Nothing To Buy

I'm not sure if it is a function of knowing too much, the products not being quite right, or just a down economy having me skittish. However, for the time being, I just can't seem to buy anything, even with Black Friday just around the corner.

For example, we can start with Blu-ray players. Nope, never bought one. I am still using my DVD player, a Sharp, from 2001. Sure I might like one. While the prices have come down, of course, the longer I wait, my expectations go up. Now, not only do I want the player, but also something that can play NetFlix, and YouTube, oh and Hulu would be great too. Never mind nothing does the Hulu part, but hey, I can hope, right. Clearly the $149 Blu-ray at Wal-Mart is not gonna do it.

Move on to a new HDTV. This time I'd like a 32" LCD. 720p is ok, but I would like for it to not only offer awesome picture quality, but also be internet connected. I've accepted that whatever TV I buy will be the last one for several years. Hence, I want it to be the very latest and greatest. Last year, very little new came out in this area, just some mild incremental improvements. Therefore, I've skipped over this purchase for a year, and wait to see if anything piques my interest at CES this year.

On to GPS gear. I would like a new one, but not truly need it. My maps are from 2005, but with the cost of the update, I could just put it towards a new unit. With MSN getting ready to abandon their service, the GPS companies have to be doing something to make their units better without it. I also notice that Garmin hasn't come out with something for a while which adds to the curiosity. There are units that have free ad supported traffic now, but I'm wondering what the next big thing will be. Network traffic like the Dash Express pioneered? Time based traffic patterns? Better integration to Google Maps? Or something even better? Yup, keeping the wallet closed on this as well.

Which leads us to netbooks. I would love one that could do the following: all day battery, 11" screen, non Win XP OS, can display PDF's, under 3 pounds, and decent processing power. By decent, I mean faster than my Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor, which the current N270 is not, and the Z520 is even more notches slower. Oh, and before you suggest a CULV, I would like this unit to cost around $250 or so. Ok, this might be a pipe dream, but I want something powerful enough to justify lugging it around, but cheap enough that I won't be heartbroken if it disappears. It is not a matter of being careful, but there are times when I just can't have it with me at all times at work. While I've been watching for a sale, I realize that what I want is just not happening for now. Once again, I've gotta wait as the coming wave of smartbooks may fulfill most of this, although, I may have to go to a 10" screen. Check out the video below to see what should be coming in the next several months that may eat the current crop of netbooks for lunch.



At any rate, for now, it just appears that there is nothing quite right to purchase. Perhaps it is just me, or the greater economic times. Here's hoping to better stuff in 2010!

Jonas

GPS 2.0

Many of us jumped on board GPS, and tucked away our paper maps. I've been generally pleased with my unit, and don't plan on going back to Rand McNally anytime soon. My Garmin works best on the open road because it gets a clear signal, and there's little traffic to contend with. After using it a while, you start to realize that GPS units, while incredibly powerful, are also incredibly dumb as they have no idea if a road is closed, under construction, or blocked by an accident.

The first attempt to remedy that information deficit involved the MSN service. For an annual fee (I recall $60), the unit gets updated via radio towers. Now, the GPS unit can receive information, and be updated with current road conditions to plan a better route around the ice cream truck spill. The unit can also get info such as gas prices nearby.

However, networking is all about two way communication. A new GPS unit, the Dash Express seeks to remedy that deficit. Using a combination of WiFi, and GPRS (which hook into the cellular data network), this unit can download the latest info, and also upload. What can it send up the network? The reportedly killer app is the current road speed, so other users on the road can know the traffic conditions and be rerouted around delays accordingly. This is especially useful for sidestreets and less than major thoroughfares that don't collect traffic data. The data link is also useful to update the device, search Yahoo, and get gas prices.

Unfortunately, you're going to have to search a bit for the cheapest gas to offset the cost of this latest GPS toy. The unit itself is $399, right around what a higher end GPS unit is going for these days. However, the network requires a $13 monthly fee (it drops to $10 monthly if you pay for the year). This can put a serious dent in your wallet, considering that serious techies already pay a premium to access data on the road from a cell phone, and/or wireless data plan for their notebook.

Does the Dash Express change the rules? I'm not quite sure, but I am intrigued. I'm seeing a trend in electronics accessing cellular networks if we recall that Amazon's Kindle gets its content in a similar fashion. I was pleased to see that the Dash Express wasn't relying on WiFi which can be far more miss than hit outside of urban areas. I'm also curious to see what the more mainstream manufacturers of GPS come out with to compete with this (too bad it's not an open standard that the other manufacturers can all submit traffic data to an open network). While I don't drive in enough traffic to justify that monthly fee, I can think of some that do, and would benefit from such a device. Finally, the GPS that comes with the car is looking mighty dated with all of this new technology in this area.

You can read a review of the Dash Express here.