High Definition TV
Sky are launching High Def TV in the UK in the next couple of months which is a really good reason to buy a big new flat-screen telly. I have been researching this for some time and have plumped for the following…
Panasonic TH37PX60
Am also buying an Alphason stand which should look pretty tasty - will post a photo once it’s all up and running (this Saturday!)
This is what it looks like in my lounge…
The iPod more than any previous technology has spawned a whole world of accessories. Here are some of my favourites. Far be it from me to criticise Apple’s marketing organisation but I do think they’ve missed a couple of tricks. All the adverts seem to portray someone walking down the street listening to music on a glorified walkman. Whilst this is fine and dandy it’s not why I bought mine and it’s not how I sell (the concept) to my friends.
When/How I use my iPod
Listening on your hi-fi
There are a couple of ways of listening on your existing hi-fi. The easiest is just to hook up your iPod to your amplifier using 3.5mm to phono leads - I recommend Profigold (decent quality, under a tenner) - I bought mine from TV Cables.
I would strongly recommend you use the Apple Dock for this as you get significantly better quality than using the headphone connection at the top of the iPod - try it for yourself - it’s definitely noticeable - and if you can’t hear the difference - you’ve just saved £25! The other benefit is you can use a remote control which saves you ever getting off your fat arse…
There is also a much cooler approach - streaming from your PC (assuming it is always on) and the best way to do this is using the Squeezebox (from $249/£299). This very cool piece of kit has just got much better due to an integration with a really cool bit of software Pandora - but let me just explain how it works.
Squeezebox has wireless ethernet built in (as well as wired) and can stream music from your PC. It also has high quality audio connections to hook up to your hi-fi (including digital) - for more info see here.
So - you can use the delivered remote to listen to and manage any music on iTunes, which is great. Addtionally you can listen to internet radio stations (but they’re fairly crap on the whole) and the cool, new bit is that you can listen to pandora… and pandora is my favourite bit of software this year - you can enter an artist or track and it will then generate a playlist on the fly based on your choice, using information it has about 10,000 artists - so if you enter Oasis you get lots of tracks which are similar to the sort of music that Oasis plays.
The third option is through external speakers - I use Creative TravelSound (cheap, very portable
(size of 2 iPods), runs on batteries (better sound quality on mains power) and £40.
There are lots of other options - the best quality I’ve heard is the Bose SoundDeck - beautiful, rich Bose sound but at £249 it’s not cheap, and it’s not portable - but if you want an iPod based hi-fi it’s probably the best there is.
* STOP PRESS * 27/02/2006
Just seen this from Cyrus, very well known British hi-fi brand have just moved into wireless audio and iPod accessories - the DockLink - beautifully designed, 5* rating from What Hi-Fi and a bargain at £69
I love this Podcast - they have a real ability to find interesting people who are working on great ideas in and around web 2.0. Through them I have found lots of cool stuff including 37signals - perfectly simple software for managing your life (todo’s, mini-wikis, project planning) and lots of other cool stuff - check it out.
Inside the Net is hosted by Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur - links on TWIT home page
Here’s a cool thing I found on Amber’s site - Amazing Photos
Well everyone is else is doing it so I thought why not. Big thanks to Dan North for setting up my domain and hosting this for me. So - what am I going to write about - well, my big interests are around technology and software and in particular collaborative software - how to share information, ideas and work together on projects. Luckily there are dozens of new companies out there from 37signals to zoho who are producing really cool stuff - primarily aimed at small business (I work for a large corporate). Also looking at wiki’s but still haven’t quite found what I’m looking for. Use digg, techcrunch, TWIT and Inside the Net to keep up to speed.
As well as idle ramblings on the meaning of life I will primarily be commenting on new web and software developments particularly around web 2.0.
