Finally.

After all of that waiting for my MP3 player, it finally arrived. Unfortunately, it arrived while I was in Santa Clara for work, so I didn't get to play with it until Wednesday. To recap, I got the Meizu M6. I originally ordered the 4GB unit in Black, but they are pretty much sold out everywhere right now (at least where you can get it for a reasonable price). So I opted for the White one after one of the managers from Walgreens.com contacted me with the information about the delay with the Black units. I am okay with the White unit, even though it looks kind of like an iPod :).

I paired up the player with a new set of JVC in-ear headphones. The combination couldn't be better. The sound is incredible from this player - and the sound manipulation capabilities are quite good. You don't get just 'treble' and 'bass'. You also get a full equalizer and a few built in DSP modes. Transferring music to the unit is very easy. After upgrading to the most recent firmware, it works seamlessly with WMP11 (Windows Media Player 11) for syncing. You can also just drag and drop any files into the 'music' folder as it shows up as a removable drive within the file explorer.

There is loose support for album art as well, with the firmware update of course. You need to copy the .jpg of the art to the folder where the music resides, and rename the file to match artistalbum.jpg (at least I think that is what it is) and the image will be displayed when the file is being played.

With all the niceties of unit, there are some drawbacks. Limited video support where you have to run it through a converter for support. There are some audio issues as well. At the end of playing an MP3, and there isn't a natural 'space', the mp3 will stutter a couple of times before continuing to the next song. Nothing super bad, but it can get annoying. I just hope they clear up some of the issues in their next firmware update.

The wait is unbearable!!

I have been waiting, and waiting and waiting and waiting.

My mp3 player (a Creative Zen Nano Plus) went through the wash (and dry) cycle a while back and while it still works, it drains a battery in about 2 minutes. So, into the market I went for a new mp3 player. I am not really interested in getting a hard drive based unit, as it has the moving parts instead of a solid state memory. The less moving parts, the more durable the product.

With so many different units around, I was basically sticking to the mainstream competitors of Samsung, SanDisk, Creative and Apple as well as a few others. I immediately threw out any Apple products as viable alternatives as I don't really care for being trapped into using iTunes and the limited format support. My daughter has an iPod, while a great little product and user friendly, I really don't like iTunes. After more comparison shopping, I was down to 2 different units. The Creative Zen V Plus and the Sandisk e260. Both had their positives and negatives, but I have read that the Zen V Plus has reliability problems while the e260 sound isn't all that hot.

A bit more research I go!

I ran into a pretty nice site called http://www.anythingbutipod.com/ which covers all sorts of mp3 players not named iPod :) This site covered everything. From here, I learned about the very cool Cowon D2 and the Meizu M6. It was one of these I was then deciding upon. The Cowon D2 is an all touch screen model that does video, but the prices are a bit higher. The Meizu M6 on the other hand can handle videos, has an Apple like interface (but you don't have to use iTunes) has great sound and can be had for a little over $100!

Now, that I have found the player I want, I found that I can get one for under $100 from walgreens.com from all places! It was on pre-order until 6/11, so I went ahead and ordered it - I figured it was worth the wait.

But is it really? Walgreens is really getting to me right now. Their customer service number is always busy, and their email response time is slow. I have contacted them twice already wondering why the unit hasn't shipped yet. Hopefully they will let me know what is going on tomorrow. I'm sick of waiting.

Got a new vehicle

Yes, a new car. We traded in Tammy's Honda Accord for a new crossover SUV. The vehicle we selected was the Hyundai Veracruz. It's a very nice ride. I have included some pictures for your enjoyment.

Our purchase was incredibly easy. We worked with an employee discount program which gives us basically invoice price. We found the vehicle we wanted in stock, worked the financing ourselves, received a check and just walked in to buy.

No haggling, no annoying salespeople. Quite possibly the easiest car purchase I have ever gone through. :) Sorry for not adding much to this entry, but I gotta run to PT