The prices have dropped dramatically on the pre-Ice Cream Sandwich Android tablets, so now is a great time to scoop up the older models. I was waffling between the Acer Iconia and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″, but in the end I went with the Acer because it has better I/O ports (dedicated mini-HDMI and micro-USB, whereas the Galaxy Tab uses a proprietary dock connector).

Even though the Kindle Fire is very attractive at $200, there is no way it would suit my needs. I tried one out in Best Buy, and it was very nice. But the fact that you’re stuck with minimal internal storage with no way to expand it really turned me off. I get so frustrated with my phone’s lack of ample internal storage that I knew not being able to expand onto a microSD card was going to drive me nuts. So, for not too much more money, you can find Android tablets with expandable storage. The only thing you sacrifice is access to the Amazon video store (and subsequently the free streaming videos for Prime members) which is available only on the Kindle Fire. Sad, but oh well.

The downside of the Iconia is the battery life. At best, I’m looking at 5 hours. The Galaxy supposed gets 7 hours. For the most part, I think 5 hours is fine, but for traveling long distances I’ll need to be mindful of re-charging. Hopefully, it will get me by. I read that the Galaxy Tab doesn’t support charging via a computer-based USB port. That seems silly–I’d have to remember to bring a USB to wall outlet adapter with me all the time. So, that was another pro for the Iconia.

I ordered the Iconia online, so unfortunately I haven’t gotten to play with it yet! I choose to buy it from a brick and mortar store juuuust in case I ended up not liking it. Since I’ve never had a tablet before, I don’t really know what to expect in terms of things I will like or dislike, so I wanted to buy it from a store with an easy return policy.

“Gaily for Rachel

Closing his eyes, he bowed a la francaise, without taking leave, and trying to attract as little attention as possible, he left the room.

Candidly your, Summer Keiserstad.”

Thank you, random spammer, for your wrapping your nonsense in eloquence.

After seeing several different ones over my lifetime, I’ve realized that every single one of them has worn glasses. Why don’t they wear contacts? Get lasik?

Questions that keep you up at night!

You can view a much larger version at my DeviantArt page.

I might make it into a real website. I do own madeofstars.net, so it would have a fitting home. We shall see if I can pull myself away from World of Warcraft this weekend to get something productive done. ^_^

Created to the tunes of Kai Tracid. Great music to play while looking at photos of space.

Scientists Discover The Oldest, Largest Body Of Water In Existence—In Space

Around a black hole 12 billion light years away, there’s an almost unimaginable vapor cloud of water—enough to supply an entire planet’s worth of water for every person on earth, 20,000 times over.

gamefreaksnz: EA reveals official SSX soundtrack EA has just announced the full soundtrack line-up for SSX, and it includes contributions from the likes of DJ Shadow, Foster the People, and Digitalism.

That’s kind of ironic, especially considering the tax battle that occurred not too long ago in California and Illinois (and is ongoing in those and other states). Obviously, if Amazon decides to open a physical store, it will have to collect sales tax in that state on all sales—online and offline.

I can’t imagine Amazon could make any real impact on prices for traditional goods (cat food, toilet paper, etc.) if they have to pay to support a brick and mortar infrastructure plus overhead for sales tax collection. So why open a store? My guess is that Amazon wants to set up a storefront to sell Kindles and future devices. It wants to cut out the middleman (Best Buy, Office Max, etc.) and make consumers come to its own store for hardware purchases.

In a way, Amazon is kind of Apple backwards.

Apple’s Timeline:

• hardware
• operating system and software
• retail store
• portable device (iPod)
• music, movies, and app stores
• phone with mobile OS and apps
• ebooks

Amazon’s Timeline

• book store
• music, movies, ebooks
• portable device (Kindle)
• app store
• mobile device (Kindle Fire) with mobile OS

And now a retail store (maybe). Soon to follow, maybe a fuller-featured operating system and a full-fledged tablet?

The parallels are incredible.

I certainly welcome any competition into the mobile and tablet market, but not if it makes the cost of toilet paper rise. I “subscribe and save” on TP from Amazon. :p

randompix: Eh? You want me to what? Speak up! Humor aside, this little owl has a fantastic rescue story at the Willowbrook Wildlife Center. You should check it out.

“This shift came gradually…as I slowly accumulated more responsibilities. […] In what feels like a cruel joke, making a living meant having more money to spend on the games and systems I wanted, but it also meant having more ways to split my rapidly-shrinking spare time. …Once upon a time I would be taken aback to hear a game had only a 5-10 hour story mode to complete. Now it feels like a relief. A shorter game is a game I’m more likely to finish…, I now find a shorter game with a consistently strong experience to be preferable to something with filler that might have seemed better to me as a kid.”

I feel this way too. I just started playing World of Warcraft, and it’s kind of bittersweet because I know I will never be able to experience as much of the game as I would like. I just don’t have the free time available to devote to it.

With many games, especially RPGs, you spend so much time doing dull, repetitive tasks to level up your character that you don’t have any time left to play the game when it starts to get fun. Or by then, you’re so fed up with the boring parts that you don’t even care about it anymore.

I fully support shorter, more polished games. There is nothing wrong with a 7 hour campaign, a 5 hour campaign, or even less if the game is cohesive and fun to play. I do enough dull and repetitive tasks every day in my real life; I don’t want to do them “for fun” as well.