Pork and Beans – Technically delicious

There are some new toys being released and one of them isn’t new at all but I only just discovered it as I was perusing play.com. Since I am feeling lethargic, I shall bundle all these into one post.

Media Players
I posted awhile back about my potential purchase of the TViX HD M-6500A media player. I was very close to purchasing one a week ago, except now I am finding alternatives that include MKV playback (yes amazing I know).

OPPO BDP-83
This is a Blu-ray/DVD player so technically it does not fall under the media player type category as I see it. However, one thing to note is the plethora of media type support this machine brings to the table. I currently own an OPPO DivX DVD player OPDV971H, and I did consider upgrading. In my opinion, OPPO manufacture one of the best if not the best Blu-ray/DVD players on the market. Unfortunately, you cannot buy this very easily; mine was from a specialist supplier and there aren’t that many that stock them in the UK. However, the specifications for the BDP-83 are fully loaded and the firmware is upgradeable. For some reason, the specs on their website neglected to list the file formats it should support, on Amazon it does list them and does have my beloved MKV on there. Reading user feedback from the early adoption program, it looks like a stable release. The only downside is that I would need to burn all my media onto DVD to playback my movie files, not as convenient as streaming them directly from a media center.

Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player
Going from £350 or so to £89.99 is quite a come down. But this little gem looks very simple to use, connect it to your TV and then hook up a hard drive to it where it can stream from. Of course, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of say the TViX but you can’t argue with the price. Connectivity is also good, with a choice of HDMI, composite and optical out, which for me is very useful if I connected this to the amp/surround sound system. Downside, I am a fussy soul and this does not have Ethernet connectivity and considering all my media is on a NAS this is going to be troublesome. Unless I wanted to copy the movie files onto a USB drive and then connect it, a bit counter-intuitive.

Touchscreen Mobile Phones
There’s two here I am interested in, and in my eyes they are direct competitors against each other all vying for your hard earned cash.

HTC Hero
An Android phone and a step up from the G1, this looks very nice indeed. Buttons wise, it uses the “nipple” trackball that is reminiscent of Blackberrys and has a 5MP camera with all the usual music playback function, microSD card slot, HSDPA connectivity etc. I have seen some YouTube videos of this in action and it looks very, very slick. The interface is what will sell this phone, and this will pit directly against the iPhone 3GS. If it is as good as they say it is, it may even tear me away from my Touch HD. However, I have a gripe! That is the bottom of the phone is curved, so the unit is not completely flat. Negligible aesthetically I know, but I can just see me getting frustrated with it when it is in my pocket. I will look forward to it’s official release so I can get my hands on it. P.S: The Hero monicker needs to be changed to something else I think.

iPhone 3GS
3rd time lucky I suppose, this is what it should have been. I still find it humourous that they list Cut, Copy & Paste as a key feature for this. At least it has this fundamental feature now, to the happiness of many iPhone users I’m sure. I am wondering if they could have put a 5MP camera on there and a microSD card slot. Also new is the digital compass but unless I am going to go rambling somewhere, I am more likely to use the Google Maps/GPS combo like I do on the Touch HD… which by the way was extremely handy when I was in Chicago and I got slightly lost along Michigan Avenue. Apple didn’t re-invent the wheel, but they shouldn’t need to. Users will be happy about the 2x increase in speed, but they have to buy another iteration. Apple must feel their user base have a lot of money to burn on their products; such is the price of progress.

moto Gadgets HTC Hero, iPhone 3GS, OPPO BDP-83, Western Digital

Before I start with part 2 of my Chicago coverage, I’m going to quickly mention about credit card fraud, again. Except this time, it happened to me and Mastercard called while I was snoozing in my room at Hotel Felix. The clock for Central Time was 4am and GMT time was 10am. Of course, Mastercard weren’t to know but still, I picked up my phone and was amazed to find that someone decided to buy some online fitness packages, a mobile phone from Vodafone for £150 and a donation to UNICEF for around £100. There were other small purchases amounting to a fraud count of roughly £500 in total, all online transactions. The UNICEF donation did make me laugh though.

I have been purchasing online for many years, so I was surprised that my card was compromised in this manner. Not to forego the mention that I have implemented safeguards to the hilt at home and I have never had problems before. My only inkling is that I made purchases at work and perhaps the details were intercepted there, the fact they use Internet Explorer version ancient and flimsy countermeasures seems to point me in that direction. Props to Mastercard though, their prompt action had blocked 90% of the fraudulent transactions and they had set the wheels in motion to cancel the remainder while I was on holiday. Still, a pain in the posterior in having to update my card details now.

So back to Chicago… if you want a fun learning experience then the museum campus by Lake Shore Drive is a must. In fact, even if you are not into natural history or art, it is still interesting nonetheless. I had a lot of fun there; there were plenty to see. The Art Institute is not part of the Museum Campus but not far from it. We shall start with this.

The Art Institute
The size and magnitude within the walls of The Art Institute is astounding. It held many treasures inside, we saw most of them but you can easily spend an entire day there if you felt that way inclined. Paintings include from the Renaissance and Impressionist period, I was always fond of Impressionism such as works from Monet. There are also other well-known artists such as Gauguin and Picasso, even old English favourites such as Turner and Constable. There were other interests such as many sculptures in bronze and marble from numerous periods in time, from many different cultures.

Shedd Aquarium
My favourites are the seahorses, sharks and the Clown fish. There was also a giant turtle, which my friend and I thought was deceased. We revisited the tank several times and it didn’t move an inch… until suddenly it decided it needed a stretch. There was plenty of wildlife to see, including colourful coral. I was slightly disappointed that the dolphin in the show area didn’t come out to play, and the Sea Lion looked extremely lethargic!

Adler Planetarium
The show at the planetarium had finished so unfortunately we did not get to gaze among the stars. However, there were a lot of interesting exhibits; in particular antique telescopes, sextons and NASA equipment. The history of the Milky Way was also interesting, with the different planets in our Solar System hanging from the ceiling as you walked through. This is quite a nice place for kids, as there were a lot of interactive items used as teaching tools.

The Field Museum
In my opinion, this was the best out of the lot. Mainly because they had a Pirate exhibit on show for a limited time, I was lucky to have arrived in Chicago while this was still there. The variety of exhibits inside the museum was quite amazing. It covered a wide spectrum of life, including plants as well as animals and dinosaurs. The Field Museum also house the largest preserved and most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world, named Sue. The skull is so heavy that the one on show is a lighter cast so that it could be supported sufficiently. She stands at 13 feet high and 42 feet long from head to tail. The skull is 5 feet in length.

The final part will be part 3 (trying to cram everything in this will be a challenge), and what a finale this will be! I will be covering the other two elements from the title, Sound and Taste. Included will be the beautiful parks and a stroll down Lake Shore Drive, the serenity and the view just takes your breath away. I also walked through a Jazz/Blues festival, the smell of weed was slightly overbearing. Oh the food, something I still miss terribly…

moto Miscellaneous Adler Planetarium, Chicago, Shedd Aquarium, The Art Institute, The Field Museum

I spent ten days in Chicago, and what fantastic ten days they were! What I will do here is break my experiences up into different blog posts because of volume, so here is the first one.

Chicago is busy metropolis with such diversity, ethnically and culturally, that it makes a very interesting city to visit. There is plenty to do and beautiful safe havens; such as Millennium Park, Grant Park and a tranquil stroll along Lake Shore Drive. Of course, there is the shopping aspect along the Magnificent Mile.

First, I will start with the main city itself and the wonderful skyline.

Architecture
As you flick through the pictures below, you will see the varying styles of architectural design. There’s a lot of European influence here, many buildings reflect the intricate towers that are almost gothic like. In amongst all these though, are modern skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. I particularly like the curvature on some of these buildings, which break away from the standard oblong tower blocks.

John Hancock Observatory and Sears Tower (now known as Willis Tower)
If I had to choose which one was the better to view this great city, it would have to be the John Hancock Observatory. You can see the skyline much better from here; included in the price is a pleasant audio commentary by David Schwimmer from Friends fame. The Skywalk lets you experience the scenery around you (very windy!) and the feeling of just how high up you really are. Don’t look down if you suffer from vertigo! Unfortunately, the glass Skywalk for Sears Tower was closed so we had to settle for the 99th floor. By the way, The Windy City moniker has nothing to do with wind at all; as Mr Schwimmer pointed out, Chicago was nicknamed The Windy City because of the famous long-winded speeches from politicians.

Chicago River boat tour
The buildings are seen up close on this Architecture Boat Tour, and it was worth every penny. There is live commentary on board and as we were sailing through, we went past the hospital that was spectacularly blown to pieces by the Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight. The movie was filmed mostly in Chicago. The boat tour starts at Navy Pier and goes through all branches of the Chicago River.

Chicago at night
Wow is all I can say. The entire cityscape transforms into something quite spectacular; every building is lit up with a warm amber glow from the lights within. It makes for a nice walk, because there aren’t so many people clambering to get from A to B. You almost feel that you have the entire city to yourself. Particularly beautiful is the Chicago River, as the light from surrounding buildings reflects off the watery surface.

moto Miscellaneous Chicago, John Hancock Observatory, Sears Tower

In case you have not been following my Twitter feed, I have been frantically putting my life in order before I left for my holiday to Chicago. Apart from the rapid drop from 34000 to something-quite-low feet within a matter of seconds during descent, I landed safely yesterday afternoon. I am looking forward to the epic exploration into the unknown, in this wonderful city.

I had not slept since Thursday; I had too many butterflies in my stomach to get much sleep on Friday. I did just get some prime snooze time after a very long day, but still I will need to acclimatise myself to the current time zone of minus 6 hours GMT.

Being a heavy technology user, I have brought along some of my trusty gadgets that has served me well on past trips. So what exactly do I pack in my suitcase?

Footnote: You may notice a lot of Sony products, no I am not a Sony fangirl they just happen to produce products I wanted at the time.

moto Gadgets Cowon, HTC, Nintendo, Sony, Western Digital