I think everyone noticed slowness not only in improving hardware. All software development seems in stuck. New OSes have just cosmetic changes. No new languages, no new technologies. Software engineering became boring going nowhere discipline. Major problem of the current situation I consider wide distribution of open source. Any technologies break through require huge resources and money. Nobody wants to do real investment and trying to solve problems using open source stuff. So guess what? We stall. My hope that consumer will stop paying money for products not giving any real new features and functionality improvements. It will push companies on real investment in technologies and stopping using open source stuff.

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Posted by Dmitriy Rogatkin on March 29, 2007 12:26:00 PM PDT #

I thought about purchase of a new laptop and since  I'm free BSD user I decided to save few hundred dollars of pre-installed OS price. I went to Dell web site and tried to configure some laptop without Windows. Guess what? No way, I believe you can more easier to get laptop without a processor than without Windows. Ok, let's try to find where possible to by a laptop without OS. I put a query like "new laptop without OS" in my favorite search engine and guess what? Right, no way, no one entry mentioned a possibility. Ok, let's get crappy Google for the same purpose. Bingo, 1st entry gives some clue that the problem exists and no way to buy any new laptop cheaper, then a laptop with pre-installed Windows. So Microsoft search engine shows that problem doesn't exists, when Google's shows that exists without a solution. Alas, we live in world where monopolies have absolute power.

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Posted by Dmitriy Rogatkin on March 29, 2007 12:14:00 PM PDT #

First 24 hours with Zen M

I’m quite experienced with DAP devices and my first MP3 player was Nomad II. Then I purchased 3g iPod, just after introducing it by Apple. It was May 2003 I guess. I always was not satisfied with iPod, however decided to try 5G iPod.  To my surprise it wasn’t much better than 3g, so I decided to return to my first brand and got 60Gb Zen M as a Christmas gift. However I was hesitated to open the box, but finally I did it just after 90 days of purchasing when my warranty expired. So here are my first impressions after 24 playing with the device

Packaging

Packaging was ok. It wasn’t a piece of art of packaging 3g iPod had, however was comparable with packaging of 5g iPod.  What I found there?

• A bunch of CD format booklets including some free trials for online music services
• Some CD with software
• Pouch
• USB host connector
• A separately packaged: USB cable with mini plug, a connector module, and head phones

Since I didn’t plan to use supplied headphones I left them unpackaged and can’t tell about their fit and quality. I didn’t need also in other cables, because I already had mini USB, so I pulled only a connector module. Zen itself was packaged in protecting clear plastic case and it was easy to pull it from. I remember I spend some time to get my first iPod of cabbage like clear film leaves. My 3g iPod had everything in package, including dock station and AC wall charger. But can I complain if I paid for Zen $100 less?

First feel

Wow, it is huge comparing to 5g iPod however quite comparable with 3g iPod. Plastic bottom case is Ok, I consider it better than mirror polished metal iPod has.  Generally it looks better than on pictures; however mirrored surface front plastic immediately shows my finger prints. I didn’t expect to get it working out of the box, so I started with charging step.

First charging

I figured out that I had to use USB connector to charge it.  I knew that my laptop USB isn’t sufficient for charging, so I plugged it in my desktop running Windows 98SE.  A blue light started flashing on top side of the device after connecting.  However nothing appeared on screen.  I used to iPod immediately shows something on screen after any connection so I was a little worried if I have DOD. I decide to wait at least an hour before trying to bring it alive. Meantime I posted some silly questions in forum to make sure I can obtain the latest firmware.

First making alive

An hour passed. A blue light was still flashing, I played with front controls hoping that it bring it alive, but nothing happened. So I decide to look in manual. To my surprise I did everything right, however to turning it on I had to shift a small handle on top side. I did that, but nothing. I held handle a bit longer, longer but no response was there. Ok, I disconnected it and took in two palms and shifted the handle again. A screen brought up for a moment with a message that battery low.  Great, I connected it to USB again. Now a small icon with lighting was blinking on top of LCD. I decide to check what was on my PC. A screen asked for a driver. I remember that I had no problem with iPod. It was recognized as a removable storage instantly. Ok, I checked forum answers, downloaded the latest firmware and even found some legacy drivers for earlier version of Windows. I decide to install the driver and succeeded easily.  The screen asked for driver’s gone, however a removable device didn’t appear. I started WMP and it showed Zen as empty. Ok, it seems working. I returned back to device and tried controls, nothing, even blinking icon has gone. Ok, let’s wait 6 hours as manual said.

After 6+ hours

Nothing, device is completely dead. Only blue light is flashing. Ok, I noticed another connector for a wall charger. I checked required voltage and polarity. I found 4 charges in my household matching requirements, 2 were from PDA, one from a digital camera and another one from cell phone. I decided to connect one from PDA. A magic happened, Zen brought all lights up and LCD showed Zen logo. Zen showed some music after booting. It was surprise; I hoped to find it empty as iPod was. I connected my Grado headphones. Plug was set firm, iPod had loosely fit. So what was wrong with my USB charging? I can only guess that my desktop computer has USB 1.1, when Zen requires USB 2. Was it the cause? I do not know, I can tell only that iPod has no problem charging using USB 1.1 or 2.

Getting used with controls

I used to use easy touch iPod controls, so first I couldn’t figure out how blue side buttons to use. I had to press much harder than I expected. I scrolled over menus and setup time. Date for some reason was right, time was in GMT. I tried to find time zone setting, but alas. iPod had such settings. Anyway it isn’t a big deal.

Beefing

O, it’s time to put some music there. I brought my super duper Vista running laptop and connected it. No surprise AutoPlay window came up asking what I’d like to do. I decide just to Open device to view files. I saw several folders as Album, Imported Files, Music and others. I found demo MP3 in a subfolder of Music folder. I copied some other MP3 files there and disconnected Zen hoping listening them. Before disconnecting I tried to find eject option as I used to have with iPod, but no such option is here. Good, I can save some time on ejecting. To my disappointment I didn’t find transferred titles among of originally offered music. My music titles were in Cyrillic, so I thought can it be a problem? I copied music in English only with the same result. Ok, let’s try WMP . I dropped file in a transfer folder and press transfer. All files were marked in red as error immediately.  Ok, it is time to try sync option. I hate sync; it was a cause why I never used iTunes with iPod. I hate any synchronization, because I want to have control over what and where will be stored.  I hoped that sync has some customization option as iTunes has. However it wasn’t obvious. I started sync and it seems taking time operation. I navigated over Zen content and what? What?, it seems it scans for all media files on my laptop and copies them to Zen.  I canceled the operation and disconnected Zen.  I navigated over content and looked is some photo. Screen quality isn’t bad, it’s certainly brighter than iPod has and contrast seems very sharp; however I prefer iPod’s screen.

Figuring out

I figured out that using WMP isn’t an option. Sync is also very dangerous. I cleaned Zen using Explorer and simply copied few albums in Music folder. A magic happened, Zen showed me the albums, and Cyrillic was correct. Now I’m in processing of figuring out how music gets organized on Zen. It was easy for iPod. I was needed just copy song files and then edit records in iTunesDB to move song in right place. I could also play with smart play list definitions to make nicely organized lists. I do not know how to do that for Zen yet. It seems ignore folders I create on it and manage music by ID3 tags, and all songs without tags it shows in one list.

Likes and not

Likes are not so many yet. Not are:

1. Pouch is white and outfits size of Zen. I expect it will show dirt very soon. I can’t put Zen in pouch in my breast pocket. iPod has black very good fit pouch and can be easily placed in the pocket.
2. No access Zen content as a removable drive, so there is no way to manage music organization by editing some database files. No removable option is also limits usage Zen only on Windows system XP and above. iPod can be used on any imaginable OS. Somebody claimed that newest firmware convert Zen to a removable storage, however it didn’t happened for me. Zen’s menu has an option to separately partition it for a removable drive access. It’s certainly isn’t an option because doesn’t give access to stored media files.
3. There is no way to change music organization as only modify ID3 tags. I found convenient to modify iTuneDB not touching song files.
4. I had to learn MTP protocol to figure out how I can customize it and use it on other OSes like Mac or Linux. Since I do java programming, some native implementations for Linux do not look as a solution.

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Posted by Dmitriy Rogatkin on March 14, 2007 4:52:00 PM PDT #