Cleveland - yesterday Microsoft unveiled it's new gaming system, the Xbox One. It is much more than a gaming system actually. We've been watching these consoles morph into a hybrid content provider over the past few years. The Xbox One is the next step.
After looking over the hype of the product on the Microsoft link above let's read some in depth analysis shall we. Here's The New York Times weighing in on the competition around the corner, Next Xbox Will Face New Array of Rivals.
CNET pits the Xbox One next to its two main competitors, Xbox One vs. PS4 vs. Wii U. Which makes the most sense for your wants and needs?
It'll be interesting to see how the consumer market will react. Unlike Apple TV which runs $99, the Xbox One costs hundreds of dollars. Sure, it does more than stream content but can a gaming device become the focal point of a home theater? Especially considering you can buy cheap apps and game on an iPad while many hardcore gamers are going to PC-based gaming platforms for faster speed.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - Internet radio won't kill traditional terrestrial radio until you can stream it in your car without incurring heavy data usage through 3 and 4g. If your work commute takes an hour, round trip, and you stream internet radio from the smart phone while it's plugged into the car stereo you'll easily max out your monthly data usage. At that point your provider either starts charging you more or turns your streaming pipe down to a trickle.
There's two ways we'll get wi-fi everywhere. Either through some massive network available to all, which seems unlikely in the US where AT&T and Verizon will fight tooth and nail to prevent it. The other way is for each person to acquire some sort of personal hot spot or tethered device.
Yesterday's New York Times delves into the possibilities, pointing out that it's getting easier and cheaper to do it, Keeping Wi-Fi Always Within Range.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - I said yesterday that Google may be introducing a streaming music service, beating Apple to the punch. Well, they did just that.
No one's had enough time to tinker with the new service from Google Music, All Access but leave it up to bloggers to be the first to weigh in. Lifehacker breaks down, as best they can, Google's All Access compared to some of the other services like Spotify and Rdio, Google Music All Access: Should It Be Your New Streaming Service?.
As I said yesterday, I'm not about to jump the Spotify ship for this new service, holding out hope that Apple's may be just around the corner. Besides I'm happy with Spotify for the most part.
I'll be curious to see the reviews after some hands on experience. And I wonder if any of the big missing artists that aren't on Spotify like Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin are on All Access.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - The Google Developers Conference begins today at noon time here in Cleveland. Google Glass will probably be the hot topic, but CNBC is reporting that a streaming music may be in the works as well.
As an Apple guy I'm not too happy about this. I've been hoping for a long time now that we'd see a streaming music service from them and now Google has beaten them to the punch.
Even if the Google streaming service is launched I'm going to stick with Spoitify for now. For one, I have a good amount of time vested in compiling playlists. And I'm still hoping that Apple, the once visionary company, takes off its blinders and sees that the future is streaming music and not the iTunes store.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - Recently I wrote about the difficulties of tying all these new-fangled, gee-whiz home technologies together into a cohesive user experience. The smart home is in reach of many more, but without some sort of umbrella system that'll take control it's confusing and exhausting.
We at K+ Integration Systems place our faith in Crestron. The New Jersey based company has been in the business for decades, long before most even knew this sort of technology was out there. Crestron is, without doubt, the best at making a smart home functional and, quite frankly, fabulous.
The Crestron experience is seamless, a thing of beauty. Attaining this sort of sophistication takes some very complex programming behind the scenes or "at the back end" as we say in the business. That sort of wizardry comes with a price. Crestron isn't for the masses but those who can afford it find that they can't live without it.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - Yesterday I wrote about installing a NAS drive to your home entertainment system, Adding a NAS device to your computer creates a digital library of entertainment. It seems a number of my readers were either interested in getting one or already employ the device. Personally, I can't think of a reason to use one on my system.
Ok, you'd use a NAS drive to stream some sort of content to internet-enabled devices. The content could include music files, any sort of video and photos. The devices would be smart phones, tablets, laptops, PCs and TVs.
Let's take my collection of mp3s. I have an external hard drive attached to my MAC which contains over 500 gigs of music. There's a dupicate hard drive stored in my closet as back up. I also have about 20,000 songs on the internal MAC hard drive. Those 20,000 songs are loaded into iTunes and, since I subscribe to iTunes Match, also reside in iCloud. The MAC soundcard is connected to my distributed audio system just as you would a CD player. If I want to play any one of those 20,000 songs I can trigger it from iTunes on the MAC or using the Apple Remote app on my iPhone or iPad. That means I can choose songs from anywhere in the house or on my gazebo.
That external hard drive with over 500 gigs of music has been set up for another iTunes library. There's an option in iTunes that allows you to set up a second iTunes that won't import the songs onto the internal hard drive. If I want to listen to any of those songs I open that itunes library and control it just the same as the iTunes I described previously.
Quite frankly, I rarely listen to music off of either of my iTunes libraries, opting instead to stream music from Spotify. Spotify gives me the option of adding any mp3 files of my own into its app so I have those 20,000 songs on the MAC hard drive loaded. The 500 gigs of music is dwarfed by what's available on Spotify. And I can control it anywhere in the house using a third party app called "Remoteless".
I don't store any videos. I don't see the point of collecting movies. They're not like music which is just as rewarding with repeated lsitenings. Once you see most movies there's no reason to watch them again. And on that rare occasion you can rent it.
The only reason I can see for using a NAS is if I were rip some of my 8,000 CDs onto it without any compression. That way I'd have the convenience of digital without a loss of sound quality. That's a lot of work when I can just as easily pull a CD from my library and play it throughout my house.
There's also Apple Airplay which allows me to stream any content from my MAC, iPhone or iPad onto my home theater system. This is simply achieved by using the $99 Apple TV.
So you tell me. Why would I need a NAS? Here's the only NAZZ I need.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - If you have a large library of mp3 files or movies that reside
on your desk top PC you may just want to add a NAS (network-attached
storage) device. It's like an external hard drive that also acts as a
local area network (LAN) streaming box capable of sending music of
movies to any device on that LAN.
In other words, you can have Goodfellas stored on the NAS and be able to watch it on your iPad, a network-enabled TV or a laptop. It works for both PC and MAC products though, as a MAC user, it isn't as magical as Airplay, nor as neccessary if you use Airplay.
Cleveland - Amazon's Jeff Bezos is the most important and yet relatively
unknown figure in today's online world. I'd rank him right behind the
late Steve Jobs. So, yeah, the most important person today, moreso than
Mark Zuckerberg. Amazon is amazing. If you don't have an Amazon
Premium account you don't know how it'll change the way you think about
shopping.
So we've heard lately how Amazon is getting into the television production business. The same way Netflix has done with original programming like House of Cards, Lilyhammer and, next month, Arrested Development. Now there's rumor of a streaming media box to join the ranks of Apple TV, Roku, and the Xbox.
Cleveland - Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) technology is the future of TV but when will it come to market? Actually it did a few years ago when Sony was selling a 11-12" display for thousands of dollars. That doesn't count. I'm talking larger sizes and smaller, mobile sizes.
The problem has been two-fold. Life expectancy of the display and failure rate off the assembly line. Word is the Samsung Glaxay Note 3 will use OLED. This is big as the screen won't break. I'm not kidding. Check out this video.
There's rumor that we may see large size OLED TVs hit the street in the next few months. The thing is they told us that last year. They've got to perfect the technology. And once they are available they'll be very expensive. Still, it makes one excited for the future of TV, much more so than 3D or 4K.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - I had an inquiry from a reader yesterday who asked me about boosting their wi-fi signal. It seems they had Time Warner install a cable and internet package. The Internet connection works fine but the built-in wi-fi in the cable company router did not cover the entire house
It's a common issue with my customers who live in large houses. If we're doing a whole home project I've learned from experience to abandon their existing router and wi-fi set up and simply add a new one to my design. That way I'm more assured of avoiding problems that may arise from a weak wi-fi signal.
There's many ways to boost a weak wi-fi signal with an array of extenders and access points from companies like Belkin, Netgear and Linksys. I suggested the reader look into an access point from Cisco. Though a bit more expensive they are more reliable.
And even though I haven't had any experience with the Securifi Almond, after reading David Pogue's write up on the product, Wi-Fi for Every Room in the Home, I'm thinking this might be a great choice for the non-tech saavy of you.
If you're an Apple household, like me, the Apple Airport Express is your answer. It just plugs into an AC outlet and has very little set up.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
