Digital Music

No question about it, iPod in car setups are all the rage … from the least expensive FM transmitters to the high end OEM factory implementations and aftermarket goodies. While I’ve been less then happy with the various inexpensive FM units, I’ve been wowed by some of the latest iPod in-car implementations that are coming [...]

Ford’s running a fun ad campaign to promote the new 2008 Ford Focus. You may have seen the commercials where two guys are driving down the road in a snappy blue Focus, fighting over the voice controls in the MP3ified SYNC sound system.
They refer to the compact as “the new 35 mile per gallon Focus.”
To [...]

I’ve had my eye out for a cheap network attached storage (NAS) device for my home/office network for a while now. But the cheapest NAS was never truly cheap … until now. I was pleasantly surprised when a post from Chuck’s Deals arrived in my mailbox today … Chuck turned up an insanely cheap NAS [...]

The smaller that technology becomes, the easier it is to forget it’s there. Say an iPod. Or a cell phone. How easy is it to forget that you left one of those little critters in a pants pocket? And when you throw those pants onto the wash pile… well… you get the idea.
It’s even worse [...]

Rumor has it that Spinal Tap, stars of the 1984 classic film “This is Spinal Tap” and everyone’s favorite (hey, don’t call them “mock”) heavy metal band, will reunite at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 7th, for the Live Earth concert. Now I could go on and on about the monumental importance of the band [...]

“Not wild about what you hear when you’re in that tele-communicated purgatory we call ‘on hold’? Neither are we and we want you to change it.” says Magic Hat. My fave Vermont-based brewery is holding a “Solid Gold on Hold” contest with a $1,000 grand prize shopping spree at Small Dog Electronics. Death to mundane [...]

I tried to learn how to play the guitar back when I was a kid. It was a miserable experience. My hands were far too small, I had no patience, and there was no Internet to help me find my way. Flash forward a few decades and I’m learning how to play the guitar, once [...]

The hard drive in one of my desktop computers neared the saturation point today. I went looking for junk to toss and quickly came to the conclusion that I had no choice other than move a bunch of big files off the box. The shorts I’ve been posting to Google Video and YouTube have eaten [...]

Are you happy with your MP3 car adapter? My family gave me a little red iPod nano for Christmas … one of the most wonderful presents I’ve ever received in my entire life. But here it is more than a month later, and I still haven’t come up with a suitable MP3 car adapter. I [...]

I’m a big fan of productivity-enhancing technology … especially when it has the potential to make life more enjoyable. Lately, I’ve been lusting after an affordable set of noise canceling headphones. My road-warrior friends depend on noise canceling headphones to make air travel tolerable. But I’m not on the road that often. Rather, it’s my [...]

I’ve fallen a bit behind in my quest to rip all of my music CDs into digital files. If I had more money than time, I might consider using one of the CD ripping services. But since both are tight at the moment, I’ve resorted to a multi-tasking approach. It might not be the most [...]

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and couldn’t fall back to sleep. Insomnia struck again. As I flipped through the channels looking for my makeshift white noise for insomnia cure, I learned something very important. (Well, lets just say that it was important to me at 2:37 AM.) DirecTV is [...]

I’ve begun research on a series of articles about downloading music and I need your help. While there are scads of (legal!) download sites these days, the bulk of my music downloading experience is with the iTunes. While Apple leads in the market, it faces a barrage of competition from the likes of Real, [...]

I’ve been building my digital music library bit-by-bit of late. The majority of my purchases have been split between used CDs that I buy through eBay and downloaded albums and singles purchased from iTunes. Suffice to say, I have a considerable pile of CDs sitting around that have yet to be ripped. Looking at that [...]

This brave new world of digital music just can’t be beat, daddy-o. I used to dream of having my own antique jukebox and for years, collected 45 RPM singles, waiting for that magic day. But as much as I’d still love to have a vintage Rockola, Seeburg, or maybe even a Wurlitzer, I’m really not [...]