LAUG 2.0 News

Continuing along with my recent theme of great iPod accessories, my handiest unexpectedly brilliant iPod accessory is the earPod.

I love my Etymotic Research, Inc. - ER•6i Isolator Earphones. However, like most iPod users, I hate the way my cord constantly gets tangles and develops damaging knots. I’ve tried all sorts of methods of properly storing them. The earPod is the only one I’ve seen that fixes this.

The earPod is approximately one inch think and three inches across. It reminds me of a mini “moon pie”. . earPods are made out of a hard plastic and in my experience are virtually indestructible. I’ve thrown mine at the bottom of luggage and stepped on it countless times with zero damage. After a year of using my earPod, I’ve had no cracks or damage to the plastic. With some earbud style headphones costing as much as $500, protection like this is a must. Those little “pouches” expensive headphones come in are a joke.

To use the earPod to store your earbuds, you slip the top of the case off its hinge. The process is extremely easy once you get the hang of it and can easily be done with one hand. Inside the earPod is a think foam that cushions your earpod and collects some of the wax that invariably develops on the earbuds.

Once the earbuds are inside you slip the top of the case back and lock it in place. You then simply wrap the cord around the earPod and then just slip the headphone jack within the wrapped cord. It’s quick and easy to load and unload. It even includes a beltclip.

Pros: Perfectly protects your earbud style headphones.
Cons: Absolutely none!

5 out of 5 dogcows

Click on the word earPod for more information at Amazon’s website.

Solio Charger

Solio one of the more intriguing booths at Macworld, a product that lets you charge your iPod or other device anywhere you can get sunlight…or so the theory goes. I read the instructions carefully that you should first charge the Solio via the wall.

I kept it in my car and two months later my iPod’s battery drained while I was driving. No problem, I charged my iPod via the Solio. I’m not sure how long it took to charge, but I went into a client and about 2 hours later it was ready to go. I fully let the Solio drain and then I tried to charge it via the sun. I did the charging during June and put it on my dashboard while driving. After about 4 days in the intense Kansas sun, it only had half a charge. Granted, I was able to charge my iPod enough to drive back from Topeka, but after 4 days or almost 32 hours of direct sunlight, I expected more of a charge. I was disappointed in its woeful ability to translate sunlight into iPod music.

The Solio also acts as a charger for some cell phones. My Samsung i500 smartphone wasn’t compatible, so I couldn’t test that function. I could easily see the Solio being handy to make an emergency call.

Generally, it was interesting, but for the amount it costs, I expected a better sunlight to energy ratio. Al Gore would not approve.

Pros: A good spare battery
Cons: Lousy solar charger. recommend buying a cellboost instead

2 out of five Dogcows

Is your music yearning to be set free? Sure, there’s your iPod, but sometimes it would be nice to sit on the couch and listen to your music on your home audio system with the same ease from the “old days” of doing nothing more then putting in a CD and hitting “play.”You may have tried Apple’s Airport Express, but tired of it the first time you realized that you had to get up and walk to another room in order to start the music. Slim Devices’ amazing third-generation Squeezebox solves this dilemma and in the process turns out to be a fun, simple, and revolutionary way to bridge a home stereo system with your Mac’s music library. The Squeezebox lets you control and listen to your music wirelessly from any place in your home via a nice-looking little piece of hardware that hooks up to your stereo.

The Squeezebox itself is small and elegant, about the size of paperback book. It comes with a small stand so it can rest on top of your stereo system or anywhere you have a few inches of shelf space. The design of the Squeezebox is Applesque in its minimalism, without any buttons and a beautiful blue screen which displays information on the current song and can be used (with the included remote) for navigating through your music library or viewing news headlines. As a nice touch, the display will even broadcast holiday and seasonal greetings, which was amusing except it was still wishing me a happy new year in mid-February!

The actual setup and use of the Squeezebox is easy. You use the included RCA cables to hook it to your stereo, and then follow the guided setup with the remote. You will need to enter data such as your wireless network’s name and password (if any), but these steps are very easy thanks to the setup assistant. You also need to have a computer that actually holds the music library (the Squeezebox itself doesn’t store your music; the music streams from your Mac). Setting up the Squeezebox software on the Mac is a piece of cake, and it will automatically scan your iTunes music library and import all your playlists. Once this initial setup is done, you are ready to listen to music. You can navigate, play and control everything from the Squeezebox itself using the remote control, or if you wish you can manage the tunage from your Mac (or any other Mac in the house) using a simple Web interface. The web interface gives you a lot of power; you can create and manage playlists, set preferences, and if you pride yourself on your geekiness, delve into a plethora of highly technical and fully customizable settings.

If you have an Airport Express, you may wonder why the Squeezebox commands double the price to do roughly the same thing. There are many advantages to the Squeezebox over the Airport Express, especially for audiophiles. The Squeezebox has both a remote control and a display, so it can be controlled from your living room without making you walk over to the computer in order to do something as basic as switch tracks or pause the music. Another advantage of the Squeezebox is that it plays a much wider variety of music types then the Airport Express, including FLAC, Window Media, and OGG. It can even automatically connect to numerous internet radio streams directly from the Squeezebox! The device itself also features an optical output for connection to higher-end audio equipment and can have its built-in software upgraded automatically to support more features in the future. I would also like to add that Slim Devices’ support is phenomenal. They have a very thorough web site, with excellent and responsive technical support, and an active user community, a nice change from Apple’s sometimes truculent support.

With so many superlatives,it is difficult to find any negative aspects to the Squeezebox, but unfortunately, a few things stood out. Navigating through a large music library using the remote and Squeezebox itself (as opposed to doing it on the computer) can be slow and and the web interface, while powerful, doesn’t have the polish of a native OS X application like iTunes. Worse, whenever I added new music to my library, the Perl process used by the Squeezebox software churned away using some 80% of my processor for several minutes at a time. I also noticed rare music dropouts while listening to the Squeezebox, although to be fair I was using an 802.11b wireless network rather then the faster 802.11g. Finally,the Squeezebox will not play copy-protected music downloaded from the Apple music store; keep in mind that this limitation is Apple’s fault (for not licensing their copy protection), not Slim Devices’.

Those small areas of criticism are minor compared to the amazingly powerful pluses of the Squeezebox. This device is truly revolutionary,and it will give you the ability to enjoy your Mac-managed music library on your stereo system anywhere you wish. If you want to listen to your digital music library on a home audio system, “Squeezebox” is the only thing you need to know.

Pros: Amazing feature set, plays a wide variety of music formats, beautiful and elegant, excellent support.
Cons: Navigation and performance quirks, won’t play copy-protected tracks.

http://www.slimdevices.com/
$249 - $299

4 out of 5 dog cows

How many times have you been traveling and your iPod flashes low battery? One of the fatal flaws I believe of the iPod is the inability to change batteries when they run down. My old Nomad took AA batteries, so if I couldn’t recharge them, I could run to the drugstore and get a few hours of use.

Cellboost makes a iPod battery pack that claims 8 hour of usage. It attaches on the bottom of the iPod on the docking port and it’s the size of a 9-volt sized battery. In my personal tests, I got 4-6 hours of usage from the battery, but I was using the iTrip transmitter, which I know drains the battery quickly. The cellboost costs slightly more than the average pack of batteries and some drugstores even carry them. Every health club should sell these for people that forget to charge their iPod before a workout.

I know keep one in my car for those times my battery runs down and I don’t have a laptop. If you rely on your iPod for an extended time away from a charging source, keep a few of these around.

Pros: Does exactly what it says.
Cons: None.

5 out of 5 dog cows

Do you know how much damage the average window cleaner can do to your computer? The ammonia can take the finish of your case and the glare coating off your monitor. Not only is window cleaner harmful, it doesn’t protect the computer from static. Best of all, you spray too much, and liquid gets in and damages your components.

Unlike window or all purpose cleaner, IKlear is designed specifically to clean Apple products: iMacs, iBooks, iPods, etc. They have premeasured wipes you can carry with you anytime and anywhere. No overspray damage and an outstanding cleaning that lasts.

Their product line is recommended, endorsed and sold by Apple. Outstanding product I’ve used personally for years.

Pros: Perfect cleaner for you Mac.
Cons: A bit pricey.

5 out of 5 dog cows

A-1 was kind enough to donate a iKeychain for a Nano and Shuffle for door prize and review. I tried these out for a few days with my shuffle and it’s really an innovative concept. I used to keep a USB flash drive on my key-chain, but would never consider doing that with a Shuffle due to it’s lack of a keychain clip and my general fear of damaging it. Sure a new Shuffle’s only $100 or so, and this case is 1/3 the cost—but having traveled lots let me tell you having to listen to the passenger next to you drone on about their various medical problems—-knowing you have a working iPod in such situations is priceless.

These aren’t your typical iPod cases. They are made of lightweight aluminum and their website shows video of it being run over by a truck and surviving. I’m not surprised! There are two design flaws I see with the shuffle version. First, because of the magnets, they claim you shouldn’t use it near “floppy disks and hard drives” which makes it difficult to hook up to your computer. Also, it requires you to take it out of the case in order to hook it up to your computer. It only takes a second to remove the case and you wouldn’t want the magnets that close to the computer. It’s an annoyance and not a big deal, but I probably wouldn’t use this as my main case. The Nano’s version‘s flaw is it doesn’t protect the screen directly. If a truck did run over your Nano, I suspect the screen might suffer some scratches. These, however, are minor flaws to an otherwise great product.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone that tends to be rough on equipment. If you drop your cell phone, the iKeychain is the case for you. Because this has a keychain loop, it can be hooked not only to your keychain (I don’t think anyone will be hooking a Nano to their keychain) but to a backpack, purse, or suitcase. The hook allows you to secure your iPod and prevent it from getting lost or generally knocked around. In other words, perfect for the kid’s iPod. If I were traveling with my iPod, I’d get one of these cases to make sure my iPod wasn’t stolen or dropped in the mad dash to catch a flight. Again, highly recommended iPod case!

Pros: Unquestionable protection for your iPod. Perfect for people with “dropsys”.
Cons: Device protection causes minor logistical problems.

4 out of 5 dog cows

For anyone that is on the lookout for wireless hotspots, this is thetool. Unlike the old-style wi-fi detectors that simply show you a signal, the Canary Hotspotter gives you important details about the hot spot. I can’t tell you the number of times my old wi-fi detector told me there was a network, only for me to find out later that it required a password or was otherwise locked.

The Hotspotter not only tells you whether there is a wi-fi signal and its strength, but the name of the network (so you know if you are seeing the coffeehouse or the people living above it), and most important, whether it’s password protected. If it’s password protected, no need to stop for coffee and pull out your laptop if you can’t use the network there. (note that some places charge for access, which lets you on their network,but require you to login to connect).

I also use this device in homes sometimes to find out which part of the room has the best signal. This helps you know where to place a booster device such as an Airport Express Base Station. My major complaint is that the Canary Hotspotter is not terribly ergonomic. It doesn’t fit well in my bag and is way too big for a keychain. It might work well on a purse strap. Unfortunately,my batteries run out quickly on the device if I’m not careful, because the button often gets pressed accidentally while it’s in my laptop bag. What is it: A simple device that is the “better mousetrap” for wi-fi detectors.

Pros: Finds wireless networks you can actually use!
Cons: Poor ergonomics make it difficult to carry in a laptop bag.

4 out of 5 dog cows

This product is described as a “TiVo for Radio.” It consists of a striking shark-fin-shaped USB device and software. When I first heard of the radioSHARK, over a year ago, it was just what I was looking for. I placed an order on the Griffin Web site and was told that the product would be shipped within the following month.

Apparently, the development of the product took a little longer than anticipated and I didn’t receive mine until a whole year later. I plugged the “fin” into my Indigo iMac G3 (running Jaguar) and installed the software. It was fun to play with but I had trouble with the scheduled recording function and setting the target directory preference. Just recently, however, I upgraded my iMac to Panther and ran the Check for Update… option within the software. Now, everything works swimmingly. I’m not sure which update made the difference but I highly recommend you run the updater as soon as you install the software.

The software has many features including AM/FM listening, station seeking, instant recording, scheduled recording, audio equalizer, time shifting and multiple preset options. The system records radio broadcasts as audio files in either the AIFF (uncompressed) or AAC formats. The interface is as easy to use as a car radio and can even sport custom colors. Recording in the AIFF file format uses about 10MB per minute and the ACC option provide you with several quality/compression options. Now I can zone out to my favorite space music program and capture a recording of it for later.