Earlier this year they brought the 160gb model back in the “iPod Classic” line. As I was trying to decide whether to upgrade or not, I went to bestbuy.com to see what the prices were. On the bottom of the page was a link offering a “trade-in” on my old iPod. After going through the process, it seems that they were willing to give me almost $100 for my used iPod.

Since electronics – especially gadgets – don’t usually hold their value very well, I was a bit surprised. I went out on eBay and discovered that used 80gb iPods were in fact going for around $125-ish.

So the question becomes: would you sell your used iPod on eBay? take advantage of the trade-in value, even if it’s a bit less? Keep the old iPod to give to a friend or family member?

I was looking at the Apple store today, thinking that at one point they had a 160gb model. It seems they’ve dropped both that and the 80gb model; the only “classic” left has a capacity of 120gb. The sales rep (the “genius”) suggested that Apple was considering phasing them out altogether in favor of solid state devices. The advantages are obvious, of course. Solid state storage requires less power (longer battery life) and is more reliable (no disk crashes). Memory is also getting much less expensive as well. I have a 4gb media card in my Blackberry that cost me next to nothing, and it takes very little space.

It will be interesting to see if Apple announces anything new in a few months.

These aren’t cheap, so I was a bit mad and depressed all at the same time.

It turns out that for this particular model the cracking headset has become a known issue, and Bose has a process to deal with it. I returned my broken set to the local Bose store, paid them $100, and got a brand new set with the more modern construction. Since the headphones go for $300 new, and a repair would cost about $100 anyway, it seemed like a really quick and easy solution.

I am testing out the new headphones today while working at home, trying to drown out the sound of the jack hammers from the crew here working on the foundation of my house…

Read more details here:

http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR08.08E.html

This is cool stuff, and I look forward to hearing more from these folks. Hopefully they’ll report their results in terms that normal people can understand.

I am really enjoying the email access. The camera is mediocre at best. The web browser is functional but can be challenging. The IM client I have installed on a trial basis is quite good, and will probably be extended once the trial expires. But the E*Trade applet is fantastic, and shows what can be done if you create a solution for a specific platform.

And a video camera.

Check out the LHC Rap, and you just might learn something.

I have to tell you that I’m really excited about this, more than any other new toy in quite a long time. I now get nightly emails from my web sites telling me how many pages were served, how many comments were made, how many new users registered, and all sorts of stuff like that. Earlier today I was going to meet someone for dinner, so while at my desktop I pulled up a mapping web site and located the restaurant. From there I emailed the information directly to my phone, and figured that I was all set. I had the map, I had the address and phone number, what could go wrong?

Well, the map was wrong, and the phone number sent me to a fax machine, and the restaurant was nowhere near the place it was supposed to be. It just goes to show that no matter how good your technology is, with bad data you still get bad results.

I got the full data plan and already have hooked up 5 different email accounts to my phone. I have posted to my blog from beside a swimming pool. I have sent email from a bus. I have IM’d people. I am really having a good time with this.

The tech support engineer went through the typical questions, and I provided the typical answers. I used to work in tech support for a software company (a very long time ago) so it’s always tempting to offer more information than they ask for, just because I know the questions are coming. But what I have found out is if I don’t let them go through their standard routine it ends up taking even longer.

After booting with the system diagnostic cd we ultimately found out that the memory in my video card was going bad (boo) and a replacement would be sent out right away (yay). The phone call was on Friday, and the card arrived today. That’s not bad service.

I hope the replacement fixes the issue.

The space station won. Look how much good that has done us.

Now the future of particle research will take place outside of our country’s borders. I’m very dissappointed.

Related Links

• Wiki on Large Hadron Collider
• No More SSC
• US on Sidelines Now

I assume that this is not true if it’s docked somewhere. But if I am using my iPod and I remove my headphones, in a few minutes the iPod turns itself off. It’s smart enough to realize that nobody is listening. Then when I plug the headphones back in it turns back on. Or at least it does some of the times, on other times it doesn’t. I suspect it’s because on those cases I turned it off myself rather than letting it put itself to sleep.

Smart stuff.