I am a podcast addict

I don't even remember when it started it has been so long ago.  I think the forerunner was when I discovered a place you could go to download old time radio programs.  I love those things.  In my search for those I found that there are people that are making the equivalent of radio talk show programs with current news and topics that you can download and listen to at your own time and convenience and best of all for me at your own listening speed.  I have been hooked ever since.

Just to let you know, my favorite app is still the for Android Podcast Addict.  It takes a little time to learn but it is intuitive enough.  It does a pretty good job of finding and managing pods and my favorite part is you can take it too 11.  Okay not quite 11 but 5X if you are so inclined. That is fast even for me.  I can run many things around 3X which means I can get it an hour program in about 20 minutes, just about right for a nice walk.  Except for Tony Robbins who gets excited and talks faster than most or Roy H. Williams whose Monday Morning Memo is so rich and deep I have to slow it down so I can take it all in.  I can set each pod to play at its own best speed and adjust on the fly if I need to.  It occasionally goes fuzzy at those higher speeds when the screen goes to sleep on my old Amazon Fire phone but beyond that one thing it is a solid app.

I am still looking for the best solution for my Apple iPhone.  They have a player but it only goes to 2X which is a step backward for me so right now friends and family look at me funny and are always asking me why do you carry around two phones?

So what is a Pod exactly?  The best way to describe it is a mini radio program though some are starting to delve into video.  The topics are all over the place and there is sure to be something you would be interested in, and it is easy to subscribe to an individual Podcast where you can work your way through all the episodes they have produced or just select individual episodes from whomever based on your favorite subject matters just search on a word and see what comes up.

If you are into lifelong learning there are pods that will teach you just about any subject you can think of.  If there is a passion you have in any area of life, there are others that share that passion and are producing a podcast about it.  If you are into self-development, religion, science, planes, trains and automobiles, politics, business, health, fitness, language, winners and losers, and everything in between you can probably find something that someone has done a show about it.  And if you can't find something then feel free to start producing your own.  Just came back here a let us know about it.  I am loving it.

Many people have gotten their introduction to podcast by word of mouth from friends and many get their first taste from one of the highly popular Pods such as Tim Ferris of four hour work week fame, Freakonomics, or This American Life or one of the NPR productions, such as Paula Poundstone Institute or the Ted Radio Hour though I think I prefer the actual Ted Talks themselves which you can also find.

The production values are better with the bigger budgets but I find the that smaller self produced stuff is every bit as good and often has higher quality content, especially if you are getting burned out on political correctness and people with an agenda.  Don't get me wrong, there is some junk out there...a lot of junk and of course some of it I will listen to anyway like a wreck you can't help but look at but my bar is getting ever higher as I realize that 1. I am not getting any younger and so time is a factor and I want to spend time to the best value added activities possible and 2. It is a big world out there, a really really big world out there.  If what you are listening to now ain't cutting it then go ahead and move on.  There is a good chance that the next thing will be better.  The more you experience, the better able you are to recognize and make the better choice.  (Hint: always make the better choice.)

This was my intro entry.  I plan on adding some other entries later telling you what I have been listening to.  I have some can't miss Pods that I look forward to anxiously.  I already mentioned Roy H Williams and his Monday Morning Memo.  I have been following him over 10 years now.  Others I have started at episode one and binge listened till I was current, or at least well on my way.

More to come.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

Amazon vs. Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft vs. Samsung vs. other

and the winner is???

I am willing to wager that you like me have had to wrestle with this battle royale yourself, either in the past, present or to be addressed again in the future and always trying to come to some conclusion as to which is the best way to go.  This has not been easy, and the decisions made do not seem to be permanent.  Things change.  And that means, like Wrestlemania, roll out the roman numerals because even if you found a winner last time, it soon will be time to do it again.

I have been in a constant shopping mod for cell phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and any other electronic gadgetry that comes along that promises to advance my standard of living with the mere transfer of a cash transfusion and a future draft pick to be named later.  I used to thrill to the hunt, leap at the chase, research with relish, and analyse till the cows came home with the confidence that I would know at the end of it all that I could determine what was good, better, best.

It works with cars so why not electronics.  

By looking at the universe of products, you layout a list of features and attributes measured against their effectiveness of meeting certain personal objectives weighted to your biases and desires and rated on your relative scales of values to come up with a very limited number of finalist that make the cut.  You try them on for size, select one, find a store willing to give you the best deal and next thing you know it finds its way home among your most prized possessions.

With cars it is fairly easy to make apples to apples comparisons.  With electronics not so much.  With everyone using a different language and different measuring sticks the comparisons become confusing rather quickly.  The comparison quickly becomes one of Apples and Oranges or Androids or MS as the case maybe.

If all you know is that 'an 8 cylinder engine is more than a 4 cylinder engine so it must be better right' and don't care about what either one does or why then you may not be in the same boat as I am.  I am looking for more.  I need more.  More helps me define and confirm my decisions.  I don't want to know that it has a quad chip, I want to know which quad chip and what speed it is running and which generation ship it is.  These things matter when trying to make an informed decision but it takes some real detective work to find the answers especially with some manufacturers.

Not everyone likes to look that hard or think that hard or spend that much time worrying about what is right for them so they phone a friend, "Hey, what have you got? Do you like it? Cool." and go get one of those but the next model up cause you have to have some bragging rights, end of story.  And for many that works great.

I am still from an era where a dollar was hard earned and hard spent and have wanted to get the most bang for the buck so it was important to try and find the best of whatever for me, and as I said before, I really did enjoy the whole shopping experience.

It is all about the system

So for those still with me I will start at the foundation.  Every system out there tries to be a closed proprietary system meaning they want you to be locked into only buying from them for all your wants and needs.  That is fine if they can deliver all your wants and needs but if not drop them and look elsewhere.  Please take note, systems change, some for the worst, some for the better, some stick around, some die off.  Just because you can get a great 'deal' on something be aware that it might not just be the model that is being closed out.  Also note that even if the system on the whole is solid, one of its divisions may not be.  There are a lot of products out there that have come and gone without a lot of impact and barely able to make one of those 'do you remember these' lists that get past around your email inbox.

So my system look narrows quickly when related to cell phones and tablets with a slight pause at the desktop/laptops.  I have grouped these a little because even though the operating systems are different the main systems all come from the same roots.  Basically you have Apple, Microsoft and Android or some version thereof.

Let's start with Android and it's derivatives of which there are many.  Most closely associated with Google, Android is a base upon which many have built such as Samsung, Amazon's Fire and dozens of other names too numerous to mention here.  Some use their own modified version of Android and that presents its own set of challenges for the user.  For example Amazon wants you to stay with Amazon and will not play with Google.  Also the further away from a pure Android system, the less likely it will be kept up to date with it's operating system.  And Android has a lot of versions.  So many it is hard to keep up with which candy name you are on or dealing with.  (Was I eating a jelly bean or a lollipop?  And does it matter?) It matters.  Although I like the fact that the software side of a system is in a constant state of update, meaning improvements and advancement, it also means that the hardware side is in for the obsolescence pile sooner.  When the hardware can't keep up with the latest software you are stuck with an upgrade, one you might not have been planning for.

Microsoft on the other hand is trying to be all things to all people and failing miserably.  For the desktop/laptop scene they have a pretty well established line that has served them well even if it has made many a user scream in frustration.  The attempt to move into other areas has not gone as well.  Cell phones with Windows do not capture 2% of the market and when you are that small it doesn't pay to bother with them.  At some point they will get their act together or give up and I am betting on the later.

Which leaves Apple the 500 pound gorilla that may or may not use gorilla glass.  Apple probably has the best universal approach out there.  It's users can find a consistent, stable, universe of commonality.  And even though there are different systems for the cell phone and the desktop you have a better chance of interfacing here than on most other platforms.  There are of course downsides and they will be mentioned later but they are the current king for finding simple utility in a product.

There are other solutions out there but they are on the fringe so to speak.  If you have these other solutions then you also are on the fringe, and I don't say that to belittle anyone but to give them the respect they deserve because they are the ones willing to put up with a few inconveniences in order to have a better solution and more power to them.  I have found that I spend too much time fighting with the simple solutions let alone trying to be one who is running on the fringe.

Or is it?

There is something more to consider than just the system and that is what are you going to do with it?  I remember a few decades ago when the first PCs were coming out the the question again was Apple vs MS.  Going to school at the time and with limited funds and the fact that businesses were using IBMs and MS I went with a MS based PC rather than a Mac.  In the process of looking I had a friend that asked, 'What are you going to do with it?' as if I knew.  We are talking way back at the start of all this so I wanted the world but soon found out the technology of the day was very short of ideal.  What he was referring to was not so much the hardware but the software or applications that I wanted to run that would help me to 'do' what I wanted to do.  Which platform or system gave me the best chance of doing what I wanted to do?

Same thing today.  What apps do you want that will 'do' the things you want to do and do them the best?  And more importantly where can you get them?

Here comes the big elimination.  It isn't really about who has the most apps...but it is.  You can do pretty much anything you would like to on any system but...then again you can't.  And so here it is boiled down in a nut shell.  When you see an app advertised 99% of the time it will say 'Get it now at Apple or Google Play'.  If you are not one of those two or if you cannot access one of those two then you no longer count.  Sorry and thanks for playing.  Microsoft/Windows will get a few mentions but generally not enough to worry about.  Everyone says Apple iTunes or Google Play, but I don't recall anyone saying Amazon Apps other than Amazon so for now all the Fire devices are out because if Amazon Apps doesn't have it, even if it is an Android based app, you cannot get it from Google Play.  Even if you can get it from Amazon Apps there is no guarantee if it will work on the Amazon Android Fire devices, some don't.

And after apps, content is king.  

Everyone knows that Apple's iTunes is a treasure trove but much of it can also be found with Google Play and Amazon and Podcasts Addict and so on and so on and so one possible next step is to compare pricing of your favorite albums and books.  You may be willing to pay more for the hardware but are you willing to pay up for the further installments of apps and content?

Wait a minute, didn't you eliminate Amazon earlier but you mentioned them again, what gives?  Amazon was smart enough to have a two way street but dumb enough to close off half of it.  You can get Amazon apps that will run on any Android device as well as your Apples so their store is wide open for all, just don't expect their Fire devices to work the other way.

Now for the most part I like Google and Android and I have found relative good use from them but I find that they often keep coming up short.  All too often they are just not quite there.  I hate it when that happens because the hardware used to run Android can be had at such a better price and sometimes flat out better hardware that it disappoints me to think that I am considering, let alone deciding, that my best choice for next upgrade will be Apple.

And Here is Why

I love my wife.  But you knew that already.  Her tolerance with technology is not as high as mine therefore whatever we get next must be simple, intuitive, functional, and easy, and if that doesn't describe Apple I don't know what does.

Everyone I talk to that has an Apple says about the same thing.  They love it and wouldn't go back.  They get long life out of the product and good service even if it comes with long lines.  The phones are everywhere so you can feel good about being part of the 'in' crowd if that means something to you.  Their products work, so even if they are dated right out of the box, they have been tested enough to give you a pretty good assurance that you won't have any issues from the get go or from future releases and with fewer variations and a tightly controlled system there are less worries for the apps as well.

And if I get a phablet I can try to justify the costs by telling myself that I am really getting a phone and a tablet and an MP3 player and a camera both still and video all in one.  So if I add all those items up the cost of a new iPhone is only twice what I would normally spend for all the others combined.  And I would be cool.

Basically though, I have been down the other path, tried it, been there, got the T-shirt.  It is time to try the other side of the fence and see if the grass really has a greener hue from a Retina resolution display.

Just have to figure out how to afford it.  If I forgo the around the world cruise and down grade my next car from an S class Benz to the Civic...

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

This is me joining the tablet world

I want a tablet.

Why, because everyone else has one.

I think I need a tablet.

Yeah sure whatever, but which one?

Depends what you are going to do with it?

Same thing everyone else does...I think.

I want to read books, listen to music, keep up with my pod casts, surf the web, update my blogs, check e-mail, watch T.V and movies, and best of all play all those fun games that everyone is playing.

O.K. time for me to shop the snot out of it like I do every big major purchase that as long lasting ramifications and will make a huge impact on how I will operate in the coming future.

A bit dramatic...maybe but that is just me.

If I am going to use a touchy feel interface then by golly it better work.  Me and touch devices have not gotten along very well in the past so any device I end up with had better work well enough on the touchy part to avoid any regrets as well as a processor that will keep up with today.

I have found that there are five basic approaches to tablets so I will begin by a process of elimination.

5.  Generics.  They don't count because they are just copy cats of the real McCoy.  They maybe cheaper and will get you by if you are not too demanding or of lowered expectations but they will always come up short.  I am tired of coming up short due to compromising.  So anything that has a name I have never heard of or is a we have one of those too (HP, Dell, Sony) I am not interested and you are off the list.

4. Windows 8 and/or 8.1.  I will admit I have tried several times to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt but they have continued to disappoint me.  I have demoed many times on many different machines in may different stores with many salesman that tell me that "I have this at home and I love it after I got use to it".  I have looked for a replacement for this old home computer as well and I still don't love it anywhere close enough for me to get rid of my old box and I am running Vista if that tells you anything.

So when it comes to their tablets you would think that the Surface would be the shining example of what to look for in a Windows based tablet.  Sorry.  The entry level is overpriced and with just enough memory to open up (compare system memory requirements vs. available on the base unit and you will see what I mean).  The screen is smaller and the font is smaller.  This makes it a real pain to touch and select with any precision.  Remember me and my touchy problem, I saw much foreshadowing here.  The keyboard (option and extra) looks like a nice solution but is another not ready for prime time item from Microsoft.  Bundle this with price that made Apple look reasonable by comparison (more on this later) and Windows was quickly out of the running.  This includes the cloneables (see above).

3. Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook.  As I narrowed down the selection it became harder, not because of the hardware itself but because of the cloud world you would have to become tied to.  Both Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook are good units and you won't go wrong with either.  They are fairly priced for what you get.  Between the two I would go with the Kindle over the Nook because the Amazon world is so much broader than that of Barnes and Noble.  Having said that it became apparent that for that very reason I would have to leave them in 3rd place.  The whole world is so much broader than either Amazon or Barnes and Noble individually that by choosing one of these you would be limited to their offerings and not much beyond.  This is not an altogether bad thing as their is much, much to choose from but it is a limit.  As a side note I have noticed that some of the games that I can get for free with ads are sold for $.99 or something similar on these two sites for their own machines, not cool.

4. Apple iPads.  There are many Apples to choose from and they would all be pretty good to have, at least from what all the users tell you.  There is nothing to compare to Apple when it comes to brand loyalty.  There must be something to it., and there is.  They make a good product with a well developed system.  In Apple world things are simple; simple to learn, simple to use and they work.  There is much to draw you in to the Apple world.  The excuses of not being compatible with the MS world doesn't seem to matter at all anymore.  Apples can accomplish pretty much anything you want them to do and do them as well as any other system out there.  In fact they are able to do a lot of other things better making those other systems only wishing they could.  It is not that their product is anymore robust as a look at returns will so them to be about average but when they are working they integrate into the Apple world like only Apples can.

There is one thing Apple can't deliver for me and that one thing has turned me away from buying anything Apple literally hundreds of times, and that one thing is "Value".  Notice i did not say Price.  Pricing is a marketing gimmick that is used for placing your product in the worlds market.  There are certain price points that consumers respond to and usually the market will deliver product at those price points regardless of the value they represent.  Apple has been very good at training its customers to respond to a different set of price points than users of other similar items.  They are very good at maintaining those price points as new product is rolled out and sending the now obsolete prior generation stuff to a new but still high price point for which their loyal customers have become accustomed.  This may work for them but as an outsider it does not work for me.  As I have said before when I was looking for an MP3 player I can not justify spending 2 to 4 times as much for an Apple product.  I might have to compromise on somethings but I can do a lot of other things with the price savings.  I realize that value is more than just price, but when it comes to Apple it is about price too.

1. Nexus 7 (2013).  So I ended up with a Nexus 7.  When you are talking about who's world you are going to play in, the next best one outside of Apple is the whole rest of the web, and the one that seemed to best exemplify access to that is Google, Nexus and the Android platform.  I am going to do and extensive review of the Nexus 7 later but for now, here are the highlights.  Awesome screen with resolution that delivers, better than Apple in most cases.  It is smaller than the mini but that makes it very portable and with all my scriptures a finger touch away I can always carry it with me.  Besides it will fit in my pants pocket even if it does make them sag a little.  Google Play is a click away as well as aps for Amazon Kindle world and many many others.  I can't get Apple iTunes or any Apple content but that is part of the reason this became and either/or decision.  There are many games to be had as well as many aps to choose from.  I spent much time playing with the screen and although it is not perfect it is much better than they used to be and will work well enough until the next generation comes along.

There are some things I think could be better but that is to be expected with technology that is still advancing at a fast clip.  We are at one of those tipping points where how we operate and interact is advancing so fast that manufacturers are trying hard to figure out the next new thing while hanging on for all they are worth.

The biggest decider again was the price.  I was able to go for the unit with double the memory while adding a screen protector and fancy overpriced case with a $25 credit to Google Play and my bundled price with tax was still $100 less than the mini iPad.  Is it any wonder I went with the second gen Nexus?

I have said it before and I say it yet again, if Apple ever decided to they would own the market and wouldn't have to settle for the 9 - 12 % market share in PCs.  Although they think they are all that now with tablets and phones they could be so much more.  It will be interesting to watch them going forward and see if as in times past, when they lost their visionary leader will they lose their vision again, or will they come up with a new vision and purpose?  One that isn't willing to be so exclusionary to the other more practical 88%.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

Still looking for my MP3 player

Every so often I throw caution to the wind and decide to look for a fairly decent MP3 player, and every so often I give up in frustration because what I want is not out there.

I went looking again this last week.

I still don't have one.

All I want is a simple player that is big enough to handle my files (not even all of them as I have many). Music playback is basic and I tend to think that all players should succeed at this to some degree or another but then quality comes into play and from what I have read and researched so far, headphones make a huge difference with some users spend up to three times as much for aftermarket headsets as they do the player they use them on. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

If it had the ability to play movies that would be great, a bonus even. My expectations on this front are rather low however. Screens are small, resolution is limited and you just aren't going to get that theater experience in a noisy or crowded environment. Also, again from my research, there are many users that are having trouble loading, formatting, configuring or just plain making movies compatible to their players so some don't even bother with them. That is a shame.

I hear a lot of people use theirs for tuning into podcast and downloading TV shows and such. This sounds fabulous if it works as advertised but again I see compatibility issues arising so I don't want to get my hopes up to high.

These are all pretty common functions for which most users get MP3 players for. I however want something more. I want to listen to audio books with an MP3 player. In order to do audiobooks well an MP3 player must do three things, be compatible with various audiobook formats, do bookmarking and have variable playback speed.

There are many different audiobook services and formats. Not all formats are supported by all players. Some are very selective on what they will and will not play. Check this out before buying a player or signing up for a service. My intention is to hit the library and check out CD books (don't read that out loud it sounds bad) then download convert them to MP3 files which should work on about any player. I do belong to overdrive but haven't gone beyond downloading and listening to the books from my computer.

Bookmarking allows you to stop, do or listen to something else then comeback and start up where you left off without having to spend a lot of time searching all over for your place. Depending on how the books files are set up you can waste a lot of time looking for where you were rather than listening to your book.

I am a big fan of books on tape. Of course books on tape became books on CD and now books on MP3. It is a great way to get some 'reading' in while doing other task like driving to work, doing chores around the house, or going for a walk. I also find that I am able to get through more material this way than if I try and find a quiet moment or two to sit down and physically pick up some print. My eyes aren't what they used to be and so my reading speeds have slowed somewhat, and this is where my other desire comes in.

Through the miracle of technology, I have a cassette player I found at Radio Shack some years ago that has the ability to speed up the playback while adjusting the pitch so that you can listen to a recording at twice its normal speed and it still sounds like a normal voice. Some cassette players that did this would only go 15% faster and then sounded like the chipmunks where talking to you. Even Windows Media Player after about version 9 has a speed playback function built in that works pretty well and has helped me cover many a book at half the time it might have. Windows Media Player can playback up to 200% speed with it sounding pretty even and smooth. Speeds faster than that start dropping or clipping sections, though you would think that with the speed of today's computers they could fix that, kind of like getting higher frames per second playback on video. Some audio I really would like to go faster than 200% while there is some audio that I have to work to keep up with at 140-150%. The faster you go the more focused you get. Sometimes you really have to pay attention and that helps.

I really like speed-ed up playback. Some readers are just slow and need to be pumped up. Some files you want to cover more than once because there is so much to absorb and repetition is a great way to improve retention (think textbooks). Some sections really drag or get repetitive and could use some form of speed reading technique. For example, you don't read the lineage section of who begat who the same way that you read the Lord's prayer.

I have about worn my cassette player out and that is why I have been looking for a replacement. Might as well go modern and get and MP3 player. Lighter, carries more data, easier on batteries, plugs into stereos easier and should just be an all around better solution to the problem at hand. It sounds like MP3 players were made with me in mind.

Except they weren't.

I am having the hardest time finding finding any mention of this feature on all but the smallest handful of players and even then I have to dig into the fine print to find it. Most players do not have variable speed playback. They just don't.

I have been to hundreds of web sites and read thousands of comments only to find a few select references on out dated posts. I have been to manufactures web sites and submitted questions directly when the helps and site searches produced nothing only to be told by their reps that none of their players offered that ability.

Apple Ipods do have this capability for files in their audiobook section but they only have three selections, slow, normal and fast. Fast from what I can gather is 140% which is better than nothing but not what I was hoping for. If I went with Apple, I would pay too much, wouldn't be able to play WMA windows media formatted items, and would pretty much be locked into the Apple market. They maybe the standard but they haven't convinced me their better.

Microsoft Zune has no speed control on current models and like Apple they are overpriced, and proprietary in nature preferring that you only play in their playground and spend money at their store. As I have said before, I really like Windows Media Player though it is buggy and I have had to learn some work around's when downloading CD's, I find myself having a hard time trusting anything with the Microsoft name on it due to past experience with less than trouble free software. Windows Media Center is a great disappointment and after three attempts at Flight Simulator and nothing closely resembling the demonstration models you think I would learn.

So with the two biggest names not even in the running there are many other names that stand out as having better products and hopefully the right extra feature but sadly no. There is mention that some older products singularly had this ability but short of picking one up used on E-bay they are not current and would not come with buyer protections like a warranty. This is a must. In my research I have noticed one common thread and that is that these tools are not all that dependable. Many users are well beyond their first player with many telling of their current player being the fourth or fifth one. Some have multiple players and use them for different things depending on their fancy (one for jogging, one for books, one for this music vs. that). There are also many, many reports of buying a player and not having it work right out of the box. This means returns and that means I need to make sure and buy from a reputable dealer.

Through all the searching I did come across one potential manufacturer that might give me what I need, Cowon. Cowon has a pretty function web site were you can download the manual and read up on the model you are looking at before you buy it. I have looked a three or four manuals now and they all indicate that they have variable speed playback. Not only variable speed playback for audio but for video as well, how cool is that? Some models indicate they will go to 150% while one indicates 200%. Not only that, but they have a status bar to show how far into the track you are and you can even use that bar to fast forward or return to a spot in the file you are listening to. It sounds like some one that designed their players actually uses them. Did I mention they have bookmarking?

So where do I get one? I don't know. For some reason, no one is carrying them anymore. I thought Walmart or Target or Costco or Best Buy did or would. Not even a mention of them in Overstock.com. No luck. My search on Amazon got confusing (it is hard to tell where their store ends and the sublet stores begin). Also the pricing for a player that doesn't have many outlets seems to be a little high to other comparable units.

I know I am getting picky but I am not going to spend Apple overpricing dollars on a company that seems to be loosing it's market presence and doesn't have the capability to service their products without the use of overnight shipping. With all the trouble I have read about from users that have had to have returns or have had to by replacements before a year is up, I am hesitant to lay out too much coin for an unproven product no matter how much I want one.

And I do want one.

I do want one but I can't prove that it will do for me what I want it to. I can't prove that it can't. These are the things that drive me nuts. Analysis paralysis. Risk/Reward. How bad do I want one? I let you know, but for now...

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.