Schade
by Volker Weber
Music on physical media? This is so last century.
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Thomas* explains why he does not use the new Apple Ping service on iTunes. I don't use it either, but not for the same reason. Thomas says he buys his music on CDs and his music library mostly holds physical CDs. For me it has been almost four years since my CD collection was relegated to storage. A year ago I dragged them all out for The Big Rip. For many years I have been able to play my music in every room of our house, without any physical CDs to carry around. And I am listening to more music than ever. Which is quite a statement considering that I have been spinning records for ten years in a prior life.
During the last five years, my iPods have turned from music players into music controllers. They tell my ZonePlayers what to play. And often this is not music that I have ever had on a physical storage media like a CD. I use Last.fm a lot as a source, as well as Deezer and more recently Wolfgang's Vault. I have been using the Napster service, but never subscribed to it. And I wish, Spotify would open up to a German audience, because my sound system will soon support it. Currently you need to be in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Netherlands or Sweden. If I were in the US, I'd probably also use Pandora a lot.
In toto, CDs are last century to me. They are the best medium if you want to give music away as a present. But there are so many other sources of music.
Sometimes people ask me if they should buy a new stereo or a Sonos sound system. My answer is pretty simple: it depends on how much money you have. You can either buy a stereo, and buy a Sonos later. Or you can buy a Sonos right away. ;-)
*) Not sure, why Thomas has a second Twitter account.
New bag: Belkin Move
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
If you ask my sister, you can't have too many bags. And I agree with her. ;-) After lugging around a few Crumplers, and I hold all of them dearly, I now have adopted a smaller bag, a Belkin Toploader Move. It looks way better in reality than on photos. The front pouches easily hold an Apple Macbook power supply with cable, or my Canon G11 camera. On the back there is long pocket for travel documents. You can stow away the two small handles, and the trolley pass-thru feature holds your bag on top of your luggage. There are two compartments, one is padded to protect your MacBook. Belkin sells two sizes, one that fits my 13" Macbook, and a larger one for 15" Macbooks.
The feature I like best is the external side pocket that can hold a SIGG water bottle. If your drink leaks from the bottle, it won't soak your documents. Been there, done that. :-) Other features I like are the rubber bottom and the rubber shoulder pad that does not slide away. The strap is adjusted on both ends, and the bag is easy to carry since it is slim and the strap stays firmly on your shoulder.
Belkin lists the bag for 80 US-Dollar, but you will find it for a lot less. Get the brown one. It's much nicer than the black version.
In other related news, I found a Belkin product that does not work for me. The Grip Vue clear case that I recommend for iPad, iPod touch and iPhone 3G, does not work well on the iPhone 4. The buttons are just too stiff. They do work, but only when pressed with too much force. This is a pity since the case looks rather nice.
Photo: vowe
Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905 with active noise cancellation
by Volker Weber
Photo: Nokia
When it comes to headphones, I use ECH (ear canal headphones). Not the cheap iPod-style earbuds, but those from Ultimate Ears or Klipsch. They provide complete isolation from ambient noise. And they fit right in your pocket. Others prefer active noise cancelling headphones like the Bose QuietComfort.
When I saw the Nokia BH-905 last year, I wanted to take them for a spin, but never got around to actually try them. Other than the Bose headphones, can be used for phone calls: VoIP, Skype, regular calls. You connect them either via Bluetooth (HSP, HFP, A2DP, AVRCP) or a cable. Nokia provides a short lead, an extension cable, and an assortment of adapters. The headset charges with an included 2mm Nokia charger (not with MicroUSB unfortunately) in two hours and provides a whopping 24 hours talk time. Eight microphones work with the included Wolfson AudioPlus Ambient Noise Cancellation, two microphones pick up your voice when making a call.
I had no difficulties pairing the headset with my iMac and a 3rd generation iPod touch. So far it has failed to properly work with the iPhone 4 over Bluetooth. There are some reports on the internet which lead me to believe that it is indeed possible to use the headset with an iPhone without wires, but so far I have failed to do that. HFP and AVRCP seem to work, but I cannot hear sound over A2DP.
I am pretty sure however that the Nokia N8 will work flawlessly. ;-) And that should be here before I need the BH-905 for my long trip to San Francisco.
Talking Sonos
by Volker Weber
John and vowe at IFA in Berlin (photo Thomas Meyer)
Twitter on iPad
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Schlechter WLAN-Empfang bei Fritz!Box 7270
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Dessau
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Enterprise mindset vs. consumer mindset
by Volker Weber
I am currently participating in four different beta tests of unreleased products. Three are from vendors firmly in the consumer space. To upgrade their product to the latest test build, you will find a message on the device telling you there is an update. You select the option to install the update and the device does the rest.
One vendor however sold most of its products into the enterprise space. To update their software you get an email telling you to log into their beta portal. It will tell you that all the new features are on the portal and the mail does not even link there. To login to the portal you need to enter your email adress and a password that you had to build according to their rules, meaning you have to look it up on a piece of paper attached to your screen. Yes, you have to do that from the device if you don't want to make your life even more miserable. Once you logged in, you have to find the download page in a web application that was designed for much larger screens. Once you found that page, you have to find the link to download the software, click on it, scroll down through a lot of legalese you are not going to read anyway to find the 'I agree' checkbox and hit a button. Which does not download the software but leads you to another page where you have to fill in all your details, the ones that don't change very often, and then you have to do another 'I agree' song and dance. Then you get the package, have to install it, and then finally decide whether you want to reboot now or later.
Corollary: people use enterprise products because they have to. The only person who loves the product is the corporate administrator.
Nokia N8 looks like a winner
by Volker Weber
Tonight I had a small group briefing of the Nokia N8 where we got to play with a few prototypes. I was generally very pleased. The N8 has a solid aluminum shell with two plastic ends that cover the antennas. The display looks good, but is bound to have some difficulties with direct sunlight. AMOLED looks good indoors, but not so much in bright surroundings. With a screen resolution of 640x360 it's better than an iPhone 3GS or any Blackberry, but well below the iPhone 4 and current Android devices.
Nokia is going for a feature war. The N8 comes with worldwide free navigation with maps you can preload, it sports a 12 MP camera with Xenon flash, you can capture 720p HD videos at 25 fps and edit them right on the device. An HDMI output mirrors the display to an HD TV and the N8 can send 720p videos with 5.1 surround sound over the wire. The phone comes with two dongles, one that connects a regular HDMI cable to the smaller HDMI output and another one, that lets you connect USB plugs like thumbdrives to the MicroUSB port. The N8 comes with 16 GB of internal memory, expandable with 32 GB of microSDHC cards and it can talk directly to thumbdrives and external disks that provide their own power. All of this makes it a very solid portable multimedia device.
I am holding off judgement of Symbian^3 until I have played with it for a while, but on first contact it looks very usable, much better than any other version I have seen before. I was promised that ^3 solves my major headache, the network stack. It should be connecting to all sorts of mobile and Wi-Fi networks without ever bothering the user.
An N97 survices only a couple of hours until I run screaming. The N8 is a breath of fresh air, that I could find quite likable. From what I have seen today, Nokia is back in the game. The N8 is no iPhone killer. But it plays on level ground. I am looking forward to giving it a longer run in a couple of weeks. And I want a silver one. ;-)
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