Links for Thursday July 23^th, 2009

• AnandTech: Intel X25-M G2: Dissected and Performance Preview: Nice early look at Intel's newest SSD's. I want to get a new desktop machine this year, and I'm actually pondering putting a fast SSD in there. And performance graphs like the ones in this preview are the reason why.

• State of the Art - Cellphone Gripes Worthy of Congress’s Time - NYTimes.com: I don't usually link to the New York Times (use bugmenot if you dont have an account), but David Pogue's piece on the cell phone industry is just too good to pass up. Here's the best part, regarding phone subsidies:

  "Seems fair, right? It is — up until the day you finish reimbursing your carrier for your phone. Maybe that happens in the eighth month of ownership, maybe in the 14th month. But at some point during the two years, you’ll have finished repaying the subsidy.

  And here’s the part you can legitimately get angry about. If your monthly fee includes payment for the phone itself, how come that monthly bill doesn’t suddenly drop in the month when you’ve finished paying off that handset?"

  It's even worse for me, because my iPhone was purchased unsubsidized. Apple, Congress -- I don't care who, but somebody has to give the carries in the U.S. the old boostafazoo.

• Best Headphone Recommendations — Matt Mullenweg: After moving to the city, I finally splurged and replaced my broken Etymotic hf2's that I bought when I started riding Caltrain full time. The new headphones are Shure SE210's, and they have been great. So now I have been thinking about getting a new pair of over ear headphones for home -- I saw some recommendations elsewhere for the Sennheiser HD-595, so it's looking like I might take the plunge. Normally I'd turn to Bose in this situation, but I'm seeing too many good Sennheiser reviews, and not enough positive reviews for the Bose around-ear headphones.

• thelongbrake dot com » The I-90 towers through the Cascades: Beautiful photo. Reminds me of "Return of the Jedi" for some reason.