Reading this story on one user’s discovery of what she felt was a critical flaw in a new e-book reader -mainly that she felt vaguely troubled by the fact that she didn’t know where she was in the book, how close to the end, etc.- reminded me how bound most of us are to the traditional construction and ensuing emotional needs involved in storytelling. When stories come in standard formats like a 250-page paperback novel, a half-hour TV show or a 90-minute movie, we base our expectations of what’s happening and what’s going to happen on where we are within the story. When I was watching American Gangster last Wednesday, there’s a scene involving a raid on a warehouse. I found myself looking at my watch to ascertain whether it would be successful; if we were at one point in the movie it would work, whereas if it were earlier than I thought, it probably wouldn’t. It turned out I was right. When I was watching Ratatouille, the winning of the restaurant felt like it came too soon, but it turned out that it was not the major obstacle in the plot, which differed from most Hollywood story-telling conventions in interesting ways. If this doesn’t make sense to you, surely you’ve encountered watching a TV show you know for a fact to last only a half-hour, minus commercials, and at some point it becomes plain that the plot cannot be resolved in time. Sure enough, it’s a two-parter. Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!

It seems that a measure of our enjoyment of a story in any form is the reassurance of knowing where we are in the dramatic arc. This knowledge may remain on the subconscious level for the most part, but it’s definitely a part of the experience, perhaps a part we’ve come to take for granted. But as the e-book phenomenon shows, things are changing. With the advent of such technologies as well as more downloadable, variable-construct media being made available, it may seem like we’re in danger of losing our place in the story.

My guess, however, is that although the next generation will see things differently as a result of different constructs, the power of good storytelling will prove more resilient than the medium that conveys it. My hope is that, with the breakdown of set formats for our stories, as well as the inevitable fierce competition resulting from the ability of just about anyone to produce content, will result in even stronger, more dramatically engaging stories that pull us in and give us a sense of where we are without the need to for surreptitious glances at watches or the folded corners of tattered paperbacks.

For all of you Muddy Basin Rambler afficianados not fortunate enough to actually live in the Muddy Basin itself or with family members exiled from our fair island, our self-titled album chock full of foot-stomping jug band goodness is now available online for purchase at CD Baby. Yeah, I know, I should have put this up earlier so you could all send MBR CDs to each other for Christmas. Sorry. Go buy some anyway; you won’t regret it.

In other news, after a growing sense of unease created by the indecisiveness of various media industries and their continuing suicidal inability to decide on a single format for high-definition content, coupled with the fact that there is simply no other way for me to access HD content in Taiwan, I purchased a TViX HD4100 media box and stuck a 500Gb hard drive inside. It’s basically a media player with HDMI and other AV connections that plays just about anything I can throw at it, HD or otherwise, on my TV, all the way up to my Sharp Aquos’s 1080i resolution limit. I plug it into my computer’s USB2 port and shuttle stuff over, then hook it up to the TV, though it has an Ethernet port. With the remote control, it feels just like a DVD player and works just fine with both HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, AVI, XVID, DVIX, MP3, MP4 or whatever format. The video looks gorgeous and the sound is great. So, all of the rest of you, go on clawing at each other over whether Blu-ray or HD-DVD is better as long as you like, but try to keep it down, ok? I’m watching a movie.

Apple’s announcement of its new line of iPods hasn’t made my quest for the perfect device any easier. Instead, it’s become more convoluted, as no single version of the iPod really meets all the criteria I have for a decent all-around device. Many people were looking forward to a multi-touch iPod, but the one Apple came up with has only 16Gb of space on it. My first thought was that 16Gb would hardly do, with the iPod Classic having ten times that amount in space. But then I thought, exactly how much music do I have on my ailing iRiver? I connected it only to find that after years of adding to it, I have a mere 7Gb of music on it’s 20Gb drive. And that’s my entire mp3 collection (how would cover flow work with no cover art? I wonder). But as that gorgeous widescreen demands videos, that only leave 9Gb for videos, which amounts to around 10 hours of video. So much for having entire runs of ones favorite TV shows on hand.

But then again, realistically, how much time would I spend watching videos? I tend to read books when I’m out and need a diversion. This may be because videos have never been available in such a format to me before, of course. But I certainly wouldn’t be watching them when I’m walking around, 0nly when I was trapped someplace like the subway or…well, the subway. Even on a real train I tend to spend my time looking out the window rather than wishing I had that one episode of “Seinfeld” where George does that thing.

I suppose I could wait for the iPhone to reach our golden shores, preferably in 16Gb or even (gasp) 32Gb form, but there’s no word on that, and the thing still lacks GPS and 3G connectivity.

When it comes down to it, there still just isn’t one device that covers all the bases. The iPod Touch has the web, music, some video, a (so I hear) semi-usable keyboard and great screen, but lacks a camera, GPS, HDD and phone capabilities. The iPod Classic has the space and does music and video, albeit on a smaller screen (do you really want to spend all that time peering at a 2.5-inch screen? Can’t be good for your eyes), but lacks everything else. The iPhone, with only 8Gb of memory, would be hard-pressed just to hold my music collection. Similarly the 8Gb Nokia N95, which has GPS and Internet, but no touchscreen or keyboard. I’m not listing devices like the Archos video player, the Creative Zen Vision and the HTC Shift that won’t fit in my pocket, btw.

So maybe my question should instead be: Which two devices offer the most complementary and comprehensive range of features? I’d say either the TyTN II and the iPod Classic, though this would mean sacrificing the widescreen videos, or the TyTN and the iPod Touch, which would mean going without all that HDD space. There’s also the issue of mixing and matching between the Windows OS and the Apple OS systems, which sounds complicated at best. And there’s the issue of the traditionally poor iPod sound quality, as well as having to deal with iTunes, which I’d rather not have to do. I far prefer the drag-and-drop simplicity of the iRiver. And frankly, the iRiver’s sound quality rocks. I’ve heard good things about Creative’s sound quality, but I’d have to hear it for myself to make sure. Creative’s offerings seem more like the last-generation of iPods, though. If I go that route, I might as well go for the 160Gb of iPod Classic goodness.

So phone-wise, the HTC TyTN II still has my vote for the phone side of things. On the media side, iRiver, which isn’t offering any equivalent player at the moment, is fresh out of new batteries for my discontinued H320, but I still might be able to find a resupplier if I want to pay for it and wait for other choices to become available. When the actual new iPods make it here, I’ll mosey on down to the store to cop a feel and see if I can’t come to some kind of conclusion on the matter.

It looks like my trusty iRiver H320, which has served me well and faithfully these past couple of years, is having problems holding its charge over a single day. When I asked the iRiver outlet at K-Mall about it, they mentioned that iRiver is releasing a new 20/40Gb player in December. If I can’t get a reasonably priced battery replacement for the H320, the only choices I will have will be a Creative product or another iPod. The reason I ditched my last iPod was due to lack of FM, recording, usable disk space and inferior audio quality. Aside from the disk space, I don’t think they’ve addressed these issues, and besides, buying an iPod now, with a wide touchscreen version supposedly on the doorstep, would seem pretty foolish.

But I gots to have teh music, as books aren’t always convenient on the subway or when walking around as I keep bumping into things as I read. Though technology has come a long way in recent years, I’m still waiting for the Great Mythical Convergence Device appearing in a pocketable form that has all the photography features of my Canon powershot, the audio features and sound quality of the iRiver H320, video playback quality of the iPod video, GPS, Wifi, 3.5G communications, a keypad, tilting screen and oodles of gigabytes in storage. The closet I’ve found to this so far is HTC’s upcoming P4550 “Kaiser”, though the camera doesn’t come close, memory is limited to a micro SD card’s 4 or eventually 8gb, and who knows what battery life is like with all of those applications running. There’s the HTC Shift, but it’s just too damn big. Perfect for the occasional Wandering of Europe, I guess, but not for daily use between home and work computers.

(By the way, I’ve recently discovered, via Facebook, that my old college friend Victor Cheung is now running a tech website out of Hong Kong called Hong Kong Phooey. Vic was a wild man in college; it’s good to see he’s settled down to quietly preparing to take over the city via technology instead of the usual debauchery.)

So anyway, even the Kaiser isn’t quite the be-all/end-all device I seek, and it’s not even out yet. For now, I’m afraid I’ll have to continue hauling around my Canon, the Nokia phone I bought in Beijing and either the iRiver with a cheap new battery or some questionable replacement until the new iRiver and iPod come out.