In retrospect, what surprises me about this whole experience is that I didn’t illegally download the album. In fact, I didn’t even consider it. Though I’m not ethically opposed to pirating media — I’ve done a fair share of it in the past and believe it has a legitimate place in the consumer music ecosystem — the thought just didn’t really cross my mind this time around. What’s more, some significant evidence suggests that I’m not alone, and that people are increasingly turning — if not yet stampeding — to legal channels to get their music. (Slate tech writer and NPR contributor Farhad Manjoo discusses some of these trends here.)

So why are my downloading habits changing? Why might everyone else’s be slowly changing too? Some in the media industry might point to the huge lawsuits the record labels occasionally bring — and win — against music pirates. Manjoo also points out in the article linked above that the download-now-use-later approach to music is starting to feel outdated in a streaming world. Or maybe everyone just realized that downloading was wrong.

But none of those explanations really seem to explain my own experience. I’ve never been particularly afraid of a huge lawsuit, I typically want to download my music for later consumption, and I don’t think pirating is all that bad.

Instead, I think that gradually, without my even noticing it, legitimate music providers have gotten really good at what they do.

When I download something illegally, I take what I can get. Sometimes that means great quality files, but usually it doesn’t. Time and again I’ve downloaded pirated music only to find that it sounds tinny, or that I have to manually add album and artist information to the file before my music player will properly organize it. In extreme instances, it can even mean mislabeled songs, or files infected with viruses.

When I download something from iTunes or Amazon, however, I never have to worry about anything. I click a single button, and a few seconds later the file is on my computer. Magically, it seems, the song is linked to album art, includes all the correct artist information, and always works perfectly on my other devices. Though the sound quality may not compare to that of vinyl, it’s almost always as good as something I can get for free.

The point here is that, at least for me, the music industry is providing a tenable alternative to pirating. Instead of trying to punish anyone who gets free music, companies are increasingly opting to compete in the marketplace — and, amazingly, they’re sort of winning.

Though the end of pirated music may still be a long way off, greater ease and convenience are increasingly winning over consumers like myself.

Fast-forward a few years to my freshman year at BYU when my roommate introduced me to Facebook. I was reluctant to join since I already had a MySpace account, but I joined because all our new friends had an account and it was a great way to organize daily social gatherings. Needless to say, my MySpace account quickly became a redheaded step-child to me. With Facebook as my new love, my social life hasn’t been the same since.

If you can remember around about this time last year, the media people were all predicting the fall of Facebook as a result of the older generations becoming involved. They had the notion that old folks would make Facebook lame. However, we (the younger generation) adapted and learned how to censor ourselves or use the privacy controls. (Well, at least some of us.) As for the prophecies of Facebook’s decline… well, they couldn’t have been more wrong.

Facebook is becoming more and more indispensable as it transforms communication and social interaction. On Monday, Facebook announced its plans to offer email to its 500 million plus members. With this new email system, Facebook will be able to intertwine personal email — and text messages — with its knowledge of your personal relationships. (Seriously, Mark Zuckerberg knows too much about me and my relationships, it’s uber creepy. Check out the new feature of creepiness Facebook offers where you can view you and a friend’s complete Facebook history, or even two other friend’s entire history). Branching out from its current internal-only messaging system, Facebook will likely become the largest email service on the web.

When Google went public with Gmail services in 2007 it quickly gained momentum and now has 193 million users. You don’t have to be a math genius to know that Facebook will automatically demolish Gmail’s comparatively meager numbers. Google is facing a lot of pressure. It’s just been a crappy time lately for Google, what with the legal issues over the Street View and Buzz features’ privacy problems, and the leak about its desperate attempts to retain employees (raises across the board and other incentives) who are leaving Google for the hot new thing on the block — Facebook. But will Gmail become another ghost town of the web like MySpace? I honestly don’t think so.

We are witnessing an epic battle of Internet giants. Google and Facebook are duking it out for the title of The Ultimate Titan of the Internet Communications Industry. Right now, Facebook is in the lead with a monopoly that is revolutionizing business, advertising, communication and social interaction on the web. This is a new era of technology, innovation, and culture unfolding right before our eyes.

Are you as excited as I am?

You can stream the podcast by simply clicking on the link below, or you can download it to your computer by right-clicking the link and selecting “Save Link As” from the menu.

TECH: Podcast: 2010 E3, Nintendo 3DS, New XBOX, iPhone 4

You can stream the podcast by simply clicking on the link below, or you can download it to your computer by right-clicking the link and selecting “Save Link As” from the menu.

TECH: Podcast: 2010 WWDC, iPhone 4, & Team Fortress for Mac

I’m not dropping the phone because it’s not a great phone or because of AT&T’s coverage, nor am I dropping it because of their piss-poor service. I’m ditching because of their new data plan pricing, just announced this morning.

One of the biggest reasons I find that people don’t switch to the iPhone is that it’s too expensive — not the phone itself, but the minimum iPhone plan runs about $100 a month. After you pay for the required 3G data plan, the minutes and the texting, you are left paying quite a hefty price. My counter argument is normally that it’s worth it, that having that unlimited data connection and non-stop access to the Internet is a life-changer, that it will change your daily routine and the way you communicate with the world.

A year ago, Apple announced it was bringing the much requested tethering feature to the iPhone. For those who don’t know, tethering is a feature that allows you to use your phone as an Internet connection, making it possible to use a laptop or other wireless device in a location where there is no WiFi but  your phone gets 3G service. The catch to this announcement? The iPhone would have the tethering option in almost every market internationally, but AT&T would not yet be supporting tethering in the United States. AT&T said it needed to get its already over-taxed network prepared to be able to handle tethering, and promised that tethering would be available to iPhone customers by the end of 2009.

Well, here we are — it’s June of 2010 and guess what? My iPhone still can’t tether. That puts AT&T six months past their own deadline to provide tethering to its customers. This morning they announced that tethering would finally be available with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 in the coming month. Better late then never — or is it?

With tethering, AT&T also announced new data plan pricing schemes for its customers. Currently on both the iPhone and the iPad, customers pay $30 a month for unlimited data. Under the new pricing scheme, however, customers will have the option to pay $15 a month for 200 megabytes of data (and $15 a month for every 200 megabytes after that) or $25 a month for two gigabytes of data (and $10 for every gigabyte after two).

For those who want tethering, they must have the $25 plan and pay an additional $20 per month. AT&T touts this as a great way to give customers more flexibility and reduce their charges as only (according to AT&T) 2 percent of iPhone users use more then two gigabytes of data a month.

This is a smokescreen. 200 megabytes of data will be beneficial to only a handful of people. I am hard pressed to see how it would suffice for even the lightest of iPhone users. Many customers will switch to the cheaper 200 megabyte plan not realizing how much data they actually use and will find themselves needing more — and paying AT&T $15 more, which comes out to $30, saving them no money with a lot more hassle. The $25 plan will be admittedly beneficial to most people — they can save $5 per month as two gigabytes will be enough for them.

However, of the supposed 2 percent of people that use more then two gigabytes a month. I am one. I love my iPhone. I use it for email, GPS, a plethora of apps, and streaming video and audio. I stream most of my podcasts as it saves me the hassle of having to sync my phone and wait for podcasts to download. Considering I listen an average of three podcasts a day, this comes out to a lot of audio being streamed over my phone.

I also love some of the streaming video applications. When the NCAA tournament happens, there is an app released every year that allows you to stream the games at a pretty good quality. The Major League Baseball app allows you the same convenience, not to mention the coming Netflix app. The ability to tune into a game in progress is one of the best uses of my iPhone. It’s great to get a text saying such-and-such is three outs from a perfect game and being able to instantly, no matter where you are, tune in to that game on your phone and catch history.

Apple is all about the user experience. Everything about their product design is geared towards convenience and ease. If I want to download an app, one click and it’s there. If I want to listen to a podcast, one click and I’m able to do it. Watch a game in progress or use the GPS? Apple’s goal is to make it seamless, thoughtless, and natural.

To me, AT&T’s new plans run contrary to that policy. No longer will these things be thoughtless — you will be worrying about how much you have left on your cap. Want to watch that video? Listen to a podcast? Play with Google Earth? Better check your cap first, because you don’t want to go over. It would seem to go against the form factor and design mentality — and perhaps demonstrate an ever-growing gap between the companies.

AT&T has stated that current customers can keep their unlimited plans, but all new customers will have to make the choice. I will be keeping my unlimited plan, thank you very much, but I don’t know for how long. What happens when my upgrade is available and I want to pick up the next iPhone? Will I be able to keep my unlimited plan then? What flaming hoops will I have to jump through in order to keep it?

That is why I won’t be getting another iPhone — not unless AT&T changes the pricing scheme or the phone becomes available on another network. In the age of unlimited broadband connections, AT&T wants to take us back to the AOL/Earthlink pay-by-the-minute business model of Internet access.

Why should I go along with it? There are some really great Android phones out there (which, by the way, now offer tethering applications for free) whose pricing plans can hopefully offer me the ability to use as much data as I want. I just don’t ever want the day to come when I get a text saying,”Hey, Tim Lincecum is three outs away from a perfect game” and I can’t watch it, because I’m just a few megabytes away from my AT&T data cap.

You can stream the podcast by simply clicking on the link below, or you can download it to your computer by right-clicking the link and selecting “Save Link As” from the menu.

Listen to: Rhombus Tech Podcast: Google IO, Google TV, & Emails From A Hurt Locker

The first thing you notice about the iPad is how responsive it is. It’s incredibly fast, and it’s the most responsive touch screen I’ve ever used. Rarely do I register bad touches or find that it didn’t pick up my finger. Everything you do on the device feels fast, from switching between applications to launching websites to even the simple act of switching between pages on the home screen.

Typing on it is also surprisingly effective — when held in the portrait (vertical) orientation, my hands are large enough that I am able to use just my thumbs as I would on my iPhone. When used in the landscape (horizontal) orientation, the keyboard is about the same size as the keyboard on a netbook and I am able to type almost as fast as I would on a tactile keyboard — and this is just after a few days. I’m sure with a few months practice I’ll be able to type at a really decent pace.

The built-in applications that come with the iPad are all vast improvements to their iPhone counterparts. The calendar application seems especially more robust. The Safari Web browser is significantly improved to function more like a desktop browser than the iPhone version. Probably my favorite application out of the built-in ones is the Photo app.

As a photography enthusiast, it’s great to be able to have my entire digital photo library on hand, and able to be displayed and viewed whenever I want on a high resolution screen. The best thing about the photos app though is its interface and the gestures within it; The first time you begin pinching and swiping to navigate the photos is the first time you feel like you are holding the future in your hands.

While there are not nearly as many native iPad applications available as there are iPhone apps, there are still over 3,000 available for download, not to mention that the iPad will run most of the iPhone apps. I have already tried out a significant number of iPad applications and, while I won’t go into detail on them individually, on the whole I have been very impressed by them. I can’t wait to see the applications we have available in a few months.

Of course, the device also has its known negatives. It cannot use Adobe’s Flash player, which is used on many Internet sites to stream video, as well as display a lot of games (Farmville). I personally don’t mind the lack of Flash; In fact, I kind of like it. The iPad browser is extremely stable and fast, and I’ve always found Flash buggy. And I’ve found that a lot of the Web sites I normally visit have started using the iPad-compatible HTML5 to display video.

The iPad also doesn’t currently multi-task. However, this is coming with the OS update in the fall, and to be honest the iPad is so fast at switching applications that I have yet to find a situation in which I would need multi-tasking.

In the world of technology, it’s a general rule that you shouldn’t buy the first generation of a new device — they are always buggy, and normally with the second generation all the kinks are worked out. This is not true with the iPad. When it comes down to it, despite its few shortcomings, the iPad is a fantastic device. It doesn’t at all feel like a “first generation” device — the hardware and software are extremely well polished.

At the end of the day though, the question everyone asks is do they need an iPad? Do they need something in addition to their smart phones and computers? If you think there’s a place for the iPad, if you see the role it would play in your day-to-day technological life, then I would highly recommend it. If you don’t see where it would fit into your life, then there’s no reason to get it.

However, I would recommend playing with one regardless. Stop into the store and check out what the fuss is about, because this style of mobile computing is the future of technology — and at some point you will want to be part of it.

You can stream the podcast by simply clicking on the link below, or you can download it to your computer by right-clicking the link and selecting “Save Link As” from the menu.

TECH: Podcast: Internet Privacy, Alan Wake, Steam for Mac

You can stream the podcast by simply clicking on the link below, or you can download it to your computer by right-clicking the link and selecting “Save Link As” from the menu.

Tech: Podcast: HP/Palm, iPad Sales, Apple Hates Flash

A while back we talked about Better Place, a company helping to visualize and build the infrastructure needed for the EV to thrive on. What wasn’t known at the time was how many big name auto manufacturers were actually going to be putting out these vehicles. Let it be known that while there aren’t going to be a huge amount of cars to pick from, one key factor will be the kind of EV you choose.

There’s going to be a strict division between types of EVs. Automakers are either taking the pure-electric route or opting for a hybrid-electric engine. The all-electric category is obvious — you plug these bad boys in and they run purely off the electricity for their 100-200 mile range. Top speeds vary, but you’ll have no trouble taking them on the highways. Don’t be expecting to sit in the passing lane like you’re used to though.

Examples of this pure-electric vehicle will be the Nissan Leaf, Coda Sedan, Ford Focus BEV, and the Tesla Model S. All these cars have strict reliance on the energy stored in their (mostly) lithium-ion batteries. Speaking of lithium-ion, while it might be the way to keep your EV going at present, keep an eye out for new battery tech that will extend the ranges of your favorite pure-electric.

Option one sounds good, but how about option two? Well, with the hybrid-electric you’re getting your first 40-60 miles on the batteries. After that a pseudo-typical combustion engine kicks in — not to power the drivetrain, but rather to generate the electricity required to move the car.  This is supposed to provide a big boost towards the efficiency of the gas engine. For example, the Chevrolet Volt claims a fuel efficiency of 230mpg, but the EPA has no way of testing this new technology, so they’re protecting themselves by doing some fancy math and saying it’s closer to 85mpg. Either way, you’re still looking at reliance on fossil fuels. Not good if you want to stick it to the man, but then again what happens to road trips with the all-electric vehicles? Something tells me these plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) will bridge the gap for consumers weary of complete reliance on the former kind. The Prius PHEV (pretty obvious name) will be Toyota’s push into the market, but not until next year.

Regardless of the differences between EVs, we’re seeing a concerted effort to make this a viable and, in fact, thriving industry — so much so that not everyone wants your EV to look like an EV. The previously mentioned Tesla Model S and Chevy Volt are for the more image conscious of us, but if you’re looking for something truly eye-popping, you might want to wait for the Fisker Karma. (You might be waiting awhile — no one outside the company has even test drove it yet.) This head-turner is a hybrid-electric powerhouse that almost makes the $90,000 price tag worth it. That is, of course, more than twice the cost of the typical EV that will be hitting the market this fall.

If you’re still a little critical of EVs really catching on, you might want to stay quiet about it. Being “that guy” who swore electric cars would never make it, when in a couple years your grandpa is driving one, could be a little embarrassing.