G1 by Seth

Filed under: Daily, Tech

Behold, the T-Mobile G1:

The only reason why this phone is a big deal is because it’s the first phone powered by Android to be released. Otherwise, it’s kind of a lack-lustre device. The device looks somewhat nice in some photos, but most real-life shots make you wonder what HTC, maker of devices like the Touch Diamond, was thinking when they were tasked to make the first ever Android phone.

As much as it has been hyped up as an iPhone killer, software-wise it still shares some missing features with Apple’s offering. No tethering or Flash player here too. It doesn’t even come with a video player, unlike iPhone’s strong media-playing capabilities. Well, of course you can download the video player, and developers will eventually come up with tethering and Flash players, but try programming a standard 3.5mm headphone jack into the device.

Yep, the thing has no 3.5mm headphone jack. So much for being an iPhone killer. Let’s wait for the G2.

—

I have “read” four and a half books in four days with my iPhone. In fact, I have stopped listening to music, and have been exclusively listening to my Animorphs audiobooks, and it’s working very well. Making reading into something passive is very enjoyable indeed.

Anyway, I suddenly crave for the white rabbit sweet thing. On a side note, can you imagine the whining should Hello Panda biscuits kena the milk thing as well? I know more than a few die-hard Panda fans.

iTunes Tip: Make your own Audiobook by Seth

Filed under: Tech

iTunes is a Swiss army knife of media, allowing you to manage all kinds of media, from music to movies, with TV shows, podcasts and music videos in between, but it also has a feature that isn’t immediately apparent to some users.

It is excellent for audiobooks. Today, I happened to chance upon some free ebooks online, but I don’t have time to read nowadays, and while surfing a few web pages on the iPhone is fine and all, trying to read an entire book on it will kill your eyes. Thus, I Googled a bit and found an easy solution to convert them into Audiobooks so that I can listen to the books on the go.

First, you must be on 10.5. That’s OS X Leopard, the latest Mac operating system. I’m not sure if this will work on Tiger, because Leopard features an updated Automator, and a new computer voice, Alex, which is much more coherent than the old voices. First, fire up Automator, and put the following workflow items:

1. Get Contents of TextEdit Document
2. Text to Audio
3. Save it as a plug-in and give it a suitable name, say “Make Audiobook”

Copy all your text from the ebook and paste it into a new TextEdit document, and save it:

(Yes, it is Animorphs. Love the series.)

With the text file open, right-click on the text file, go to More > Automator > Make Audiobook:

25,000 words took about 10 minutes to convert on my MacBook Pro, and you could possibly use Automator to automate the entire process of converting an entire folder of ebooks. The end result was a 3.5 hours audio file which was 500MB. I managed to get it down to 50MB by converting it to a lower bitrate, which is of acceptable quality since it’s just spoken text. I might have to experiment with the converting process a bit to see if I can scale down the length and file size. In any case, the iPhone/iPod comes with the ability of setting an increased speed at which audiobooks are spoken, so it wouldn’t take as long as 3.5 hours to be read.

Also remember to set it as an Audiobook within iTunes, and check “Remember playback position” so you will pick up where you last left off. You can also embed the book cover on the Audiobook if you have the image. If you want, you can also add chapters to the Audiobook (although this requires another tutorial on its own).

I think this is quite an interesting and exciting feature of iTunes and Apple’s music players. You can convert other stuff like notes and maybe online news articles. When you’re as lazy as me, making reading a passive thing to do on a train is excellent.

iPhone Cupcakes by Seth

Filed under: Daily

Rich, I don’t share your enthusiasm for baking, but I definitely appreciate the following:

Damn cute can.

I’m a PC by Seth

Filed under: Tech

No, this ad is not by Apple.

I must say it’s quite a good commercial that directly goes against Apple’s Get a Mac ads. As much of an Apple fanboy I am, I think that Apple’s commercials aren’t really effective. Justin Long as Mac looks smug while John Hodgman as PC is endearing and likeable.

Nevertheless, despite what Microsoft says, Eva Longoria Parker is too sexy to not be a Mac. (And, if life is without walls, who needs Windows?)

My old iPhone by Seth

Filed under: Daily

After spending a few weeks with both pockets filled with an iPhone each, I finally passed my old iPhone to my dad, who has been eyeing mine hungrily ever since I got the latest one.

He has been using it obsessively for the past few days, constantly asking me how to make use of the different functions, and he seems to be having a lot of fun playing around with the phone. I haven’t seen him like that before. In his words, the iPhone is “sibei 好玩”.

nano-chromatic by Seth

Filed under: Tech

Pretty…… Want all….

How Anti-Piracy Screws Over People Who Buy PC Games by Seth

Filed under: Tech

Expletives-laden and definitely not safe for work.

The same is true for people who buy legit music CDs and DVDs for their own personal use. Why the hell am I forced to watch a stupid FBI warning message not to pirate the damn DVD when I bought/rented it with my money?

And apparently ripping music off CDs to put into one’s own digital audio players is a no-go. Someone emailed IPOS (POS standing for, you know) a few years back about the matter and the answer was that it is indeed illegal. I just emailed the same question to the RIAS. RIAS is the local counterpart of the demonic RIAA of the US.

Water Pokémon by Seth

Filed under: Daily

Gotta catch them all.