When one door closes, another one opens. So with the RRoD sending my Xbox back to Microsoft for repairs, I decided to pick up a new PlayStation 3.

My expression so far is that it took longer than expected to setup and get into a game; it’s really weird playing without the promise of Achievement Points; the XMB doesn’t feel right; the graphics are about the same as the Xbox; and although it was tough to re-acclimate myself to the dualshock, it’s still a great controller… Oh and the SixAxis controls are difficult (at least in Heavenly Sword which is the only game I’ve played so far).

Additionally, somehow I couldn’t secure my usual obscure username.

Anyway, I should remember to give my other 2 games (Metal Geal Solid 4 and Ratchet and Clank Future) a try.

To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long to happen… But today the inevitable occurred during a match of Call of Duty 4: The dreaded RRoD!!

I need to rememeber to buy a PlayStation 3.

I just need to remember to actually get better as evidenced by my second Nike+ enabled run:

I’ve already installed it and it seems to function as advertised. I should remember to keep an eye out for updates to see what they come up with next.

Update: Oops. Looks like this plugin is confusing Firefox for the iPhone browser. Odd. Guess I’ll deactivate it for now. Oh well…

So, I restrained myself until the Monday after launch when I figured the lines would have died down. Then I went to the Soho Apple Store on my way in to work since I figured that the 5th avenue store was too close to all those morning shows. I walked right in, had 4 people in line before me, bought it, and walked out… Happy.

The best part is, though, that I’m still happy. I love this damn thing! Despite fears to the contrary, I can type quite quickly on the keyboard. The wifi is key, because AT&T’s Edge makes me feel like I’m on a 56k modem. The screen is gorgeous. And just top to bottom the device really delivers on all the hype.

OK, now to the single most annoying aspect of the new iPhone.

One of my many reasons for purchasing the thing was my dream of riding the train with big, cushy, over-ear, wireless, bluetooth headphones. My dreams of not snagging on other passengers was dashed when I learned that the iPhone didn’t support stereo bluetooth headphones. This really pissed me off. Oh well, at least I could still use my big old cans, right? Wrong. Apple did one of those things that just make you hate electronics companies (that’s you Sony!). They took a perfectly good standard connector and made it non-standard. They recessed the headphone jack effectively making the iPhone incompatible with every pair of headphones in the world. This is really unacceptable and I know they can’t fix it now, but they better help some third party vendors get some great headphones out there because I hate Apple headphones with a passion.

Of course, there are other things Apple should fix like custom ringtones, being able to edit what shows up on your home screen (I don’t need notes and stocks, damnit), having access to the landscape keyboard more often, IM, Flash support, games, and more… but I gotta remember that this is a 1st generation product that’s guaranteed to only get better! Get those software updates rolling, Apple!

All I could do was look back at the cute girl whose eyes were bugged out when she said “oh shit!”

Now, I’m thinking to myself, “Hey, it’s right there. A mere 6 feet or so away. Just jump down and get it.” Then of course, the next thought is: “Are you kidding me? if you’re down there and the train comes, it’s death!”

The girl says something like: “What are you going to do?”

I’m like: “I got no idea… it seems pretty close…”

She’s all: “You are kidding, right!? I think you should go tell the attendant.” Note that the attendant at this station is waaaaay upstairs up a long escalator.

I think about this for a second. Consider my options. Weigh possible death or at the very least getting very dirty against the value of a sub $200 device. Briefly contemplate leaving it there should a train comes… but no train comes. Instead, I go upstairs leaving the girl on the platform and wait 20 or so minutes for some dispatched MTA workers to fetch my tiny music player.

I was actually really surprised at how fast the MTA workers showed up after being called, so I should remember that there’s no need to risk my life should I drop something on the tracks again.

(image by petrozo)

Since I’m now trying my hand at photography, I’ve added a photos section to the sidebar that links to Flickr. Now if only I can remember to RTFM or at least learn the first thing about real photography.

Although this pouch was designed by Sony to be used as a holder for their almost useless PSP, I imagine it could make for a great woman’s clutch. It’s pattern is from the highly anticipated LocoRoco game for the PSP (I might have to try this one out) which launches July 13th in Japan, however there is a downloadable demo available now if you’d like to check it out.

Don’t forget  to buy one here.

via Kotaku

Although I don’t have a 5G Apple iPod video super-deal, I may have to buy one before making that ever impending (but never arriving) trip to Japan if only so I can rock this iPod skin.

Don’t forget the other skins available at the Gelaskins site that would be just great for running around NYC.

Everywhere the old mini fell short (power, longevity, etc.) this new mini excelled. The one drawback was the integrated video chip which meant that it would never be a great gaming machine… but that wasn’t what I wanted it for.

I bought the thing that very day, and just a couple days later it arrived with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Once I got it home, it took all of a couple seconds to plug the thing into my Samsung LCD TV using a DVI to HDMI cable (not included, BTW) and there it was: OS X on my TV without having to juggle laptops.

Previously, I had been plugging my 15″ Aluminum Powerbook into the TV to watch movies and downloaded content. This was a terrible setup for a number of reasons. One, I had to plug it in each time and unplug when done. Also, I had to store all my media on the laptop which was quickly running out of space. On top of that, the Powerbook didn’t have an optical audio out port, which meant that the sound had to go through the headphone jack which picked up an awful lot of the Powerbook’s internal noise (harddrive spinning, etc). This made the audio quality pretty bad.

The Mac mini solved all those problems with the addition of a 500 Gig external harddrive while adding Apple’s decent Front Row application and remote. Placing DVD’s on the external harddrive even allowed instant access to my entire library from the remote just like iTunes had already done for my CD collection.

Yeah, some things didn’t perform flawlessly. Front Row, for instance, feels very young. There’s lots that it just doesn’t do well, although a fairly recent update shows that it’d being improved by Apple and could grow into a very nice piece of software.

In the end, though, I highly recommend this configuration and should you have cable TV (which I don’t) you can easily extend it using the great EyeTV products.