The Burlingames

Well, after a few days of auditioning the Sansa View, I’ve decided to return it. There were a few things that weren’t working exactly as they should (some slowness in menu browsing, screen flickering, etc.). The problems weren’t major, but they were enough to convince me to try the View’s main competitor, the Creative Zen. I picked one up at Walmart (and returned it after sufficient testing as they didn’t have the 16gb player in stock).

Wow. The Zen is a much nicer player than the View. I now see where the difference in price comes from. The Zen’s screen is phenomenal. It’s the nicest screen I’ve seen on this type of device. The interface is also much nicer to use and look at. Sound quality is also much better. Having used both players, it’s easy to say the Zen’s heftier price tag is justifiable.

So did I run out and order the Zen from Amazon? Not just yet. I read today that Creative just announced a 32gb version of the Zen. It’s set to release in Singapore (Creative’s home country) in a few days, with a US release in the very near future. I think I’ll wait and see what happens once that one hits the shelves. I’m hoping that maybe the 16gb price might come down a bit. If not, I’ll spring for the 32. We’ll see.

My new Sansa View has arrived, which is very exciting as it was originally scheduled to be delivered three days from now. Hooray for Amazon’s free shipping always being faster than promised!

I’m already loving the player. The sound quality is great and it’s very easy to use. It also looks quite nice and has a sturdy feel to it. The user interface is well organized and functions perfectly. The only thing I think is lacking with the player is the design of the Now Playing screen. All the pertinent information is there, it’s just not as “pretty” as it could be. During my comparison shopping I got a look at Apple’s play screen as implemented on the new iPods. It’s very nice to look at. The price, however, more than makes up for that little nitpick. My 16gb View was $25 less than an 8gb Nano.

Some additional features included in the player are FM radio (which works surprisingly well), voice and FM recording, video playback and photo viewing. Overall, it’s a very nice player.

Yay for snow!!! I am truly amazed at how much snow we have this early in the winter season. Yesterday when it started snowing I debated heading home early or going to see my kiddos. I finally decided to go see my kiddos, we had a great time and they worked very hard. Anyway, by the time I was done working it was snowing a lot and I wasn’t looking forward to driving home in it. I left Colfax, WI at 3:45pm and it typically takes me an hour to drive home. Well, by the time I got home it a few minutes before 6pm. I was white knuckle driving all the way along I-94. It was scary. I drove between 35-45 mph most of the the way. Upon entering Minnesota however, I drove 20-25 mph. Why?!?! The roads were not plowed yet and it was impossible to distinguish where the lanes were. Most everyone was very cautious but there were still those stupid people who had to drive really fast and freak everyone else out. Grrr!!! When I got home I stayed home and didn’t leave the apartment until the next morning.  Other than the freaky driving experience I’m really glad it snowed.  :)