Nate Lanxon
Nate is CNET.co.uk's expert on digital music and portable media. He was born just long enough before the beginning of the digital age to grow up with it, become one with it and then be utterly consumed by it. 'Geek by profession' has been his career goal for two decades.
Thursday 6 December 2007, 4:49pm
Would Aristotle appreciate microSD cards?
When lodestones were discovered, their natural magnetic properties were considered somewhat magical. Aristotle famously understood the healing powers contained within naturally magnetic objects. In later centuries we came to understand that magnetism is simply the act of one material exerting an attractive or repulsive influence on another, as a result of the presence of a magnetic field. We accept that it's not magical, but simply a useful natural phenomenon.
Progress
I'm now the proud owner of a Nokia N95. It has a slot for a microSD cards and supports cards up to 4GB in capacity. microSD cards measure 15 by 11 by 0.7 mm, and weigh about 1g. On this tiny sliver it's possible to concurrently store about three DVD-quality movies, 250 music tracks and about 800 digital photos. Assuming the average book has 300 pages, in 2007 something the size of a human fingernail can store close to 15,000 books.
Despite the fact that I understand exactly how digital storage works, SD cards -- more specifically microSD cards -- are, to me, magical. We take things like the Internet, transcontinental wireless video calling and sending DVD-quality movies over a computer network in seconds, for granted. I know I do. But I'm trying damn hard not to lose sight of the fact that something sitting in my phone, without compression, can store every article in Wikipedia's English-language encyclopedia.
So despite understanding how data is stored, and despite my studies of computer science, high-capacity microSD cards are as amazing to me as magnetism was to Aristotle and Thales, two philosophers who lived over 2,000 years ago. Would they have taken magnetism for granted if they lived now? Perhaps. But goodness only knows what they'd think about having everything they'd ever written stored several times over on something the size of a human tooth.
Articles by Nate Lanxon
Fatman iTube 452
Review Comparing valve-based amps to transistor-based amp is like comparing vinyl to the compact disc -- they have different strengths with different sounds. TLA Audio's Fatman brand produces valve-based amps, based on years of experience building for professional recording studios. The iTube 452 is its latest and greatest product
Sennheiser MM200: Bluetooth, auf Deutsch
Crave Sennheiser has told us about its first stereo Bluetooth headset, and for £99 you've every reason to be curious
iRiver Spinn
Review iRiver departed from convention with the Clix's D-Click screen and has innovated again with the Spinn's unusual mechanical twisting navigation system. With a stunningly crisp touchscreen, flash memory and a wealth of audio formats supported, there's no wonder the Spinn has been eagerly awaited
Hands-on with the TrekStor i.Beat move S: Boring, meet cheap
Crave We've been playing with the TrekStore i.Beat move S and we can't say we've been blown away. But with an expected price tag of £50 for 8GB of capacity, it might be decent value
Logitech Pure-Fi Dream
Review Logitech's Pure-Fi Dream is aimed with a sniper's precision at a very specific part of your home: your bedside table. It's not intended to be used simply as an iPod-compatible alarm clock, though, but as a room-filling audio system that adapts to its surroundings with the use of clever light and motion sensors
Klipsch Custom-2 sound-isolating earphones
Review The Custom-2s are great sub-£100 earphones for jazz, soul and vocal genre lovers. If it's music that can be performed live without any amplification, electronics or mixing desks, it's probably suitable for the Custom-2s, making them enjoyable earphones despite their weaker high-end performance
Photos: Hands-on with the iRiver Spinn
Photo We've got our hands on the iRiver MP3 player you've all been waiting for -- the iRiver Spinn. And yes, your excitement was very well-placed
Motorola Rokr EM30, EM28 and EM25: Rokr round the clock
Photo Word on the street is that Motorola has three new Rokr music phones. By word, we do of course mean details, and by street we mean Crave
