The Gadgets Page

WinAmp is an MP3 player that you can download for free on the Internet. It plays your MP3s and allows you to rate them.

• Winamp.com: Media Player, Skins, Plug-ins, Videos, Songs, Riffs, Jams, Grooves

The coolest thing about WinAmp, however is the Internet radio options. When you have installed WinAmp, you can push the button marked ML (for Media Library). It will pop open a window that will show your Media Library. To the left, you should see a section called Online Services. Choose that and then choose Shoutcast Radio. From there, you can choose from a ton of Internet radio stations.

If you have been missing the radio, but hate the non-stop commercials, then try WinAmp and find an Internet radio station that you enjoy. You’ll throw out that old FM receiver without reservation.

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is an acronynm that is thrown around a lot on the Internet, but the issues around it are very complicated. This is a brilliant little video that explains why DRM is not a good thing for consumers.

• A load of C.R.A.P. – At The Whiteboard – ZDNet

Sure, those songs and videos that you can download from Apple are only 99 cents, but you can’t play them on your Treo without jumping through a bunch of hoops. All those download services aren’t ready for Prime Time. Don’t waste your money on them.

While Mike and I were at SXSW in Austin, Texas, we stayed at the Austin Hilton Hotel right next to the conference. It’s the first time we’ve stayed at a Hilton Hotel since they have added the MP3 Player Clock Radio. I had heard about it, but I had never seen it.

It’s not like it’s a product that you can go into a store and buy, but I thought I would play with it during my stay. I wanted to see if it was easy to use. I wanted to know if the buttons really did what they said they did. I was curious about it because I had heard so much about it.

Do the buttons really do what they say they will do?

The clock radio has buttons on the top labeled classical, country, rock, jazz and MP3 respectively. I tried them all and each button actually played the genre of music that they were labeled with. I don’t know if that means that some employee had to program the radio stations for each of the buttons, but they DID work. The classical and jazz radio stations were really faint and static filled, but they played the music that the buttons advertised.

I tested the MP3 button with my Treo 650. It easily connects to any MP3 player with its headphone jack that sticks unceremoniously out the back. It doesn’t control the MP3 player, but it does amplify the music (or SXSW podcasts) loud enough to hear throughout the room. Unfortunately, you couldn’t set it to wake you up with the music on your MP3 player.

How does it sound?

If you’re an audiophile, you wouldn’t ask that question because you’d assume that it sounds like crap. So, if you want to know how it sounds, I have to give it a passing grade. It will make your music loud enough for everyone in the room (and even in the next room over) to hear. There is hardly any stereo separation. I tested it with Shellshock by New Order because I played that song so much as a teenager that I have memorized each moment in the song where it plays on one ear or the other. Unfortunately, it didn’t sound as good on this player as it does when I’m wearing headphones. It sounds better than mono, though.

The Hilton Hotel MP3 Player is a pretty cool machine. It looks like a normal clock radio, but if you want to jam out to your tunes without ear buds, it helps you out. Now, you don’t have to pack speakers in your luggage so that everyone can enjoy the music.

The Brookstone Sound Therapy Eye Mask looks like a good idea at first glance. Not only does it block out the light in the room when you are sleeping but your partner isn’t, it will block out the noise for you by playing nature sounds or connecting to your MP3 player and playing music. The 30-minute automatic shut off ensures that you won’t be startled awake when your music player finishes playing the soothing sounds of Brahms and moves on to your Metallica collection.

Usually when it comes to items from Brookstone, it’s the price that sends me packing, but at $40, I’ve paid more for headphones before, so the price didn’t scare me away. What scared me away was this phrase:

Uses an AC adapter (included) or 3 AAA batteries (not included).

I forgot that there would be circuitry in there. Sure, that’s essential when you’re talking about nature sounds or headphone jacks. The question that came to my mind was, “How am I going to wash that thing?” Anyone who has owned an eye mask knows that they start to smell a little funky after awhile and need a good washing frequently. With all that circuitry, I fear that I would eventually stop using this very expensive and plush eye mask because it would start to smell.

That’s a shame because I was actually excited about this product. Maybe the next version will have a REMOVEABLE soft velour covering.

Via: Shiny Shiny – Sound Therapy Eye Mask

Headphones are a crap shoot everytime I try them. The Logitech Curve Headphones have piqued my interest, however.

They are shown both with the earloops and without. I would probably need the earloops because nothing seems to stay in place for me when I’m running on the treadmill. They are supposed to be made of extremely light weight plastic so they don’t weigh heavy on your ears. Most importantly, they come in Lime Green, which is my favorite color of the decade. They also come in clear and graphite if you prefer more tasteful coloring.

I haven’t tried these, but they are next on my list on the quest for the perfect set of headphones while I’m exercising. I’ve yet to find the ultimate listening devices, but I keep searching.

Via: Shiny Shiny: Logitech Sports Headphones

I found Pandora through a blog of my friend, Braidwood. She was posting about how much she loved it and I had no idea what it was. It didn’t take me long to get up to speed.

Pandora is a free Internet Radio service that creates radio stations based on music you already like. You can create a radio station based on a song or an artist. Their selection of artists isn’t infinite, but their program was able to formulate a few really listenable stations based on combinations of artists I love. It took a little guiding to get them working like I want, but after that, all I have to do is log into Pandora and start playing. It even remembers which station and volume setting I was using last.

The free version has commercials (see the picture of Mozart to the right). They are NOT audio commercials, which was what finally made me stop listening to regular radio stations. Sometimes it seemed like there was more commercial air-time than music air-time on my local radio stations. Pandora is the perfect replacement for radio. It plays me good music that I have never heard before. My wish list at Amazon is very quickly filling up with new music.

I thought that I might have trouble with choppy music because it’s streaming music. I didn’t want to listen to online music if I was going to keep pausing and breaking up. I’d rather listen to the static and commercials on the radio. I haven’t had any problems with streaming speed and it only pauses when my computer is doing something incredibly busy (I tend to multi-task). It seems to run very efficiently on my computer and laptop.

What I’d Like To See Pandora Have:

• An indicator that says how far along in a song I am.

• A way to clarify WHY I don’t like a song, such as “I don’t want songs with vocals” or “Electronic only please, no guitars.” I have no idea how they would program for that, but I would really like that feature.

Via: Braidwood’s (B)log: Pandora Speaks

Mike and I have commented before about the difficulty of finding good headphones for exercising. The big versions tend to hurt me somewhere on my ears or have foam that disintegrates under the abuse of sweat. The earbuds tend to fall out when I’m running.

Mike and I tested the E3G headphones at the Shure booth at CES. They offered disposable covers for the earbuds (the yellow part), so I was able to give them a real test. I tried them both ways: over my ear and just inserted into my ear.

After inserting them, I jumped around and jogged in place trying to recreate the movement that makes all earbuds fall out of my ears. After an embarrassing romp around the booth, it seems that no matter how I put them in my ears they would stay. I didn’t work up a sweat, so I don’t know how the squishy bits that fit into the ear canal would survive it, but they were able to stay in place, which is important.

When Mike tried them, he was completely unable to hear me talk to him. If he wasn’t looking at me, he couldn’t even tell. They blocked out the ambient noise of the convention floor extremely well. So well, that I wouldn’t recommend these headphones if you exercise outdoors. You wouldn’t be able to hear cars or muggers and it might leave you vulnerable. Use them at home or in the gym only.

My only problem is that at $199, these headphones are easily four times what I’m willing to pay. Amazon has them for $179, but I have such a hard time shelling out that much money for something that I could accidentally lose at the gym. I was really impressed with them, but I don’t trust myself not to lose them.

This section of The NextGen Home Experience featured products from the following companies: Hewlett Packard, Klipsch Speakers, Aaragon Amplifier, Tripplite Power Protection, Life|Touch Screens, Vantage Lighting, Lafayette Window Shades, DSC Security, Xbox 360, Empower Media Chairs and Microsoft XP Media Center Edition.

Zone 9 – The Wall by the Living Room

This was YET ANOTHER Life|Touch Screen on the wall. A house this small does NOT need that many fully functioning Windows Media Center units, but this is the most “pimped” house in Las Vegas, so they had to have another one on the wall. There wasn’t a demonstrator there to show us this one, thankfully. We hurried past it to get a seat on the couch in the living room.

Zone 10 – The Living Room

Unfortunately for the Microsoft employee showcasing this section, the computer decided to do a software security update and reboot in the middle of his presentation. One of the people in our group was being a complete jerk to the employee and I called him on it. Whenever I do this, I always expect to be punched in the nose, but it has never happened. The guy was very polite for the rest of the tour. Soon, the computer rebooted and it worked like a dream.

This part of the tour really showcased Windows Media Center. It includes a full featured personal digital recorder (like a TIVO) without having to pay a monthly fee. That was enough to tempt me to buy an HP computer instead of a DVD player the next time ours goes out. He also showed us how to look for music, family photos and such with Media Center. Most importantly, he did it all with a remote control, not a mouse and keyboard.

This software is almost to the point where it would be feasible for Mike’s dad to have something like this. It’s not quite ready for my mom, but Mike’s dad would think this was really cool. Me? I pretty much have all those capabilities already, I just don’t watch TV on my computer. I don’t actually watch television much anymore, so I guess that’s not a fair assessment.

The tour guide for Zone 10 said nothing about the speakers or the window shades that were opening and closing when the computer rebooted. I just laughed to myself.

Zone 11 – Game Room

Zone 10 was dedicated to the Xbox. By now, they were really trying to hurry us out there and didn’t leave us much time to ask questions. There were two lounge chairs equipped with speakers (and I suspect vibrated to the game), but we didn’t hear anything about them. The focus was on the Xbox 360, which has Windows Media Center Extender built into it. All the things that we could do from those Life|Touch Screens and the fancy HP computers with Plasma screens, we could do on the Xbox 360. The demonstrator showed us a clip from a game and sent us on our way.

I must admit that the new Xbox 360 system looks easier to use and more powerful than the original Xbox. In our house right now, we use our Xbox to play games and watch DVDs, so 90% of what we do with the television is handled by the Xbox. To see the Xbox 360 with even more capability is very exciting.

This section of The NextGen Home Experience featured products from several companies: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, Hewlett Packard Computers, Life|Touch Screens, TMIO Intelligent Ovens, Brizo Pascal Faucets, GE Appliances, ZON Audio Controllers, Vantage Lighting and Microtherm SEISCO Tankless Water Heater.

They packed so many computers and gadgets into this small manufactured home, that it was really overkill, but it was still fun to see all that could be done:

Zones 1 & 2 – The Entry and Dining Room

Out on the porch, there was a network camera, so from the Life|Touch Screen, we could check to see who was at the door. The $15 spyhole has been replaced with $8000 of machinery. Of course, you can also check who’s at the door from the bedroom, so that’s what’s so cool about that. You can also open and close the blinds and curtains, choose music from your MP3 collection, show television shows that your system has recorded for you, and adjust the temperature of the house. The Life|Touch Screens aren’t just little LCD screens on your wall that connect to a Windows Media Center PC, they are a Windows Media Center PC themselves.

In the dining room, they had an HP Plasma HDTV on the wall that displayed art. Of course, it could replay television shows, play movies or music from your collection. As you can see, of all the art they showed us, Mike preferred the penguins.

Zones 3-6 – Kitchen

We had already seen a computer in the entry and a computer in the dining room. They opened the kitchen cupboard to reveal yet another HP computer. I would have put the phone book in that cabinet and walked the extra couple of feet to the home office, but that’s just me.

There were touchless faucets that turned on automatically. We happened to be touring with a man who kept asking, “What happens if the power goes out?” about EVERY product that was being demonstrated. He lived in an area that experienced brownouts and blackouts on a regular basis, so all of this “House of the Future… er… Today” stuff seemed unwise to him. The people manning the house were from Intel, so they couldn’t tell us what would happen if the power went out and you wanted to turn on the water. They couldn’t even tell us if the water would start running if the power went out.

There was another Life|Touch Screen in the kitchen. It was grimy with fingerprints and I had the vision of what it would look like in a house with three kids. After only a day of children accessing their favorite songs and looking to see who’s at the door, even if no one rang the doorbell, I could imagine a far messier touch screen. It made me unwilling to put one in my house.

By far, the coolest thing in the kitchen was the TMIO Intelligent Oven. You can put dinner in the oven before you go to work. It will refrigerate the dinner until it’s time to cook it, then turn on the oven and cook your meal.

The guy in our group asked his question, “What happens if the power goes out?” Without missing a beat, the gentleman showing the oven said that if it’s a short amount of time, the oven goes back to its routine of either refrigerating or cooking. If the power goes out for a long time, it will fail-safe to refrigeration. The cool thing is that if you’re at work and the oven had fail-safed to refrigeration, you could reset it from their website or call their system on the telephone and reset it to cook correctly.

It doesn’t need Windows Media Center to run, it has its own system and just needs to connect to the Internet with a cable or wireless connection. Hands down, it was the coolest thing I saw in the NextGen house.

Zones 7 & 8 – The Utility Room

There was no one in this area to tell us what to look at. There was a washer and dryer there from GE and some other equipment. The only thing we noticed that we thought was cool was the SEISCO Microtherm Tankless Water Heater.

We had seen one of these at the cabin in Island Park, Idaho. Instead of a water heater that heated a tank of water that could run out with six of us showering, the cabin had a tankless water heater like this one that heated the water as it ran through it. I have no idea how it works, but it worked like a dream in that cabin. I kind of wish there had been a guide in the utility room that could have explained that technology to us. As far as I know, it’s magic.

Zones 1-8 Wrapup

With so many questions from us and the people in our group, it was understandable why the wait for the tour was two hours long. It took us a full hour and a half to get through the house. In Zones 1-8, the coolest thing was the TMIO Oven. There were so many things that the demonstrator showed us, we were really impressed. The truth of the matter is, we rarely use our oven for cooking dinner and the TMIO seemed like a really impressive crockpot to me. I didn’t see anything in zones 1-8 that I would install in my house. Sadly, I might not even use them if I moved into a house with all those gadgets, except the water heater. I love the idea of being able to shower as long as I want.

The CES NextGen Home Experience had a two hour wait to go through it. Engadget felt like it wasn’t worth the wait.

• The future is not air conditioned – and we’ll take a pass – Engadget

Unlike, Engadget, we thought it was worth it to go through the “Home of the Future,” even though they kept telling us that this is NOT the home of the future. It’s the home of today and every product on demonstration is available today. This week, we’ll share all the new and coolest gadgets we saw in the Home of the Future… er… Today at CES.