Sent some money to Apple

So those you who have known me for a long time understand the gravity of this particular situation. I’ve long held the view that Apple has their niche market in high-end video and audio editing systems, like the fully loaded 8-core Mac Pro that will set you back close to $15,000. With major movie studios and even the BBC moving to a fully digital environment, the stability of the Apple platform has earned its place in the fast-paced media industry. That said, I’ve also long held the opinion that the lower end iMac’s are just overpriced pieces of hardware gouging away the wallets of people who want IT hardware to match their couch–while really offering minimal performance or user control over their computing environment. And lets face it… for the price of your average iMac you could build a powerhouse PC that packs twice the punch.

Having recently embraced Twitter and some other mobile technology I’ve been running my cell phone battery down just sitting at home on the web, and figured it was time to look for a small portable media device. The Dell Mini is great, but even that doesn’t quite cut it if you’re trying to Twitter and watch a movie at the same time. Last week I decided to part with some of my hard-earned cash and pick up a new iPod Touch. Yes, you read it correctly, the “Apple’s don’t belong in the home” guy bought an Apple product for the home. I ordered it online, and wasn’t all that impressed with the packaging it arrived in, but the solid plastic clam-shell case inside the box seemed very well built. The device itself is also very well built and obviously machined with some very high precision. Battery life thus far has been excellent, though we’ll put that to the test for the trip over the Atlantic, and the responsiveness of the vibrant multitouch display is superb. The earphones that come with the iPod are rubbish, but that can be expected–sound quality is stellar through my Shure and Sony canal earphones.

I also should give a plug to Gary over at WaterField Designs. I found them through a simple Google search looking for a sleeve for my new iPod and picked up a little suede jacket for my new man toy. The fit of the jacket is perfect, and the quality was also very, very good. The only drawback was that at $9.00 for the jacket, the shipping cost as much as the jacket did but with small items that’s difficult to avoid and can’t really count against the product itself–be sure to check out Gary’s site at sfbags.com.