• iriver

    I’m playing with my new podcast device, the iriver H340.

    I’m totally blown away.

    iPod versus iriver:
    Design & interface: iPod wins.
    Features: Music, pictures, video (watching Sex and the City now), radio and excellent recording. iriver wins.

    The iPod and the Creative Nomad Jukebox will go on sale very soon.

  • Studio Smetty

    The audio quality of my last podcast was really poor. Audacity (audio software) helped to pump up the volume, but this resulted in high background noise.

    My first idea was to buy a small amplifier. But tomorrow, I’m going to record a panel discussion with 3 people. I’m on my own to record the whole thing, so that’s why I decided to buy a mixer with two Mic preamp’s. My new toy is a BEHRINGER Eurorack UB 1002 (€70).

    Done some testing this afternoon. It took some time to find out, but everything works fine. Hope I will be able to repeat that tomorrow. One thing is guaranteed: it looks impressive with all those buttons 🙂

    My podcast gear today: Creative Nomad Jukebox 3, BEHRINGER UB 1002 mixer, Philips stereo MIC & Creative headset.

  • iPod funeral

    Yesterday my iPod stopped functioning. I was listening to an old IT Conversations show with Chris Pirillo and paused the player just before going into a meeting. Afterwards, I tried to start it, but it did not respond. That happened to me before, but this time the device was really dead. It might sound stupid but I felt so sad about it.

    I have it since October last year. Only 5 months later I need to send it back to Ireland for repair. There’s three things I don’t like about sending it back:

    • It needs to go in the original box. Well, that’s quit a big box for such a small device, and it’s gonna be more expensive then a small box.
    • You don’t get your own iPod back. They’ll send you “something” in return. Could be used, could be new. But I want mine!
    • The confirmation letter was in French. Good for me, like all Belgians I’m triple-lingual, but my Viking doesn’t understand a word of it. My language option was Dutch, so I want my confirmation in Dutch as well. Don’t give me the option if there isn’t one. As a side note: it took Apple a few weeks after release until they added Dutch to the Belgian Apple iTunes store as well.

    The good thing is that nothing of my data will be lost. I didn’t have space on any hard disk for a backup, so I never wrote data on it that could I miss. But I did invest some time to add CDs to the iPod. Don’t really feel like doing that again before we buy our media center like planned. I’m not sure I will ever add those CDs again to the iPod. To be honest, on average I only listen to 10% of my music. Most of the time I’m totally into podcasting.

    Not sure I would buy the device again or recommend it. If I pay €400 for such a device, I expect to get my own property back.

    In the mean time, I don’t know what to do. I have three options, use my P900 mobile, use my Creative Nomad Jukebox3 device which I use for recording (too big), or live without it. I was definitely addicted to my poddie.

  • Schnappi sunday

    Sunday seems to be doomed. This was the third sunday in a row that I all my plans washed away and turned into a whole day of program fixing and monkey editing. I’m gonna skip sundays from now on.

    Took some time in between to test my new toys I bought at the mediamarket yesterday: a headset (first goal is Skype) and a stereo microphone . My podcasting gear in combination with my Creative Nomad Jukebox3.

    Honest? Hoped it would’ve been easier. The Nomad isn’t as flexible as my iPod I’m used to work with. I’ve been singing Schnappi whole day in the mic, driving the viking to crazyness (his own fault, that’s what happens when you turn up the volume in the car when Schnappi comes by 3 times/hour -while I adviced to switch stations). Results of the audio recordings were poor until now. Both audio and my voice capacities (if you wonder). Some more practice adviced.

    By the way, you Dutch singers: it’s “schnappi das kleine krokodieeeelllll“. Not krokodil. Schnappi schnappi snap?

  • Old New

    I was glad to see the mail courier today. No bills this time, but a new toy.

    Well, that’s not really true. Old toy? New old toy? Or even an old new one. It’s definitely a used one. Bought it last week on an internet auction site.

    I’ve been searching for a recording device last weeks. Creative’s Zen and MuVo popped up, as well as the iRiver family. Always the same story: great mp3 device, but poor recording capabilities.

    Luc referred to this review on Cnet. Interestingly enough (the product is obsolete) all other sources I checked also pointed to this NOMAD Jukebox 3 as the best voice recorder.

    Using the analog-in or digital-in connections, you can record straight to the unit’s hard drive from a variety of sources, including a powered mike. You can choose to record files as uncompressed WAVs or as MP3s compressed at bit rates of 128Kbps to 320Kbps. (Cnet review)

    The nice thing is the extra 20 GB storage device I get, but that didn’t play a role in my decision to go for this player.

    My next buy this week will be a portable digital microphone. And then I’m ready for my kick off as local podstar. Hehe.