A new creature on my desk

Needs googly eyes

I want to put some efforts into understanding Matter, so I need to use devices from all ecosystems. My Echo speakers are all too old to upgrade so I needed something more recent. I always wondered about the Echo Studio and now I know. No wonder this device never gets discounted. It’s way better than the price suggests. At the same time, it is more expensive than many Alexa buyers are willing to pay.

Two things stand out: it projects a wide and deep soundstage and it adopts to the room it sits in, without the Sonos dance. Like the original Apple HomePod it recalibrates when necessary. Recommended if you need a last minute Xmas present for yourself.

Shariff unterstützt jetzt Mastodon

Mit Shariff schützen Webseiten-Betreiber die Privatsphäre ihrer Besucher vor der übertriebenen Neugierde sozialer Netzwerke wie Facebook oder Twitter. Für die Besucher reicht ein Klick, um eine Seite mit Freunden zu teilen.

So sehen die Buttons aktuell aus

Für Shariff gibt einen WordPress Wrapper als Plugin, den ich jetzt eingebaut habe. Unter jedem Beitrag findet sich nun eine Leiste mit bunten Knöpfen. Wenn Euch etwas fehlt, dann sagt mir Bescheid. Das steht zur Auswahl: addthis, bitcoin, buffer, diaspora, facebook, flipboard, linkedin, mailto, mastodon, mewe, mix, odnoklassniki, patreon, paypal, paypalme, pinterest, pocket, printer, reddit, rss, sms, telegram, threema, tumblr, twitter, vk, wallabag, weibo, whatsapp, xing.

From my inbox

Vielen Dank, lieber Andy. Apple-Guthaben kann ich immer gut gebrauchen, sei es für iCloud oder Apple Music, das ich sehr intensiv nutze. Ich habe diese Geschenkkarten nun direkt auf meine Amazon-Wunschliste gesetzt, weil es einfach zu schwierig ist, bezahlbare Geschenkideen zu finden, die ich nicht selbst spontan kaufen würde.

Das geht auch direkt aus dem Apple App Store heraus, ohne Amazon dazwischenzuschalten. Aber die Wunschliste ist der natürliche Anlaufpunkt. So oder so freue ich mich, weil ich regelmäßig an Apple spenden muss. 🤣

Das funktioniert direkt vom eigenen Konto aus. Dazu geht man einfach in den App Store und tippt auf das eigene Profilfoto. Das geht aber nur innerhalb eines Landes, bei mir also von Deutschland aus. Da ist Amazon ein schöner Fallback.

Two great Adobe audio tools

Mic Check helps you with your microphone setup to make you podcast-ready. And Enhance Speech makes your voice recordings sound as if they were recorded in a professional studio.

Here are two samples spoken in German. The first one is recorded with just the laptop microphones of a Lenovo ThinkPad Z13. You will notice the room reverb and if you wear headphones, you might even hear a Dyson vacuum behind the next door.

Before enhancement

I uploaded this mp3 file to the Adobe website where it was processed and made available for download as a wav file. Even without headphones you should be able to hear a stark difference. These are not two recordings with two microphones. The second sample is just enhanced from the first sample.

The same recording after enhancement

Adobe is beta-testing a podcast suite for live recording on their website and these tools are both free to use. You have to have a registered Adobe account.

Was nur eine Kerze anrichtet

Lorena hat sich einen Eve Room gekauft, und war bass erstaunt, dass die Luft morgens so schlecht war, verglichen mit dem Nachmittag zuvor. Ein Anstieg von 13 auf 319. Und dann erinnerte sie sich: Am Vorabend hatte sie eine Kerze angezündet und um 21 Uhr wieder gelöscht.

Was kann man gegen schlechte Luft tun? Drei Minuten lüften. Zack, alles wieder in Ordnung. Man stelle sich das nun mal mit vielen Kerzen vor. Oder Silvester, und da hilft dann auch Lüften nicht mehr.

BREAKING: Twitter

I am surprised how quickly Elon Musk is sinking his Twitter ship. I stopped posting there a while ago and have been watching this train wreck from outside. Like facebook.com/volker my profile twitter.com/vowe will stay up, until Elmo makes up another rule that I retro-actively broke. But if you are looking for content, it is now happening at home.social/@vowe

If you don’t know where to sign up, got to https://home.social/ and let the operator know that vowe sent you.

What ChatGPT has to say about me

According to Raymond, this is what ChatGPT said:

Volker Weber, also known as vowe, is a German technology journalist and blogger. He is known for his coverage of technology and internet-related topics, and has written extensively on these subjects for a variety of publications.

Weber began his career as a journalist in the 1990s, and has worked for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He is also a popular speaker at technology conferences and events, and is known for his engaging and informative presentations on a wide range of topics related to technology and the internet.

In addition to his work as a journalist, Weber is also an active blogger, and maintains a popular blog called vowe dot net. On this blog, he shares his thoughts and insights on technology and internet-related topics, and offers practical advice and tips for readers who are interested in these subjects.

Overall, Volker Weber is a well-respected and influential figure in the world of technology journalism, and his work has helped to educate and inform a wide audience about the latest developments and trends in the tech industry.

I have the screenshot, but I cannot get to the same result. In any case, I found this very flattering, so I had to share.

Kleine und mittelgroße Geschenke für den Nerd

In einer Woche ist Weihnachten und wer noch schnell ein Last-Minute-Geschenk für einen Nerd braucht, findet hier bestimmt etwas. Alle Produkte benutze ich selbst!