Going off FM radio

I’ve listened to the radio for most of my life and it’s pretty much been FM.  But for a number of years now, I’ve found that the quality of radio reception has been going down.  I think part of it is that radio tuners just do not work as well as they used to.   We have 3 clock radios in the house: kitchen, bedroom, sunroom.  All of them have become mostly unusable, losing the channel when you stand to close, picking up channels from elsewhere if you positioned the antenna wrong. 

Spurred on by the poor quality of my radios, I started looking around for alternatives.  Radio stations have been available on the web for a while now, but because of the need for a computer, it did not fit in to our domestic routine.  Recently Internet Radios have started to appear, the one that caught my attention was the Squeezebox Radio from Logitech.  It caught my attention, mainly because we’ve been using the classic squeezebox to stream our digital music to our tradition stereo for about 5 years now.

The Squeezebox radio looks a lot like a retro clock radio and when plugged into your network (either wirelessly or wired) it can operate just like a normal clock radio but with a whole lot of extra feature.  I ordered a squeezebox radio for the bedroom and simply loved it, so I ordered 2 more one for the kitchen and one for the sunroom, removed the old clock radios (I keep them tucked away just in case there is a network outage).

In this blog, I am just going to talk about the Squeezebox Radio as a standalone replacement for your existing clock radios.  In a future blog, I will talk about how much more the Squeezebox Radio is when part of a Squeezebox Server home media system.

Before I bought the Squeezebox Radio, I actually bought a different internet radio, it had all the features, plus the additional feature of also have a built FM tuner.  Never having used an internet radio I was cautious and thought having built FM would be useful.  Well! This was an example of how it’s not the spec list that is really important, but how it is implemented.  My first internet radio worked fine but it was a pain to use, every time I turned it on, I had to navigate to the one channel I always listened to, about 8 button clicks.  It would also drop the Wifi encryption every month or so and it would take 5 minutes, just as I was going to bed to connect it again.  This radio got recycled in less than 5 months.

The Squeezebox Radio on the other hand was a joy to use right out of the box and it has never lost the wifi encryption.  It is a solid well-built device, here’s my list of what I like about the squeezebox radio as a standalone replacement for your existing clock radio:

1)      Looks and feels like a clock radio, controls are familiar and easy to use

2)      Wonderful sound, deep and rich for such a small package

3)      Solid, well-built and stylish

4)      Plays local stations better than off air radio

5)      Also plays stations from around the world, internet only stations and most music services such as spotify

6)      More flexibility in terms of alarm options, display options

7)      Optional rechargeable battery and remote

Setting it up is fairly easy, you plug it into power and then connect it to the internet, either by physically or wirelessly.  Once it has a network connection you have full access to local and global radio stations as well as many other.  Your squeezebox radio actually connects up to mysqueezebox.com which is a cloud based server for all your squeezebox needs, you can signup for a free account here http://www.mysqueezebox.com/index/Home and then you can control your radio using your browser if you want.

This is an ideal gift for your parents, grandparents anyone that is not really comfortable with computers, particularly if they are living far from the home.  I would recommend that you configure the wireless for them and program the preset keys for their favorite radio stations.

Buttons and Keys and Trackpads!!! Oh My!

I have a confession to make, I love buttons, “Never leave a button unpushed” could be my motto.  I guess that is one of the reasons I became an engineer.  My mouse has 7 buttons.  When I first got my previous blackberry, a bold 9700, I did not discover the 2 buttons on the top of the phone for several months.  They are simply part of the rim and you cannot tell they are actually buttons by looking at them.  Anyways, I was delighted as this gave me two more buttons I could program to do what I want.

Did I say I love buttons? 

What’s wrong with buttons and keys and trackpads anyways?  What are phone manufacturers afraid of, it’s like there is a mass hysteria about having buttons on your phone.  That somehow it’s unattractive; it’s old fashioned; it’s a sign that you are not good enough at touch screen technology.  What a lot of hogwash.  

Let me tell you the ways I use the buttons and keys and trakpad on my blackberry

The Bold 9900 has qwerty keyboard, above the key board from left to right: Send key, Menu key, Trackpad, Escape key, end key.  There is also a right convenience key on the right side and a screen lock key on the top.  Sometimes people refer to these as single function keys .

The Keyboard

We all know that the keyboard is used for entering text when in a text field.  On the blackberry whenever you are not in a text field the keyboard usually has other very usefull functions.

1)   When typing if you want a capital letter you just need to hold the key down a little longer and it is capitalized

2)   When selecting a symbol or smiley face there is always a letter attached and you can choose symbol either by selecting with the trackpad or by typing the letter.

3)   When you double space in normal text it will put a period

When you are not in a text field, the keyboard has many other uses.  My favorite is the ability to launch applications by typing one letter when you are on the home screen.  Many people are not even aware of this capability because it is not a default.  For some reason, when OS 6 was released, RIM felt that the default should be the universal search (Universal search is all the rage don’t cha know).  I find this to be a strange choice, while universal search is a nice feature I may use it once in a month, while applications shortcuts I use several hundred times a day. 

 

To use the home screen keyboard shortcuts, you have to set the option. From the home screen, click the blackberry button and choose options.  At the top of the home screen preference page change  Launch by Typing from Universal Search to Application Shortcuts. 

There are keyboard short cuts for most of the main apps. I keep a notecard for each app with the shortcuts listed as I sometimes forget them. Below is a picture of my notecards.

Single Function Keys

While called single function keys, most of them do multiple functions as part of the blackberry OS and there are lots of great apps for adding even more functionality to these keys.   I use the following apps: Quicklaunch, DeKlikken and Versatool.  Unless otherwise noted, the features are built into blackberry. 

The Send Key

-          Answers an incoming call

-          From most places, takes you to the phone app

-          If you are in a contact, it will start a call to that contact

-          If your cursor is over a phone number in most apps, it will call the number

-          If your cursor is over a name in an email you received, it will call the named person if they are in your contact list

The Menu Key

-          Opens the context menu

-          Press and hold, pulls up the application switcher (I use this a lot)

-          When a context menu is open, you can type the first letter of any of the commands and you will go directly to next commend starting with that letter.  This is very handy with some of the longer menus

The Escape Key – A real single function button

-          Moves back a screen

The End/Power key

-          Hold until BB turns off

-          Ends a call

-          Returns to the home screen (A handy feature as you can click this once from anywhere, it takes you back to the home screen and then you can launch or go to many of the apps with the 1 letter shortcut talked about above)

-          Press and short hold launches an app (versatool)

-          Double press to launch an app (versatool)

Convenience Key

-          Click to launch app

-          Double Click to launch app (QuickLaunch)

-          In camera it still takes a picture

Media keys

-          Volume up, Volume down, mute

-          Double click any of them to launch an app (DeKlikken)

-          I have double clicking the mute button to pull up the sound profile

Lock screen button – A real single function button

-          Push to lock or unlock

I also use Quicklaunch to increase my keyboard shortcut capabilities.  I've set all the same single letter shortcuts for quicklaunch as for the desktop, otherwise I would just get confused. And added 2 letter shortcuts for other apps.  I try to make them obvious like CL for clock.

The trackpad

I just don’t understand why this device is not on every phone and tablet made.  The trackpad on my  blackberry is the most important interface on my phone, more important than the buttons and keyboard and a lot more important than the double touch capability of my screen.  With the trackpad I can quickly, easily and accurately select anything I can see on my screen.  The same is not true if I try to select things on the screen with my finger or thumb.  Just watch a touchscreen only phone user browsing the web.   When they want to select a link, they will usually use one of the following techniques 1) become very focussed as they slowly try to finesse the magic of touching something that is hidden behind their thumb, often cursing and going back to try again or 2) expending to font 72 so they can accurately select what they want the first time.  None of this is necessary with a trackpad, a tiny movement on the thumb, a click and voila!  You still have lots of time to chuckle at your friend trying to do that on his iPhone.

Conclusion 

At first, the plethora of shortcuts may seem overwhelming to some who are just starting out with a blackberry.  But here's the thing, you dont have to remember it all, just those you use a lot.  Once you start using shortcuts you will wonder how you ever managed without them.

I would suggest that you do start with the home screen shortcuts and there are only about 4 you need to remember

M for mail
A for Address book
B for browser
L for Calendar

Inside apps just remember B and T for top and bottom.

Have fun with your blackberry and if you do discover a shortcut I did not mention here or a new use for any of your blackberry buttons, let me know.

The Blackberry Bridge - Every tablet should have one

I am an avid blackberry user and watched with interest over the last year as the Playbook drama unfolded in the media.  Every new thing I heard about the playbook delighted me but seemed to cause many negative comments (mostly it seemed from people who have never picked up a blackberry).  Horrors! No native email, no BBM, no BES, only Wi-Fi, 7 " screen and, worst of all, the blackberry bridge (commentators droned on and on that they did not understand what it was).  I guess they did not understand blackberry users.  For me the size was great and all the other things that were not in the first release were irrelevant because of the Blackberry Bridge. Particularly the lack of a 3g/4g model, the last thing I want is yet another network subscription with monthly payments.

At the time, I had 10 email accounts on my bb, I used BBM, all my data and PIMs were synchronized and backed up wirelessly with my blackberry.  Why on earth would I want to add yet another device and have to manage all my data I asked myself.  The blackberry bridge is the ideal solution I figured.  Within a few minutes of finishing the initialization of my Playbook, I had full access to all my email accounts, contacts, calendar, my BBM account, it was amazing! 

The Blackberry Bridge connects your playbook and blackberry phone together via Bluetooth.   When your is connected, you have 8 new apps on your playbook:  Messages, Contacts, BridgeBrowser, Calendar, BBM, MemoPad, Tasks, BridgeFiles.  I was expecting something like a remote desktop window into my blackberry apps, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that these are in fact new apps running on your playbook but operating on your blackberry data. 

There were also a few other pleasant surprises with the Blackberry Bridge:

1)     All the wifi profiles on my BB were transferred to my playbook.  Real nice, saving me the trouble of having to retype all of the keys into the playbook.

2)     The Blackberry Bridge is multi blackberry capable.  By this I means that you can bridge more than one phone to a playbook, only one at a time, but the profiles remain on the playbook.  In our house both my wife and I have blackberry phones.  We have one playbook, which generally sits in its stand on the coffee table (our phones are often on their stands on our respective desks).  When an email comes in either one of us can pick up the playbook and with one button, the playbook is completely personalized for either one of us. 

3)     The bridged apps and the blackberry phone apps can run simultaneously and independently.  This can be handy, especially when I’m composing a new email and want to check some information from another email.

Here are a few other things about the Blackberry Bridge:

1)     When connected, you are notified on the playbook of incoming messages on the connected blackberry with both visual and sound alerts, you can also go directly to the bridge app from the notice

2)     The Blackberry bridge seems to have no noticeable effect on battery usage

3)     You cannot cut and paste from bridged apps, I suspect this is for security reasons

4)     When you disconnect your blackberry from the playbook, none of your data is left on the playbook(at least as far as I can tell)

All in all, I think the Blackberry bridge is a fantastic capability.  I would like to see more bridged app, for example all the native IM apps like Yahoo, Live, Google talk etc.  In my opinion, this is a capability that every tablet should have.