Questioning the Utility of the iPhone and iPod Touch

One of the main arguments most giddy teenagers use to convince parents to buy them an iPhone or iPod Touch is their actual utility for doing useful stuff (such as accessing Useful Crap (Oh my goodness, what a witty comment!)). Their irksome shrieking voices utter flawlessly planned lines that often breach these confines: "There are apps that'll help me do my homework," and "I can become more organized with calendars and stuff," and "I won't have to be on the computer all day to do stuff," and the always effective "BUT WHY!?!??!?!"
Of course, while it is impossible to combat the latter, you may have some luck using pure logic to clash with the other ones. But let me join their side (because after all, I am somebody who wants $300 crap that I'll probably never really use) for a second. It's true; you'll have to concede that there are apps out there that can help kids do their homework. There are study guides and question-and-answer apps and all the other stuff. There are many calendars and event organizers that can really be of great value. And in fact, it's quite possible that you will be able to re-claim the home computer as yours. This cannot be argued. You can even concede that the iPhone may be one of the most utile machines on the planet. I mean, it's got a phone and a camera and all those apps and a GPS; it's geektastical gold.
But that's not what the real question is. The real question is, how often are your kids actually going to use the goody-two-shoes features? Will they be reading up on the day's economic fluctuations or will they be reading up on the latest developments in the Paris Hilton saga? Will they be communicating ideas with friends about the American Revolutionary War or will they be communicating ideas with friends about the next big party? Will they be busy making an agenda or will they be busy popping touch-screen bubble wrap?
These are all questions that must be considered. Well actually, I'll just tell you the answer and save you the hassle. It's always the second answer. Simple as that. No matter how much they whine, "BUT DADDY!!! I WILLLLL!!!" they won't.
So come the holiday season, don't donate 300 bucks to Steve Jobs' plan to take over the world. You can get a workable MP3 player or even an iPod for $100, $150. Then hey, maybe you'll spend 20 bucks on getting them to remember what those obsolete books were all about.

If You're Thinking of Buying an MP3 Player or iPod, Just Remember Sandisk Sansa Sucks

Let's face the facts; in terms of initial quality of MP3 players, Apple's ingenious innovation, the iPod leads the way with the ever unpopular Microsoft Zune not that far behind. Then, there's the other guys. It seems these days that everyone is trying to obtain some type of a share of the MP3 player/song/accessory/whatever-the-hell-else market with Sony's Walkman series, Creative's Zen series, Samsung's YP series or- Sandisk's Sansa Series.
How about another cold hard fact: Sandisk Sansa sucks (SSS). I'll give it to you that this device looks very good for its relatively low device but here's why you'll be making a major mistake if you buy one of these.
First of all, you must understand that the website (which, by the way, has some pretty good design) totally distorts how these players look. The web designer nerds actually have some design sense and make the Sansas appear very sleek and cool and iPodish if you will. And just on a sidenote, Sansas are no substitute for the all-mighty iPod; Sansas are not trendy, cool, popular or for that matter good.
To add, the scrollwheel on many of these devices aren't even touch-based and therefore, the flimsy little wheels are very undurable and currently my Sansas scrollwheel and hence total navigation system is experiencing major difficulties.
Also, all of the Sandisk players lack features in a major, major way; in fact, so much so that a few of the main features of their best MP3 are a built-in microphone and video capabilities (no wi-fi, touch screen or event organizer to boast, just a 2.4" screen and a 30-day trial of Rhapsody).
Moreover, virtually every part of the Sansa that I have is intensely faulty and error-filled. Just a few right off the top of my head include random files showing up; an inability to upload new files even though it wasn't even halfway to full capacity; several freezings where I was unable to do anything for about 10 minutes; an unbelievably slow interface where when I press something, it actually has to load for a while; and an inability to show photos although they are on the player and photo-viewing was supposed to be a feature.
Oh yeah, the last thing I have to say is that the battery life of Sansas absolutely suck. The advertisements claim long battery lives but mine barely lasts 5 or 6 hours (only music playback) and I've only had for about a year. The Sansa View's product page says that it has 32 hours of battery life but even though I don't have this player, but I already know that it will only possibly have maybe 15hours.
So all in all, with what I'm seeing with Sansa, I'd just recommend Sandisk to stay with USBs and memory cards, things that they can actually make.