iPod Line Up 2010 - mixed bag

So, today Apple announced their new lineup for the 2010 iPod line. I have very mixed reviews about it. Here's my opinions on the various models.

Shuffle - A great and much needed step back to the previous generation shuffle. The last form looked great, but very much still needed physical controls on the unit itself. Now only offered with 2GB of memory??? What happened to the 4GB model?

Nano - An interesting little unit, but now lacking a video camera or video playback altogether? Not an upgrade in my opinion. While I wouldn't use the camera a whole lot, the appeal was that it was included. The most important seller for the nano line for me was that it allowed video playback. It might have been small, but if you needed to watch a movie, the option was there. This new model is nothing but a downgrade for me. Yeah, it has a touch screen, but why? The videos I have seen of the touch screen in action make it look very cumbersome and frustrating. Definitely not what I was hoping for.

Touch - I have wanted a touch for some time now, but being a big fan of having almost my entire collection of music with me at all times has caused me pause from going ahead with a purchase. I was hoping this new generation would boast a higher storage capacity, but to no avail. Again, we are stuck with the same 8GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities. I am sorry, but it looks as though I'll be still using my old 160GB iPod Classic for another year. The addition of video and photo functions seem appealing, but not as much of a seller to me personally if it didn't have the cameras but had a higher memory capacity.

My analysis of the line is that the Nano has pretty much been ruined to an extent. Honestly, they should have billed the new Nano as the new Shuffle. I understand why they couldn't though, considering the Nano pricing starts at $149. If I had my ability to make changes to these units, I would have a higher capacity model shuffle back in the lineup, make the Nano widescreen and still incorporate video playback features, and my biggest change to the line would be to incorporate more capacity into the touch line. I have seen it on many other blogs that there are many others like myself crying out for a higher capacity Touch.

Me, I am pretty sure I'm skipping this generation of iPods. The line changes were not enough for me to yet pick up a Touch and enough that a Nano no longer appeals to me at all. I did hear that Microsoft is planning a full overhaul of their Zune HD that is possibly incorporating their Windows Phone 7 OS. I cannot wait to see what Zune has in store.

Out of Nowhere

So, It's been a damn long time since I've even looked at this blog. What better time than now to make a new update. So, since I had today off, I ran to my local music store and picked up the new album by The Sword entitled Warp Riders. Recent events in my life have thrown off my internal clock something fierce, and for some reason I had it stuck in my mind that the album was coming out today rather than the week ago that it had.

I was aware that this album was in ways a "concept" album. In knowing this, I set my expectations toward something maybe a bit sonically spacious more dragged out and echoey considering that the theme of this album had shifted away from the mythical battles that took place eons past into a setting more sci-fi in nature. Apparently that was not the case, and it's not all together a bad thing either. It has the familiar sound of The Sword's previous releases and this album has a much stronger and appealing sound than Gods of the Earth, which I felt had fell a tad short of the mark if only so slightly.

There are ten tracks to Warp Riders, and after just listening to it, I cannot find a single track I didn't like immediately. The album begins with something more akin to my initial expectations. Something more spaceoperatic, but after a brief silence, the wall of familiar Sword sound takes flight and the album never falters, never fails to deliver. The story throughout Warp Riders is a fun stride back toward the crafted stories of what come to my mind when someone mentions the science fiction of the late sixties or early seventies. Even the album cover itself is flawless in its conveyance of this dedication to such a period. This album is so filled with guitar rifts and thundering drums that you wouldn't need anything else consuming that space. Then somehow they slide in the vocals that blend perfectly into the heavy beats and screaming guitars with an almost svelte ease.

This album is a must-have for anyone who is either a fan of science fiction from ages past, or just want an amazingly created hard rock album. Having listened to this album a few times now, I am so glad my initial presumptions about this album were far off base, as this feels like an album from the Sword. Let that spacey theremin driven rock opera I was looking forward to come from someone else. The sword has delivered Warp Riders and it is about perfect in every way.

"she makes a fold in space, we slip
between the curves
Sacrifice of the sisterhood to do for those
they serve
To cross the Universe in hyper-spatial flight
We ride the warp of space into the
womb of night"

the video for Tres Brujas (the second track on the album) is a tad corny, but very much a fun watch...