2010 Gadget Review of the Year

Back in both 2004 and 2005, I wrote "Reviews of the Year" on my old blog, summing up the previous twelve months and the gadgets that had come and gone. I must admit, there was much more to write about back then (probably something to do with the disposable income I had burning holes in my pockets) but I've decided to revisit the concept for 2010, because it has been a pretty good year for new and shiny tech. So, here goes...

Apple iMac - February 2010

I finally decided to part with my much-loved G5 iMac at the start of the year, and went on an eBay selling spree to raise funds for a replacement. I opted for the 21.5" Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, and I've been incredibly pleased with it. Admittedly, every time I see a real-life 27-inch model I covet it greatly, but the 21.5" is fine for my purposes. It's a massive leap in performance from its predecessor, and I've not regretted the purchase one bit. (Original post here)

Firestone Audio Fubar IV DAC - March 2010

After getting a pair of Grado SR80i headphones for Christmas, I was looking for a way of combining them with my existing Apple Airport Express to give a proper high-fidelity listening experience. I decided the best way to do this would be via an offboard digital-to-analogue convertor and eventually plumped for the Fubar IV. I fell in love with it straight away - superb sound, compact size, built-in headphone amplifier. Perfect. (Original post here)

Firestone Audio Supplier - May 2010

Following the success of the Fubar IV, I went one step further and purchased the matching dedicated power supply, The Supplier. Connected up to the Fubar IV, it just took all of the things I already loved about it and improved them. I think the Fubar/Supplier combination has been my best gadget purchase of 2010. Brilliant. (Original post here)

HTC Legend - May 2010

Also in May, I decided to stop procrastinating about getting a new phone and decided to take out an 18-month contract on an HTC Legend. Running Android and sporting a very fetching all-aluminium body, it has recently been updated to 2.2 Froyo and has proved to be a brilliant little phone. I see my friends toting their new iPhone 4's, but I think the Android/HTC combination can match the iPhone almost every step of the way. I will admit that I would love the iTunes integration of the iPhone, but other than that for the money I'm really pleased. I still have another 11 months to live with it, and I hope it'll continue to go from strength to strength. I'm wondering if it'll ever see 2.3 Gingerbread though... (Original post here)

WDTV Live - July 2010

A cracking deal from eBay meant that I took the plunge on a Western Digital TV Live media streamer for the bedroom TV, and on the whole I've been quite impressed with it. Since getting the new AppleTV (see below) my enthusiasm has been tempered somewhat, but for less than half the price of the ATV it has proved more than capable. I don't like the interface, and if there was better integration with iTunes (rather than just SAMBA sharing) it'd be much better, but generally it's pretty good. Wouldn't buy one for the full £90 RRP though - that's AppleTV money.

Sony STR-DA2400ES AV Receiver & Sony BDP-S373 Bluray Player - July 2010

I got a bonus at work and promptly blew it all on these new bits of home cinema kit. I managed to resist the urge to start replacing all my DVDs with Blurays, and I'm glad I did because I've discovered that on my 720p 32-inch TV, there's really not a lot to be gained in terms of picture quality. HD audio is nice, but I'm still fairly impressed with Dolby Digital 5.1 to be honest! I do like having the convenience of HDMI switching on the receiver though, and having automatic sound calibration is superb. Although I'm not using the player for Blurays, the DVD upscaling is excellent and the network features are a nice touch.

2nd-Gen Apple TV - September 2010

After the new Apple TV was unveiled at the beginning of the month, I immediately preordered one. It was exactly what I was looking for to bridge the gap between iTunes on my iMac and the TV in the lounge. And, having used it for a few months, it does this job admirably. I haven't bought or rented anything from the iTunes store, I'm just watching my own content on it. The whole experience is very "Apple" - simple and slick, and using it alongside my iMac and Airport Express makes for an excellent multi-room music solution too. (Original post here)

Amazon Kindle - December 2010

Having only got this a few days ago, I can't write anything particularly in depth about the Kindle, other than on first inspection I think I'm going to really like it. Some people have bemoaned the fact that it's "just" an e-book reader (apparently I should have bought an iPad at five times the price) but ever since I first clapped eyes on the new model, I've wanted one. If it gets me back into reading again, it'll be a superb gadget. Full opinion to follow, once I've actually used it in anger...

All in all, it has been a year of very satisfying gadgets. I'm hoping that 2011 will be more of the same.

Swype for Android (plus UK workaround!)

I've been waiting patiently for a while for the Swype keyboard for Android to become more readily available. Up until recently, you could only use it if you were lucky to have it preinstalled on your phone or you were privileged enough to be part of the very limited beta programme.

However, as of today they've opened the beta up to anyone who cares to register for it.

Head over to http://beta.swype.com and sign up, and you'll be sent an email to download the software. Because it's a beta, it isn't distributed through the marketplace, so it's downloaded as an APK file. As such, you need to enable your phone to allow non-marketplace software sources but once you've done that it's all plain sailing. If you do get stuck, there's a very thorough tutorial.

Having signed up, downloaded and installed Swype on my HTC Legend, I have to say that my first impressions are that it must be some kind of black magic! I haven't found a word that it doesn't get right first time - I've even been trying to trip it up with obscure words. You don't even need to be that precise with your gestures, it still seems to know which word you wanted.

Now that they're allowing more people to use Swype, I can see it becoming the default Android keyboard for most people. I wouldn't be surprised if Google licence it and build it into the OS itself. It really is that good.

Got an Android phone? Get Swyping.

*** UPDATE ***

As you can read in the comments below, Dave has pointed out that there is no UK localisation at present. Which means that you're going to get American spellings for some things. I actually hadn't noticed - I guess there aren't *that* many words that are spelled differently for it to be a constant annoyance (I reserve the right to change my mind on this of course....)

*** UPDATE 2 ***

Having now done a bit of research, I've discovered how to teach Swype new words. This gives you a workaround for the lack of UK spellings. To teach it a new word, tap out the letters individually followed by a space - this is then added to the custom dictionary. So if you, for example, create a new text message and go through and manually tap in a few UK spellings of common words - things that end in "-ise" or "-our" - Swype will then recognISE (see what I did there?) them the next time around. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but better than nothing while we wait for a proper UK version?

New Apple TV - installation and setup

As you're probably aware from my terribly geeky unboxing video, I've got my hands on one of the new 2nd-generation Apple TVs this week. I thought I'd go through what I've learnt from setting it up and using it, in case this can be of benefit to anyone else.

Firstly, hooking up the cables is incredibly easy: 1 power cable, 1 HDMI, 1 ethernet. You don't even have to use ethernet because the Apple TV has built-in wifi, but seeing as my router is six inches from the Apple TV and the wifi at LowFidelity Towers is a bit flaky (blame the Victorian architecture) I thought I'd settle for trusty CAT-5.

Once I'd plugged everything in, I immediately got a picture on my telly from the Apple TV, so no problems there. However, I couldn't find my iTunes library under the "Computers" menu. When I went to it, the Apple TV told me I'd need to enter my Apple ID username and password so that it could use the Home Sharing feature of iTunes. I dutifully entered those details, and... nothing. It told me that I'd need to activate Home Sharing on my Mac too. I was fairly certain it already was on, so I went and checked. Sure enough, yes, it was already enabled. So what gives?

I decided that the age-old IT remedy of "turn it off and on again" might help, so I went to iTunes "Advanced" menu and turned off Home Sharing. Then I reactivated it, re-entering my password. Hey presto, there's my iTunes library showing up on the Apple TV now. Don't know why this step was necessary, but it worked.

Next thing was to play back some media. I'm routing the HDMI through my Sony STR-DA2400ES home cinema receiver, so the theory went that this should carry both video and 5.1 audio signals. Music worked just fine and dandy, the sound coming through in stereo just as I'd expected. I then played one of my Handbraked m4v files. Picture was lovely, and the sound was coming through - but only in Pro-Logic, not Dolby Digital 5.1.

I went into the Apple TV's "Settings" menu, then into "Audio & Video" and found the option for "Dolby Digital Out". There are three settings: Off, On and Auto. I opted for "On" and tried the movie again, and this time got beautiful 5.1 straight away.

Next step was to get the Apple Remote app working on my iPod Touch. The app was already installed, so I then went into the "Settings" menu again, then "General", "Remotes" and finally to "Remote App" where it tells you to turn on Home Sharing in the app itself. Sure enough, on the Touch it was now asking for my Home Sharing username and password again. I typed them in, and immediately I had access to an "Apple TV" library from the main screen.

Finally, I wanted to set up my Logitech Harmony 555 universal remote to work with the Apple TV, rather than use the bundled Apple remote from the box. I went into the Logitech software on my Mac, and added a new device. I opted for "Media PC", then "Apple" as the manufacturer and typed the name in as (rather obviously) "Apple TV". I didn't get a lot of feedback as to whether this was correct or not from the software itself so I had no clue if it would work, or if the device even existed in Logitech's archives. I decided to take a chance that it was okay, and set up a new activity as "Watch Apple TV", which turned the TV on, the AV receiver on and set it to the correct input and then turned the Apple TV on. I updated the remote (still no clue whether this was right or not at this point) and once it had done its thing, I pointed it at the system and hit the button. Sure enough, everything worked seamlessly. Everything on, on the right inputs and all the buttons on the Harmony working correctly. Not only that, but because the Harmony has buttons for previous and next chapter as well as fast-forward and rewind, I could also skip chapters in my movie files - something that I couldn't work out how to do with the Apple Remote.

All in all, absolutely superb so far. I'm very impressed!

New Apple TV unboxing

Well, it has arrived - and I thought I'd have a go at doing a brief unboxing video for you. So here it is in all its glory...



I'll post a proper update once the AppleTV is actually up and running, but for now that's your lot!

On iPods and AppleTV - a response to Apple's media event

Having decided to wait until the cold light of day before posting a response to Apple's 1st September media event - in order to minimise the effect of the Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field - I find myself marginally impressed with the offering that was placed before us yesterday. I often find myself feeling a bit "meh" about Apple keynotes, as they never seem to deliver what they promised. However, I think they've done a pretty good job with their lineup this time.

So what have we got? We've got all-new iPods, that's what we've got. A new Shuffle, a new Nano and a new Touch.

I was never taken with the third-gen Shuffle, with its lack of buttons and "voiceover" function. This, to me, screamed just one thing - "you can't use your own headphones any more". Being a bit of an audiophile, I had no intention of using Apple's earbuds, so the Shuffle was off the cards. I had been perusing eBay in the hope of finding a 2nd-gen to overcome this problem, but they're going for silly money (probably because no-one liked the 3rd-gen). Naturally, now Apple have seen the error of their ways and (sensibly) decided to put the buttons back on the Shuffle, I'm very happy. And at £39, I hope one will be coming my way this Christmas.

Onto the Nano then. Or should that be more accurately named the "iPod Shuffle Touch"? Not much bigger than the Shuffle, it now has a 3cmx3cm touch screen - just big enough to display 4 icons at once. I'm not really as convinced by this idea - it just seems too different to the original concept of the Nano. Yes, we still have a decent amount of flash storage, but over time the Nano had become a genuine competitor to the Classic in terms of its capacity and functionality. Hell, it even had a decent camera on it - which now, unfortunately, has disappeared. In an effort to make it smaller, it seems to have lost some of its "essence". And it's a bit pricey too. I'm sure it will sell well, but not to me.

And onto the iPod Touch then. I, personally, think Apple have done a brilliant job with this - although some will disagree. Slimmer casing, Retina display (very nice indeed), A4 chip (bringing performance on a par with iPhone4), front and rear cameras, Facetime, HD video recording, Game Center - the list goes on. So what is there not to like? Well, one of my Mac-loving compatriots has decried the Touch in no uncertain terms for the quality of its rear camera. If you were hoping for the (rather good) 5MP unit from the iPhone4, you'll be very disappointed. The Touch's camera manages all of 0.7MP. That sounds pretty poor (and, to be fair, is), but that does equate to HD-resolution video (960x720). In company with the iOS iMovie app, this will make a lot of YouTubers very happy indeed. And, for my money, the camera is perfectly capable of doing all the fun stuff with apps that I would want - Evernote snaps, barcode reading, Dropbox, Twitpic etc. The front-facing camera/Facetime combination is also a very pleasing offer.

As for the iPod Classic, this is the only iPod that didn't get an update - but then, what is there to update? Massive storage, brilliant UI, plays anything you throw at it, sounds great, lovely screen. End of.

I'm interested to see whether the upcoming iOS 4.1 update makes my current iPod Touch run any better. At the moment, it's a bit laggy. Steve promised that 4.1 will fix "iPhone 3G performance issues" so I hope that goes for iPod Touch too.

So, finally, onto Steve's "One More Thing", or as he quipped last night "One More Hobby" - the AppleTV. I've admired the AppleTV from afar ever since it was released, but I've never quite got round to taking the plunge. The price was a bit steep, and the implementation was always a bit half-assed and I never quite convinced myself that I genuinely needed one. However, now things are different. We now have ourselves a second-generation AppleTV. And the best bit? £99. That's a price point I can like, and cheap enough to make it worth a try. Recently, the movie collection on my Mac has been growing (mainly thanks to the brilliance that is Handbrake) and getting those movies to my televisions has been a bit hit and miss. I bought a WDTV Live recently, and it's very good. It's very similar in functionality to the new AppleTV, insofar as it is able to find media on my Mac and stream it to my bedroom TV over the network. However, there are a few things I don't like about the WDTV - the UI is ugly, its networking is wired only and it has no integration with iTunes, meaning that I just get a massive list of folders and filenames instead of the glossy artwork and metadata that I've painstakingly added.

The lack of purchasing content from the AppleTV isn't an issue for me - I neither purchase nor rent video content from iTunes. I merely want this unit to plug into my TV, display my iTunes library (movies, TV shows and music) on the screen and play it. Hopefully that's exactly what it will deliver. I've got my preorder in, so in four weeks' time I'll be able to tell you whether it does.

The art of fettling

I've had my new home cinema toys for a few weeks now, and I've had a very enjoyable time getting everything up and running and configured just the way I like it. Sometimes that is the best part of getting new kit - once it's all sorted out, there's very little to do with it (which is nice in itself) but the gadget freak in me likes to mess about with settings and make sure everything is as good as it can get.

Whilst the new AV receiver (the Sony STR-DA2400ES) has automatic calibration, it didn't get the levels quite right as far as I was concerned. Not enough centre channel, too much sub and rear effects. With a bit of fettling, I'm now much happier with it - so the moral is to not necessarily blindly trust the microchip, because undoubtedly your ears are better than an algorithm.

My next issue was that I had acquired a very low level hum from the subwoofer. It was never there before with the old amp. With a bit of Googling, I found out that it was most likely a ground loop hum - and this was backed up by the fact that my old amp only had live and neutral wires in the plug (the earth pin was plastic) whereas this new amp has all three pins wired up - essentially this creates one great big circuit around the earth loop, which adversely affects the sensitive audio circuitry. I don't fully understand the physics of it (maybe Olitee will stop by and explain it) but as far as I could tell, the common solution was to wire the ground pin on the back of the amp (usually used to ground record players) to a metallic part of the subwoofer casing.

I went out to Maplins, bought a packet of ring terminals and a couple of metres of thin wire (total cost, £2.38), soldered it together and then sanded the paint off a small portion of the sub's metal backplate. Then I attached the wire between the amp and that part of the sub, and hey presto, no humming. As far as I'm concerned there's some sort of witchcraft going on there, but if it works, I'm happy.

Another bit of fiddling (as I alluded to last time) has been getting this new system to play digital video files successfully. I've discovered that the Blu-Ray player will happily playback my MP4 files that I've encoded with Handbrake, and even better it will also decode the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks from these files as well. However, it will only work with storage attached directly to one of its two USB ports - not over the network (despite the fact that it is connected to it). This has made me hanker after some kind of dedicated solution for playback of video files, because the Blu-Ray interface is, at best, slow and clunky. It works, but it ain't elegant.

This got me thinking about investing in some kind of small Nvidia Ion-based computer to run a combination of Ubuntu and either XBMC or Boxee. Both have their advantages, and having tested both out on my iMac, I can see that this would be a superb solution. However, we're looking at around £200 for a capable computer like the Acer Revo or similar, and when there are a lots of rumours buzzing around about an imminent new AppleTV (allegedly much cheaper than the current one) I would be daft to invest now. I'll hang on.

Finally, I've just found out that Lovefilm have added four hours per month of digital movie streaming to my current package at no extra cost, and rather pleasingly I can use this via the Blu-Ray player. I haven't tried it yet, but I shall report back.

A home media network - How hard can it be?

I've been toying with the idea of implementing some kind of home media network for a while now - being able to move audio and video files around the house over the network between multiple devices. As I've reported a few times in the past, I've had great success with the music side of things, being able to get my iTunes library to both my Roku Soundbridge and my Apple Airport Express.

Video is quite a different beast though. Being quite the Mac fan, I've been coveting the AppleTV for just such a purpose although I can't justify the cost at the moment. I wanted to get my toe in the water relatively cheaply, just to see what was possible.

My first purchase was a D-Link DNS-313 Network Attached Storage (NAS) enclosure. I had a large SATA drive kicking around doing nothing, so I thought that having a network-accessible repository for my video files - in the form of the NAS - would be a good starting point. My idea was that any media streaming devices I subsequently got would be able to see the NAS, browse the files, and then the data would be able to cross the network and play. That was the theory anyway.

Part of the reason I chose the D-Link is that it was advertised as having a built in DLNA/uPNP compatible media server - meaning any devices that adhered to the DLNA standard would automatically work together. This sounded ideal.

After installing my SATA drive into the DNS-313 (which was a pleasingly simple process) I copied a few video files over to it. I discovered that the process of sending 2GB movie files over the network was, unfortunately, excrutiatingly slow - but I figured the end justified the means. The video files were encodes of some of my DVDs, which I had ripped using Handbrake into M4V/H264 files - which is the standard format for Apple devices, and generally thought of to be a good combination of quality, size and compatibility. A superb tutorial on the process is over at the blog of Olitee.

So, I had my "media tank", complete with video files. Now I needed something to play them with.

For a while now, I had been lugging our laptop up to the bedroom to use as a DVD player with our 22" LCD TV. The laptop has an HDMI output for simple connection to the telly. I thought that the laptop would be able to see the files on the NAS and play them. I opted for the well-regarded VLC player for this purpose, due to its open-source nature and ability to deal with virtually any kind of file you throw at it.

And this is where problem one arose. I could see the files on the NAS, and VLC played them without an issue EXCEPT every few minutes, the playback would stop, VLC would rebuffer, and then the file would start to play again. This, in my opinion, rendered the whole thing unwatchable. I wasn't sure why this was, but I decided to try alternatives.

I'd had my eye on the range of Western Digital TV (WDTV) devices for some time, and they had been getting good reviews. The basic model relied on local storage of video files, whereas the better "Live" model had a network connection, and seemed to offer what I was looking for - "playback of files up to 1080p from local or network storage". When I secured a brand new one for £43 on eBay, I decided that it was definitely worth a try.

The WDTV Live is a very small unit, offering HMDI, component or composite connections to your TV. I opted for HDMI as the single cable carries both picture and audio. I hooked it up to the network and tested it out. Now the WDTV could see the NAS unit in two different ways - firstly as a basic SAMBA network share, or as a DLNA media server. Thinking that the media server seemed like the best option, I tried it. But what's this? Where are the video files? They're not there! The WDTV resolutely refused to display the M4V files contained on the NAS. Weird. I thought that the WDTV had fallen at the first hurdle - no M4V support.

So then I tried connecting to the NAS using the SAMBA share option. This time, all the M4V files showed up without a problem. Excellent. Maybe it wasn't a file format issue after all. So I tried playing one, and encountered exactly the same stopping/rebuffering/starting problem I had with the laptop. Bugger. But at least they played.

I decided that my network was to blame. Clearly, the videos can't transfer across quickly enough to satisfy the demands of the playback unit. I tested a few files playing back from a USB memory stick connected directly to the WDTV, just to check that I got smooth playback from the files and it wasn't my encoding that was to blame. This worked flawlessly, as I suspected it might. No problem with the format of the files themselves, obviously.

It was then that I saw my desktop iMac's shared "Movies" folder also displayed the WDTV's network menu. For the sake of completeness, I thought I'd try playing back the files from here, instead of from the NAS. And guess what? Once again, flawless uninterrupted playback. Obviously, the network speed wasn't an issue after all. This led me to suspect the blame lay with the NAS.

I had almost given up hope with the NAS as a source for my media files, but I thought I'd give it one last test before deciding to ditch it, and this test came in the form of a shiny new Sony Blu-Ray player, the BDP-S370.

This, in addition to being able to play blu-rays and DVDs was network-capable (having an ethernet port on the rear) and DLNA-compatible. Maybe I'd have more luck with the NAS's DLNA server this time. After setting it up and getting it on the network (which was incredibly easy!) I went to the menu and tried to find the NAS. There it was! Superb. So in I went, and encountered exactly the same problem I'd had with the WDTV. No M4V files. At all. What's up with that? I again hooked up my USB flash drive containing a few movie files to the bluray player's USB port to check compatibility, and unsurprisingly I got excellent playback without a problem.

I came to the conclusion that the DLNA server on the D-Link didn't like M4V files. I tried copying some AVI and DIVX files to it to test out this theory, and the WDTV and BDP-S370 could see them just fine. Playing them back smoothly, was - yet again - a non-starter though, and anyway, I wasn't about to start re-encoding my files. Olitee tells me MPEG4/H264 is the way forward, so that's what I'm sticking with.

So one upshot of all this is that my NAS is rubbish. So rubbish that I'm getting rid of it - it simply doesn't do what I need it to. It's DLNA-implementation doesn't support M4v, and as a SAMBA share it's simply not fast enough.

Overall, the issue is that I still don't have a "one stop" solution - yet. However, at least my encoding "strategy" works and my files are compatible with my devices. How I get those files to my devices, is - for the moment at least - open for discussion.

Art Attack - embedding iTunes album art

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I'd had a bit of a tricky time with getting my new Android phone to display album art properly in its media player, and I also mentioned that I'd discovered why. Here's an attempt at an explanation...

iTunes - which you're probably familiar with - has a very useful feature that automatically fetches album art for any CDs that you import into its library. It's a simple case of right-clicking and selecting "Get album artwork", and hey presto, you have a beautiful album cover to look at instead of that sad, generic placeholder.

This is not without its problems though. I discovered that if you use this feature of iTunes, the program doesn't embed the artwork into the music files themselves. Instead it creates a separate folder inside your iTunes library called "Album Artwork" and stores everything in there. The music file in iTunes has a link to the requisite album art in this folder, and displays it when required. This has the advantage of making the files themselves a bit smaller - however the converse of this is that outside of iTunes, the files don't have any artwork of their own.

So how to fix this? Well, I purchased the Macheist bundle a couple of months ago, and part of that bundle was an absolutely FANTASTIC program called CoverScout. This went right through all 600 albums in my library, located the artwork in the iTunes album artwork folder and copied and embedded it into every file. Superb! Took a while, but it needed absolutely no input from me - all completely automatic.

However, if you don't have CoverScout (and you're too cheap to pay for it) there's an alternative in the form of Doug's "Embed Artwork 2.0" Applescript which will do the same thing (only without the pretty interface and all the additional useful features!).

Once your artwork is embedded in the files themselves, wherever you take your music files, the artwork goes too. Now, my Android music player looks much prettier and my computer-related OCD is satisfied - at least until I discover the next problem!

Needless to say, these solutions are Mac-specific. If you're a PC, then I have no idea what you should do (apart from get a Mac, obviously).

Living in the cloud - Migrating from Mac desktop to Google

When I finally decided to get my Android-based phone, one of my first considerations was how I would sync the data I currently had stored in my desktop Mac applications with the 'droid. I had been relying on iCal and Address Book for some time to keep my contacts and appointments in order, and when I had a Nokia phone, iSync took care of getting it all synced together.

With no desktop sync software available for a Mac/Android combination, I decided that the obvious answer was to migrate everything into Google's cloud. I have been a gMail user for a long time now, but I had never really used the Contacts or Calendar options in anger. In case you're interested, here's how I went about getting my precious data into the right place, ready for pairing with my new phone. Needless to say, all this assumes you've got a Google account!

Firstly - and most importantly - I backed all my existing data up. Of course, Time Machine had been faithfully doing this anyway, but I wanted to be doubly sure that I had a safe, up-to-date copy of everything in case the plan went south. To do this, open up iCal and go to File -> Export -> iCal Archive and choose where to save the file. I decided on the desktop for ease, but you can put it anywhere really. This will back up all your iCal calendars into one easily restorable file.

In Address Book, the process is very similar. Fire it up, and go to File -> Export -> Address Book Archive. Again, this will back everything up into one file.

Save both of those archive files somewhere safe in case the worst happens. You can always get back to square one by importing them back into their respective programs if things don't work out. Once you're happy you're all backed up, the fun can start.

iCal to Google Calendar:

In iCal, your next step is to export each of your calendars - if you've only got one, then you'll only need to do it once. If, like me, you have more than one (one for home, one for work) you'll need to export each one separately. Click on the first calendar in the list on the left of the iCal window, and then go to File -> Export -> Export and select a destination. Repeat for each separate calendar, making sure your file name is different and easily identifiable. Your files will have the suffix .ics on the end.

Then fire up your browser, and go to your Google Calendar - http://www.google.com/calendar/. In the left hand column - under the heading My Calendars - by default, you will just have the one calendar. This is fine if you're only importing one, but if you have more then you will need to create the necessary extras. To do this, click on the little "add" hyperlink, and go about creating the new one. Then, to avoid later confusion, I named my Google calendars as the same things as the ones I was importing - so in my case, I had one called "Home" and one called "Work" to match the .ics files I had exported earlier.

To import your iCal files into Google, the process is quite simple. Click on the "Settings" hyperlink under "My Calendars", and it will take you to a separate settings page where you can see your calendars listed, along with import and export options.

Click on the "Import Calendar" option, and another dialog box appears.

Click browse, navigate to where you saved your .ics file, and then use the dropdown at the bottom to choose which calendar to import into. Repeat for your other calendars as well - choosing a different destination calendar for each of your .ics files. If your calendar is big with a lot of appointments in it, importing might take a while. Just be patient and let it do its thing. Once it has finished, hey presto, you have all your data in your Google Calendars.

Importing Address Book into gMail Contacts

To perform a similar feat with Address Book and Google Contacts, you need to go into Address Book, and choose "Select All" from the "Edit" menu to highlight all of your contacts. Once this is done, go to File -> Export -> Export vCard and a dialog box will ask you where you want to save the resulting file - which will automatically be named "vCards". This is a single file containing all the data from all your contacts, in a form that Google can read.

Then, in your browser, fire up gMail and navigate to the "Contacts" section. Once there, you will see three hyperlinks in the top right hand corner of the window - "Import", "Export" and "Print". Choose "Import" and another dialog will appear.

Choose "Browse" and find your way to where you saved your "vCards" file. Then select "Import" - after a few seconds all your contacts should magically appear, complete with photographs if you used them in Address Book. Success!

These steps, by themselves, will do all you need to to get your calendars and contacts (as well as your gMail) onto your new shiny Android phone. The tight integration between the phone and Google means that you only have to input your username and password once, and then everything syncs up quite seamlessly.

Next steps - if you're interested...

Once your calendars are imported into Google, you can then go about subscribing to your newly-created calendars from inside iCal. This uses CalDAV to allow you to view and edit your Google Calendars from within iCal itself.

The first step is a bit drastic (and you can miss this bit out if it's too scary) and it involves deleting your current, locally-stored, calendars from iCal. This will give you a clean sheet to start from, and it will avoid any duplication problems later on. Right click each of your current calendars and choose delete, and they will disappear. You won't be able to delete all of them though - iCal will force you to keep at least one. No matter, because once you've linked to your Google Calendar, you can then delete that stubborn one that won't go away yet.

To link to your Google calendar, go to the "Preferences" menu for iCal. Then click on the "Accounts" tab, and then the little plus symbol in the bottom left of the dialog box. This will present you with the following:

Keep the "Account type" as automatic, and then input your Google email address and password. Click "Create" and iCal will do the rest. You should see your primary Google Calendar appear in the list on the left of the iCal window.

If you've only got one calendar, then that's it - you're done. However, if you have another one (or more) to link to there are further steps to be carried out.

Head back over to your Google Calendar in your browser. Click the "Settings" link again (the one you used before) and then click the second calendar on your list. This will take you into the detailed settings for this particular calendar. Down at the bottom of this screen, you will see a section called "Calendar Address". This will list a Calendar ID - a random string of numbers and letters, followed by "@group.calendar.google.com". Highlight this whole entry and copy it.

Then you need to paste this calendar ID into the following address: /calendar/dav/yourcalendarIDhere@group.calendar.google.com/user/ - obviously replacing the underlined bit with the ID you copied in the previous step. You can do this in Textedit or something similar. Once you've done it, highlight the whole lot, and copy it all again.

Head back to iCal, and go back to the preferences screen. Click the plus sign on the accounts tab again, but this time, instead of going for the "automatic" option, choose "CalDAV" from the dropdown instead:

Type your normal Google username and password in, and then paste the long address string (that you copied previously) into the "Server address" box. Click "Create", and - if you've done your copying and pasting right - your second calendar will appear in iCal underneath your first. Repeat ad infinitum for as many calendars as you've got. Sorted!

Keeping things synced in Address Book is much, much easier. Go to the "Preferences" dialog, click the "accounts" tab and check the box that says "Syncronize with Google". It'll ask for your username and password, but then that's it. Google and Address Book will stay in sync.

So there you have it. I've still got all my contacts in Address book, and all my appointments in iCal - however, they're now also in my Google account too, meaning that my phone is seamlessly and constantly synced as well.

I'm open to any questions, comments and improvements. Just let me know!

Opening up the Market: HTC Legend UK update

I was pleasantly surprised to discover my new HTC Legend alerting me to the fact that it had a firmware update waiting for me earlier today. I knew there was one in the pipeline to address the Market issues that I alluded to in my last post (a number of mainstream apps missing for the Legend) but I wasn't expecting it so soon. As far as I can tell it's an update specifically for UK Legend users on the Vodafone network.

I was given the option of downloading it there and then over my 3G connection, or to wait until there was a wifi connection available. It was only 9MB but I decided to go for the wifi option. The update sat patiently in my notification bar until I returned home, and then it promptly started downloading.

About 5 minutes later, after download, install and restart, I checked the phone's Software Information screen (to get there, go to Settings -> About Phone -> Software Information) and then listed at the bottom was the all-important Software Number, listed as 1.32.161.4. I had been upgraded!

I promptly checked the Android Market and sure enough, all those essential (but previously missing) apps I had been looking for had now appeared. I'm now set up with the full complement of apps that I wanted and pleasingly, they're all pretty much identical to their iPhone counterparts. I've got a few Android-specific ones in there for good measure as well. In no particular order then, here's what I've got (links are to the webpage specific to the Android app):

Evernote - Note-taking app, allowing you to upload photo notes, audio notes and text notes to your online scrapbook for later reference and searching.
Dropbox - Access to your Dropbox and its contents, and again letting you upload files direct from your phone
Shazam - For quick and easy identification of music that you hear, but don't know what it is!
Wordpress - Blog tools and management
Opera Mini - Good browser for when your 3G connection is slow
Google Listen - Podcast downloads, playback and search
NewsRob - RSS reader that syncs with your Google Reader feeds with excellent user interface, and offline caching
BBC News - App for direct access to all of the stories on BBC News
Google Sky Map - Point your phone at the night sky and the app will tell you what constellations you can see
c:geo - Geocaching app allowing you to locate and manage Geocaches, also syncs with your geocaching.com account
My Tracks - Lets you record your journey on Google Maps, complete with times, speeds, elevation etc and upload it
Barcode Scanner - Useful for price comparisons, and increasingly for finding and downloading other apps via QR codes
Astrid - Task manager and to-do list

Any others I should have? Let me know in the comments.

72 hours with the HTC Legend

As you'll be aware by now, I took the plunge with a new phone at the end of last week and got myself an HTC Legend.

Having spent three days setting it up, using it and tinkering with it I thought I'd report my findings so far. Here goes...

The first thing to say is that the phone itself, in terms of its hardware, is absolutely beautiful. The unibody aluminium casing is great to hold, and gives the phone a sense of class. I don't know how long it will remain scuff-free, but I definitely get the sense that it's rugged enough to withstand day-to-day abuse. I got a nice Proporta case for it, so hopefully that will keep it safe.

Next up - initial set up. As any one of a number of YouTube videos will testify, setting up the HTC Legend is an absolute breeze - with one important caveat as far as I'm concerned. The Android OS is so heavily integrated with Google's cloud-based services that I think you might have a more difficult time if you're not a Google account holder. However, I am, and as such everything was very straightforward. Enter your Google account name and password and the phone sets up your email, calendar and contacts without needing any further prompting. Then it asks you if you hold an account with any of Facebook, Flickr or Twitter. Having all three, I proceeded to enter usernames and passwords for those services too, and it went about importing all my contacts from them as well. I was pleased to discover that whilst there is a useful amount of integration between all four of these destinations, contacts are kept distinct on the phone so that you don't end up with an unwieldly amalgamation of everyone from everywhere. You can also select how often the phone syncs those services, and how verbose you want it to be in telling you about any updates. I particularly like the way it gives notifications in the status bar across the top - subtle, but effective.

Setting up the seven home screens is very simple - you can either choose from some presets, or just go ahead and configure your own, which is what I did. You can choose from widgets, programs and shortcuts to provide you with a layout that is unique to you and the way you work. I've got the most common apps on the home screen (calendar, text messages, gMail, Twitter client, Facebook, camera app etc) and then a selection of widgets and shortcuts spread liberally across the other six screens.

I then went on to download some apps from the Android Market - and this is where my first hitch arose. Because the Legend is such a new phone, it has not yet been officially ratified (if that's the right word) by Google, and as such not all the apps are available just yet. I resorted to directly downloading some of the ones I wanted rather than going through the Market because of this. I got hold of Evernote, Dropbox, Shazam, Opera Mini and a few others (all of which I will tell you about in a subsequent post once I've tested them out).

The most impressive App so far is Google Navigation. By upgrading the built-in Google Maps app to the latest version, the phone becomes a fully fledged turn-by-turn SatNav. I was slightly annoyed that it didn't read instructions out loud, until I realised that you needed to also install the text-to-speech synthesiser before it can do this!

I had a bit of a nightmare with getting music tracks onto the phone - but this was a self-induced nightmare really. Copying music across is as simple as drag and drop, but I discovered a lot of my tracks didn't have embedded album art. This is a quirk of iTunes, in that if you rely on automatic retrieval of artwork then iTunes stores it in a separate linked database instead of embedding it. I could have just lived with missing artwork, but my computer OCD got the better of me and I had to fix it. I will detail how I did this in a later post (it's too in-depth to explain here in this overview!).

So - initial impressions after a 72-hour running in period? Well, firstly - and perhaps most importantly - it's NOT an iPhone. There is quite a bit of fettling to be done to get things the way you want them. Without the symbiosis of iTunes, this is very much a hands-on piece of kit. However, the Google integration with the cloud-based services is very impressive which in some ways more than makes up for the lack of iTunes, and I rather like the level of customisation and freedom that Android allows. On the apps front, the Market is very barren by comparison with the Apple App Store, but so far I've got most things that I need. If your need is first-and-foremost for your phone to be a media player, then again this isn't necessarily the phone and/or the OS for you. However - for what I need it is perfect, and the cost saving over the mighty iPhone is a big bonus.

I'm sure there will be a lot more discoveries, joys and frustrations to come, but it's definitely so far, so good.

The stuff of Legend

Just a quick post, but I'm sure you will be heartily relieved to know that my mission to seek out a new mobile phone is all but over.

The trusty Nokia E63 will be handed down to GeekWife, and in its place I shall be wielding a gorgeous new HTC Legend.

After much wrangling with various networks, Vodafone came up with an absolutely corking deal on the Legend. This means it'll be by my side for the next 18 months, so I shall be sure to fully document the ups and downs of Android ownership in graphic detail for your reading pleasure.

Expect a post on the setup process in the next few days.

Powerful stuff

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my purchase of the Firestone Audio Fubar IV DAC/headphone amp, and the new lease of life it had given to my digital music setup. I won't repeat myself here, but needless to say I was (and very much still am) incredibly impressed with its performance. I also mentioned in that post that I was considering getting the matching add-on power supply for the Fubar - called The Supplier.

Several Firestone Audio customers were reporting good things on internet forums about the performance gains that the dedicated power supply brought to their original components. This is something that I've always been a little sceptical about, because electricity is electricity, right? Surely it doesn't matter where it comes from, as long as it comes from somewhere. However, I was thinking that the "wall wart" mains adapter that shipped with the Fubar IV looked a bit cheap in comparison to the quality of the unit itself, and with it being a European unit it shipped with a 2-pin plug. This meant I had to use a 2-pin to 3-pin adapter as well. I figured that this combination probably wasn't the best source of power for a component that was all about audio detail and fidelity.

Anyway, it came to my attention that Firestone Audio's website were doing another of their crazy price drops on The Supplier (you need to keep an eye on the site, because these deals are worth looking out for) and it was reduced from 115 Euros to 75 Euros. Taking into account currency conversion and shipping charges, that still meant £25 off the price from any UK dealer. Needless to say, this was the nudge I'd been looking for, and I went and ordered one. I figured that for that relatively modest outlay, I could take a risk and it would be an interesting experiment. If all else failed, there was always eBay!

There was a bit of a delay taking delivery of The Supplier. A combination of popular demand and the Icelandic volcano meant I had to wait three weeks to get my hands on my new purchase. However, the lovely people at Firestone more than made up for this by also sending me their newly-released FRX-001 dedicated audio rack that they've designed exclusively for their components for me to review.

The first thing that I noticed on opening up the box for The Supplier was that again the mains cable was a 2-pin European one, with an adapter to turn it into a UK 3-pin. No matter though. Wanting to really give The Supplier a chance to shine I declined to use this option. The Supplier has a standard figure-of-8 mains socket on its rear, so I simply grabbed a UK-plug figure-of-8 cable that I had lying around and plugged this in instead. I then unplugged the Fubar's original mains lead and hooked up the output of The Supplier to the input on the Fubar, and we were up and running.

With my Grado SR80i's plugged into the Fubar, I decided to leave the system playing some tunes on repeat to give it all a chance to warm up and "settle in". I've absolutely no idea if this actually makes a difference or not, but I thought I'd give it a try. Certainly when I first got the Fubar IV it became better over time, gaining some warmth and clarity as it got run in, so I figured I'd give The Supplier the same benefit.

Itching to try it out, later that day I settled down for my first proper listen. I'd anticipated flicking through a few well-known tracks to test things out. In actual fact, I ended up listening right through four of my favourite albums all the way through from start to finish. I was loving the music so much, I just kept going. The sound was just so natural - warm, yet detailed. Not in the slightest fatiguing. Most of all, enjoyable!

With a more critical head on, the next day I decided to be a bit more analytical. I did some straight A-B swapout testing of The Supplier. Listen to a track with Fubar alone, then listen again with the Supplier. I tried a range of music - electronica, acoustic, rock, classical. All had a definite improvement in clarity and dynamics when listened to with The Supplier. The improvement is, I will admit, subtle - but it's definitely an improvement.

Onto more aesthetic matters, I've now also got my two Firestone components at home in their new dedicated Firestone rack, as you can see in the main photo. Cleverly, the rack has a system of rubber stoppers on the underside of each shelf which stops the components from sliding around when plugging in headphones and the like. The fact that my little head-fi system looks so amazing on its new miniature rack is just the icing on the cake. Superb stuff.

Frankly, this little setup is brilliant on so many levels. It brings genuine hi-fi quality to the world of digital audio convenience, it's relatively cheap and amazingly small. I love it!

Supply and demand

So now we're on to my third post about the HTC Desire and it's pricing - and let me tell you, things have certainly NOT improved.

My analysis of the situation (if it counts for anything) is that the networks have just realised exactly how popular this phone is going to be, and before you can say "KER-CHING!" all the price plans - on all the networks - have gone through the roof.

Would you like an example of this? Remember how I said that you could get the Desire for £10 per month if you were prepared to pay £164 up front for it? And then it changed to £15 per month and £226 up front? So now what do you think it could have gone up to? Have a look at this then...

So if you want to spend £25 a month on your HTC Desire, then T-Mobile would like to charge you £380 up front for the privilege! £980 over 2 years! Bearing in mind you can buy the Desire SIM-free and unlocked for about £375, this is not what I would call a VERY GOOD DEAL.

Anyway, my enquiries with Vodafone came to nothing as well - they wanted £30 per month (so these rumours of £15 per month over 18 months were somewhat exaggerated) and even threatening to leave Virgin didn't get me a deal better than £20 per month and £100 up front.

Upshot of all this then? Erm... well, it would appear that my financial wizardry has all come utterly unstuck over the last couple of weeks. To my mind, the HTC Desire can really only compete as an "iPhone killer" if it is substantially cheaper. If the prices put it into the same territory as the mighty iPhone, then it's going to have a hard time. Sorry, I did try to save you some money. Honest.

All change

So it took T-Mobile less that 24 hours to render my last post about the HTC Desire almost entirely useless - they've changed all their price plans.

So now the entry level tariff is £15 a month, not £10, and the handset price has taken a hefty hike. Instead of £164, it's now £226. So my previous calculations are all wrong. If you want an 18-month contract at £15 per month, the total cost to you is now £496. If you're prepared to put up with the phone for 2 years, then you can have 300 voice minutes instead of 100 and only pay £191 for the phone (total cost £551). These prices, needless to say, are still substantially lower than the iPhone, but they're not quite as marked as they were.

To throw another spanner into the works, I've had some quality time with the Desire's rival sibling, the HTC Legend - and let me tell you, that phone is quite something. Although the specs aren't quite as high as on the Desire, the interface and OS are identical and the big plus point is the beautiful aluminium construction. Add in the fact that it's smaller, more pocketable and cheaper, and there really is now a genuine contest for my affections. It is, however, exclusive to Vodafone, and only on a 24 month contract. It is only £20 per month though, and with a free handset (total cost: £480 for 100 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited internet).

From reading a few forums, people have been getting some very good deals on both phones by dealing with Vodafone's web relations team directly (getting hold of them is a bit of a convoluted process) so if I can secure either the Legend or the Desire for less than the standard prices, then I'll be ordering immediately. I'm awaiting their phone call any time now...

Paranoid Android

As you will already know, I've wanted an iPhone ever since they were first announced. I'm a massive Apple fan, but I've never managed to take the iPhone plunge - and the main reason is that the cost has always been an insurmountable obstacle. I've had mobile phones for the last ten years, and I've never - NEVER - paid more than £15 a month for them. I've had Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson handsets, so I'm not particularly brand-loyal. I just can't bring myself to spend £30 a month (or more) on what is, essentially, just a phone.

However, I was starting to come round to the (fairly obvious) idea that if I wanted the Jesusphone, I'd just have to suck it up and pay the money - there's really no way round it. I was doing the sums to see how the different plans and upfront handset costs compared in terms of total cost over the life of the contract. The way things stand at present is that all three UK carriers (O2, Vodafone and Orange) offer their cheapest total package for £30 a month, on an 18-month contract. The handset cost for all three is £99, bringing the total to £639. For that princely sum, O2 offer you 100 minutes and unlimited texts, Vodafone give you 75 minutes and 250 texts, and Orange can let you have 150 minutes and 250 texts. Depending on how you like to use your phone (if you're a texter or a talker) then the choice is really between O2 and Orange (Vodafone don't seem very competitive in this price bracket).

If, however, you're looking at the smallest possible monthly outlay, then you need to be looking at O2, as they are the only ones who offer a £25 per month deal. But this is over 24 months, and the handset cost goes up to £149, bringing the total cost of ownership to a massive £749. Doesn't really seem cost effective to scrimp on that extra fiver a month does it?!

All of these calculations are based on getting the 8GB iPhone 3G, not the 3GS. Clearly if you want the better phone, then you're looking at between another £100-150 on top. You might think that you could do without the 3GS and live with the 3G, but bearing in mind the announcement about iPhoneOS 4.0 this week, and the fact that the 3G won't support a lot of the new features, then that more basic phone suddenly doesn't look like so much of a bargain.

So - you have a lot of decisions to make: how much you want your monthly outlay to be, whether you're getting the necessary amount of minutes and texts and how much you're prepared to spend upfront on the handset. For me personally, the £30 18-month contract on O2 would be the sufficient for me, as I don't make many voice calls but I do text a lot. However, knowing what we now do about OS4.0, I'd have to get the 3GS and not the 3G - so total cost £738. Of course, there's a new iPhone in the pipeline due to surface in about June or July, so it would probably be prudent to wait until then. Perhaps the 3GS price will become the entry level model and the price will drop, or perhaps the new handset will have some great new design or features that make it a must-have. So what's a potential iPhone purchaser to do, bearing in mind all these factors?

Let me tell you my current thinking - don't get an iPhone at all. Get an Android phone instead.

The new HTC Desire is a phone that matches the iPhone on a lot of levels, and in some ways surpasses it. It may not be made by the mighty Apple, but having done the research it seems just as good if not better. For a start the screen on the Desire is a 3.7" 800x480 pixel AMOLED. Compare that to the iPhone's 3.5" 480x320 TFT. The Desire's camera is 5MP as opposed to the iPhone's 3MP. The Desire is packing a faster processor and more RAM than the iPhone. Other than that, they both have accelerometers, digital compasses and assisted GPS and are both the same size and weight. Hmm, iPhone - you're suddenly not looking so clever.

Software-wise, the Android operating system is open-source, customisable and supports true application multitasking out of the box.

However, where the iPhone is, of course, a winner is in regards to its App Store. Yes, there's an Android Market, but at the moment it's really not in the same league as Apple's. But, as it currently stands, all my regularly used apps - Wordpress, Evernote, Shazam, eBay, Last.fm, Spotify, Facebook - are already available on Android, with the only exception - Dropbox - being on its way in the coming weeks. What you lose in apps, you make up for in Google integration. As a heavy user of Google's products - gMail, calendar, contacts, reader, Picasa, Youtube, maps - this is a definite bonus. And with the Android Market expected to increase massively over the next 12 months, I can see the gap between the two offerings becoming much narrower.

And that brings me on to the price - what's all this talk of Android? Why bother? All things being equal, just get the bloody iPhone. But things are most certainly NOT equal.

If I want my 100 voice minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet (as offered by O2) then T-Mobile have quite the tempting offer. The upfront handset cost for the HTC Desire is £164, and then the monthly tariff is either £15 over 18 months, or £10 a month over 24. Total cost over 18 months £434, or £404 over 24 months.

Let me reiterate: 100 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited internet, 18-month contract. Total cost of ownership for an iPhone 3GS on O2 = £738. HTC Desire on T-Mobile = £434. £164 for the handset upfront as opposed to £249. £15 a month instead of £30. A saving of £304 in total.

As the youth of today like to say - NO BRAINER. Android here I come.

A complete package

I decided that my Sony in-ear headphones were getting a bit long in the tooth (eight years of living in my ears is quite enough), and I was hunting for decent replacements. I was considering the widely-praised Sennheiser CX 300-II Precisions, but, at £40, they were right at the top of my price range so I was trying to find something cheaper.

However, when I discovered that they were under £15 at Amazon, I really didn't need an excuse, so promptly ordered a set. If they were 5-star award-winning earbuds at £40, then their new lower price was the icing on the cake.

This post isn't necessarily about the Sennheisers themselves though. Needless to say that they are very good, and a significant step up from my existing Sonys. But the real reason that I wanted to write about them is the incredibly innovative packaging that they came in. When I ordered from Amazon, I noticed they were listed as being in "Eco packaging" but I didn't really understand what this meant.

Essentially, the headphones are packaged purely in cardboard. There's none of the VERY annoying plastic blister packaging that these things usually come in. Every single part of the box is corrugated, recycled cardboard. Every last bit. Not a piece of plastic in sight. This in itself is laudable, but the really clever bit is the way it all fits together. Even the hanger to display it in a shop is an integral cardboard part. It's a brilliant concept, and one that could do with being adopted by a number of other manufacturers.

I love good, attractive, well-designed packaging so long as it's not excessive. Obviously I'm a big fan of Apple's boxes and containers. Similarly, I've been very impressed with Nintendo's efforts of late. There's nothing wrong with that at all. But for small, cheap items like headphones, why bother with all the unnecessary oversized plastic? It's probably conceived as a way of adding to the perceived value of the product, but for me that doesn't really work. Personally, I'm far more inclined to think favourably about a purchase if I've been impressed by a clever or innovative design. A superb idea, and one that deserves some recognition I think.

Mac software essentials

Once I'd taken delivery of my new iMac, I had the task of setting it all up the way I wanted it. Fortunately, being a Mac, that is all very easy. When you first switch it on, it asks you if you've got a Time Machine backup that you'd like to use to restore your previous data. Obviously I had been using Time Machine, so pointed it in the right direction. It then asks exactly what you want restored - music, photos, applications etc. I decided to just go for my personal data, as I was aware that I had clogged up my old machine with no end of applications that I had only ever used once before deciding they weren't for me.

Everything restored just the way I wanted it, but then I had the task of putting back just the applications I REALLY wanted, and this was quite a useful decision-making process. So what did I install? Here's my round up - and you'll be pleased to know it's all free!

The first thing I went for was trusty old Firefox. I prefer it over Safari for a number of reasons - I like the plugins you can get for it, particularly Xmarks, favicon support and its Google search defaults to the UK site. Small things, but for me it gives it the edge.

The next essential app is Skype. It's even better now I have a Mac with an iSight camera, as obviously I can now do video chat. All my friends have an account, and not only does it do voice and video chat, it's also a very decent instant messaging program. Add in the fact that I've also got it installed on my iPod Touch and mobile phone, it's an absolute must-have.

Next up, Dropbox. I realise that you can just use it direct from the web interface, but the Mac app adds so much more. I've got it set up to automatically synchronise with my Documents folder, so I know I've always got an up-to-date copy on Dropbox if I ever need a file, and the drag-and-drop nature of the desktop app means it's all much simpler than the web uploader.

I'm going to bundle these two together, as they are very similar in their functionality - Perian and Flip4Mac. In actual fact, there's nothing that you need to do with them once they're installed, but they give you access to all the different web video codecs that you're likely to come across. Flip4Mac handles WMV files within the Quicktime player, and Perian does the rest.

On a similar video-based theme, the VLC player is very handy for playing any truculent videos that don't like the Quicktime player. Not only that, it's essential to get my next app choice to work properly. Which brings me on to...

Handbrake! A fabulous piece of free software, it allows you to rip DVDs to a variety of formats and sizes. It works in conjunction with the VLC player, so make sure you've got that installed if you want to use Handbrake. There are a lot of settings to play with if you're so inclined, or just go for the presets.

If you're a Twitterer like me, then a Twitter client is a must-have rather than constantly visiting the website. My client of choice is Twitterrific, which is free if you can put up with the occasional advert. It's slick and unobtrusive, and there's a matching iPhone/iTouch app too.

One of the finest ideas in a long time, Spotify is quite something. Internet-based free music, supported by the occasional advert (or ad-free if you want to pay a subscription). I think it's brilliant. Great for discovering new music before committing to a purchase, and I really like the iTunes-like interface.

If you like to dabble in a bit of BitTorrent, you can do a lot worse than this very fine client app, Transmission. Small but perfectly formed, it does everything you need to do without any bloat or unnecessary features.

Should you need to FTP anything, then Filezilla is a great fully-featured free application for doing just that. Not much more to say really. Easy to use, does everything it needs to including secure FTP if you require it.

And finally, if you just can't help yourself and you find yourself installing stuff that you later discover you don't want then you need to get rid. You could just drag it to the trash, but that's not very sophisticated. AppCleaner will also get rid of all the associated files and folders leaving you crud-free. Splendid.

So there you go - all tried-and-tested, top notch free applications. So are there any that I've missed? Your suggestions in the comments if you will...

FUBAR!

As I've previously mentioned, I got a very nice pair of Grado SR80i headphones for Christmas and they're quite superb. I had the idea a while back (inspired by this CNET article) to get together some kind of "head-fi" setup using my Airport Express as a source. I've gone into some detail about how the iPhone Remote app works with the Airport Express to stream music around your house, and I had been using the Grados plugged straight into the 3.5mm jack on the AE.

Me being me, of course, I knew that there were gains to be had by using an offboard DAC instead of the cheap one built into the AE so I went about researching my options. There was the "two-box" approach, involving a separate DAC in turn feeding a separate headphone amplifier, or there was the "integrated" option if I could find a combined DAC/headphone amp that I liked the look of and could afford. My preferred route was to have everything in one box - tidier, less faff, no worrying about system matching - so after much internet surfing I came across the Fubar IV, made by Firestone Audio. It has digital inputs for optical (which the Airport Express uses), coaxial and USB. I discovered that the manufacturers were offering a hefty discount (125 euros instead of 225) in their post-Christmas sale and all the reviews of the unit were glowing, so I went for it.

Just a few minutes after taking delivery, I had the Fubar IV hooked up via an optical lead from my Airport Express, with my SR80i's plugged into the headphone socket. With the iPod Touch Remote app controlling my iTunes Lossless library, I was listening to quite amazing sound, far more in keeping with the quality of the Grados than I had been experiencing direct from the Airport Express. Most impressive!

I headed over to the What HiFi forums - where I had heard about the Fubar IV in the first place - and posted a brief review. Excerpt below:

"It's a good warm, round sound from solid bass through to well-defined treble. It does show up poor recordings, but with a well-produced album it's giving some excellent results. I've been noticing lots of extra details that I'd never really heard before, even in albums I know really well. The separation of different parts is superb, and it's very easy to pick out an instrument and follow it through a track - but at the same time there's a really nice cohesiveness to the sound overall. I'm used to listening to my music through my separates hi-fi, but I can honestly say that this little set-up is blowing it out of the water!"

Firestone Audio also sell a dedicated power supply for the Fubar, called The Supplier, which is supposed to bring further musical gains. I dare say that once some more funds become available, I shall be investing in one of those too! All round, it's a brilliant little setup, and ideal for people whom a full separates system isn't practical or realistic. I was dubious about whether "head-fi" could really be "hi-fi" but I have to say - I'm converted.

I can resist everything except temptation

I knew it would just be a matter of time. Despite my best efforts to convince myself that I was completely happy with my G5 iMac, I knew deep down that I really wanted a new one. And over the last few days, I caved in. However, there was of course the perennial problem of how to pay for it. There was no way I could stretch to (or accomodate!) the 27-inch model, as that would just have been too much, but I thought that the entry-level 22-inch might be within my grasp. I knew that I would have to make sacrifices in order to meet my target.

Taking a leaf out of Olitee's book, I set about scouring the house for things that I could flog on eBay. I decided I'd have to part with my EeePC, and I knew I had a buyer lined up for my current iMac so already I was almost halfway there. I figured that seeing as I'd used the telephoto lens on my camera twice in the five years I'd had it that it could probably go, and then there was an assortment of quite decent computer bits that I didn't need any more. After much faffing with photos and descriptions, it was all up on eBay and to my pleasure it all sold first time.

The money that I made from all this was more than 75% of the way to the new iMac, so using tried-and-tested "LaceyMath" I thought I could justify the purchase bearing in mind the massive upgrade it would give me for what was now relatively little money. I went with the bog-standard 22-inch configuration, no messing about - 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, wireless keyboard and magic mouse. Pretty impressive specs for the entry-level machine really.

I ordered it on the Thursday afternoon, and it had been delivered by Friday afternoon. Getting it out of the box, I simply wasn't prepared for the comparative size difference between the existing 17-inch and the new 22-inch. It seems absolutely massive. I can only imagine what the 27-inch is like.

Anyway, the upshot is that I now have a beautiful new iMac sitting on my desk in front of me and it really is very impressive. The new LED screen is quite something, and the performance is superb. Where my old G5 used to take about 12 hours for Handbrake to encode a 2-hour DVD, this new machine can manage it in under an hour! I got nearly five years of use out of that old G5 (and it's still up and running nicely with its new owner) so I'm reckoning that this one will do me until about 2015!

Piping hot

As you will almost certainly be aware, I don't have an iPhone. And you will also be aware that I really want an iPhone but can't afford one. So I'm making do with a Nokia E63 smartphone instead, and the biggest frustration with this solution is that I can't avail myself of some of the really useful apps available for the iPhone.

I like the fact that you can upload photos and text to a variety of sources through the iPhone - apps like Evernote, Flickr, Twitter and so on. The iPod Touch (which I love) doesn't have the camera nor the "always on" connectivity so although it has the apps, it doesn't have the hardware.

I've found a fairly decent solution for my Nokia via the wonders of Pixelpipe. You set yourself up with a free account, download the software to your phone and then set up your "pipes" - essentially which services you want to connect to. I've enabled Twitpic, Facebook, Flickr, Evernote and Blogger. You can write text items or attach photos to individual posts and then select their destination. You can upload to all your services simultaneously, or select which pipes you want to use by using a simple tagging system. Once you hit the upload button, your post appears as if by magic on the internet. It all works very well.

Highly recommended for those of us "slumming it" in the land of Symbian...

Map me up

Just a quick post to mention this Memory Map iPhone app that I was emailed about this morning. As a long-time user and big fan of Memory Map, I'm very interested to see how this will work. I'm hoping that it will use your pre-installed OS maps, and that there will be some way of selecting maps in the desktop software and then sending them to your iPhone. Two caveats - hopefully it'll also be iPod Touch compatible, and hopefully it won't be too expensive (or require any ongoing subscription). I shall eagerly await more news.

2010 - The year we make contact?!

So it's customary around this juncture to say things like "Happy new year", so erm... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

In the past, I've liked to tell the world my new year's resolutions on this blog (here, here and here), but to be honest I don't really have many this time around. Nothing important or interesting enough to share with you all anyway.

I have decided to do a bit more of this blogging malarkey though - apologies for being a bit lacklustre recently.

Things are largely the same here, with the addition of some new gadgets courtesy of Santa: A very nice pair of Grado SR80i headphones, and a 22" Samsung LCD television for the bedroom.

My purchasing plans for the coming twelve months are modest (not as much spare cash floating around when you've got children) but I do have my eye on an Apple Magic Mouse, and if the predictions about the Apple tablet computer come to fruition I may have to do some serious saving to get my hands on one.

But for now, that's about it from me. We'll talk again soon, yes?