New iPod

Well i finally bit the bullet and updated my portable music player. I had (still have) a Creative Zen 20GB which would be close to three years old now (maybe a little more). There is nothing really wrong with it, the interface is a little old and cumbersome but apart from that it's fine. I have never really wanted an iPod, the sound quality on the earlier models wasn't the best (why i went for the creative) but apparently it had been addressed in the later models. Wasn't a fan of the click wheel or iTunes but then they went and released a 160GB player - how could i possibly say no?

So yesterday i made my move to apple - one of these is now mine:


Went with the black over the silver (looked nicer in my opinion). The packaging is very minimul - i remember some friends getting a 4G (i think) iPod and it coming in a large box with a Dock, CD's, Case, Firewire and USB cables. Mine came with a very minimul manual, no CD, no dock (just an adapter), one USB cable and some shitty earbuds. That said it is still packaged very nicely and don't really have a problem with it - i could see how someone upgrading may be a little dissapointed though.

I charged it at work so when i got home i could get started with it, took around 3 hours to charge which is pretty good for 40hours play time! It is quite a bit smaller than my old Zen, i bought a case for it ($10 5.5G case, fit's it fine :)) to prevent the back from getting scratched, though as it's in it's case i can't really see it shine so perhaps a pointless exercise?

Most of my music collection is in Wavpack - Oddly enough (yeah right ;)) this isn't supported by iTunes or the iPod so i have to convert them to Apple Lossless or some lossy format. I have decided to go with Apple Lossless, luckily this is a fairly simple process to go through thanks to dbPoweramp, batch converts Wavpack to Apple Lossless without any hassle (and maintains the Tags :)). Once done (haven't done them all yet - will do some each night) i load them into iTunes which then proceeds to find the Album artwork for me - nice :) Sync up my iPod then i'm ready to go.

Sound test: Happily suprised. I was expecting it to sound a little worse than my creative but to be honest it sounds a little better. This could be due to the fact i only had lossy formats on my creative or it could be due to the codecs, not really sure. Either way i am happy. Cover flow is nice though i'm not sure how much i will use it, find it easier to navigate by artist then album. The iPod music Quiz v2 is pretty cool, it selects various bit's of information from your library and quizes you on them, not just which song is this blah blah blah...

Battery life: Not sure yet - will get back to you ;)

Overall Satisfaction: During my 20 hours so far with the iPod Classic i am very happy, i was a little worried that i would be dissapointed with my purchase before i got a hold of it but luckily that has been put to bed. Score:

Looks: 8/10 (Scratch happy back needs to be protected but then you can't see it.... overall very nice though)
Sound: 9/10
Overall: 9/10 - Very happy and would recommend them to others.

Brisbane Coffee

Coffee and Brisbane, two words that really don't blend together well (with a few exceptions). Most places seem to either:

A - Not know how to actually pull a shot properly and it ends up burnt to the shithouse half of the time

B - Not know what the actual drink i am asking for is (a Short Macchiato isn't exactly mind blowingly difficult)

C - Have untrained staff who really don't care about the shit that they are handing out.

D - Serve it too hot! I'm sorry but a Macchiato (or espresso shot) should not be served boiling hot.

E - All or any combination of the above.

I suppose if people are having a latte with 10 sugars the burnt taste won't be present but for something like a macchiato it's blatently obvious and disgusting.

The exceptions to the Brisbane rule seem to be:

Cafe Modena (Corner or Creek and Adelaide Streets)
Naked Coffee (Elizabeth Street Arcade)

thats all...