Over the past week I have been working hard on getting the final fix done for the NetStreams DigiLinX system at the demo home. I felt really good yesterday when I plugged in my iPod into the Streaming Music Manager and 10 minutes later I had my entire playlist available to me and streaming to 4 rooms.
This was great until my now 17 year old niece decided to browse my tunes and managed to find only one album that she liked! Apparently I am “uncool” and “not with it”.
When I explained to her that she could either plug in her own iPod and we could play those tunes instead she told me that she did not have an iPod.
Me: “If I get you an iPod, do I become cool again?”
Aoife: “Yes, of course”.
Then it hit me….
Me: “Hang on… you don’t need an iPod, you can plug your mobile phone into the Audio Port in your room and play the tunes from that through the system”.
Aoife: “That makes the NetStreams system cool, not you…”
Me: “An iPod it is then”.
IT Professionals are never meant to be cool.
Although Im suprised the cobra didint score some brownie points.
what’s all this “plugging in” I hear of? The future is Bluetooth using A2DP to stream your music off your phone. All you need is a bluetooth interface to your audio system. Most phone manufactures now do ones for their own models and you can probably get generic ones too (although generic bluetooth compatibility can be ropey at times)
Then for in the car you can get head units which also have A2DP support such as Pioneer DEH-P85BT and you can stream your music from your phone into this as well, also control the track selections etc from the radio’s buttons.
If anything is becoming outmoded its perhaps the lack of wireless support in most mp3 players and the fact that the technologies for phones, pdas, GPS and mp3 players are all converging.
The only other stumbling block is the size and performance of current solid state memory. Maybe when MRAM replaces Flash memory things will become a lot quicker and more reliable too.
Hi Graham,
I know that Netstreams do not have any current plans for Bluetooth support, but I have passed your comments onto the right people.
Cheers
Nick
If I say your cool do I get an iPhone?
Joe