eat what HTC feeds you and there is precious little customization that can be done. If HTC ever loosens the reigns and allows you to add your own sources, I could even see myself abandoning Flipboard. Zite would stay because it offers some unique channels wherein I get sources that wouldn’t be so easy to find otherwise.

So for me, RSS brings nothing to the table except duplication and information overload. But I also realise that many people use RSS far more than I ever did. There are folks out there that subscribe to thousands of feeds. (For goodness sakes – WHY? Can anyone even remotely process that amount of information, not to mention the time investment?) And admittedly, apps like Zite, Flipboard and BlinkFeed aren’t exactly what you called streamlined and offer a lot of superfluous eye candy. And I’m sure these apps use a lot more resources than a simple RSS reader. Some folks want a simple interface and want to process hundreds, if not thousands, of sources. So be it and good on them. Go thee and have fun. But in the end, I’ve discovered that RSS just isn’t something I need or that I find important in information consumption.

Why Do I Even Need A Smartphone Anymore?

Of the four phones that I have on my contract with AT&T, two of them have contracts that will expire in September and October. Because AT&T allows “early” upgrades, one phone is already eligible for a full upgrade and the other will be eligible in two weeks. Needless to say, I’ve been playing around with the idea of using one of those upgrades to get a new phone.

While running this idea around in my head, a couple of thoughts occurred to me. The first is, why bother upgrading at all? Upgrading a line with the on-contract price of a new phone commits me to another two years with AT&T on the line upgraded. AT&T does phone buy backs (trade-ins if you will) which I’ve used successfully a couple of times already this year. So in essence, I could trade in my iPhone 5 for $270, get a new phone on-contract for $200 or so and wind up $70 to the good. So what’s not to like? Like I said, I’ve done this twice in the past year on my other two lines and I’ve managed to own some pretty nice phones. The rub is in the fact that I’m extending my contract again for two years and I remain in hock to AT&T for those lines. I’m sure AT&T and all the carriers love people like me who change phones frequently and are in contract on multiple lines and who keep extending those contracts by upgrading.

Now I’m in the unique position of being able to liberate two of those lines. So I thought that I’d just pay the off-contract price for a new phone and use the $270 from the iPhone 5 trade in to offset the cost. The phone that looks to be the most likely one I’ll buy is $600 off contract, so with the iPhone trade in, I’d only be paying $330 for my new phone. And since I’d be buying off contract, no extension of agreement is necessary and my two lines will both be “liberated” by October. Good deal, neh?

Well, on further reflection the question comes to me, why do I even need a smartphone at all? My iPad Mini is my most used gadget by a long shot. I also have an 5th generation iPod Touch as well as an iPod Classic (which stays in the car attached to the car stereo). I make almost no phone calls with my iPhone and seldom use it at all in the house since I have the iPad. And in point of fact, the only reason I don’t use the iPad more outside the house is because it’s a WiFi only model. The iPad Mini is small enough and light enough to carry just about anywhere and with an LTE model I could use it anywhere.

So why not just let the contract on my iPhone completely expire, then sell it for whatever I can get for it in 4 months and buy a dumb phone and upgrade my iPad to an LTE model? For upgrades of the Mini, I could trade in my current Mini to AT&T and buy an LTE version at a discount (with the trade-in) either with a 2-year data only contract (which would save a bit of upfront cash) or on a month to month no-contract basis (paying more for the Mini even with trade in). Sounds to me like a winner.

Honestly, at this moment, I’m not sure what, if anything, I’ll do. Maybe I’ll do nothing and just keep things the way the are. But the more I think about it, the more the last option looks attractive. Hmm. What to do, what to do?