Audio
FStream on the iPhone
Mar 10th
One of the ways I get through my day is by listening to the fantastic DI.fm House radio station via iTunes on my Mac. Now with an app I discovered yesterday I can listen to that same station on my iPhone when I’m away from my Mac.
FStream is a brilliant free app in the iTunes App Store. Once downloaded you can select from hundreds of stations in the Presets section or add your own in by going to Favorites > Edit > Add new webradio then fill in the Name, URL, Format and Bitrate.
Thanks to a review in the App Store I was able to add in BBC Radio One by inputting the following:
Name: BBC Radio One
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/wm_asx/aod/radio1.asx
Format: WMA
Bitrate (kbs): leave this empty
BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all available, so if you want Radio 2 then simply change the URL to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/wm_asx/aod/radio2.asx or 3 or 4, whatever your listening preferences are. If you want BBC Radio 6 then do everything as above but the URL is different: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r6.asx I am a very rare listener to any of the BBC Radio stations, but it’s good to know I can get them. And the best part about FStream is you can even record what you’re listening to on the radio!
My discovery of FStream came from a retweet posted by O2UKOfficial on Twitter – the only re-tweet I have ever received that has actually been of benefit/interest to me in some way. I guess one out of a million had to in the end 
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Last.fm Beta
May 21st
I’ve been thinking over the past few weeks how music is such a great motivational tool for me. I have looked at my workflow during times when I don’t have music playing and it’s far less than when I do have music playing – and from studying my ‘creative moments with music’ it’s almost always in the evening after 8pm, with me peaking at around 11pm. I tend not to listen to music quite as much during the earlier part of the day. If I do then it’s pretty much DI.FM Deep House streaming through iTunes or DJ ALA’s Dive Radio mix session podcasts, not a selection of my personally picked music from my music library, which brings me neatly to Last.fm.
I’ve had an account for a couple of years but rarely ever enabled scrobbling via the Lastfm software. Then a few weeks I found out that I could ’scrobble’ using CoverSutra, a full registered program I have had installed on my Mac since buying the MacHeist bundle earlier in the year. It’s far prettier than the Lastfm software, with quite a few nice features including music search, cool album art in a virtual jewel case on your desktop, shortcuts and more.
Today Last.fm Beta launched with a whole new design but is currently only accessible by subscribers. I wasn’t one, but it didn’t take me long to pay up £1.50 for one months subscription just so that I could have a look around this exclusive little club. Beta gets a big thumbs up from me. It feels cleaner, much less cluttered and easier to find what you’re looking for, like wandering through an airy room.
So, back to music that motivates me and perks up my creativeness. At the moment I am going crazy over Tales From The Beach, Incognito’s new album which was released two weeks ago. It’s not often I buy an actual physical CD, but Incognito had me up and out the door in search of this just 5 minutes after hearing short track samples on the HMV website. It wasn’t for a couple of days more that I was able to locate it and paid £11-99 for the privilege from HMV. Usually I’d download my most favourite tracks from iTunes rather than a whole album…but since they didn’t have the album I was forced to buy the CD. Since I have all of Incognito’s work on this format then I didn’t mind keeping up that tradition too much.
When I’m not listening to Incognito (a rarity at the moment) then I listen to Miguel Migs, Jamiroquai, Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk, Royksopp, Groove Armada and Scissor Sisters amongst many many others. Those are the artists that ‘move’ me the most. Take a look through my Last.fm profile and feel free to add me as a friend. It’s fun to see who I have the best music compatibility with 
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Music Sounds Better With iWOW!
Feb 17th
Thesedays I find that I listen to music more at my computer than anywhere else, even more than my iPod touch! So, it’s important for me to get the best sound that I can. Last November I bought some Altec Lansing VS2321 2.1 speakers and I’ve been more than happy with the results. Prior to buying those I had been using JBL Pro speakers with my Mac Mini.
This afternoon I was alerted to an audio enhancement plugin for iTunes by my friend Nik, when he mentioned it on Twitter. After a recommendation like that I could hardly wait to get over to the iWow website, where I downloaded the v2 demo. The difference is pretty astounding. I’ve been more than happy with the sound my set-up produces without any extra enhancement, but when you switch iWOW on then you really do know about it!
It took me approximately 3 minutes after hearing the difference in the demo, to head to the site to purchase it for $19.99. I captured a little video of me switching on and off iWOW so you can perhaps get an idea of the difference. Sadly it doesn’t come across well, so I’d recommend you download the demo, either for Mac or PC. Without the enhancement enabled you can hear mostly bass, but when you enable it the sound is full and rich – quite a remarkable difference that you will only be able to appreciate fully when trying it yourself. But, here’s my video clip anyway. When the music starts it’s without the plugin enabled, but you’ll see on the screen when I do switch it on
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Sounding and Looking Good
Nov 7th
Last week I mentioned the lack of punch the iMac built-in speakers had. Since I love listening to music while I work and browse the net this just wouldn’t do. But, because I’d just spent £799 on the iMac and another £199 just weeks before that on the iPod touch I didn’t have the big bouncy budget that I’d have liked.
I asked for some recommendations and several came in ranging from Bose Companion 2, JBL Spot and Harmon Kardon Soundsticks. These were pretty much around the £80-£100+ mark. Since I am still feeling quite poor I did some more looking around and found some interesting Altec Lansing speakers ranging from £20 to £120. I remember reading some reviews on this brand a short while back which praised them. I then came across the Altec Lansing VS2321 2.1 speakers for £39-99. My other half has Altec Lansing speakers built-in to his HP laptop and I’ve always been impressed with the sound.
I bought them today and was almost blown out of the room. Really rich sound and as much or as little bass as you like. I have the subwoofer under the desk on the floor. I have tried several of my favourite music tracks on today and realised just how much I was missing out on all this time. Prior to getting the iMac I was using JBL Pro which came with my Compaq Presario 7 years ago. Even though the PC is long dead the speakers lived on. And I was happy with them even though they did nothing to compliment my set-up. The Altec Lansing do compliment the set-up and they look and sound much more expensive than they are.
So, for now at least my set-up is complete. I hadn’t planned on buying external speakers as some reviews of the iMac actually went so far to say that those built-in were more than sufficient for big surround sound. I beg to differ. Now my ears are happy…and so are my eyes.
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