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.

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.

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.

Simple Energy Conservation

Awhile ago I was talking to my dad and the topic of energy bills came up. We both live in places that are roughly the same size and in the same climate (he's about 7 miles from me). He was surprised at how much lower my bill was than his; mine includes gas and electric and his only electric. We started to figure out the differences. I have gas hot water, his hot water isn't included in his bill (he pays it via his HOA dues). I have a gas range, he has an electric range. I have gas heat; he has electric in wall heaters. Neither of us has air conditioning. Since it is the summer, heat could be ruled out and cooking is pretty minor in terms of overall use.

What were the big differences? We started to think and determined that it is probably the computers. My parents each have an iMac that they leave on all the time whereas my wife and I each have a laptop that we put to sleep. In addition, I turn off power strips when not using them and have other powerstrips with timers on them.

So my father decided to turn off his computers and other equipment at night. The first thing he noticed is that there are days that he doesn't even turn on his computer; he uses his iPhone or iPad to do what he needs to do. When his next bill came, he told me that he saved at least $10. This may not sound like a lot, but that's over a 10% savings. He's still not down to my level (could be the TiVo or his stereo amplifier as we don't have a music system in our house right now), it is encouraging.

We're lucky that we live in a very temperate climate and that our energy bills are so low; I was talking to some people last month that live in the southeast and my <50 a month bill was peanuts compared to their $400-$500/month bill due to have to heat and cool their houses.

What if other people started doing simple conservation things like this? It would not only be a nice cost savings, but it could lead to being able to turn off a power plant. Who knows.