17th october 2006

yes, it is wireless and yes, it is sexy

you may remember a post i made a while ago regarding logitech's wireless dj music system. luckily, if you can't remember, i've been so rubbish at posting lately that it's only three posts below. anyways, mine arrived at the weekend, and i'm very, very impressed.

the remote and dock - which also acts as a charger - look great, and the bright, blue, back-lit screen is beautiful. it feels great too, heavy enough so it doesn't feel cheap, light enough so you don't think 'what is in this thing!?'.

the software installed with no problems, and looks to be pretty good. we all know that some electronics companies do software well, and some - perhaps most - don't, but i have no problems with what i've seen so far. the streampoint app indexed all my music easily, and you choose how that music should be played, thankfully allowing you to use your usual player - itunes for me - rather than forcing you to use windows media player because you're using a windows machine, or even worse a manufacturer's own player (i still have nightmares about having to use sony's awful sonic stage when i first bought a sony mp3 player back in the day). the transmitter again looks good. small and classy looking, and doesn't seem out of place on my desk. and no problems so far with it's range (my pc - and music - is upstairs, my entertainment system downstairs).

the best thing though? for me, the sound quality. i was really quite aprehensive about this. i tried a couple of times playing my ipod through my home entertainment amp, and it sounded like a cheap transister radio. i figured this may need to have an digital connection, rather than using stereo jacks, but i was wrong - the sound is excellent. granted, my jacks lead cost me about £60 (used to use it with my last dvd player), but still.

so my one problem - there had to be one - is with the scroll wheel. i know i'm used to the ipod's wheel, so i immediately didn't like that fact that this wheel actually does turn (not a touch sensitive thing), but it just feels a little... plasticy. this surprised me, considering the quality of the rest of the system. but that, i can live with. what is irritating is the speed of the thing. i have somewhere in the region of 600 albums, and if i want to quickly listen to a favourite track from an artist starting with, for example, "S", you soon realise that "quickly" just ain't gonna happen. that's what i did yesterday, and although i didn't time myself, i reckon it must have taken a couple of minutes to get to "s". that is gonna be a problem. despite the fact that i don't like zz-top. hopefully they can release an update to the software. perhaps an "artist by letter" and "album by letter", so the maximum number you have to initially scroll through is 26?

all in all though, if you're looking for a wirless, streaming solution, this is it. it simplys looks great and it just... well, works.

related:

blog

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6th september 2006

whatever

"the launch of sony's long-awaited playStation 3 games console in europe has been delayed until march 2007".

sony do it again. brilliant.

related:

rant

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10th august 2006

wireless and sexy

sorry i haven't posted for an absolute age. i finally made the jump from permanent employee to contractor three or four weeks ago, and i'm only now just getting settled in. hope the pain of my absence hasn't been too much.

anyways, i really like the look of logitech's new wireless dj music system. it's what you would expect from a wireless music system - it allows you to play your music files, located on your pc/mac, through your stereo system, er... wirelessly. however, instead of having another box sitting on top of your home entertainment seperates, controlling it through the remote, this thing *is* the remote. everything is done through the remote control, using it's lcd screen and a clickable scroll wheel - yes, like those ipod things. the thing just looks... sexy.

i've wanted one of these type of things for ages, and came very close to buying a soundbridge last month, and then a squeezebox a couple of weeks ago, but i think i'm now going to go for one of these babies. i bought a logitech harmony 525 remote control last week, and i can't say how impressed i am with it, so i'm going to give this dj music system a go as soon as it hits the streets. my only disappointment is that it doesn't have an optical or coaxial connection to your amp/receiver, instead using standard rca input jacks, but surely that must have been considered during the design and testing process, and the sound quality should still be the shit.

no news on when it's released yet, but i'll let y'all know as soon as i have mine, and i've used - and heard - the thing.

related:

blog

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http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/08/10/wirel...

6th july 2006

will the real sony please stand up?

look, i'm known in my circle as being a sony addict. anyone walking into my flat would immediately see why (although two lg products have invaded over the last few weeks, as i got my hd plasma - coz the reviews of the bravia were poor - and my hd upscaler dvd player - coz sony don't do them as they're concentrating on blu-ray). i love the brand. i always have.

however, it seems that once a week now - for at least the last 18 months - the sony foot is placed in the sony mouth. it's as though the people who used to make the decisions have been replaced with a group determined to make sony no longer a brand, but a pr #### up. this ad campaign is the latest embarrassment.

if anyone finds the real sony, can they please return it as soon as possible? thanks.

related:

blog

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http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/07/06/will-...

19th may 2006

oh. great.

so, sony have announced that the price of the "proper" ps3 in the uk will be a whopping £425! yes, £425. £425. can you believe it? £425?

again, we (we in the uk) are being asked to pay more than the us are expected to pay for theirs, and more than the europeans (huh?) are expected to pay for their boxes. in fact, we're being asked to pay £109 more than the us. and, perhaps more importantly, we must pay £146 more than the premium xbox. is it just me, or have sony been getting really good at making themselves unpopular over the last twelve months? and this is from a sony freak.

of course, they are using the "it does play blu-ray discs y'know?" card, which - i guess - is fair enough, but such a claim will only benefit those people who wanted to buy a hd-player pretty soon, as well as a games console (i admit, "those people" includes me). but, obviously the important market for the ps3 are the gamers, the game console owners, who surely are going to find £425 (did i say it's gonna be £425?) a tad... steep. and let's not forget the thousands and thousands of under-18 year olds who own ps2's, and maybe a psp, who are expecting a ps3 for christmas. i'd hate to be one of those parents this year.

and can you imagine if it doesn't live up to the hype?

related:

blog,

rant

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9th may 2006

so there we have it

thanks sony. in summary:

• the 500 euro ps3 is pretty rubbish. well, not rubbish, but y'know what i mean.
• the 600 euro one isn't rubbish, but it's 600 euros.
• the not-rubbish one will have hdmi, wifi, a card reader and a 60gb hard drive.
• the rubbish one... won't.
• they haven't messed with the controller design. if it ain't broken...
• controller has x-y-z, pitch, roll, yaw and lateral motion detection, as well as bluetooth.
• it'll probably still use that stoopid spider man font.
• it'll probably look like this.

still can't wait. still. can't. wait.

permalink:

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27th april 2006

ps3 time again

some good news from playstation magazine about the ps3 yesterday. the release date hasn't changed - november, worldwide - but at least it's nice to have some kind of confirmation. but the good news is that it - apparently - it's only gonna cost around £280, which ,for the best of the next generation games consoles, and a blu-ray player, doesn't sound too bad to me.

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/04/27/ps3-t...

11th april 2006

wow. just wow.

i realise i've been a bit slow on this - although it has a lot to do with the uk being a bit rubbish when it comes to this kind of stuff - but i finally witnessed hd television on sunday. with an hour to go before all the food shops in the area closed, and no food in the house, t'wife and i decided it would be best to spend the next two hours in an electrical superstore looking at lcd televisions, and off to currys in isleworth we sped.

we've been talking about getting a hd-ready lcd for a couple of weeks, but i had absolutely no idea that this place had set up an hd source for their tvs. my god. 3 lg plasmas and 3 lg lcds, of 37" and above, all hooked up to an hd source showing what looked like a "visit europe" tourist information video. my jaw dropped and i have a faint recollection of dribbling at various points throughout the following hour or so.

all the reports i've read - which is quite a few - are true. it really is a revolution in tv. the picture quality, the colours, the detail, everything, is just mind blowing. t'wife was just as amazed, and give me that "sod it, let's just buy one on credit" look on more than a dozen occasions. i know what you're thinking, and the answer is no. no, we didn't get one. but it won't be long.

oh no, it won't be long.

incidentally, we ordered pizza.

related:

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15th march 2006

"what you waiting for? christmas!?"

good news from ken kutaragi - or kenny-baby as i call him - at sony. the ps3 will ship worldwide in november. i know what you're thinking - "everyone else is saying it's bad news! what are you on?!". well, y'see, i trusted what that analyst said in january. what did he say? refresh your memory.

all of a sudden - kind of - sony actually tell us that we may be playing one of these babies by christmas. if we get pre-ordering now, or buy our sleeping bags in preparation for spending the night outside dixons in bluewater anyway.

and isn't it nice to hear that they're going to release it *worldwide*? i hate the fact that we in europe get everything last. well, ok, not bird-flu, but anything gadgetty. it's like being at school and being picked last for a football team.

so, for me anyway, sony's press conference was good news. and we haven't even mentioned the psp getting a camera, voip, etc...

you can read a more sensible look at sony's announcements at engadget.

permalink:

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25th january 2006

the bad news that we knew was coming

so, surprise, surprise, it looks like we won't be seeing a ps3 in our living rooms until 2007. unless you live in japan of course. or the states. an analyst (i love that) claims that japan will see this thing in the summer, the us in november, and we (europe) will have to wait until march 2007.

i've got a bit of a suggestion for next generation console manufacturers (as i'm sure they all regularly visit my site): immediately fire everyone in your company who is involved in setting out the schedule and timetable for your new console's design, development and release. you won't miss them as there isn't a single one who has given an accurate forecast yet. you can then plough the money that you have saved from their salary, pensions, hr costs, etc into the development team, thus increasing the budget and, as a result, creating better consoles in a shorter period of time. i await your emails inviting me to your respective offices so that i may expound on this ingenious strategy further.

in the meantime, read about your slackness: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/...

related:

rant

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/01/25/the-b...

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