• Nov 9, 2012

    Review: Une Bobine

    As some that read this blog know, I'm still in the pursuit of a good stand for my iPhones. While I do most of my iOS development using the simulator, there are times when I need to test on an actual device, a stand comes in handy. I've backed a number of Kickstarter projects for stands, but have generally not been pleased. The last project I backed was the Une Bobine. This "stand" is a flexible iPhone cable wrapped in a metal coil that retains it shape.

    When I first saw this, I thought it was a great way to be able to position the iPhone and have it connected to my computer. When it arrived, I was quite pleased with the workmanship and the utility. It allows my iPhone to sit at a decent height and makes it easy to access all the controls.

    It is a unique design where the only thing that holds up the iPhone is the connector at the bottom. This, however, is what I consider its design flaw. The bottom connector wasn't designed to take stress. The Une Bobine could put a significant amount of stress on the internal parts of the iPhone dock connector. At this point, I'm not too concerned with this as I use it with my test iPhones and if the connector happens to break, I can take it apart and not worry about it.

    Pros

    • Unique design.
    • Very flexible.

    Cons

    • Connector could cause extra stress on the dock connector.
    • Only works with the dock connector (doesn't work with the iPhone 5 except with some wacky plastic that they now sell).
    • A bit expensive.

    Summary

    While this "stand" is going to work for me for development purposes, I'm not sure I'd buy it again. If the bottom connector somehow cradled the phone to reduce stress and possibly allowed the use of the Lightning connector, I might reconsider. I'm still in the pursuit of a decent cradle and having seen some of my co-workers cradles, I'm going to investigate much simpler stands that are already on the market so that I can read reviews before making a purchase.

  • Nov 9, 2012

    Review: Logitech Squeezebox Radio

    A number of years ago, I installed a whole house audio system and used the Squeezebox series of devices as audio sources. When we moved into a rental six months ago, we pretty much stopped listening to music in the house as it just wasn't convenient. I had seen the Squeezebox Radio come across on Slickdeals for an open box, but I didn't act on it in time. About a month ago, I saw on Slickdeals that Office Depot was closing out the boxes, so I acted quickly and purchased the last one at the local Office Depot.

    I setup the radio for my wife and she took to it almost immediately. I thought is was interesting enough that I bought a second one (I had to goto another Office Depot) to use as a clock. Unfortunately, this one had a problem with WiFi. I asked my wife if I should just return it or find another one. She said to get as many as I could as it was cool; I didn't need any additional encouragement, so I found another Office Depot with 2 more units (a poster on Office Depot was nice enough to post a link to an inventory checker).

    We now have 3 radios connected to our Squeezebox server that has all our music on it; I already had a Mac mini running the server from before we moved, so setup was a breeze. The interface on the boxes is easy to use and produces decent music (it has a mono speaker). We're listening to more music and we have one as a clock where we can listen to soothing sounds to put us to sleep.

    In our house, sometimes my wife is slow to adopt technology, but in this case, it took no time for her to embrace it. My 5 year old son also has learned to use it and find his music. I purchased batteries for 2 of the units so that they didn't have to be plugged in; this is huge as my son can take one in the mornings and listen to music so we can sleep a little longer.

    The only odd part of the radio is that its alarm clock functionality is controlled by the server. In order to reduce power usage, my server turns off at night and turns on in the morning. When the server is off, the alarm clock won't work. I could, however, point the radio to the My Squeezebox service and set alarms there, but it would make things harder for my son in the morning. (The radio can point to a local server or the My Squeezebox service; this can make things confusing as alarms could be in both places, but the alarms only work when the radio is pointed to the right place.)

    Pros

    • Easy to setup.
    • Portable.
    • Easy to use.
    • Decent sound quality.
    • Can play local music, Pandora or Slacker.

    Cons

    • No longer available. (There is a replacement, but Logitech seems to be moving away from the local Squeezebox Server.)
    • Alarms don't work when the server is turned off.
    • Mono speaker.

    Summary

    The Logitech Squeezebox Radio is a great product for us as music is a part of our daily lives. For anyone that already has a Squeezebox setup, it is a worthwhile addition if you can still find the radios for a decent price. I might have gone overboard getting 3 of them, but they are integrating well into our life and making it more tolerable to live in a rental. Once we do find our perfect house, I'll put in a whole house audio and while the radios will have less utility, we'll still have a use for them.

  • Oct 31, 2012

    UPS Sensitivity

    In a post I wrote yesterday, I commented that the new display I got kept causing my UPS to click on and off. I got so fed up with it yesterday that I unplugged the display. The problem still happened, so I unfairly blamed the display. After considering getting a new UPS idea, I came across a [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS4d-UNkE8o) which explains how to change the sensitivity on my APC BE750G UPS. I made the change and so far, so good. I even turned on my printer which normally caused the behavior and haven't heard it clicking.

    I'm not sure what changed to cause this new behavior, but I'm please that I may have found a solution.

  • Oct 30, 2012

    First look: Apple Thunderbolt Display

    Today, a 27" Apple Thunderbolt Display showed up on my doorstep and while I've only used it for a few hours, there are a few things that make it a dream display.

    First off, it's 27 inches (diagonal)! This is huge; my last display was 24 inches and the first TV I bought myself was 27 inches and I watched that at 10 feet away. The resolution is 2560x1440 which is a lot more than the 1920x1200 I had before. It may not seem like a lot, but the extra real estate (especially vertical) lets me use the iPhone simulator for the iPhone 5 without scaling. This alone, makes it worth getting a huge display.

    Second, the Thunderbolt connector means that I've gone from plugging in power, display, Ethernet, FireWire 800, and USB down to power and Thunderbolt as I plug Ethernet into the display as well as USB and FireWire 800. This is effectively the docking station that Apple hasn't made since the Duo Dock (I've wanted a dock since I started using a laptop as my primary machine many years ago).

    Third, I had my machine connected to my old display using a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI connector which handled audio as well as video. The problem was that in this configuration, the sound can only be controlled via the display and the display controls were pretty awful. Now, I can use the keyboard volume controls (and mute). I can also control the brightness with the keyboard.

    So far the only downside appears to be power consumption. We're in an old house with very few circuits in the house (pretty much everything is on one circuit). The display and part of my office is plugged into one outlet; I keep hearing my UPS cycle and I think that this is due to a slight voltage drop. Previously I've only heard this when I turned on the printer. Hopefully it won't be too annoying and I don't go insane before we move! Also, the display is quite warm and for awhile this afternoon, I could feel the heat a few inches away from it.

    While I was hoping for an updated display with USB 3.0, the only thing that would have gained me is faster backups to my Voyager Q. I can still hold out hope that Newer Technology adds Thunderbolt to the product.

    If I get around to it, I'll post a longer review in the future.