Mindful of ‘thejazz’ DAB station closure at the end of the month, I’ve picked up an Internet radio to add to my office hi-fi. I can listen to some jazz without needing to power up a complete PC system. This is a Wi-Fi enabled Internet radio and assumes you have you’re own wireless network. There’s no inbuilt speaker only headphone and line out sockets. Albeit it is stereo. You can also access music stored on a networked drive. The radio station list is maintained via the www.reciva.com site , the people behind the core internet radio inside.
I had it working within about 10 minutes from unpacking. Setting a WEP/WPA is a bit of a pain without a numeric keypad. But once it’s done that’s it. The buttons on the main unit are a bit heavy to push, using the small remote is easier. Sound seems fine , no hum or noise as far as I can tell. One small detail the station preset doesn’t seem to work for me? According to the configuration option there’s new firmware available, might be worth an upgrade! Amazing , a complete ARM processor/Linux/Wifi reciever all for about £40.
For the energy conscious it consumes appox. 6W according to my Maplin Power meter.
Be Awarel – I’ve now had this running a few days and have seen/heard a few drop outs as a result of ‘re buffering’ as shown on my radio. My guess is that this is a QOS/Wifi issue. The radio is indicating 83% on it’s wifi signal strength indicator. I’ve no means of controlling the QOS on my router, perhaps that’s where the issue is? Comments welcome.
Posted by alanferdman under
DAB,
Jazz,
Radio,
Stereo Leave a Comment
Following announcements from GCap. The station will close at the end of March. Short lived at only 15 months!
Telegraph article here, one of many:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/02/12/dlradio112.xml
It has to be said this is all very dissapointing. I’ve now two DAB tuners at home (a third pending) with no benefit at all beyond my FM tuners of old. I’ve gained no new stations (see above) , I’ve poorer sound quality and as per my earlier suffer greater power consumption. With DAB+ in the wings , perhaps getting us to start all over again, I fear DAB may not be the success that everybody hoped for. Comments welcome.
A couple of recent additiions to my XP installation (yep still running!)
‘Send to Notepad’
Copies your paste buffer straight to the Notepad editor.
http://www.onlyutkarsh.com/tools.html
‘Teracopy’
Fast file copying
http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php
If you use ‘Total Commander’ as I do it neatly installs a couple of ‘buttons’ in the tool bar.
Thanks to lifehacker for the tips and links:
http://lifehacker.com/
Well as per my earlier article I’ve now got myself a Fuji F20. Model number wise it’s a bit confusing, it’s really a poor man’s F30 rather than a direct replacement for my earlier F10. Still it has the same lens and pixel count as the F10. I’ve taken a few pictures and like the F10 results seem more than adequate. A few pictures taken at IS0 1600 are pretty fine. Differences between the F10: One key difference is that the battery is nearly half the capacity of the earlier model 1100mAh instead of 1950 mAh , the latter good for 500 shots according to the reviews. The upside is the F20 feels/is slightly less boxy. Quite a difference so take care, latest isn’t always best.
One new feature/benefit is the loss of the small interface box, AV or USB cables now plug straight into the camera. However charging is still carried out with the battery inside the camera. Functionally the cameras appear similar, a few extra scene modes have been added. One specifically worth mentioning is the ability to take two images with a single press of the shutter button. One using natural light alone and immediately following with the addition of flash. You choose the best shot 
Another enhancement is Auto ISO1600 or 400 , i.e. the ability to take photos up to these maximum ISO speeds.
