MY SANDISK MP3 player packed up the other week. For some reason the battery stopped holding a charge, meaning it was effectively dead. After checking on some forums to see if anyone else had had a similar problem I contacted tech support who told me to send it it for a free repair. And yesterday this turned up in the mail:

Hang on… these are not the droids I’m looking for. Instead of my shiny Fuze they sent me a Clip+, Sandisk’s version of that tiny iPod that everyone loses within a week. I mean, sure, it’s got 8gig of space but […]

EVER since Sellout kicked the bucket back in September, I’ve been using Ev’s iPod for my musical needs and to help prevent me going on a murderous rampage at work. But now Ev wants her iPod back, what was I going to do? Buy another one? Well I was until I saw the prices… $176 for an 8Gb Nano, $229 for a Classic or $229 for an 8Gb Touch. Oh, and $45 for that tiny little square one that I’d probably lose within a week. So what to do?

Opposite the massive shiny iPod/iPad display in Target was the skid row of […]

IT WAS a lucky escape. For a short while I was transfixed by its sleekness, its portability, and its ability to be used as an electronic book reader. Well it was Ev who liked that last bit most, conjuring up for her visions of a flat unencumbered by bookcases and piles of novels. I was enticed by how amazingly shiny it is. I mean it’s just… so.… shiny. Incredibly shiny. For a split second I envisaged getting out the much-abused Visa card, clicking “BUY” and taking the final step towards joining Them.

But then I donned my Sunglasses of Cynicism™ and peered […]

WAIT… wasn’t there about 7,000 songs on this thing earlier? I’m not sure how I buggered it up, but Apple really should make sure that unplugging an iPod from an iMac can be bugger-up free. Although maybe I should have waited until the computer was fully shut down… Anyway, off to Google to see how I get my stuff back.

Oh look, when you type “restore” into Firefox’s Google field the first four results are all about fixing Apple products. Thinking about it, you never hear the word “reliable” in the same sentence as Apple. You hear “shiny,” “nice looking” and “overpriced,” […]

THERE are two basic reasons why I believe this: 1) my good friend Flynn has not only bought an Apple product in the shape of an iFad, he’s also started a blog, and b) I bought some Microsoft stuff today.

I didn’t mean to buy anything, honest. But as my mum would say, a bloody idiot and his debit card are soon parted and let’s face it, dear reader(s), I am that bloody idiot. So there I was wandering around the keyboard and mice aisle of Best Buy when I spotted these:

(They obviously weren’t in my kitchen at the time.) Now, since […]

DEAR Westen Digital:

You really are a bunch of pratts. There I was all ready to splash out $100 on one of your hard drives (the Caviar Black 1TB, for the Flynns who are reading this) when what happens? First I discover it’s actually $120*, then I find out you don’t even include a SATA cable any more so I’m going to have to shell out another twenty dollars for that. Add 10% tax and I’m looking at nearly $60 on top of what I thought I was going to pay. And I’d have to go online to download the software for […]