The Microsoft Zune has not has an easy introduction to the iPod-dominated digital music player market. The much-maligned music player is perhaps best known for including brown among its color options. Microsoft included WiFi in their original Zune, but the use was of questionable utility at best. Instead of using WiFi to do something obvious like connect to the internet, a genius at Microsoft decided it should be used only for “squirting” songs to your friends, so they could listen for 3 days or 3 plays (whichever came first). Aside from the restrictions of a system that sounds like a car warranty, the obvious problem with this scheme is that it requires someone with another Zune who has similar music tastes to yourself. If if it just required another Zune, that would be a tall order. I have yet to see one outside of an electronics store.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m a fan of competition. Though I generally like Apple products, I think it’s appropriate for the company to work for its success. The new Zune still doesn’t connect to the internet (unlike Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch), but does allow for wireless syncing. Initially, this didn’t seem like a particularly brilliant idea either. I’m still not convinced its essential for a music player, but it makes a lot of sense for a device like the iPhone. I like to keep my iPhone in my room when I’m sleeping in case I get a call, but it’s not necessarily convenient to keep a computer in the same place…and it’s easy to forget to sync before leaving. With a laptop, this is particularly important, since it’s not practical to leave a sync cable attached as can be done with a desktop. Hopefully Apple will add this functionality in a future update.

Several of my friends and coworkers wrote in to say they had scores in the 40s to 70s on the aforemetioned quiz. In case you’re wondering how exactly I managed to score 97% on the “Addicted to Apple” quiz. Here are the questions and my responses:

97%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

Have you upgraded to OS X Leopard yet? Yes (on the day of release)

When did you buy your first mac? 1980s (Mac II, 1988)

Do you own an iPhone? Yes

Do you own an iPod? Yes

How many iPods have you had over the years? 4-6 (original 1G, 3G, Minix2, Nano, 5G)

How many Macs have you had over the years? 4 or more (Mac II, PowerBook Duo, Power Mac 7100/66, PowerBook Duo 2300c, Power Mac 8600/300, iMac Rev B, PowerBook G4/500, PowerBook G4 17″, MacBook, Mac Pro).

If you were packing for a long trip, how many Apple products would you take with you? 3 (MacBook, iPhone, Airport Express)

Do you have a favorite Mac TV commercial? Yes, the Vista security one.

Do your friends and family call you for technical support when their mac has issues? Yes

Have you ever stuck an Apple sticker to something? Yes - our car when I was in high school…I’m tempted to do it again.

Do you try and convince those around you to buy a mac? Yes, often

Have you ever stood in line for the launch of an Apple product? Yes (the iPhone)

Have you ever owned an iMac G3? (the egg-shaped one with colored plastic)? Yes (in the original Bondi Blue)

Does it give you a warm fuzzy feeling when you see someone in a coffee shop using a Mac? Yes

What kind of computer are you using to take this quiz? I’m using my iPhone

See, not so ridiculous…right?

A friend send along this quiz which tries to assess “How Addicted to Apple Are You.” At the end, you are given a score which rates your level of Apple addition. Somewhat embarrassingly, I scored a 97%.

How to create custom ringtones in GarageBand 4.1.1

This takes “custom ringtones” to a whole new level. Can’t wait to try this out.

Many cafés and restaurants present seasonal offerings in an attempt to boost sales, and the holiday season is a particularly popular time for this. I’m not a big dessert aficionado, but for some reason doughnuts (or donuts, depending on whether you’ve adopted the lean modern spelling) have always piqued my interest. It’s not that I particularly like them; they’re certainly not a staple of my diet. That said, every once in a while a new variety will prompt me to re-explore these tubby treats.

The latest such example has been a new addition from Starbucks, the Peppermint Snowdrift doughnut. Starbucks often includes doughnuts among their array of coffee accessories (at least, that’s how Starbucks likely views them), but this one stands out from the others in that it’s a unique variety. The concept is simple. It starts with a standard chocolate doughnut but leaves off the usual sugar glaze. Instead, the top is coated with a white, peppermint infused icing that adds an alpine freshness to the deep chocolate base. An additional dimension is added by scattered sugar crystals, which give the treat a unique crunch. Perfect with a dark cup of coffee.

I’m someone who believes in eating breakfast regularly. As a child, I went through cycles of various cereals. I’d try one for a while, like it, and then get bored and move on to something new. In the past year, however, I’ve discovered a cereal so good that I have had no desire to switch brands. I don’t eat it every day (at least not for breakfast), but I do indulge it in frequently, even as a dessert.

The cereal name sounds rather random. It’s Nature’s Path Organic Pumpkin FlaxPlus Granola. I know it doesn’t sound that appealing, but I encourage everyone to give it a try. It’s got a great crispy texture, just the right amount of sweetness, and it appears to be relatively healthful as well, with plenty of Omega-3’s.

The best part about it is that Amazon both have this otherwise expensive cereal available in bulk quantities. I always have one or two extra boxes around.

Bottom Line: This convenient SD-card based camcorder offers excellent outdoor video quality, reasonable indoor quality, and compact design at a reasonable price.
Verdict: Recommended

After much debate and deliberation about which HD camcorder to purchase, I finally settled on the Panasonic HDC-SD5. Other considerations included the now discontinued HDC-SD1 from Panasonic and Canon’s hard-drive based HG10, and various Sony models. I ruled out the Sony models because they didn’t seem to have any advantage over the Panasonic and because the solid-state media models used Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick instead of the more popular SD card standard. Canon’s model reportedly does better in low light though is less vibrant than the Panasonic outdoors. This was tempting, but the HG10 was more expensive than the SD5 and I still prefer the idea of simply popping the SD card out and using a card reader instead of rummaging around for the right cable. Also, you can easily replace a bad SD card, but a hard drive crash could wipe out a large amount of data. Some have said that Panasonic’s earlier model, the SD1, might theoretically have better low light performance because of a larger sensor. I don’t know if this is true or not, but there are enough ergonomic improvements that the SD5 seemed to be worth it

I shot some video of my son in various lighting conditions using the 1080p setting. I then imported the video into iMovie ‘08 on the Mac. There had been some early reports that iMovie ‘08 was horizontally stretching video from the SD5 that was shot at full 1080p resolution (which had not be available on the earlier SD1). I’m happy to report that this is not a problem - all my video imported flawlessly.

One surprise is that, even though a transfer from digital media should theoretically be faster than that from a tape, it’s not with this camera. In fact, my video upload was SLOWER than real time - 20 minutes of video took roughly 30 minutes to upload, despite the fact that I have a relatively powerful quad-core (dual Core 2 Duo, 2.66 Ghz) Mac Pro. The reason is that iMovie converts the video from the highly compressed AVCHD format to a more compatible video format for editing. This conversion takes time. That said, it’s still more convenient to be able to shoot an arbitrary amount of video, upload it, and continue shooting without worrying about tape position, etc.. I should note that the SD-card reader built into my monitor didn’t work - I had to buy a new reader that was compatible with the SDHC format used by the large-capacity SD cards this camera needs.

Video quality was dramatically better than my old tape-based Sony DCR-TRV22, and this was particularly evident when I blew up the image to full screen on my 24″ monitor. Indoor shots in a reasonably well-lit environment looked brighter than with the old Sony, but video noise was clearly evident at a close viewing distance and the colors were a bit washed out. That said, the detail was impressive and the video was smooth. I have not yet noticed the AVCHD motion artifacts that some complain of, though some motion seemed a little less smooth than I might have imagined it could (this may be due to the camera auto-adjusting frame rates). I have not yet watched the video on full-size HDTV at a more typical viewing distance. It may be that the indoor noise is not as evident in this environment.

Outdoor video was simply outstanding. There was no noise, colors were bright, and the image detail was truly impressive. Audio was fine and was basically what i expected from this camera, though I did not shoot in extremely windy conditions. I did sometimes wish the camera could “zoom out” to a wider angle, but the compact size makes it easy to maneuver. The mechanics of use are well thought out, with the camera automatically turning on and off appropriately as you open or close the LCD.

I have not yet seen the video on my HDTV from a typical watching distance.
So to summarize, the camera is a huge leap in quality over my previous Sony DCR-TRV22, both in terms of video quality, convenience, and ergonomics. Outdoor video quality is excellent. Indoor video quality, while better than other cameras I have used, is clearly inferior to the outdoor quality. That said, those in the market for a solid-state camcorder would be will served with the Panasonic SD5.