Yesterday Apple released their latest version of iTunes, including the much anticipated movie store. Even though I’m an Apple user, I haven’t been sure that this is the solution for me (namely because the files currently can only be played on a computer or an iPod video player — no burning to DVD and playing on my PS2, etc). But I was never-the-less curious of the quality of the video and how well the system worked.

So, I decided to purchase one of the less expensive titles that I had a DVD copy of on hand for comparison — The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie. So here are a few screen shots to compare the iTunes version and the DVD version. The screen shots were captured at their respective native resolutions using OSX’s built-in screen capture utility. The iTunes version was, of course, grabbed while playing it in iTunes. The DVD was captured while playing it back in VLC. In the DVD captures, I trimmed the letterbox region. Sorry if they aren’t exactly the same frames in each case, its kinda difficult getting frame perfect in the iTunes player. Take these more as representative samples.

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Ever find it annoying that you have to look closely at your headphones to find out which one goes in which ear? Oh, you don’t care if your symphony is left-right swapped or automatically guess which shape goes on which side. Fine. But I’ve gotten tired of squinting for the little ‘L’ and ‘R’, so I’ve bought a set of replacement earbud covers and put a different color on each side. Now I just accustom myself to blue being the left ear, red being right (ooh, “red” and “right”, quite mnemonic…). Granted I look like the color-blind guy with mismatched socks, but such is the price of convenience. Red, blue or green might not be the best color choices if you are indeed color-blind, though.

I’ve had my Nintendo DS Lite about a month I guess and I think its a very cool piece of equipment. Nice size, nice finish, brighter screen than my old GBA SP. Unfortunately I discovered recently that it was starting to get scuffed up from being carried in my bag (yeah, big surprise, my own fault). I’d gotten screen protectors when I first got it, but I’d neglected to get a case.

The problem is a case can easily negate the advantage of the DS Lite’s size. I like that it can easily fit in my pocket — a case would bulk it up too much to do that. Well, today when looking around the video games section of Hiroshima’s Giga store, I found the perfect solution for me. It seems Takara-Tomy has, uh, “borrowed” an idea from Apple and recently released a sock sleeve for the DS Lite.

The Lite Slipon Socks fit the DS Lite snuggly, protecting all but one edge (which doesn’t seem a problem to me, it was the top and bottom faces that I got scratches on, not the sides). It doesn’t add much bulk, so its still easy to pocket. No joy for regular DS owners, its too small to fit the larger version. You also can’t put it in the sleeve with a GBA cartridge inserted (but of course a DS cartridge is no problem). It comes in three colors: gray, pink and blue (shown in the picture). There are also some “Like Leather” versions with a genuine fake leather appearance in a variety of leather and non-leather colors.

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I’ve had a Vonage phone for a couple months now and it works pretty well from Japan. As a result I have two different phones on my table, both with different dial-tones. One phone leads to Japan, the other to the US. It kinda reminds me of the doorway to Howl’s Moving Castle.

I haven’t given out the number to much of anyone since I was hoping to transfer my old cell number over from T-Mobile (its pretty obvious I won’t be using it again anytime soon). Alas, they weren’t able to do it and after my previous difficulties moving the number from Alltel to T-Mobile, I decided not to fight it. So I have a new number that is supposedly a local call from Tucson. If you’re interested in calling me, I can email it to you. Receiving calls for me is free and assuming you’re in Tucson it should be free for you too. Just keep in mind the time zone difference…

Oh, and if you’d like to sign up, let me know — they have a referral program that will give you a free month of service.

Yatta! It looks like Cartoon Network has finally added Teen Titans to their Toonami line-up here in Japan! In fact I just finished watching an episode (#7 “Switched). They’re showing it on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 17:00 & 23:00 with bilingual audio. Can’t say I’m that big on the Japanese voices, they’re OK I guess. If they’re doing one or two episodes a week it’ll be a little while until they catch up with the new episodes that are coming up next month in the US. But good to see it here without having to resort to other sources…