Apple TV + iPhone = games console?

As Wired's recent article on the fierce rivalry between leading gadget blogs Engadget and Gizmodo illustrates, no-one likes to be pipped to the (blog) post. So, it was with some frustration that I fired up my feed-reader this morning to discover that Daniel Langendorf from ReadWriteWeb spin-off last100 had posted an op-ed piece entitled 'What if Apple re-enters the console gaming market through the iPhone?' covering much of the same ground as a post that has been kicking around in my drafts folder for the past couple of months entitled 'Will Apple's next play be gaming?'.

However, whilst Langendorf joins the dots on Apple's likely play for mobile gaming with the iPhone / iPod Touch (check out the video of SEGA demoing Super Monkey Ball for iPhone if you've not already seen it) and speculates that they might follow it up with an "integrated game console for the living room - either a new product or the next iteration of the AppleTV", he doesn't connect the two, which in my mind is where the really interesting play is.

What the iPhone lacks as a domestic gaming platform is a big screen and what Apple TV lacks is an appropriate controller. Put the two together, connected via WiFi, and you've potentially got a Rolls Royce Wii (admittedly, with a price tag to match and you probably wouldn't want to throw your iPhone around the living room the way you do your Wiimote). That said, the potential of the iPhone as a controller for a secondary console is pretty interesting to my mind, combining the accelerometer of the Wiimote with the touch-screen of the Nintendo DS to theoretically provide a motion-sensing two-screen experience (e.g. tilt device to steer plane, stroke screen to target missile). Multiplayer would just be a matter of your mates whipping out their iPhones, selecting your WiFi network and joining the game, with information relating to the status of their on-screen avatar displayed privately on their iPhone.

So, do I think this is likely to happen? Er, probably not. Despite his well-earned reputation as an innovator, Steve Jobs is a 'softly softly catchee monkey' man at heart, as his initially cautious approach to introducing video to the iPod demonstrated. That said, he's due another bite at the gaming cherry after the Apple Pippin... In the unlikely event that it does come to pass, you heard it heard first ;-)

MacBook Air review

It's just over 3 weeks since I purchased my MBA (that's a MacBook Air, not a Masters in Business Administration - I've not succumbed to the spammers ;) which feels like enough time behind the wheel trackpad to post some early thoughts.

First things first (and the question everyone's been asking me, once they've finished stroking the chrome): why did I decide to shell out almost £1,200 of my hard earned cash (no, work didn't pay for it) when I already have two perfectly good Mactops (a 12" PowerBook and a MacBook)? Good question...



What I've been telling everyone (including myself) is that it was primarily a health consideration - I've been ferrying my MacBook to and from work in a shoulder bag for almost a year now and it's doing my back no good whatsoever - and you can't put a price on your health, right? Right...?

A more likely explanation is that I've fallen victim to the genius of Apple's product release strategy (see Charles Arthur's recent Guardian piece), failing to carefully evaluate the product and being seduced by Steve Jobs and his manila envelope.

And seduction is the right word, because the Air is aesthetically gorgeous. I've not got it out of my bag yet without a flurry of admiring gazes and comments and I still haven't stopped marveling at the design achievement of making a laptop, which is actually almost 2cm deep towards the rear, appear super-model thin. The question is (to paraphrase The Temptations' 1966 hit single) is the MBA's beauty only skin deep?



My first three weeks with the Air certainly haven't been without frustration or disappointment, the first of which was weight. Despite having read the tech spec on the Apple site, which correctly states its weight as 3 pounds (1.36kg), I was surprised by how heavy it felt when I first lifted it out of the box. It just looks so insubstantial that you can't help expecting something feather-light, even though you know there's a fully featured computer inside. Whilst 1.36kg is still relatively light for a laptop, it's only fractionally less than my ancient Toshiba Portege 3110CT (which weighs in at 1.4kg) and significantly more than the ASUS Eee PC (0.92kg).

The paucity of ports and the absence of an optical drive have also been minor frustrations. Pre-purchase, I didn't think only having one USB port would be a big problem but not enough of my peripherals (mouse, printer, scanner, camera etc.) are wireless for there not to be a fair amount of hot-swapping (or the use of an ungainly USB hub). Similarly, the world hasn't quite dispensed with physical media yet and whilst Remote Disc worked fine when installing my printer drivers, it wasn't able to cope with a Parallels' installation of Windows, which required a trip to the Apple Store to purchase an MBA SuperDrive (below).



Mercifully, my fear that my hotel (in Austin for SXSW) would only have a wired internet connection proved unfounded but it reminded me that the Air's lack of an Ethernet port could also potentially be super annoying.

Other disappointments include battery life (which doesn't live up to the claimed 5 hours even when optimised for better energy savings) and the appearance of the kernel panic dialog box on more than one occasion (although I think a Parallels conflict is probably to blame).



It's not all bad, however. The screen is arguably Apple's best laptop display to date and the keyboard is nicely responsive (and glows in the dark!). I'm less sold on the multi-touch trackpad (although I haven't taken the time to properly suss it out yet) and the mouse button feels a bit too skinny and needs a really firm press to register.



Performance wise, the Air's 2GB of RAM ensures it's a fairly smooth ride when using Leopard. I made the mistake of installing Vista using Parallels which runs like an absolute dog, even with the RAM available to the Guest OS jacked up to the max - it'd probably work okay using Boot Camp but I'll personally be steering well clear of Vista for the foreseeable.



Part of the challenge for the MBA is that we're so used to the superlative functionality of the MacBook and MacBook Pro that we're inclined to take all of that stuff for granted and just focus in on the stuff which has been stripped out to lighten the load.

Whilst the MacBook Air is a decent and unquestionably attractive laptop, it's not an iPhone-type game-changer/paradigm shift and I think it ultimately under-delivers on the promise of a fully-featured lightweight laptop. Still, I'm not going to be returning mine to the store anytime soon...

Related fabric of folly posts:
And the winner is... the iPhone
Round-up of best made-for-iPhone web sites/apps
How I learned to stop worrying and love the PSP

(there's also a post in my drafts folder entitled 'Why using Apple products is like a bad relationship' which I wrote in a fit of pique whilst waiting for a slot at the Genius Bar which I may revisit and publish soon).

And the winner is... the iPhone

A few weeks ago I asked the great blog reading public to vote on which mobile phone I should upgrade to, embedding a PollDaddy poll with a choice of five possible handsets and an 'Other' option (although this reportedly didn't work).

Well, the people have now spoken (results below) and 41.94% of them said those magic words 'Apple iPhone'. Not one to ignore the outcome of a democratic vote, I dutifully went out and purchased one :) After the obligatory tussle with Vodafone over getting them to give me my PAC in a timely fashion (isn't it time Ofcom knocked some heads together on this one?) I now have an operational iPhone and it's fair to say that a new love affair has begun.




As a contented owner of an iPod Touch I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the iPhone but I wasn't counting on Apple's attention to detail, for the iPhone is more than just an iPod Touch with voice calling bolted on. Below are five reasons why the iPhone edges it (no pun intended) over the iPod Touch.

1. Email - a wholly more satisfying email experience than my Blackberry, the iPhone offers seamless integration with the major third-party webmail clients (both Yahoo! Mail and Gmail worked right off the bat) and great handling of inline images and attachments (including PDFs and Word/Excel docs).

2. SMS - text messaging is an unexpected joy on the iPhone thanks to the excellent touch-screen QWERTY keyboard and the way in which it displays message threads as conversations (à la Facebook) - so simple yet so effective, it seems extraordinary that all mobile interfaces don't render SMS in this way.

3. Google Maps - it was during the demo of Google Maps that my jaw really hit the floor whilst watching the iPhone Guided Tour. The ability to key in two locations and get step-by-step illustrated directions between the two, including up-to-date traffic info, particularly rocked my world, as did typing in my postcode followed by the word 'pizza' and seeing 10 pins appear in the map :)

4. Speaker - ok, so it's not going to have Bang & Olufson worried, but it's the first iPod to have an integrated speaker and it performs pretty well for something so tiny. At a stroke it makes the iPod a much more social device (or anti-social depending on the context), enabling you to share a tune without also sharing earwax.

5. Headphones - the headphone's built-in microphone and remote control (one click to play/pause, two clicks to skip a track) is a mini design classic, laughing in the face of all those chunky remotes and cumbersome Bluetooth headsets.

My only gripe (along with every other iPhone owner) is the coverage and speed of the EDGE network. Any chance of a 3G upgrade in time for my 30th birthday Steve...?

Round-up of best made-for-iPhone web sites/apps

Whilst the iPhone and iPod Touch cope admirably with displaying regular websites, arguably leapfrogging Opera Mini (no mean feat) to provide the best small screen browsing experience to date, there's nevertheless a healthy appetite for sites and apps tailored specially for the iPhone / iPod Touch. Below is a round-up of fifteen of the best.

Remote Buddy AJAX Remote
http://www.iospirit.com/remotebuddy/ajaxremote/



This kind of has to be seen to be believed, transforming, as it does, your iPhone / iPod Touch into a fully featured virtual remote which which to control a bewildering array of your Mac's functions. Unlike the Roami (see below), the Remote Buddy doesn't just interface with iTunes but over 95 other applications including PowerPoint, Firefox, DVD Player, EyeTV and Joost, enabling you to operate presentations, watch video and live TV and take photos remotely using the iSight camera. Simply awesome. Available as a free 30-day trial. €19.99 to buy.

Roami
http://spahk.com/



Nowhere near as sophisticated as the Remote Buddy AJAX Remote, but far simpler to operate as a result, Roami enables you to turn your iPhone/iPod Touch into a remote control for iTunes. A 3.6MB download to your Mac desktop provides you with a URL to type into your iPhone address bar which displays 'now playing' information and enables you to remotely select playlists, skip, pause and restart tracks, adjust the volume and toggle shuffle on and off. Free 14-day trial, $9.95 to buy.

BBC Podcasts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/ip/



A personal favourite (disclaimer: I work at the BBC), this simple but slick beta app provides almost instantaneous access to the BBC's growing portfolio of podcasts, using progressive download to play the MP3s in Quicktime. The podcasts can be navigated by A-Z, genre or radio station (an option which beautifully showcases the new station logos). More on the BBC Radio Labs blog both here and here - see also below video.


BBC Podcasts (beta) on iPod Touch - demo from Dan Taylor on Vimeo.

JiWire Wi-Fi Finder
http://iphone.jiwire.com/



Anyone who's spent time wandering the streets of a major conurbation in a fruitless search for wireless internet access will appreciate the potential value of this little app which searches for details of nearby Wi-Fi access points against a city name or postal/zip code. It defaults to searching for free hotspots, although you can broaden the scope to include paid-for if needs be.

TextOnPhone
http://textonphone.com/



Never mind Amazon's Kindle, if you're wanting to read books on a mobile device then you could do a lot worse than TextOnPhone, which provide access to more than 20,000 titles, including classics such as Catcher in the Rye and Animal Farm. 'Turning the page' is as simple as tapping the screen and up to 50 pages can be downloaded for offline reading if you're planning to be without signal. It's also possible to create reading lists and add and share personal notes on any page.

TV Forecast
http://www.bigbucketblog.com/webtv/



A neat little app for keeping tabs on when your favourite TV shows are next being broadcast. The transmission times are for the US - frustrating if you're stuck with waiting for the programme to get an airing on UK TV, but a godsend if you're wondering when the torrent is likely to be available for download (I would imagine).

Tubes
http://mindtheapp.com/tubes/



At a glance status information on all the London Underground lines - like a pocket-sized version of those magnetic whiteboards you get by the ticket barriers. Designed by Utku Can - a 20 year old Computer Science student. Great URL too.

iPhit Fitness Tracking
http://www.i-fitnesscenter.com/iphone/iphit.php



Provides easy access to your Nike+ iPod running data (the main Nike+ website requires Flash, which iPhone Safari doesn't currently support). You will of course need a separate iPod nano to actually capture the data in the first place...

Twitter on Thincloud
http://twitter.thincloud.com/



Save yourself from the endless SMS messages with this big button app. Covers all the main functionality and nicely mimics the iPhone version of iTunes with four shortcuts along the foot of every page, providing one touch access to Recent Posts, Update Your Status, Direct Replies and Browse Friends.

WeatherBug
http://iphone.weatherbug.com/iphone/



Another app which appropriates the iTunes-style shortcuts along the foot of the page, although in this instance there are five on them (Conditions, Forecast, Radar, Camera and Weather). Conditions shows a simple thermometer and wind gauge; Forecast provides a six-day outlook; Radar shows an infrared satellite image of the continent; Camera shows a local webcam and Video plays the most recent (US) WeatherBug forecast in Quicktime.

Netvibes Mobile
http://iphone.netvibes.com/



Slick reversioning of the popular personalised startpage service, providing access to all the same modules, but arranged vertically to enable easy scrolling.

Yeah. No, Totally.
http://www.yeahnototally.com/iphone/



Another great URL and another neat site, 'Yeah. No, Totally.' provides quick access to a bunch of the web's most commonly used sites including Google, Wikipedia, Technorati, Flickr and BBC News (via its RSS feed). The only kicker for UK users is the US/SanFran focus, which renders the Shopping and Webcams section redundant.

Only2Clicks
http://www.only2clicks.com/iphone/



A visual bookmarking site with the aspiration (as the name suggests) 0f getting you to your desired destination in just two clicks. The site enables you to arrange your bookmarks by category (the defaults categories are Home, Shop and Social), displaying a cached thumbnail of each site. It's also possible to add search boxes for some of the web's main players.

Tomatometer
http://www.bigbucketblog.com/webtomatometer/



Stripped down window onto the Rotten Tomatoes movie reviews database, showing you a percentage score and top reviews for individual titles. Unfortunately search is the sole means of navigating the site so its only really useful if you know what film you're looking for.

iActu
http://www.widgetinfo.net/iphone/



Displays (half) the front page of six national newspapers (in the UK it's The Times, The Guardian, The Herald, The Telegraph, The Indie and The Current Bun) with a click-through to read the top headlines.

The best compact superzoom in the world?

Before heading off down under last month I decided to treat myself and replace my ageing Pentax Optio S4 (which has an erratic flash, a dead USB port and a failing zoom) with something a bit more fit for purpose. Top of my list of priorities was a decent zoom. The problem was that I didn't want the bulk (or the expense) of an digital SLR like the highly rated Canon EOS and Nikon D series but I couldn't find a compact camera with an optical zoom to write home about. That was until I stumbled upon the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1. Boasting a 10x optical zoom (equivalent to a focal length of 35-350mm) the DMC-TZ1 is still only 4cm deep. This is due to the application of "folded optics technology" which allows the zooming to occur horizontally within the camera. Factor in Panasonic's Mega O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) technology, a Leica lens, a 2.5 inch LCD display, a High Sensitivity mode with a fastest speed of ISO 1600 and a widescreen (16:9) option and the decision was made. I ordered the DMC-TZ1 from purelygadgets.co.uk for a bargainous £158.75 (it's £299.99 from Panasonic's own eshop) and have been delighted with the results. I won't write a full review of the camera as that's been done by far more knowledgeable folk than me. What I will do is post some photos from my trip which give an idea of how the DMC-TZ1 performs in real-world conditions.

Macro mode:



Widescreen mode:



Optical zoom:



Fireworks mode:



Capturing movement:

BBC Electric Proms on your iPod

The BBC has announced the first set of Electric Proms gigs to take place in Camdem at the end of October (confirmed artists includes Guillemots and The Who). In addition to the usual website, you can also download a portable version specially tailored for use with iPod Notes. As far as I know this is the first time the BBC has formatted text content specifically for the iPod, which is good news is my book as I often find myself on the move without a net connection, idly twiddling my scroll wheel. One particularly nice feature of iPod Notes, which the Electric Proms guide takes advantage of, is the ability to create a hyperlink to play tracks by any given artist already present on the iPod, thus building a new musical experience around the music you already own. Nice. You can downloaded the zipped guide here.

Next from Apple: Airport Express Video?

After a quiet summer release schedule (sorry, Mighty Mouse), Apple have been showering us with product launches of late, with the iPod nano, the Motorola ROKR (ahem), the new G5s, and the 'video iPod' all announced within the last eight weeks.

Which inevitably got me thinking about what goodies they've got in store for us next. One of the most obvious additions, particularly in view of the introduction of video to the iPod/iTunes product lines and Apple's first serious foray into Media Center territory with Front Row, would be a new Airport Express capable of streaming video. It's already wirelessly sending my music, printing and broadband around the house so why not video?

Things certainly look to be in place from a software point of view, with the H.264 codec now supported by QuickTime (and by extension iTunes). In terms of formats, it's safe to assume it would handle all the video formats QuickTime currently supports (MPEG, AVI, Flash etc.) whilst continuing to leave Microsoft's WMV out in the cold.

Which output socket(s) to provide may prove more of a dilemma as video lacks a connector as universal as audio's 3.5mm stereo jack. In addition, the transition from analogue to digital is far from complete in the home media environment. As a result, failing to provide an analogue output (e.g. S-Video, Composite) would seriously limit the product's potential market, whilst omitting a digital output (e.g. DVI, HDMI) would risk frustrating early adopters and becoming more rapidly obsolete. I've plumped for a video-only Composite RCA socket in my above mockup, with the accompanying audio being delivered to the 3.5mm stereo socket.

Aesthetically, I would anticipate something smaller but not stylistically very different from the current Airport Express, as 'gradual evolution' seem to be the design watchwords at Apple at the moment if the new iPods are anything to go by.

As for timescales, I'd be inclined to think sooner rather than later, as Apple have another opportunity to steal a march on Microsoft, this time in providing an end-to-end video delivery chain which gets video content into people's living rooms without relying on the purchase of a dedicated Media Center PC. Game on...

Creative vision?

A couple of interesting new portable media players on the way from Creative (the nearest thing Apple had to a competitor in the MP3 player market until Sony belatedly got its act together with the NW-HD5).

First up, the Zen Vision, which aims to right the wrongs of the Zen Portable Media Center (PMC) and get a decent portable video player to market before Apple's announces a video iPod (although you could argue Sony has already beaten them both to it with the PSP).

The first thing Creative had to address was the brick-like weight and dimensions of the PMC. The Vision is not only smaller across every axis it is also 100 grams lighter. In terms of technical spec, the Vision offers double the screen resolution (640x480 pixels) and 10GB more hard disk space than the PMC. It's also extended its video format support beyond Microsoft to include MPEG and thrown in an FM radio for good measure. Unsurprisingly, the trade off for the sleeker dimensions and new functionality is a shorter battery life (4.5 hours of MPEG video playback versus the PMC's 7 hours). It's only available in the US at the moment so haven't been able to get my mitts on one yet.

Creative's other new player is aimed squarely at dethroning the daddy of them all: the iPod. Fractionally smaller, fractionally lighter and fractionally cheaper than its ubiquitous rival, the Zen Sleek boasts a 20GB hard disk, Windows Media playback and an FM radio and its looks, well, kinda sleek. Like the Creative Zen Micro only less cuddly. Inevitably it's no iPod killer but it certainly deserves a decent slice of the MP3 player market pie.

Convergence: not all it's cracked up to be

I inadvertently joined the growing legions of 3G mobile phone owners last week when I called up Vodafone to request my PAC number (to facilitate a move to Orange and their similarly hued Wednesdays) and was talked into staying put with a free handset upgrade and £10 off my monthly bill (sucker!). Interestingly, at no point during my protracted conversation with the sales rep about the handset's technical spec did he mention that it was 3G (perhaps its company policy to talk content not technology after the WAP fiasco...?)

So, what do I make of my new phone? (a Motorola v980). Well, it's certainly not love at first sight. The friendly sales rep was somewhat economical with the truth when it came to relaying the dimensions of the handset and I'm resigned to a few 'is that a 3G handset in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?' comments over the coming weeks.

Of course, it's what's inside that counts and I could easily overlook a chunky exterior if the features pushed my buttons. Unfortunately, it's decidedly underwhelming in almost all departments. The cameras, the integrated MP3 player and the interface all left me disappointed.

Maybe its because, in my mind, I'm comparing a multi-function device to successful single-function devices. Should I be surprised that the integrated MP3 player isn't a patch on my iPod mini or that the interface lacks the simplicity of the early Nokias or that the images produced by the VGA camera sent me running, weeping, back into the arms of my Pentax Optio S4? Probably not.

Industry pundits have been predicting the triumph of the converged device for as long as I can remember, but until the caliber of the individual components increases significantly I, for one, would much rather take 3 devices into the office...

Creative Zen Portable Media Center

I'm borrowing a Creative Zen Portable Media Center at the moment and thought I'd scribble down a few thoughts. The PMC is essentially a hybrid music/video player powered by Microsoft's operating system of the same name which aims to give you easy access to all your videos, music and photos whilst on the move. Kind of like a Zen Micro on steroids, which turns out to be a rather apt simile when you open the box and try to lift the device out. At a whopping 340g, the PMC is three times heavier than the Micro and will only fit into the most capacious of pockets. Although this is perhaps unsurprising when you bear in mind it's housing a 3.8 inch colour screen and a removable Li-Ion battery with a claimed playback time of 22 hours, it still feels slightly at odds with the 'portable' moniker.

Switching the device on, Windows users will feel immediately at home with the XP colour palette and a Start menu, mercifully consisting of just five options: 'my tv', 'my music', 'my pictures', 'my videos' and settings. Navigating through the sub menus proves fairly straightforward and a after a couple of minutes playing around you've exhausted most of the operating system's options. Unusually for Microsoft, the emphasis seems have been placed on a simple user interface rather than bells and whistles.

Populating the device with content using Windows Media Player 10 also proves a relatively painless process, although I'd recommend the manual transfer option if you have large amount of media on your PC as the automatic transfer will fill up the PMC's hard drive with content as fast as your USB cable can shift it. Which brings me to one of the PMC's most obvious shortcomings - its 20GB hard drive just doesn't go very far when it comes to storing digital media (and video in particular). The "up to 85 hours of movies" mentioned in the press release sounds like plenty, but assumes no audio or photos are also stored on the device. With a RRP of £399.99 the PMC is only likely to appeal to those who are serious about their digital media who are also likely to find 20GB of storage lacking.

Of course, the Zen PMC is only a first generation device and no doubt future generations will feature larger hard drives and improved compression. Likewise, the lack of a radio and the impossibility of recording direct from TV will no doubt be addressed in future iterations. A more fundamental issue for Creative and other manufacturers pushing PMC devices is the strength of the basic proposition and its here that I remain unconvinced. Whilst its iconic design and intuitive interface undoubtedly helped Apple's iPod secure its market dominance, it couldn't have shipped millions of units worldwide without a rock-solid underlying proposition (that people want to listen to their music collections on the move). Likewise, the BBC Radio Player has proved such a success because of the strength of the core offering (being able to listen to any BBC radio programme when you want for up to a week after broadcast). The $64,000 question for PMC manufacturers is whether enough people want to watch video on the go.

Whilst music and radio work so well as secondary media, video does not. A healthy fear of death by automobile means I'm not going to watch video whilst walking or driving (which is when most of my iPod listening takes place) and I wasn't remotely tempted to get the PMC out of my bag on the tube (I'm also scared of death by mugging). On first seeing the Zen PMC a colleague remarked that it bought to mind the mobile televisions so hyped in the '80s. Will the Portable Media Center go the same way? Only time will tell.

Creative Zen Micro vs. iPod Mini

The recent launch of Napster To Go (a £14.95 a month music subscription service, which enables you to download an unlimited number of tracks from the 1 million strong Napster catalogue to a compatible portable device and listen to them for as long as you maintain your subscription) persuaded me to splash out on a Creative Zen Micro (one of the few compatible devices available). I already own an iPod mini but was frustrated by the difficultly of sampling new music (beyond iTunes Music Store's unsatisfying 30 second clips) without forking out £7.99 for an album I might not like or resorting to less legal means of acquiring music (heaven forefend). Napster To Go promised a veritable smorgasboard of new music for the cost of less than two albums a month so I decided to take the plunge.

Out of the box, I was immediately impressed by the size of the Zen Micro - the same width as the iPod mini and a fraction shorter, the only trade off was an extra half centimetre in depth, making it about the same thickness as the 4th generation 40GB iPod. The automatic backlight and the way in which the controls and the perimeter of the player glow a cool blue when touched was also a pleasant surprise.

Less pleasant was getting used to life without a Click Wheel. Whilst the creatives at Creative deserve marks for effort for their vertical variation on Apple's legendary touch sensitive scroller, its far too easy to accidentally depress the button whilst trying to scroll up or down resulting in all kinds of menu mayhem. The addition of a right-click context menu complicates matters further and makes you yearn for the simplicity of the iPod interface. It also serves to remind you that this is essentially a Windows product - an impression reinforced by the Micro's frequent delays and lock-ups, reminiscent of Windows at its most obstinate.

Fortunately, things improve immeasurably once the audio actually starts playing. The sound quality of the 128-bit WMA files downloaded from Napster was impressive, even when listening through the bundled headphones (they're noticeably superior to the iPod's 'earbuds'). Which brings me to the real selling point of the Micro for me: its compatibility with Napster To Go. Whilst setting up the Micro to work with NTG was no picnic (requiring an upgrade to the player's firmware which proved to be a long-winded process involving numerous reboots) I wasn't disappointed with the reality of an 'all you can eat' music proposition. Within the hour I had loaded up my Zen with a dozen new albums and was congratulating myself on the £100 I'd just 'saved'. Predictably, my jubilation was shortlived as I was brought crashing back down to earth with some classic error messages (mercifully all surmountable).

There's very little to choose between the iPod Mini and the Zen Micro on price, size or weight (Creative has clearly learnt from past experience how importance a pocketable device is to consumers). What separates the two is their interfaces and compatibility. Were Creative able to more successfully emulate the iPod's intuitive and reliable interface (without getting sued by Apple, of course) they'd be on to a winner. Likewise, if Apple were to open the iPod mini up to work with WMA and the plethora of associated download services they'd have a world beater. As it is, neither device is able to offer everything I want from a portable music player and I suspect I'll continue using the two in tandem until a player is released which combines the interface of the iPod with a music consumption model similar to Napster To Go. The smart money's on Apple...