It has been a whilst since my last blog and I have been
patiently waiting for IOS 5 and the new ipods/iphone. I have also
been thinking about getting a Garmin GPS watch and an Apple Time Capsule. I have
always been interested in digital devices rather than having computers. This is
what I believe is part of Apple’s recent success, keeping an OS (IOS) more
streamlined and simple, so that it works like a fast responsive machine that
turns on instantly; rather than sluggish error prone computers, we have all
become used to.
GARMIN WATCH GPS FOR RUNNING
This is a hard decision as Garmin GPS watches are awesome but
quite expensive, depending on the model. I am currently using an ipod touch
when running but this is such a bulky solution. For music I can use my ipod
shuffle when running with a Garmin watch (but I will miss out on the Nike coach
when I reach personal targets!!!!). The other bonus is I can use it whilst
riding as well; unlike the pedometer with the nano.
The questions are, is it worth getting a heart monitor and would
it be better to wait for an ipod nano with this feature with GPS?. Will this
ever happen on a Nano and if so how many years will it take?
APPLE TIME
CAPSULE
The Time Capsule is tempting but I wish i could put my itunes
library on there and play it directly to my ipod. That way I don’t have to have
my laptop on to stream music to my airport express. The other issue is
getting 5 ghz performance. This still isn’t available on portable devices such
as ipods and netbooks. If I would get an 5ghz adapter for my netbook it would be
expensive and bulky.
HD AUDIO
HD Audio is finally getting decent albums available on the web
(rather than a whole lot of unheard jazz & classical artists!!!). I have
finally bought my first album that is @ 24 bit 96k (Foreigner 4 from 1981).
Disappointingly my 3 year old Dell laptop does not support this format over hdmi
but my little Acer netbook with the AMD Fusion APU (that has a Radeon 6250) can
support HD Audio over HDMI. I need this so I can use the hdmi output to a
converter; spdif for my headphone amp or Roland M15a speakers.
***BTW Foreigner 4 sounds fantastic in HD Audio***
My Apple Airport or ipod/iphone does not support the format as
they are only 16 bit 44k and these are all the problems you can encounter when
upgrading to HD Audio.
The format certainly has more depth, spatiality & dynamics
but can sound a little thin at times. I think thinness is just part of the
digital format. With HD Audio I can no longer hear a telephone ringing in the
background which is what seems to happen a lot with the red-book 16 bit 44k
standard (although a decent DAC can help with this). HD audio also sounds live
and full of musicality as compared with plain old 16 bit 44k.
BLURAY ON A NETBOOK
I am quite impressed that my little netbook Acer Aspire 522 can
play blurays at 1080p. I wish the bluray standard could be standard in windows
7 as the Cyberlink power dvd app (which is the only app that works) is quite
expensive.
So I have decided to get a netbook. Even though tablets are all the rage at the moment (such as the ipad), there are features in netbooks that aren't available with these devices such as VLC, hard drives & peripherals (such as a tv tuner). Also if I am lying in bed I don't want to be holding an ipad up. I have an ipod touch for quick stuff, such as checking email in bed or footy scores.
My netbook is a secondary laptop so I haven't got the mindset that I will be transcoding video and loading heaps of apps on it. I can use the dvd player from my other laptop, so a lot of these shortcomings aren't important. The DVD adds bulk and I want something light that I can take with me in ease. I will not even install Word on my netbook because Wordpad is fine. I will install the bare minimum as I want convenience. If I need to spell check, I can open the word web app or Word on my 15" laptop at home.I dont need to do editing on the road, I will leave that for a more powerful laptop or PC at home.
I also want something to quickly whip from under the bed and watch movies. A bulky 15" laptop doesn't do this, and I use my 15" laptop as a more permanent setup at home connected to an external monitor, 1.5TB hard drive etc.
I wanted the Atom Fusion APU for the impressive WEI 5 Graphics performance so the choice was between the Toshiba NB550d and the Acer Aspire 522. The Acer has a better screen res but no bluetooth. Toshiba has nice harmon kardon speakers, but to be honest I use headphones on the road and connect via my airport express at home, so laptop speakers aren't that important for me. What concerned me about the Toshiba was the screen res as it couldnt play 720p and also the inability to change hard drives as it was custom.
So even though the Toshiba NB550 looked nicer and had Wake On Lan and Bluetooth, the screen resoloution to me was more important. Also the battery life is better with the Acer and it comes with a nice case. I am disappointed the Acer didn't come with bluetooth & WOL but I can live without it. I did have visions of putting a 750g, 7400rpm hard drive into my netbook, and using my ipod touch to send magic packets to turn it on in the middle of the night. But you couldnt do that with the Toshy anyway as the hard drive is to small for all my music & custom sized that makes it difficult to change.
If I do listen to music with my MM100 Bluetooth Sennheiser headphones it will come from my iphone (it wont work with the Acer), at home I can use my more serious Sennheiser HD650 with the Airport Express.
So it is the Acer. I was very impressed with the performance even with only 1 gig of ram. The next day I put 4 gigs of ram in and Windows 7 Pro. Putting in ram wasn't as easy as it used to be, having to remove the keyboard and a whole heap of screws.
2 or 4 gigs certainly makes a difference. With 1 gig there were plenty of blue circles and pausing etc. Whilst watching Inception as a stream, there were moments of freezing etc. But once I had 4 gigs of ram streamed movies played seamlessly. I have been watching dvd's in bed, using VLC and accessing a wifi n network from my laptop in the room next door. I installed Airfoil and I can now stream the audio from my netbook to my airport express that is connected digitally to a DAC that is then connected to my yamaha 2.1 speakers.
You have to synchronise VLC so the audio matches the video. It is usually around 2 seconds, varies and can drift. But it is oh so worth it as there are no cables connected to the netbook when you watch a movie, and you get the full surround sound experience.It is killer. The screen is fantastic for watching movies. Even though it is only 10", the lightness of the netbook makes up for it, because a 15" laptop can be heavy whilst lying in bed . I hired Surrogates with Bruce Willis for $3 at the oovie vending machine at Safeway. I couldnt find it on bluray so had to settle with DVD. I chucked it into my other 15" laptop and ensured I shared the dvd drive. I simply opened the dvd from vlc over the wifi network. I then opened airfoil so I could stream the audio and used A/V sync in VLC with the airport express.
There are occasional stutters whilst watching the movie which I will outline below.
For some reason I can only get a 65MBS connection on my wifi n network with the Acer whereas with my Dell 15" I am getting 72MBS. The reason why it is half speed is that I run the n network on 2.4g so I can use the ipod touch with the Aiport Express. It comes in handy with the ipod touch as I can use airplay from it (particularly late at night). With 5 ghz I have a feeling I will get better performance. The network is only running at 20% but latency is the most important issue here. There is more interference with 2.4ghz and this might be affecting the streaming. I could copy over the DVD from the network to my Acer and then delete it after watching but that would be a pain. The other option I am considering is getting a SSD. This will help with performance boosting the HD WEI from 5.9 to 7.7. It would also help with the portability aspect. I dont know if I need 250 gigs, but I am thinking of using the Acer to record tv so am still unsure about getting a SSD It is a considerable expense that increases the price of the netbook.
I just checked the battery, I have used the laptop from 100% when I started writing this article. It is at 9 hours 22 minutes. The battery life is amazing. This is another reason why I prefer the Acer to the Toshiba.
The keyboard is a little cramped and I occasionally hit the up arrow on the track pad which can be annoying, but overall considering the size it does the job.
A bit late to the game but I have recently purchased Singstar for the PS3 and the mics. Although I have had some fun, there are a few major flaws that upset the playing experience.
1. Latency issues. The game does not give accurate-enough latency times. You can only choose 10ms blocks and you really need to have more granular settings as the Audio & Video sync is somewhere inbetween 0-10ms for me.
2. Scoring. The singing steps ruins the singing experience. The notes you have to sing are far too long, longer than what is required to sing which ruins the fun and naturalness of the vocal performance. Quite often I am hanging onto notes and getting out of breath to get a good scoring performance. The other problem is that it doesn't always detect the right note, especially if it is a low note or a fast word. Sometimes the notes for scoring are a wrong note or the parts change singers without time to breathe and if you sing a different in-tune note because you might not have the vocal range, or for breathing, you are penalised. You are also penalised if you don't sing the note flat, no embellishments are allowed, even if the original track has it!!!!!!. There should be an abililty to adjust the steps and duration for the singing-scoring and then people could agree to the scoring system for the song online with the club feature.
Apple WWDC
I am so excited, we have heard all the Windows 8 stuff at D9 and Asus at Computex, but every1 is waiting for Apple.
I want to purchase a Time Capsule and Macbook Air, but have been waiting as new models are imminent.
The rumours of the Time Capsule sound amazing too, I want to be able to stream music to my ipod without having my computer on and the rumours I have heard, sound like that the Time Capsule will be able to do this. With an A5 processor, the Time Capsule should have plenty of power as a wireless Itunes Server. The other great news is that Wireless Sync might finally come of age with IOS 5.
I have wanted to get a Macbook Air but the 3 year old C2D has made me wait....If the Time Capsule has an Itunes Server, the 64 GB MBA model should be fine, as I have 400 gigs of music that can go on the capsule (which I don't need on the road).
iCloud doens't really interest me. I use Tune In for music which is already a cloud service for music anyway. I am not going to put 400GB of music in the cloud. This cloud stuff is a big Hype. I already use the cloud for podcasts, tune in music etc.
Will we get true multi-tasking in IOS5. I doubt it!!!!
I have really been impressed with my DAC (Firestone Libby) lately. I have resurrected my trusty 10 year old Yamaha YST MS30 2.1 bose-copy speakers for the bedroom. They are connected via my Firestone Libby headphone DAC and Airport Express via an optical cable. The Sub is under the bed and the tiny satellite speakers are on either side. The speakers are very non-obtrusive & almost invisible which is what I am after, yet they are quite powerful. They are loud enough for what I want (30W RMS), as I don't want to have music too loud, while I am falling asleep or listening to podcasts and football. Listening to Tiesto late at night with a SUB pumping under the bed and a spatial sounding DAC is mesmerising & DAC-Magical, even from these cheap speakers (it is nice to get a even sound from single speakers, Yamaha always give a good sound even if they are cheap, they have some great active crossover circuitry as well as excellent stereo imaging). The other enjoyable activity is playing Infinity Blade in bed and having the game-music & fx stream out using airplay, so I dont have any cables connected to my ipod touch 4G. Cables are major suckage when playing games on the ipod touch 4g in bed!!!!The sound is not interrupted whilst playing Infinity Blade, unlike the blue-tooth connection (but more from that later). Infinity Blade's soundtrack & FX does sound amazing BTW!
I am impressed with the spatial imaging and fullness of sound from the Firestone Libby DAC. The vocals really cut through clearly and there is plenty of room in the high end, so that I am perfectly happy with a flat EQ. Mid Range is sweet too with clear definition between instruments and an excellent reverberation trail. In fact I think the DAC is more important than spending $400 more on speakers and then using the crappy onboard DAC of either the ipod touch or Airport Express. All my complaints of a harsh static digital sound seem to go way with a good DAC. I always want to turn treble up using cheap dacs because they lack detail, and even then they need treble because cheap DACS have poor output stages. The only problem with the Libby is an audible 60hz hum, but it is only heard when there is no sound.
MULTIPLE SPEAKERS IN ITUNES
Because I have a separate wi-fi n network for audio than my internet, I don't get drop outs and I am able to use the multiple speaker option in itunes without any delay (for two sets of speakers). It sounds fantastic. I have tried setting up 3 sets of multiple speakers with an Apple TV, but there was a noticeable delay on the Apple TV which was the furthest away (possible 50-100ms but I haven't measured it), maybe a wifi N 5ghz would fix this, but as I use 2.4ghz N to be compatible with the ipod/iphone, I haven't really got a need. It would be nice to have an adjustable time difference between multi-sets of speakers, so hopefully the next version of itunes will have it. If the ipod touch/iphone could have a dual wifi chip @ 2.4 & 5 ghz then you could have a sonos type setup with adjustable time settings on each speaker as well.
Bluetooth Streaming Audio
Sometimes I have a need to use bluetooth with my speakers in the bedroom, when I want to save power from my airport express or save time from waiting for it to boot. Also sometimes I want to download something from the internet to the ipod and I want to listen to tune-in on my ipod touch 4G at the same time, when I can't access itunes via IOS remote to my laptop to my airport express (which is what I usually do).
So I decided to buy a Belkin bluetooth receiver but it sounds so crappy, that I really only use it for podcasts. I tried playing infinity blade but the sound would cut out all the time, and music sounds like a fish underwater or a bad skype call. My Sennheiser MM100 bluetooth headphones sound awesome and Bluetooth is acceptable in the car so I know it isnt the bluetooth format. Considering it cost just under half of a refurbished airport express it is a rip off. I have my doubts over Belkin as it markets itself as a premium brand, but is usually really cheap & crappy with a nice design & package. I often have a lot of cognitive dissonance with the brand.
The non-impressive Belkin B/T Receiver
Netbooks & WOL (Wake On Lan)
Sometimes I want to use a little laptop in bed rather than my ipod touch 4G and I don't want an ipad. I also want to have WOL so I can turn my laptop on from my ipod touch (using remote desktop & magic packets) in bed and stream music through to my airport express, as 750 gig of music won't fit on an "i device."
I have been looking at the Toshiba nb550d as it has WOL and features the new impressive AMD Fusion chip.
Unfortunately with netbooks, they only come with 1gig of ram, and by the time you upgrade the ram, HD and the version of windows, you might as well get a full functioning and more powerful laptop for a similar price. The Sony Vaio YB has the more impressive ZacateAMD fusion, which gives it more grunt than the Atom dual core for CPU intensive tasks (kills it of course in graphics). The other bonus with Sony is that it comes with 2 gigs of ram and full windows. So by the time you spec out the Toshiba it will not be much cheaper than the Sony which is a far better laptop!!!! Also the Toshy has poor battery life and I would like to have a MacBook Air type of battery length, so I can stream music at length whilst the netbook is in its laptop bag (that i havent taken out of!!).
The problem with the netbook market is that they are underpowered with Windows 7. Windows 7 is best with at least 4 gigs of ram. 1 gig doesn't cut it and Windows 7 starter is crippled. Netbooks should come with 2 gigs of ram and I think with the coming Intel Atom "Cedar Trail" it will be on its way.
So at the moment netbooks are best to be avoided. I really wanted a cheap laptop for $250 & 2 gigs of ram with WOL and none at the price even have WOL. You have to start spending the price of a cheap 15" laptop which is far more powerful. I am considering a Macbook Air, might as well get a good performing laptop with a good screen and battery life.
The Magically magic netbook MBA or Mac Book Air
MUST HAVE APP FOR IOS
Australian Rules Football has a live football radio stream on its website www.afl.com.au Unfortunately for IOS devices they have disabled their internet radio station so I can't listen to it with Tune-In. As there is no Adobe flash for IOS unless you jailbreak it, I have been unable to listen to live AFL radio. But I have discovered an app called Splash Top Remote that is completely awesome and only $1.19. It is the best Remote Desktop App going around for IOS.
It will stream whatever is on your laptop to your IOS device including sound. I have even been able to watch my DVD collection from VLC streamed over it. Now I can listen to live AFL without having to pay a fortune buying the IOS AFL app with a huge monthly prescription!!!!
It seems like these days I have become a Sennheiser & Apple fanboy to a high degree :-)
I really have a liking to these headphones...HD 598
The Senn 5XX have always had a reputation of being bland and boring and my HD555 certainly have that look. But the tacky look of the HD598 really appeals to me ;-)
The Boring & Bland HD555
The posts I have been reading about the HD 598 are by in large very positive. But as I recently purchased a set of HD 650 I will not tempt myself to listen to the HD598. In fact as a result I have been listening to my HD 555 again and they are great value fones. I have been enjoying the lightness and comfortability of the phones and the single cord. A great new feature of the 518/558/598 series is that you can replace the cord with something shorter for more portable listening. The HD650 are heavy & sacrifice some speed for that extra bass & detail. I have heard the HD 598 have a great soundstage. Recently I have just been using a set of Yamaha YST M8 for my headphone amp and it is surprisingly quite good (although lacks bass of a dedicated headphone amp). So I am entering a new phase of thought on headphone amping.
If you can't wait until September for the new ipod nano or have a feeling they won't introduce bluetooth with the next generation, there is the recently announced Creative Zen m300 coming in June that features bluetooth 2.1 EDR.
I have recently become a convert to bluetooth with the Sennheiser mm100 that I use with my iphone and my espow watch phone. Bluetooth has finally come of age and with the popularity of podcasts such as Tiesto's club life and A State of Trance, the difference between bluetooth and cable is minimal, particularly in mobile contexts. I prefer the convenience of not having cables and I particularly enjoy the Sennheiser mm100 whilst riding my bike (this is the only neck bluetooth headphone I am aware of and therefore fits well with a bike helmet). My watch phone has bluetooth, but unfortunately has dropouts which does not occur from my ipod touch/iphone. The ipod touch or iphone is too large for bike riding and running and I am looking for something smaller hence an ipod nano with bluetooth. I have been using nike + lately but maybe it is a gimmick as it is quite inaccurate, particularly if you change your speed of running, so that feature perhaps is not so important as being built in (like it is with the ipod touch).
The problem with the Zen is lack of use with my existing itunes library. This is where Apple is quite smart by locking you into their ecosystem as I like to keep all my podcasts synced, as I listen to them across multiple devices.
I am not the only one to say this but there appears to be a lack of innovation in the consumer IT industry at the moment. I am surprised there isn't a PS4 or XBOX 720 being released soon. The PS2 was released six years after the original Playstation and yet they are announcing a 10 year cycle for the next generation. Where is the Sega Dreamcast when you need it!!! No-one is able to compete with Apple in the itunes, ipod & ipad space, yet these products could be improved upon.
There are too many me-toos companies, spending their time waiting for what apple does and then copying them. *note Samsung Lawsuit*
