Somehow, i think i need to come up with about $600.
This is because i seem to have been beset with a bit of gadget greed. Mind you, this sort of thing can generally be solved by gentle introspection and reflection. Both of which involving my bank account. Still, there's precious little wrong with dreaming and thus
Crap i Wish i Could Afford:
Archos 605 WiFi PMP
See, the argument i'd make to Anne Marie would be that this, combined with the DVR Station would give us a portable TiVo for the bedroom. Making those long trips a bit less long. Oh sure, i may not be flying for work very often, but so long as we have family located somewhere else, that doesn't mean we're not going to be getting on less planes.
Why that? Well, it actually comes pretty darn close to the Perfect MP3 Player i talked about long these many years. Powered off USB (with two types of plugs, i'll note), long life battery, is basically a hard drive you plug in that can do media, and even runs a nice and fairly hackable OS. This even has the added benefit of an integrated 802.11g network plus USB host support.
What about the 8GB Sansa i kinda/sorta just bought? It's a nice player. Nicer than the Zen, but the video support is not quite as nice. You have to run everything through their converter which rotates things 90° and converts to QuickTime. Unfortunately, it's got a significant failure rate for transcoding larger files resulting in you not being able to watch entire movies the way you want (as in "completely"). Sadly, this doesn't have a built in radio like the Sansa does, but i could always just make that the "day use" one, particularly if the other is wired up as the PVR.
But enough about my restless need to consume media. The other current device of personal techno-lust:
TomTom One
Are there better GPS units out there? Yeah probably. Still this one looks like it does exactly what i need it to, and also appears to be portable enough to travel with. One thing i learned from trying to get through Hartford is that with GMaps for Phones suck as far as directions go, it's better than nothing.
The only kinda sucky thing is that the battery on this is only good for about two hours. Mind you, for most cases, that shouldn't be a problem since if i'm driving a car that i own or borrowed from someone, i could plug in the power adapter. Apparently rental cars no longer feature a working power adapter so if i'm traveling on someone else's dime or on my own, i sincerely doubt that it'll make it all the way from Boston to BWI.
Still, with paper in hand, i'm guessing that this bugger would get me out of the more annoying sections.
i'm guessing i can put in a larger SD chip if i want to store more than just the local area on it.
Granted, none of this will probably come to pass, since (as noted above) there's no freaking way i can justify ponying up that kinda cash for these kinda toys. (At least, not now. i don't suppose i could convince some of you to buy some stock at a fairly high price over the current selling point? That'd help a lot.)
But i can dream.
And possibly lick my screen.
(which probably isn't the best idea, come to think of it.)
I want an XBox 360 because I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to play Bioshock and buying a 360 is, at this point, much cheaper than upgrading my computer to spec. :(
The Walkman has - effective almost exactly today - reached the maximum value/cost ratio. Uhm, if you get your new pride and joy off the "free" section on craigslist. Consume knowing that your prudence has paid off in spades.
In similar value/cost news, the TomTom One hit $144 today, at Toys R Us (see Boing Boing for details), prompting me to take consolation in the fact that today early iPhone adopters just got screwed harder, faster. $200 price drop in 69 days, ooooouch.
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I have had a TomTom One for about six months now. They're $200 now (Grrrrr) which is the proper price point.
Overall I like it, but there are a couple of infuriating "features". You mention battery life, that's one of them. Another is the doesn't-automatically-dim-into-nighttime-mode. A third is no dedicated, well-designed geocaching mode.
Drop me an e-mail if you want the full run-down.
Oh, and for balance, the other units also have their own special "issues" as well. Much, much more expensive units. You would think that in the last couple of years building these things, a few people would have used them and provided a little feedback. That doesn't appear to be the case.
The new feature this year (not on my TomTom One) is the ability to remove routes. You know, in case you bridge falls down or something. Having recently used an in-car GPS in downtown-ish Minneapolis, I can assure you that there are occasions where that feature would be very, very, very nice.