Odyssey

I finally relented and bought myself a new Dell DJ music player tonight! My last portable music player purchase was a Sony Discman I bought in 2002 for my sister. I thought it was finally time for me to get with the times and gift myself something I could use to listen to music while mobile.

My new gizmo has a 30GB hard drive, and comes with a neat docking station. It cost me $200 after $95 in coupons and customer appreciation discounts. I just couldn’t give up on this special opportunity. Another driver for the decision was the fact that I am absolutely amazed at the quality of Dell products. I have been a very happy Dell customer since early 2004 having bought a PDA, a top-of-the-line desktop computer, and a powerhouse Inspiron 9300 laptop.

I did consider getting the 20GB photo iPod before I ordered this, though. One of the main reasons I dislike the iPods is the way they try to lock you in into proprietary formats and services. They don’t work with major music subscription services, and are way overpriced for the value they carry. I don’t support music piracy, and paying 99 cents for every musical track isn’t my cup of tea.

The next gadget on my shopping list is a new cellphone. My current Sony Ericsson T637 has about given up on life. I was looking around for newer Sony Ericsson models (I have taken a casual vow to stick to Sony Ericsson phones for the rest of my life), when I came across the W800i. It is a mix of a Sony Walkman, a Sony Cybershot 2.0MP camera, and a cellphone. Unfortunately, it works on the 900/1800/1900 frequency bands, while Cingular mostly uses the 850/1900 frequency bands in North America. I guess the phone is more geared towards T-Mobile suscribers. The yet-to-be-released W600i works on the 850/1900 frequencies, and has a smaller form factor, not to mention EDGE compatibility. I can’t wait for the price of that phone to fall down.

I should have my Dell DJ 30 by Wednesday!