First it was Motor Trend, now it is Autombile Magazine naming the Nissan GT-R their Car of the Year.

I knew that the GT-R was going to be something special when I ordered it, and Motor Trend has affirmed that belief by crowing it the Car of the Year.

I've been driving it every day and my love for it continues to grow. Definitely the most fun car I've ever owned by far.

Just picked up a couple of new gadgets from Apple recently, a 4th Generation Ipod Nano and an Iphone 3G. Let's call them "miss" and "hit".

I've had a 1st Gen Nano for several years and it has served me well. Small, functional and reliable. I decided to pick up an additional Nano when the GT-R came because it has an Ipod adapter, and I didn't feel like schlepping the Gen 1 back and forth between the car, gym (where I have an Ipod dock) and my bag. Since I loved my old Nano, I figured that would be a fine choice. Turns out it wasn't so simple. The 4th Gen is a thing of beauty aesthetically, small and lithe. It also has great features and a couple of fun games. But it also has two flaws, one of which is fatal. First, it seems to have much shorter battery life than my 1st Gen. That is livable, but annoying. Second, Apple decided to change the charging port on the 4th Gen and it doesn't charge in my sound dock or when attached in the car. It is the only device in their stable which doesn't charge on older plugs. This means I couldn't leave it in the car or on my sound dock without having to bring it in for charging all the time. Put together a short battery life with having to charge it all the time and you have an untenable situation. My guess is that the smaller form factor of the 4th Gen made them compromise on the charging plug pins. Whatever the reason, it earns a hearty thumbs-down for what should be a great device.

I'd been coveting the Iphone for awhile and fighting the temptation to get one, but I finally lost the battle. The tipping point was browsing through the AppStore and seeing all of the fun things I could carry around on a phone. My BlackBerry Curve was a solid performer, but very utilitarian. The Iphone is anything but a wallflower. So now I have a phone, mp3 player, video player, computer and mobile gaming platform all in one device. What else can you ask for?

I'm finally making the plunge and getting a Crackberry. It is a hand-me-down Blackberry Pearl from Curtis. I've found Crackberry users to be pretty annoying for the most part. You'll see guys in the bathroom with Blackberry in one hand and bait & tackle in the other. The mobile email appeals to me, but I've never been a device slave and this will be no exception.

Here is what they have to say about the Pearl in the product lit:

The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 smartphone is one of the world’s smallest smartphones and packs all of the power you expect from a BlackBerry® smartphone. It comes complete with digital camera, multimedia capabilities and expandable memory. And it offers users everything else you would expect from a BlackBerry smartphone — including phone, email, web browser, text messaging (SMS and MMS), instant messaging, organizer applications and more.

The BlackBerry Pearl smartphone is small enough to take anywhere. It’s the ultimate combination of brains and beauty.

If you're one of those people who go to big box retailers like BestBuy or Circuit City to by your gadgets, you might want to reconsider that approach if you'd like to save a ton of money. I'm not saying that you shouldn't head to the store to see/hear the gadget in person, but you should definitely look for other places to make your purchase. When you've decided on what you want to buy, head to PriceGrabber.com to do research and look for better pricing options. There are other sites like PriceGrabber, but it is my favorite. They have reviews for about everything you might want to buy and pricing information for online retailers. The retailers themselves are reviewed by purchasers, which will give you a very good idea of the level of service you will receive. For example, if a store has over 1000 reviews and has better than 4 out of 5 stars average, it is likely a safe bet to buy from. I make a point to read through recent customer reviews of the product and the retailer to make sure that I'm not in for a bumpy experience.

Using my TV purchase as an example, I was able to save about $900 bucks and have white glove delivery in about a week.

Here are some other sites I use for deal hunting:

• DealCatcher
• Deals2Buy
• DealsOnTheWeb
• eDealinfo.com
• Shopping.com
• Shopzilla
• SlickDeals.net

Since I'd ordered a new TV and Mac Mini the only thing lacking was a home theater to complete the package. We don't have a ton of space and I despise wires, so I turned my attention to 2.1 virtual surround sound systems. There aren't a ton of products to choose from with that set of requirements, and the price range varies widely with what is available. I ended up choosing the Philips DivX Ultra HTS6500/37 system which also includes and upconvert DVD player. The reviews of this system were quite good for the price, so we'll see if it delivers. I ordered it this morning and it should arrive the same day the TV is delivered (this Friday). I'll be sure to post updates when everything is put together.

I've been coveting larger LCD HDTVs for quite awhile, but getting the Mini for home theater gave me the impetus to get one.

Ended up getting a Samsung LN-S4695D. It should arrive within a week or so and I'll do an update about the marriage of Mini to HD.

Here is their blurb:
46" LCD TV w/Built-In Tuner and 1080P. Samsung's sleek 46" LCD leads the industry in realistic home entertainment. With its 6000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, over two million pixel resolution, Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp, S-PVA Panel, and 10-bit processor with 12.8 billion colors, the LN-S4695D delivers a picture of startling clarity that rivals real life. The new, optimized game mode and fast 8ms response time will thrill Xbox fans with its movie-like visuals. The audio system is equally impressive, with hidden bottom speakers that offer SRS TruSurround XT sound.

I finally took the plunge and ordered my first Mac, a Mini. I've been intrigued about Macs since they started running Intel hardware and a Unix based OS, but have been slow to do anything about it. I'd been in the market for a media center solution so that I could abandon my torrent and burn ways and do the more modern way of straight over the network. Curtis has been using a Mini for his media center for quite some time and I liked what I saw when he showed me his setup. Way cool. My Mini should arrive in a few days and I couldn't be more stoked.

Next up is a MacBook laptop once Leopard ships so that I can run Leopard, Vista and Linux all on the same machine under BootCamp.

Stay tuned...

In the Box

Mac mini

Apple Remote

Power cord

Install/restore DVDs

Printed and electronic documentation

Processor and memory

1.83 Intel Core Duo processor

2MB on-chip L2 cache

667MHz frontside bus

1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)

Size and weight

Height: 2 inches (5.08 cm)

Width: 6.5 inches (16.51 cm)

Depth: 6.5 inches (16.51 cm)

Weight: 2.9 pounds (1.31 kg)

Peripheral connections

One FireWire 400 port (8 watts)

Four USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)

Graphics and Video Support

Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory(1)

DVI video output to support digital resolutions up to 1920 by 1200 pixels; supports 20-inch Apple Cinema Display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display; supports coherent digital displays up to 154MHz; supports noncoherent digital displays up to 135MHz

VGA video output (using included adapter) to support analog resolutions up to 1920 by 1080 pixels

S-video and composite video output to connect directly to a TV or projector (using Apple DVI to Video Adapter, sold separately)

Communications

Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)

Built-in 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme wireless networking (based on 802.11g standard)

Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) up to 3 Mbps

Optional external Apple USB Modem

Audio

Built-in speaker

Combined optical digital audio input/audio line in (minijack)

Combined optical digital audio output/headphone out (minijack)

Storage

80GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard disk drive

Slot-loading SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW): writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed, writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed, writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed, reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed

Electrical and environmental requirements

Meets ENERGY STAR requirements

Line voltage: 100-240V AC

Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, single phase

Maximum continuous power: 110W

Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)

Storage temperature: -40° to 116° F (-40° to 47° C)

Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing

Maximum altitude: 10,000 feet

Software

Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger (includes Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Xcode Developer Tools)

iLife ’06 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand), Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive, iWork (30-day trial), Big Bang Board Games, Comic Life, Omni Outliner, and Apple Hardware Test

Front Row

Last night marked the end of an era as I shut off my old server.

If you've ever been in our crib you'd definitely remember the incessant howl of the heavy iron that we'd been living with for 4 years. I'd been thinking about either getting it out of the house or replacing it with something quieter for some time. So I ended up doing both, getting a new server and putting it in a datacenter. Curtis and I completed the build on the server last week and we put it in a FusionLink rack on Saturday. So last night I set out to get all of my files off of there and shut the old iron down.

It was really weird to have the familiar howl not there anymore. I could actually hear my desktop fans (which I'd never heard before) and the gentle flow of the recirculating cat water dish. It kind of freaked me out in the middle of the night when I woke up and heard the cat dish. I thought we maybe had a water leak and got up to investigate, only to figure out it was just the dish flowing.

Next step is to blow all of the cat litter out of the old iron and either sell it or lock it in a closet.

My old server is loud as a jet engine and getting old, so I'd been toying around with the idea of buying a new server. Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and trade in the heavy iron for a 1U rackmount server.

Here are the specs:

2 - Dual Core Intel Xeon 5130, 4MB Cache, 2.00GHz, 1333MHz FSB
4GB 667MHz (4X1GB) Dual Ranked DIMMs
Integrated SAS/SATA RAID 1, PERC 5/i Integrated
2 - 500GB, SATA Universal, 3.5-inch, 7.2K RPM Hard Drive
Redundant Power Supply
Dual Embedded Broadcom® NetXtreme II 5708 Gigabit Ethernet NIC

I'll also be moving it into a new hosting arrangement with mad bandwidth and redundant power. This is going to enable me to host more stuff, including online gaming. Should be fun.

Just bought a new gadget, the Nokia 6682 to replace the Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone I had which just died. It's a tri-band GSM phone with Bluetooth, and 1.3 megapixel camera phone.

Just bought a new gadget, the Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone. It's a tri-band GSM phone with Bluetooth, camera phone and Windows Mobile 2003. Having the Window stuff means I can sync up with Outlook things like e-mail, contacts, calendar and to-do lists. Works like a champ with the Hands-Free Link in my car too.

Now that the dream machine (pic 1) is built I've gotten my office squared (panoramic pic) away. With the money I saved by building the system from parts there was enough left over in the budget for a 24" LCD in order to properly test SLI. When you look at the desk shot keep in mind that the monitor on the right is a 19" (pic 2). Funny how small it looks in comparison to the big boy. Still adjusting to the 24" as the games make me a bit motion sick, which didn't happen with the 19". Suppose it is a small price to pay;) The video card horsepower for running at the resolutions required was noticeable. Previously I could play all of the latest game at highest quality with a single 7800 GTX. Not anymore, with a single card you can tell a difference, so SLI-mode it is. There are very few games which support the 1900 X 1200 resolution that the monitor does, but Half Life 2 happens to be one of them. Needless to say it is impressive.

Just picked up a new phone to match the car, a Nokia 6620. It is a camera/video phone with integrated speakerphone, mobile multimedia messaging, EDGE and GPRS, Bluetooth and a truckload of other cool stuff. Now it is a matter of learning all of the things it can do. One thing I have figured out is the Bluetooth, which works with the car so that I can be hands-free on the phone while driving. Anytime the phone is in the car, the car takes over using microphones in the roof to talk, and the audio system to listen. Way cool.